From The Archives - April 2014

Adelard Cunin, better known George "Bugs" Moran, was the chief rival to Al Capone during Prohibition and the last prominent leader of the North Side Gang.  Cunin was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1891 to parents of French and Canadian descent - contrary to the popular belief of his having an Irish or Polish lineage.  He ran away from home in 1910 and made his way towards Chicago.  He soon after began partaking in burglary, larceny and theft.  Cunin used several aliases when he was arrested early in his career, but ultimately answered to "George Moran" for the rest of his life after having used it when he was arrested circa 1912.  He began affiliating with to affiliate with Earl "Hymie" Weiss, Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci, and Dean O'Banion after having met O'Banion at McGovern's Cabaret.  Weiss, Drucci and Moran all served as O'Banion's lieutenants once he formed the North Side Gang in 1920.  However, Moran was not fully initiated into the newly-formed gang until after he was released from prison after having served from 1918-1923 for a robbery conviction.  He married a Turkish woman named Lucille Bilezikdijan shortly after his release.  After a somewhat peaceful business arrangement between the two gangs, O'Banion's double-crossing actions led to his assassination in 1924, which, by many accounts, is regarded as the real beginning of the "Beer Wars".  Hymie Weiss resumed control of the North Side Gang after O'Banion's assassination, and he along with Drucci and Moran all sought revenge for O'Banion's death.  Moran and Weiss are alleged to have ambushed Torrio in front of his apartment upon his return home from shopping with his wife.  The two fired several shots, injuring Torrio's neck, torso and legs.  Moran is alleged to have walked up to the injured Torrio, aimed his gun at Torrio's head and fired only to realize that the cartridge was empty.  Torrio survived his wounds and soon after designated Capone the primary leader of the Outfit, and fled overseas to avoid any further violence.  The Northsiders thus turned their assassination attempts toward Capone.  Their first attempt came when they ambushed Capone once when he was exiting his vehicle.  Having survived and severely startled, Capone from then on drove only in armored vehicles.  The second attempt came when Weiss and Moran attacked Capone at his headquarters at the Hawthorne Inn.  Weiss was gunned down weeks later on his way to the Shofield Headquarters, and Drucci was killed after having cursed a Chicago police officer.  Moran thus resumed control of the North Side Gang in 1927.  Moran often frustrated Capone during his tenure as North Side leader.  He would often agree to peace truces and then break them shortly afterwards.  Several of Capone's bodyguards and close allies, including Antonio Lombardo and Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo, were killed allegedly at the behest of Moran's orders.  Moran was also accustomed to hijacking and selling several of Capone's alcohol shipments for profit.  Capone had had enough by 1929 and is widely accredited with having orchestrated the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.  Moran is alleged to have been the intended target, and he nearly would have been had he not seen from across the street the two men posing as police officers walk into the warehouse in what he thought was a raid on one of his shipments.  The Capone-Moran rivalry essentially ended when Capone was convicted of tax-evasion in 1932.  The repeal of the Volstead Act forced, Moran had to rely on other means of income, such as mail fraud, robbery and racketeering.  He was considered to be one of the suspects who killed Jack McGurn to avenge his fellow North Side gangsters for having killed them in the Massacre.  The North Side Gang ultimately dissolved under Frank Nitti's tenure, and Moran was eventually squeezed out of Chicago.  He tried to find other sources of income in Ohio.  He served 10 years in prison after robbing a bank messenger of $10,000 in 1946.  Upon his release, he committed another robbery and was sent back to prison in 1956.  He died shortly afterwards of lung cancer in February 1957.