Who actually shot the seven men that frigid February morning? No one will ever know for sure. The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre is one of the most notorious unsolved mysteries – a mystery that continue to fascinate people almost 100 years later.
Fred Burke, Fred Goetz, Gus Winkler and Ray Nugent, and they all allegedly received $5,000 payment for the job or around $90,000 in today's cash. Two months before the massacre, they bought a police Cadillac from an auto dealership on Irving Park Road, which previously belonged to Cook County Commissioner Frank Wilson. The guy that was sent to buy the car identified himself under a different name such as “James Morton (or Martin) of Los Angeles”, which in fact was Byron Bolton who in turn was a part of the lookout crew. They also bought another car, Peerless Sedan, under another false name “Frank Rogers” and the guy gave his address as 1859 W. North Avenue, which was a place just few doors behind the infamous Circus Café. Claude Maddox's associate Bob Carey drove the false police car with Burke and Goetz dressed as cops, while the second car was driven by Rocco Belcastro with the other two hitmen, Winkler and Nugent, dressed as civilians.
Tony Capezio, Joe Lolordo and Raymond Schulte were assigned as the cleanup crew to get rid of the evidences, such as the cars that were used in the hit. After the murders, Capezio made a mistake that nearly cost his life while cutting through the gas tank with the acetylene torch, and so a fire broke out and blew him to the ceiling, thus knocking him unconscious. The reason was that he forgot to empty the gas tank. This stunt earned Capezio’s nickname “Tough Tony" and several years later, bank robber Alvin Karpis, who was a close friend of Capezio's, confirmed this story to the cops. Lolordo was involved in the whole operation because of the murder of his brother Patsy Lolordo who in turn was allegedly killed by the Aiello/Moran gang.
Detroit's Purple gang were allegedly also involved in the conspiracy since one of their members, on February 1, 1929, allegedly called Moran and said that the shipment with booze was ready and will deliver it on February 14, 1929, Valentine’s Day. Moran assured the caller that he would be there with his crew to help unload the truck in the gang’s garage on 2122 North Clark Street. But as we already know, Moran was late and avoided his own death. Later, Goetz, Winkler, Nugent, Carey and Rocco Belcastro, all were killed by the Outfit under the new leadership of Paul Ricca and Louis Campagna, while Burke was visited in jail by the Outfit's "connection guy" Phil D'Andrea and was probably told to keep his mouth shut.
