Saint Valentine's Day massacre
Newspapers ran stories of the gangster shootings and prohibition lawlessness in Chicago. These were complete with detailed photographs of the murders. At first many thought the Chicago police had committed the massacre. But most people in Chicago thought Al Capone was behind the murders. Capone had an alibi. He was at his winter home in Palm Beach, Florida when the murders took place. The suspicions finally resulted in the arrests of Vincenzio Damora and John Scalise. These were two of Capone's known henchmen. Scalise was charged with the murders after Damora came up with an alibi. But Capone murdered Scalise personally before he could stand trial. Public opinion also put pressure on the FBI to arrest Capone with any charge they could. In 1931 they finally charged him with tax evasion and sent him to prison. Capone was sent to Alcatraz for eleven years. When he was finally released he was too sick to continue his crime career. He died in 1947. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 which all but eliminated bootlegging.