Mobster - "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn

"Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, born Vincenzo Antonio Gibaldi, was a one time promising boxer, an Italian-American mobster and key member of Al Capone's Chicago Outfit. Jack McGurn was one of Capone's most feared and ruthless killers. He picked up the nickname "Machine Gun" because of his proficiency with the new Thompson sub-machine gun - aka Tommy Gun - favored by Chicago gangsters.

https://youtu.be/Zq4wnGBdDbs

I'm not sure if your effort outweighs peoples interest....just being honest, dont want you wasting your time too much

yes, he was suspected as being one of the valentines day shooters. he was shot down in a bowling alley, in the video it says a nickel was placed in his hand.

I always heard it was an ace of spades.

I think you're confusing McGurn with Joe Masseria. The press put an ace of spades in the hand of Masseria. When McGurn was killed there was a card found that said "You've lost your job, you've lost your dough, Your jewels and cars and handsome houses, But things could still be worse you know... At least you haven't lost your trousers!"

ok.

McGurn was not one of the Valentine's Day massacre shooters. He was holed up with his "blond alibi" in a hotel room, constantly ordering stuff from room service, before, during and after the shooting to establish an airtight alibi. The shooters were Fred "Killer" Burke, James Ray, Joseph Lolordo, Albert Anselmi and John Scalise.

Capone didn't initiate the massacre--McGurn did. He was seeking revenge on Bugs Moran because two of his gunsels, the Gusenberg brothers, trapped McGurn in a phone booth and shot him up, nearly killing him. Capone fronted him some money to set up the massacre. The vast, nationwide revulsion that the massacre caused brought a lot of heat down on Capone. To get out of the heat, he had himself arrested in Philadelphia and spent a year in prison. McGurn quickly lost favor because of that.

Turnbull... you are a wealth of information! Thank you.

thanks turnbull, now, capone in just about every movie, or every book always gets the blame for that massacre,

why can't they get it right.

A much more trustworthy explanation than the usual crap that McGurn "fell out of favour due to heavy drinking and that his "hit-skills" wasnt needed anymore in the 30s." Eeh, the Outfit was more vicious than ever at this point. Very interesting and not in so very many books.

He was also a drug abuser and because of his addictions he lost his skills. He also lost a lot of his fortune, stopped generating profit and started peddling drugs on the streets so in 1933 McGurn was demoted. Later after the murder, Paul Ricca allegedly once said “High and dry,that’s why we left him…sellin’ junk to the moolies”.

In his prime they say he killed over 20 men and Tony Accardo was his partner in crime in the 1920s so they must of done a lot of hits together . I think both was on the hit team on valentines day both had the balls and skills to do it and both had skills with a machine gun . Envy killed Mcgurn he was Al favourite when Al went Prison Mcgurn got pushed out by the rest of the outfit then they whacked him he was high risk and had balls and making his moves in there areas .

I'm sure you saw the scene in the movie "The Untouchables" when Capone baseball-bats a couple of guys at a big dinner. In real life, there were three--Anseli, Scalise and Joe "Hop Toad" Giunta, who were conspiring against Capone. He beat them to a pulp, but Accardo and McGurn finished them off with guns.

The St.Valentines Massacre was organized by the Circus Cafe gang. This wasnt an ordinary gang like the 42's but it was mixed gang formed by outsiders from different nationalities, so it was difficult to know who was who at the time thus making them the prefect guys for the job. The cafe was owned by an outsider and former gang member of a St.Louis gang, Claudie Maddox.So the Circus gang had like two factions,one faction from Chicago or the Capone gang(Tony Capezio,Jack McGurn,Accardo) and the other one formed by hitmen from out of town,for example, St.Louis,Detriot or Kansas.

For me there was two possible hit teams: One was the St.Louis hit team with Fred Burke,Fred Goetz,Gus Winkler and James Ray or Burke together with Detriot gangsters Harry Keywell, Phil Keywell, George F Lewis and Eddie Fletcher.

Peter Von Frantzius was one of Chicago’s most famous guns suppliers,provided the guns which later were found in Fred Burke's possession

Lookout men formed by Jimmy "The Swede" Moran,Byron Bolton(the cops found medicine bottle across the street ina lookout room that belonged to Bolton who later snitched on the gang but no one listened),Tony Accardo and maybe Ross Prio

The only evidence that implicated the gang in the shooting was when a week later a 1927 Cadillac sedan was found disassembled and partially burned in a garage on Wood Street.It was determined that this was the car that had been used by the killers in the massacre. The garage was located two blocks from the Circus Cafe.Later investigators found out that “Tough” Tony Capezio, had been badly burned in a fire.It has been suggested that Capezio had been cutting up the car that was used in the hit and to get rid of evidence he had accidentally started the fire by using the acetylene torch too close to a can of gasoline. Capezio was burned and ran to a North Avenue clinic, then ran back out when he realized that someone who had heard the blast would be calling the cops.This stunt earned him the nickname “Tough Tony.” Also St.Louis gangster Raymond “Shocker” Schulte was seen together with Tony Capezio after the blast.

And ofcourse with out police protection, the killers wouldnt succeed. The cops also had their own reasons to be angry at the Moran gang because of the murder of a police captains son the occured before the massacre.

After the massacre the Circus gang vanished.Many of the so-called members got absorbed by the Capone mob or fled town.

Nice Info like Always. FBI Agent Bill Roemer heard on FBI Bugs Tony Accardo saying he was on the hit and Tough tony Capezio was in his crew and sources say capezio help Tony Accardo get in the capone gang .

He sold Thompson submachine guns legally at that time. But, one of the consequences of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre was passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934, which outlawed private ownership of machine guns and sawed-off shotguns.

The Thompson was developed during WWI as a "trench broom"--a soldier, if he made it across "no man's land" to the enemy trench, could stand at the end of the trench and "sweep" the enemy with fire, instead of jumping into the trench and fighting one on one with bayonet, rifle butt or fists. But, the armistice was signed before a single Tommy gun got overseas. And, there was scant interest in it by armed forces or law enforcement agencies. So, Auto Ordnance took to selling them to private individuals. One of the most famous magazine ads of the Twenties shows a Western rancher, in big hat and chaps, using a Tommy gun hold off a band of mounted, masked rustlers.

Gee, let me think. I have over a million views and nearly 5,000 subscribers to my YouTube Channel. Are you speaking for everyone or just yourself?

While some of facts in the videos are debatable, B&B does a very professional job in assembling them, almost as good as a PBS documentary. Yes, he's that good. He's also got a great voice for narration. If he ever decided to put out an instructional video on how to make documentaries I would recommend that everyone watch it.

yes, b and b docs are extremely well done, and I enjoy them very much, the narrarator is the absolute best, keep up the good work.

Good work keep up the good work B & B

Thank you my friend. As to the "debatable" stuff, you are correct. I recently read Al D'Arco's and Gaspipe Casso book. It appears that these guys, who were in the same family, cannot agree on the so-called facts.

What makes such a response asinine is that it's posted by a member on a forum dedicated to stuff like this. As for me, I'm always up to watch some enjoyable Youtube videos on old-time gangsters from my lazy chair at home.

BLABM, when I noticed this post after being away from this board for a while, I knew I had to go out and buy some food and drink so that I could sit down and enjoy it properly. I did that, and wasn't disappointed. Thanks for the montage.

Al Capone had to have informants to be able to send Machine Gun to take out Aiello's hit team. That's really one of the undercurrents in stories like this. The story behind the story.

I also gravitate toward the opinion that his underworld alias was simply "Machine Gun", rather than "Machine Gun McGurn" or "Machine Gun Jack McGurn". Just a guess.