The Haunting of Al Capone by Shanon Ping of HPR  The
haunting of Al Capone actually starts with the St. Valentine's Day
Massacre on February 14th, 1929. On that morning, 7 men were
waiting on a delivery at a warehouse on Chicago's north side. Keep in
mind that this was during Prohibition and the delivery was a load of
whiskey to be distributed to local illegal pubs and bars. Instead
of a truck, a police car pulled up and 3 uniformed officers and 2
detectives went in. A few moments later, local residents
heard the sound of machine guns going off and watched as police came
out of the warehouse, got in their car and drove off. After a few
minutes, the neighbors entered the warehouse and found a horrific
scene. All 7 men were found dead and shot in the back multiple times.
It was a gory mess of splattered blood and bits of human flesh.
This was no police bust but rather a "hit" put out by Al Capone on the
gang members of George "Bugs" Moran. Capone claimed he was innocent but
ballistics tests were able to match a bullet from the scene to a
machine gun found at one of Capone's hit man's residence. |
Later,
in 1929, Capone was convicted of illegally carrying a concealed
weapon and was sentenced to a year in Eastern State Penitentiary.
Often times, during that year at Eastern State, other inmates could
hear Capone scream out at night for "Jimmy" to leave him alone.
One of the 7 victims from the St. Valentine's Day Massacre was named
James Clark, who also happened to be "Bugs" Moran's
brother-in-law. According to eyewitness statements, the ghost of
Clark continued to haunt Capone even after his release from Eastern
State. Capone's valet driver reported actually seeing an
apparition of Clark one time and Capone himself could be heard often
yelling at Jimmy to leave him alone. Did the ghost of James Clark
seek out Capone and torment him for the rest of his life?
Obviously we cannot know for sure but based on multiple eyewitness
accounts and given the grisly and untimely death of Clark it seems to
be a real possibility. |
Home Featured Archives