MAKING HISTORY COME ALIVE NEWSLETTER CONTINUES WITH ITS SERIES ON GANGSTERS- GEORGE 'BUGS' MORAN
George "Bugs" Moran, born Adelard Cunin on August 21, 1891, in St. Paul, Minnesota, was one of the most notorious gangsters of the Prohibition era. His name is indelibly linked to the violent underworld of 1920s and 1930s Chicago, a city that became synonymous with organized crime. Moran's life of crime, his rivalry with Al Capone, and his eventual downfall provide a compelling narrative of ambition, violence, and the relentless pursuit of power.
Moran grew up in a working-class family and had his first brush with the law as a teenager. By the age of 19, he had already been imprisoned three times for various offenses, including robbery and larceny. His early criminal activities laid the groundwork for his entry into the larger world of organized crime. He moved to Chicago, where he became involved with the North Side Gang, a powerful criminal organization engaged in bootlegging, gambling, and other illegal enterprises.
Moran quickly rose through the ranks of the North Side Gang, becoming a trusted lieutenant under its leader, Dean O'Banion. The gang was involved in a bitter rivalry with the South Side Italian gang, led by Johnny Torrio and later by Al Capone. This rivalry was fueled by the lucrative opportunities presented by Prohibition, which had created a massive black market for alcohol. The competition for control over this market led to frequent and violent confrontations between the two gangs.
After O'Banion was murdered in 1924, Moran, along with Hymie Weiss, took over the leadership of the North Side Gang. Moran's tenure as leader was marked by an intensification of the gang war with Capone. Moran despised Capone and saw him as a ruthless and unscrupulous competitor. The conflict reached its bloody zenith on February 14, 1929, with the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
The massacre was a brutal attempt by Capone to eliminate Moran and his top lieutenants. Disguised as police officers, Capone's men lined up seven members of the North Side Gang against a wall in a garage and gunned them down. Moran himself narrowly escaped the massacre, as he was late to the meeting and saw the fake police entering the garage from a distance. The event shocked the nation and marked a turning point in the public's perception of organized crime.