MICHAEL G'FRANCISCO Chicago's-Mystery-Author

Chicago, "The Gangster City" is known throughout the world for the exploits of its crime bosses and gangs. "Chicago's Gangsters and Whores" (my latest book soon to be released) will tell the stories behind the names of the famous and not so famous crime figures, introduce the Chicago Gang bosses and those who used the "Chicago Typewriter" to write their names on the walls of Chicago's prohibition history.

The book will reveal the little known facts about Chicago's crime gangs, such as; their killers and hitmen, where they lived, how and who killed them, their wives and molls, plus their final resting places.

"Prohibition" a time that followed World War 1 (1914-1918) and preceded The Great Depression (1929-1939) is an era in history that will never be forgotten.

Prohibition produced some of the most notorious criminals that the world has ever seen. Prohibition allowed man like Chicago gangsters, James "Big Jim" Colosimo, Johnny "The Fox" Torrio, Al "Scarface" Capone, and New York mobsters, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, Vito "Don Vitone" Genovese and Frank " The Prime Minister" to rule crime empires equal to any large corporation in the United States.

So get comfortable, put your moll on your lap, load your gat, because your about to take a "one way ride" into Chicago's gangster history. Beginning with the George "Bugs" Moran, the North Side gangster missed at the famous St. Valentine's Day Massacre as shown in the picture above.

GEORGE "BUGS" (Clarence) MORAN was born August 31st, 1893. His mother was of Polish decent and his father was from Ireland.

Moran's surname was Cunin, born Adelard Cunin on August 21st, 1891 in Saint Paul Minnesota. His father was Jules Adelard Cunin, born in France and his mother was Marie Diana Gobeil, born in Canada.

According to records, he had one brother, Cyrille and two sisters, Josephine and Laurette. His family was aware of George's criminal activities.

The above infomation was gained through an interview with the daughter of Laurette, Carol in 2004 by Rose Keefe, a researcher and historian.

According to his rap sheet in St Paul, Minnesota, his first arrest was for stealing a horse. Moran was a street smart rough thug who, while he was a young lad, believed that brawn was mightier than brains. His theory was that growing up in the streets gives a guy an advantage, because of the instincts one collects when you're always on the lookout for the other guy.

In this type of environment a street brawler is going to pick-up a few nicks and dents. Moran got a knife slash on the right side of his neck in a scuffle with a couple of other street thugs that left a nasty scar. He also had crooked middle finger on his left hand.

When Moran left home is unknown. But, what is known is the fact that he was incarcerated in 1909 and escaped from the Red Wing correctional facility in Minnesota. Evidently, he made his way to Chicago where he was arrested there in September of 1910, age 19, for burglary and sent to prison in Joliet, Illinois. His arrest sheet shows the name George Miller.

Prior to prohibition, Moran was arrested several more times and revisited his friends in Joliet. He was paroled in February of 1923.

He wound up on the near northside of Chi-Town and, somehow or other, caught the attention of another colorful north side hoodlum name Dion O'Banion.

O'Banion ran with a couple of real hard cases. One was a Polish hoodlum called "Hymie" whose real name was Earl Wojciehowski, which later got shortened to Earl Weiss and an Italian named Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci.

It didn't take long till the O'Banion bunch control the 42nd and 43rd wards. Their activities were noticed by the local politicans and an alliance was formed.

With the gang's popularity came new hoodlum recruites. The pecking order of the bunch was O'Banion, Weiss and Moran. It didn't take long before they were the largest gang in Chicago.

Moran was rough and tough and collected his nickname "Bugs" because he was a wise cracker and had a cute, but devilish smile.

Prohibition proved to be a blessing for O'Banion and his well oiled band of crooks. The gang expanded with harden criminals like; Sam "Nails" Morton, "Dapper Dan" McCarthy, Louie "Two Gun" Alterie, Jimmy"Gunman" Clark and the Gusenberg brothers Pete and Frank. Formed and ready for the big time they got known as O'Banion's North Side Mob.

O'Banion make a deal with a brewery in Wisconsin and Moran also made arrangements with a whiskey distrillery in Canada. This insured them to be able to sell the real stuff.

Moran was given charge of organizing the saloons that closed and became "speakeasies" to sell their high quality supply of booze and real beer.

Money filled Moran's pockets, he bought expensive clothes a Cadillac. He also help set-up a whiskey distillery on the north side, thus giving the gang plenty of hooch to sell.

Moran was a meticulous guy, even his clear and neat handwriting shows it on the arrest sheets. He kept an apartment at the Parkway Hotel during the early 1920's and later lived with his second wife, Lucy at 5123 W. Wolfram (north of Diversey) in 1925.

With Hymie Weiss as O'Banion's underboss, one can assume that Moran accompanied him on most of his hijacking jaunts and killing rampages.

Hymie Weiss took control of the mob after O'Banion was gunned down "handshake style", in his flower shop, by two of Torrio's henchmen and one of the Genna brothers. O'Banion got blasted because of his double cross with Torrio in the Sieben Brewery deal. This put Moran second in command.

As the gang wars raged on, Weiss became Torrio's worst enemy. On January 24th, 1925 Moran, Weiss and Drucci went after Torrio with a dreadful vengence. The trio found out where Torrio was living and waited to ambush him upon his arrival.

Anna, Torrio's wife was in the car when it pulled into the driveway. She got out first with a few packages while Torrio and his chauffeur walked to the rear of the car to open the trunk and gather the rest.

Torrio was following with the rest of the packages, when Weiss let loose with his shotgun and Moran with automatic pistols in each hand blasted away at Torrio. The chauffeur was wounded from the initial shotgun's blasts.

Torrio was hit in the arm, jaw and abdomen and went down. Moran rush to Torrio to deliver a fatal head shot, but his guns were empty. Drucci leaned on the horn signaling it was time to go. The hit squad fled the scene leaving a severely wounded Torrio lying in his blood. Torrio survived and left town.

Next Moran caught up with Angelo Genna and killed him after a car chase. Two other Genna were killed and the last three brothers also fled Chicago.

In September of 1926, Moran got enough information about Capone's habits in Cicero, Illinois to try to hit him in a restaurant on 22nd Street. The place was rippped to shreds by machine gun bullets, but Capone was left unharmed.

Warfare between the two gangs seemed endless. Then in October Hymie Weiss met his maker in a volley of machine gun blasts (possibly by "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn) on State Street in front of Schofields Flower Shop.

Next to go was Drucci. He was shot, by a policeman, while being arrested on April 5th 1927. This put the thirty-four year old Moran in charge of the weeken North Side gang.

Moran and new gang member, Joey Aiello, bombed several of Capone's businesses, hijacked his beer and whiskey shipments in the years leading up to the St. Valentine's Day massacre. They even

Capone's hatred grew and he was tired of looking over his shoulder. Capone fearful for himself and his family left Chicago in 1929 to live in Miami. While there, he had a meeting with McGurn, who had recently survived an attack by Moran, concerning putting an end to the North Side gang once and for all.

A trap was set with the hook being a hijacked Capone's whiskey shipment to be delivered to Moran on the morning of February 14th at his garage on Clark Street.

According to hearsay, a lookout saw the gang arrive at the location and one of them was suppose to be Moran. A police car, which was stolen, pulled up in front and two uniform and two plainclothes men. They got out and walked into the garage. The gang thinking it was just a police raid and with nothing to hide surrendered their guns. They were lined up facing the back wall and gunned down with machine guns. All seven men were killed.

Upon leaving the building the two men in police uniforms followed the other two out of the building with their hands held high. This made the people watching believe that it was a raid and these men were being arrested.

Fortunately for Moran, he was late for the alleged delivery and didn't get ventilated. When interviewed by the press, Moran's only comment was, "Only Capone kills like that".

By the mid 30's, Moran's wife had left him and he was almost broke. He tied-up with a couple of downstate hoods and they robbed some gas stations and small stores. Moran had sunk to being a small time thief.

It is believed that Moran got his revenge, for his seven pals, on "Machine Jack" McGurn the day after St. Valentine's Day in 1936.

A Valentine's Day card with a comic inscription was waiting for Jack, at the front desk, when he arrived. While McGurn was reading the card, an unknown man joined the two and the three of them gunned McGurn down. The card read:

In 1939, he relocated to Ohio and join a two-bit gang of thieves called the Summers-Fouts gang. They pulled-off a few jobs and Moran got arrested in 1943 for robbery and forgery.

Moran and Summers robbed a bank messenger in Dayton, Ohio of $10,000. They were on the run and eventually wound up in Henderson, Kentucky were they were arrested on July 5, 1946.

Moran was convicted and received a 10 year sentence in Leavenworth penitentiary. Upon his release in 1956, he was re-arrested for a previous bank job in Ansonia, Ohio. Convicted again and returned back to Leavenworth.