(George Moran)

Born: 1893
Died: 1957

Moran was the target of one of the most brutal episodes in gangland Chicago: the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. But, by a stroke of luck, he was not among those slain. Formerly the commander of the North Side’s bootlegging empire, Moran died poor, and in prison—for a minor robbery.

A polish crook in an Irish gang

A native of rural Minnesota, George Moran moved to Chicago, Illinois, as a teenager. There he found himself in a mostly Irish area on the city’s North Side, where Irish street gangs controlled the neighborhood. Pretending to be of Irish rather than Polish descent, Moran joined one of the area’s all-Irish gangs.

During his teens, Moran—now known to some as “Bugs”—befriended Charles Dion O’Banion (see box, page 467). The...