Indianapolis Times, 15 February 1929, page 1: Capone's gangland throne tottering after massacre

Front page of the Indianapolis Times, Home Edition, 15 February 1929. The story is credited “By United Press” and datelined Chicago, Feb. 15. It opens: “Fear, not of the law but of the leaden hail which mowed down seven men in gangland’s first massacre, drove the leading figures in Chicago beer traffic to the safety of their guarded haunts today.” The deck reads “Fear of Leaden Hail Which Mowed Down Seven Men in Chicago Beer Truck Garage Drives Leaders to Guarded Haunts.”

The story says the killings were being “recorded as the St. Valentine’s day massacre,” that the police dragnet had taken few men, and that rumors about George “Bugs” Moran conflicted. A second United Press item on the page, “TEARS BUT SILENT,” reports that police questioned four of the victims’ widows and learned nothing.

The headline and lede call Moran one of Capone’s “trusted allies.” That is the wire story’s characterization on the day after the shooting; other reports filed here describe the two as rivals, and this archive does not adopt either reading from this page.