1929 Chicago aldermanic elections the heavy patrol of polling places by police officers that compelled Police Commissioner William Russell to set aside his investigation of the recent Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. It was also subject to some disputes in electoral law, with such sitting aldermen as Sheldon Govier of the 9th ward and Joseph McDonough of the 13th raising accusations of fraudulent petitions against many of their opponents given the 40% increase in the number of candidates from the 1927 elections and some aldermen disputing a filing deadline that sitting aldermen Coyle, Haffa, and Hoellen had missed. The "Daily Chronicle" asserted that four of
Saint Valentine's Day Massacre Purple Gang. Mug shots of Purple members George Lewis, Eddie Fletcher, Phil Keywell and his younger brother Harry, were picked out by landladies Mrs. Doody and Mrs. Orvidson, who had taken in three men as roomers ten days before the massacre; their rooming houses were directly across the street from the Clark Street garage. Later, these women wavered in their identification, and Fletcher, Lewis, and Harry Keywell were all questioned and cleared by Chicago Police. Nevertheless, the Keywell brothers (and by extension the Purple Gang) would remain ensnared in the massacre case for all time. Many also believed what the