McGurn was assassinated by three men with pistols on February 15, 1936, one day after the seventh anniversary of the St. Valentine's Day massacre. He was bowling at the second-floor Avenue Recreation Bowling Alley, at 805 N.
McGurn was killed by Claude Maddox and William White during a bowling game, while three other persons acted as robbers just so they can scare all witnesses and also to turn their sights from the target. The joint where the murder occurred was owned by Smokes Aloisio.
Intriguing character but he didn't live in Red Hook. He lived in Carroll Gardens not far from the Gallo's tenement near the Brooklyn waterfront. Red Hook is separated from Carroll Gardens by Hamilton Avenu and after 1940, the Gowanus PkWy. His father was murdered by Wild Bill Lovett's White Hand Gang who ran the waterfront until, first he, and then, PegLeg Lonergan were taken out by Frankie Ioele and Capone.
It's a possibility he received the moniker Machine Gun because of windmill punches as a boxer rather than a preference for the tommy gun. After his father was murdered, his mother moved to Chicago but I haven't been able to determine whether he and Capone were connected in Brookyn and he followed Capone out to ChiTown, or did he connect with Capone in Chicago and return with him in order to square the bill with Lovett over the murder of his father.
I think that McGurn officially joined Capone while in Chicago and later was possibly one of the first ten original members which were made by Capone himself. Capone probably knew McGurn's tragic history and used his vendetta against their mutual enemies.
I look at McGurn's career as one of the "saddest" stories in the Outfit, meaning his father was killed and later besides being completely loyal to the Outfit, in the end McGurn lost everything and became a bum. By 1933 McGurn was allegedly a heavy drinker, narcotics user and above all a degenerate gambler. During that same time period he gave an interview regarding the kidnapping of Jake the Barber's son, in which he allegedly stated "Boys I ain’t made a payment on my house, the roof over my head, in 11 months, so I guess I’m gonna lose the place to foreclosure. So if I snatched Jake’s kid, believe me, I would have collected the dough long before this”.
As most of us already know, McGurn's name was all over the newspapers after the St Valentines Day massacre, same as Capone, Rio, Maddox, Capezio etc., a situation which brought a lot of attention to the organization and some high level members like Ricca decided that some of those guys had to go. So they killed Rocco Belcastro, Ray Nugent, Bob Carey, Fred Goetz, Gus Winkler and the "obviously" McGurn.
The only Capone member who allegedly felt "sorry" for McGurn was one of Capones Cicero reps and also a hitman Willie Heeney. Sources say that Heeney was also a narcotics user and so he allegedly gave McGurn the job for running numbers and also selling dope around Black neighborhoods from the South Side. Later McGurn was transferred to the Melrose Park area but it is possible that his debts and addictions forced Ricca to order his murder, obviously because he knew a lot of "dirty" stuff and so they couldnt trust him. Meaning, why take a chance?!
Thanks bud.
