Lindsey Graham

Hey, look, if you're not interested, I've got other garages I can take this truck to for repairs, you know.

No, no, no.

It's fine.

We want the business.

10.30 a.m., the garage on Clark Street.

All right.

Be sure to bring some strong guys, because there's a lot to unload.

Will do.

See you then.

You feel a little uneasy as you hang up the phone, but you shake it off.

You're about to get your hands on the significant shipment of high-quality whiskey, which certainly makes you happy.

And as you return to your ledger book, your eyes scan over the calendar on the wall.

You realize that tomorrow is February 14th, Valentine's Day.

Maybe this load of hijacked whiskey is Cupid's gift to you.

From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers, our history, your story.

By the early 1920s, the city of Chicago had become the epicenter of bootlegging in the United States, and the various sophisticated criminal gangs in the city who imported and distributed illegal liquor were in an all-out war.

Armed with automatic Tommy guns, these rival gangs sprayed the streets of Chicago with bullets as they battled over territory.

The city's murder rate skyrocketed, while gangsters paid politicians and police to look the other way, allowing them to operate with near impunity.

The largest and most successful of these gangs was known as the Outfit, run by mobster Al Capone.

In late 1926, after leaders of the rival Northside gang made a brazen attempt on his life, Capone swore revenge, and by 1929 he'd killed or scared off all the Northside top lieutenants except for one, George Bugs Moran.