St. Valentines Day Massacre | Public Enemy No. 1 | 2
American History Tellers
Audible
4.6 • 19K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2026
⏱️ 39 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
On Valentine’s Day 1929, seven men were gunned down in a Chicago garage in an attack that stunned the nation. Photographs of the bloody scene appeared on front pages across the country, and the public reacted with horror. Even in Chicago—a city hardened by daily gang violence—the message was clear: this was different.
City officials were under intense pressure to respond, and suspicion quickly fell on the city’s most powerful gang leader, Al Capone. But proving who ordered the hit would be far more difficult than expected. And as investigators struggled to build their case, the fallout from the massacre would change Chicago—and Capone’s fate—forever.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Imagine it's February 13th, 1929. You're sitting in your office behind a flower shop on the |
| 0:19.8 | north side of Chicago, bent over a ledger book trying to reconcile the numbers. |
| 0:24.2 | But the sales you're tallying aren't for roses or carnations, instead they're for beer and whiskey. |
| 0:29.7 | Normally, these are big numbers, but today you're frustrated because they're just not adding up. |
| 0:34.8 | You're the leader of one of the largest bootlegging operations in the city, |
| 0:38.3 | and for the past five years, you've been embroiled in a turf war against a gang based on the |
| 0:42.7 | south side run by Al Capone. One by one, all the other leaders in your organization have been |
| 0:48.6 | killed or have fled the city, so now it's up to you to stay on top of the books. You're about to try adding the numbers up again when the phone rings. |
| 0:57.6 | Yeah, hello? Hey, it's me. You recognize this voice as an acquaintance you've done business with in the past. |
| 1:04.5 | You narrow your eyes because you've never fully trusted him. Now, what do you want? Why do I have to want something? |
| 1:10.3 | Maybe I'm just calling to say |
| 1:11.3 | hello. Are you calling to say hello? Well, no, but I've got an opportunity for you, and you're not |
| 1:16.8 | going to want to miss out. All right, what's that? There's a truck coming into town tomorrow, |
| 1:21.7 | carrying some precious cargo, and I know for a fact that it's going to have some mechanical |
| 1:25.9 | troubles along the way. The man is trying to play coy, but it's clear enough to you that he's planning to hijack a truck of whiskey, and he's looking for a buyer. Well, is that so? Yeah, and I can arrange to take it over to your friend's garage on Clark Street. If you want the cargo, they'll probably pull in around 10.30 in the morning. |
| 1:45.2 | Ah, and how precious is this cargo? Oh, it's real precious, straight from Canada. |
| 1:50.8 | You take a moment, because you're not sure what to do. Whiskey from Canada is high quality and |
| 1:56.1 | fetches a good price, but having it fall in your lap like this seems a little too good to be true. |
| 2:01.8 | It could be a setup. |
| 2:06.8 | Hey, look, if you're not interested, I've got other garages I can take this truck to for repairs, |
| 2:13.1 | you know. No, no, no, it's fine. We want the business. 10.30 a.m., the garage on Clark Street. |
| 2:17.4 | All right, be sure to bring some strong guys, because there's a lot to unload. |
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