Sunday Star, 14 April 1929, page 2: Police quizzed in gang massacre

Page 2 of The Sunday Star (the Evening Star’s Sunday edition), Part 1, 14 April 1929. The story is credited “By the Associated Press,” datelined Chicago, April 13 (the OCR reads “April ll”; the page image shows 13), with the deck “Officers’ Guns Are to Be Examined to Trace Fatal Bullets.” It opens: “After a jury investigating the massacre of seven George Moran gangsters here had been told by a United States Army ballistic expert “that every bullet ever fired can be traced to the gun from which it was discharged,” the chiefs of police of Cicero and Melrose Park, suburbs, were called tonight to describe firearms used by members of their departments.”

The report says the Cicero chief denied his department had machine guns and was asked to identify shotguns he had been ordered to turn over, and that the Melrose Park chief said his department owned five shotguns and one machine gun. It states: “The questioning was conducted under direction of Maj. Calvin Goddard of the United States Army, reputed to be one of the world foremost ballistic experts.”

This archive cites the page for Goddard’s role at the inquest in April 1929. The questioning of the two suburban chiefs is reported as questioning; the page does not report a finding against either department.