From The Archives - January 2014

Vincenzo Gibaldi aka Jack McGurn

Vincenzo Gibaldi, aka "Machine Gun Jack McGurn", was one of Capone's notorious hitmen and widely credited with having allegedly orchestrated the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.  Gibaldi was born in Licata, Sicily in 1906.  His family emigrated to the United States via Ellis Island a year after he was born, and shortly thereafter settled in Chicago.  The origin of the name "Jack McGurn" came from when he was an aspiring boxer.  At that time, Irish boxers drew large audiences and thus received most of the premium bookings.  Gibaldi decided to optimize on this by changing his name to "Battling" Jack McGurn.  Changing his name did not particularly assist him in more boxing matches, as he is recorded to have won only two, lost one and drawn twice.  The name nonetheless stuck.  When his father died, his mother remarried to a grocer named Angelo DeMory.  When his stepfather was killed at the hands of Black Hand extortionists, McGurn took it upon himself to seek revenge and ultimately killed the three hitmen he deemed responsible.  This marked the end of his boxing career and the beginning of his occupation as one of Capone's bodyguards and hitmen.  He thwarted several assassination attempts on Capone, including one concocted by North Side rival Joe Aiello, who had offered $50,000 to any hitman in the U.S. who could take out Capone.  McGurn, himself, was subject to several assassination attempts.  The first one occurred in March 1928 when he and a real estate broker he was meeting with were shot at by who were believed to be the Gusenberg brothers.  He suffered wounds to his chest and arm but was saved when a doctor in the hotel sent him to a hospital.  After recovering, McGurn was attacked a month later while driving in his Lincoln sedan, however this time came away unscathed.  Both he and Capone had grown frustrated with the Bugs Moran's North Side Gang.  Capone thus left McGurn to plan what would be known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, in which two members of the Outfit dressed as police officers intercepted a North Side whiskey shipment at 2122 North Clark St., lined up the seven North Sider's present, including two of the Gusenberg brothers, against a wall, and fatally shot all of them with Thompson sub-machine guns.  Both Capone and McGurn had solid alibis: Capone having been in Florida when the shooting occurred, and McGurn's then girlfriend and future wife, actress Louise Rolfe, his "blonde alibi", attesting to them having spent the whole day together.  The State also tried them for violating the White-Traffic Slave Act, aka the Mann Act.  However, both held a wedding ceremony while the case was being reviewed by the Supreme Court.  The Chicago Crime Commission came out with its Public Enemies list in April of 1930, naming Jack McGurn number four on the list.  His public notoriety did not sit well with the Outfit, and after Capone was convicted in 1931, he became more and more isolated from the Outfit's activities.  He tried to pursue a professional golfing career.  McGurn was participating at the Western Open at Olympia Fields as a professional when he was arrested on the seventh hole.  He was allowed to finish out the round but did poorly the rest of the game.  McGurn became impoverished after having failed to rejoin the Outfit under Frank Nitti.  On February 15, 1936, almost exactly seven years after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, McGurn was fatally shot multiple time at a bowling alley located at Chicago Ave. and Milwaukee Ave.  An ominous poem was left at the from of the alley by the time police arrived, reading "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 trousas!".  It is believed that the homicide was committed either at the hands of the Outfit under Nitti, who viewed McGurn as a loose end, or as revenge by the North Side for the Massacre.  

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