Feature Article, February 2007

Published in the AFTE Journal Vol. 12, #1, 1980, Page 44 and reprinted here with permission of Matthew Noedel, AFTE Journal Editor.

THE VALENTINE DAY MASSACRE: A STUDY IN AMMUNITION-TRACING

by CALVIN H. GODDARD

(Editor’s Note: The following article is a transcript obtained by Sgt. Don Smith, Chicago Police Department Crime Lab, from an original printed in the American Journal of Police Science, Volume 1, Number 1, January-February, 1930. Permission for this reprint has been graciously given by the Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, through Professor Emeritus Fred E. Inbau. Although this article is 50 years old this month, it has merit both as an information and historical item. It is also considered by many within our field that this specific case was what caused the science of firearms identification to become more readily accepted by the courts and public. Thanks Don!)

The Crime, and Its Clues

At about 10:30 A.M. on the morning of February 14^th, 1929, seven men were gathered in the garage of the S.M.C. Cartage Company at 2122 North Clark Street, Chicago. Five of these were known as members of the so-called "Bugs" Moran gang; one was an automobile mechanic who worked upon the various motor cars which the "gang" used in gaining an honest livelihood, and one was an optometrist who found excitement in associating with gentlemen reported to be "tough" and in boasting of this to his friends. On this particular day, he was destined to meet with more excitement than he had bargained for.

According to the story pieced together from fragments contributed by various eyewitnesses, a large touring car of the type used by the police squads in Chicago, drove up before the garage and halted. Four or five men emerged, two garbed in police uniforms. Two or three were carrying weapons resembling riot guns.

The squad entered the garage. Within a short time, a veritable fusillade of shots rang out, lasting altogether but a fraction of a minute. Soon thereafter emerged, unhurried, entered their car and drove off, first slowly, then furiously. Nobody happened to note the license number.

Witnesses entering the garage were greeted by a gruesome slight. Six bullet-riddled bodies’ lay upon the floor by the wall. A single survivor, blood spurting from a dozen wounds, was dragging himself painfully on hands and knees toward the door. A revolver, fully loaded, lay nearby. Empty shells were scattered about. Up to the height of a man’s head, the brick wall next which the bodies lay was pocked with scored of bullet marks. The Moran gang was all but exterminated.

As to the motive for this mass murder, it was commonly conceded that the gang had rivals, who would find business better if competition were less keen. A dead competitor sells no beer. What could be simpler than to remove competition by killing it? The police uniforms were evidently a ruse, successfully employed, for gaining entry into the enemy’s stronghold.

The Coroner of the City of Chicago, Dr. Herman N. Bundesen, was apprised of the shootings. He proceeded at once to the scene and caused photographs of the premises to be taken from many angles. (see next page for photographs) He ordered a careful collection of all the exhibits present, in the form of empty shells, bullets, bullet fragments, and so forth. These were placed in envelopes, marked and sealed.

Dr. Bundesen now took a step that showed great foresight. Here was a crime beyond average proportions. He decided to study it with the assistance not of a jury of the usual composition, but one made up of men also beyond the average.

Bert A. Massee, Vice-President of the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company; Walter E. Olson, President of the Olson Rug Company; Major F. J. Streychmans, Attorney for the Belgian Consul; Fred Bernstein, Superior Court Master in the Chancery; W. L. Meyer, Master in Chancery, and Dr. J.V. McCormick, Dean of Loyola University Law School, all men prominent in the community were invited to serve, and accepted (see photograph on previous page). They met at the scene of the crime and studied the situation in detail, the shooting being reenacted for their benefit by a police squad, some of whom assumed the positions occupied by the victims before they fell, while others, with riot guns, played the part of the killers. (photographs previous page) Meantime, the mournful howls on a police dog chained to a nearby wall, the only living survivor of the holocaust, lent a ghoulish note to the proceedings.

At the autopsy, performed by Coroner’s physicians E. L. Benjamin, S. D. Gunn and Paul A.G. Schmitt, many bullets and bullet fragments were removed from the bodies. There were placed in linen-lined envelopes labeled with the name of the body from which removed, and stored for safekeeping.

Mr. Massee, the foreman of the jury, being a man given to action, consulted his attorneys as to his duties in the circumstances, and asked them whether or not some scientific aid might be enlisted in the study of the crime. Mr. Charles F. Rathbun, of his counsel, had spoken on the same program with me at a convention some months previously, and suggested my name. Massee called my office in New York. No public funds being available to finance the engagement of an expert for an investigation of this character, Mr. Massee very generously undertook personally to guarantee all costs in connection therewith. Mr. Olson, not to be outdone, volunteered to shoulder half the expense, and did so.

When I arrived in Chicago a few days later, the bullet and shell evidence was presented to me for study. It included the largest number of exhibits that I had ever received from any one case. I catalogued these as follows:

Analyzing the Ammunition Found

Exhibit A – 70 empty shells from the floor of the garage. All caliber 45 automatic pistol type. All of United States Cartridge Company make, with nickelled primers.

To these shells I assigned numbers in sequence as I examined them, scratching its number on the outer and inner wall of each before going further, having long since learned the importance of placing proper identifying marks on every exhibit in my possession. After being numbered, each shell was examined.

The first task was to determine whether it had been fired in a revolver or in an automatic arm

Be it explained that a revolver is a weapon in which the cartridges are brought one after another in line with the barrel through the revolution of a cylinder-deriving its name from this revolving member. A cylinder commonly holds five or six cartridges in as many chambers. (All revolvers handling the .45 automatic cartridge have six chambers.) The empty shells are removed in various ways; but in the revolvers adapted to this particular cartridge they are withdrawn through the ejection of a ‘clip’ holding three shells, from which they must then be removed by hand, or, if loaded without the use of a ‘clip", by punching them one by one from the chambers in which they are seated. See plate 4a, illustrating clips, also 4b and 4c, which show the operation of a revolver ejector.

There is a more or less common impression that "automatic pistol" cartridges may be fired in automatic pistols only. This is quite erroneous. Thousands of revolvers made overseas are chambered particularly to handle such cartridges, and a great many produced in the United States for use with ordinary revolver ammunition will chamber and successfully fire cartridges of this automatic type. In the last War, the standard sidearm of the American army (and still is) a .45 caliber automatic pistol shooting cartridges of the type figuring in the Clark Street Massacre. It was found impossible to produce these fast enough for military needs, so two firearms companies, Colt and Smith & Wesson, adapted revolvers to handle this type of cartridge. Since the rim of an automatic pistol shell is of but equal or (sometimes) slightly greater diameter than the forward part of the shell (plate 5a-next page), it became necessary to devise some means whereby the fired shells might be quickly, and simultaneously extracted. The rim of a revolver shell (plate 5b) has a (relatively) much greater diameter than the forward part, and affords the usual revolver extractor a shoulder to exert leverage against. So there were designed the clips, already illustrated, holding three cartridges each, two clips being used to load a cylinder. These clips the revolver extractors ejected quite easily.

Now a .45 caliber automatic shell, that has been fired in a revolver through the use of a clip, will show certain scratches around its rim acquired when it was forced into, or withdrawn from, the clip. It will show no scratches, however, extending up onto the head (base) of the shell, other than accidental and adventitious marks. If loaded singly, the clip marks will naturally be missing, though certain others, varying in character in each instance, may be present in case it has been necessary to pry it out of the chamber by a force greater than that which can be exerted by the fingertips.

But such a shell, when fired in an automatic arm, always exhibits certain markings on its head and rim left by the passage of the extractor over this area. In arms of this type, the shell is pulled out from the rear; in revolvers it is pushed out from the front. The pullings is effected by a bit of steel inserted into one side of the breech bolt which, when this bolt closes against the head of the shell preparatory to firing, snaps over the shell rim into the groove shove it and, traveling rearward with the bolt after firing, drags the shell back with it. This small bit of spring steel with a hooked tip, known as the extractor, leaves a very definite mark on the edge of the rim of any shell it grips, and the presence of such a mark on a fired shell (in conjunction with others to be described) labels it as having been used in an automatic arm. (see plate 6-next page) All of the shells of Exhibit A bore such marks.

The very fact that the shells were found in the garage at all was of itself sufficient indication, considering the known circumstances surroundings the shootings, that they were fired in automatic arms. For to fire with any accuracy seventy such shells in revolvers, would consume a matter of minutes, and would be a waste of valuable time. Has they been so fired, no clips being used, each one would have had to be laboriously pulled or pushed from its chamber, in the matter already described, before the arm could be reloaded with six fresh cartridges.

Even using clips the procedure would have been relatively slow, and the victim, with certain death facing them, would have had ample opportunity to rush their executioners, with a fair chance of overpowering them. But all accounts were to the effect that the whole burst of fire was over in a few seconds.

A second characteristic mark, which an automatic arm imprints on a shell fired in it, and a revolver does not, is that of the ejector. This is a small bit of steel fixed to the breech of such a weapon, which interrupts the rearward travel of the shell as it is drawn backward by the extractor and does this so suddenly and forcibly that the empty case if flipped out of the gun. (Plate 7) The shell being of brass, a relatively soft metal, takes the imprint of this shell block on its head, and this imprint is uniformly present. Its location, with respect to the mark left by the extractor, is constant for a given make of automatic weapon. All of the shells of series A showed such an imprint, and in each case its geographical relationship on the shell head to that of the extractor, was the same.

I now knew that all of these shells had been fired in automatic arms and the arms of the same make.

The next question was to determine what this make was

There are manufactured in the Unites States but two automatic weapons chambering the .45 automatic pistol cartridge. One is the .45 Colt automatic pistol, already referred to (plate 8), and the other the .45 Thompson "sub-machine gun," manufactured for the Auto-Ordinance Corporation of New York by the Colt Company (plate 9). The Savage Arms Corporation, of Utica, New York, did produce, some years ago, 200 pistols of this caliber, but no more. Most of these are now in the hands of arms collectors. There have also been made from time to time experimental specimens of arms handling this cartridge (e.g., the Grand-Hammond, of which but a dozen or so were finished altogether). It was therefore reasonable to confine our studies to the Colt automatic pistol, the Savage automatic pistol, and the Thompson machine gun.

In the Colt and Savage pistols, the head of the breach bolt, when in its extreme rearward position, lies very close to the rear end (head) of the top of the cartridge in the magazine, so that when the face of the bolt engages the head of the cartridge to push it forward into the chamber, the bolt has as yet acquired but little velocity, and the impact, being a relatively gently one, leaves but faint imprint upon the brass of the cartridge. In the Thompson gun, however, the magazine well is situated relatively further forward, so that the bolt is traveling very rapidly when it strikes the cartridge, and leaves upon its head a deep arc-shaped indention corresponding to the arc of the bolt rim which impinges upon it. (Plate 10). All of the shells of exhibit A showed this feature.

It was therefore a reasonable assumption that all had been fired in Thompson guns.

The next point of interest was a determination of many Thompson guns had been employed.

Since it is not possible, no matter how careful the effort, to produce any two gun parts exactly alike (though they are easily made enough alike to be interchangeable) it follows that each part that comes in contact with a shell will have certain individual characteristics which it can imprint upon the softer metal of that shell, thereby leaving upon it a signature, as it were. Two shells bearing the identical "signature" must necessarily have been fired in the same gun.

In addition to the imprints of the extractor, ejector, and bolt rim, there are other marks upon a shell, which may be used in linking it to a particular weapon. These include the indentation of the firing pin upon the primer or "cap," and marks left upon the primer and metal surrounding it by the face of the breech when the shell recoils against it at the moment of firing. The pressure developed in such a shell, or firing, is around 15,000 lbs., to the square inch. It is exerted equally in all directions, and naturally the shell is pressed backward against the face of the supporting bolt with tremendous force. If the bolt face shows the concentric circles that are left by shaping with and "end mill" in the course of manufacture, these circles are like to be reproduced on primer and shell head. If, after milling, the bolt has been filed or ground, the marks from these procedures are also subject to transfer to the shell.

Nickel primers, such as those used in the shells studied, for some reasons do not take the imprint of the breech face so consistently as those not so treated. (The primer metal is a mixture of copper (95%) and zinc (5%). These are now commonly dipped in a nickel solution, as in this case.)* Further, owing to certain variables that enter into the way the pressure within the shell is applied rearward, the imprint left by the same firing pin in two primers fired by it in succession may vary to some extent – through it frequently is to all intents and purposes identical. The arc-shaped mark on the shell rim left there by the bolt of a Thompson gun is quite variable in location, length, and depth, owing to certain structural features of this particular weapon. The scratches left by an extractor may also vary somewhat in appearance from shell to shell, owing to the degree of play that must be allowed it as it functions. And the position of the ejector mark with relation to the distance from it to the shell rim, is never a fixed factor for a given gun. But this ark itself is likely to have certain definite characteristic details, which will go far toward effecting an identification. Thus, the face of the (Thompson) ejector usually shows a series of parallel lines left there in the process of machining it. (Plate 11) But these lines are never spaced quite the same distance apart, or cross the face at quite the same angle, on two different ejectors. The ejector mark on a shell is of relatively large size, easily studied, and the parallel lines transferred from it to the shell head readily compared with those upon another shell. Hence, by confining myself for a moment solely to an examination of the ejector marks left upon the 70 shells of exhibit A, I was able to readily differentiate them into tow groups according to the character of the mark present. In one group, this mark had a sharp straight base line, from which ran upward to the right at an acute angle a large number of evenly spaced parallel lines (plate 12),

* In years past, primers were of plain copper or brass. Recently the practice of giving them a coat of nickel has come into vogue. While in the other the base line was wavy, and the few lines running upward from it, irregularly spaced and rather wavy also (plate 13). Twenty shells fell into the first classification, which I called "a", and fifty into the second, which I labeled "b".

I now compared all shells in one group "a" with one another to note other points of identity. They all showed the same type of firing pin imprint – a smooth, round indentation (plate 14), and similar extractor marks. Breech-face markings, when present, were alike as well.

In-group "b" a different kind of firing pin imprint appeared. There was an irregular elevation at the base of the crater left in the primer by the impact of the firing pin (plate 15). Extractor marks were alike – and different from those on shells of group "a". Breech face marks, when present, were alike, and also different from those on shells of group "a".

Standard cartridge containers for the Thompson gun are furnished in three types – a 20-shot vertical magazine, a 50-shot circular "drum", and a larger, 100-shot "drum" (plate 9). All these may be used interchangeably in the same arm.

So my shell studies led me to the conclusion that two Thompson guns had been used in the massacre, one loaded with a 20-shot clip and one with a 50-shot drum. I felt that I was making some progress, and turned to the next exhibit.

Exhibit B. This consisted of 14-fired bullets picked up from the floor of the garage. (Plate 16). All were of .45 caliber automatic pistol type, all full metal jacketed, and all of the 230 grain or "military" type. (The .45 automatic pistol cartridge may also be loaded with a lighter (200 grain) bullet known as the "sporting" type. This is fast becoming obsolete.)

An interesting feature of these bullets – and one which will be seen later to have considerable significance – was the fact that they were "cannelured"- or encircled – at the base of their ogival positions, by a ring of knurling marks (see plate 17). Above the cannelure was stamped a small letter "s" – an identifying mark used only on U.S. Cartridge Company bullet in this caliber and type which I purchased were uncannelured (plate 18). Accordingly, I wrote to Mr. Merton A. Robinson,* Ballistic Engineer of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, at New Haven, Connecticut, where the U.S. Cartridge Company line has been made for some time past, and learned from him that this particular vintage of U.S. ammunition had been produced for a relatively short period only, i.e., July, 1927, to July 1928.

(By the terms "jacket" and "core", I refer to the gilding metal envelope, which is the portion of the bullet on view to the eye, and to the lead core, which it contains. The jacket provides a thin sheath for the lead within (plate 5c) and weighs but 28¼ grains – the core thus supplying something over 200 of the total weight of 230 grains. Only at one point is the lead exposed (plate 5c), and this is over a portion of the base of the bullet. Such bullets are commonly, and erroneously, termed "steel jacketed." There is no steel in them, however. The jacket is of copper and zinc, nickeled, and the core of lead with or without a small percentage of tin. Jacketing of bullets reduces the danger of malfunction from deformation of their noses, which caused jamming of the mechanism of the arm in which used, and results in less fouling of the barrel, and greater penetration in the target.)

A study of the rifling marks left upon these bullets showed all to bear the imprint of a barrel rifled with six grooves inclined to the right. Or arms so grooved, there are but three made to handle this cartridge, i.e., the Smith & Wesson Model 1917 revolver, the Savage automatic pistol, and the Thompson sub-machine gun.

Although the examination of the shells had already eliminated for all practical purposes the possibility of either of the first two named arms having been used, it was thought well to rule them out from the bullet viewpoint as well. Accordingly, the angles and widths of grooves on the bullets in evidence were compared with those on specimen bullet known by me to have been fired through Smith & Wesson revolvers, Savage automatic pistols, and Thompson guns.

Now it so happens that all American arms makers employ different specifications in rifling their barrels – a fortunate fact for one wishing to determine through which particular make of arm a given bullet has been fired. Thus the "lands", or elevated portions of the bore between the grooves, of a Savage automatic pistol – and these are the agents that cut the grooves seen on the fired bullets (the grooves on the bullet being the reflection of the land in the gun, and vise versa) – are much narrower than those in a Thompson gun or a Smith & Wesson .45 caliber revolver, as is evident when we compare the grooves on the bullets in plate 19 (from Savage pistol), 20 (from Smith & Wesson revolver) and 17 and 18 (from Thompson gun). Since all the grooves on the recovered bullets were of the same width, and much wider than those found on a bullet fired through a Savage pistol (and all pistols of a given make, model, and caliber, will have grooves alike as to number, direction, angle and width) we can safely say that none of the bullets of Exhibit B came from a Savage pistol.

As between a Smith & Wesson revolver and a Thompson gun, the difference in width of groove, or angle, is not readily appreciable on casual examination. But it will be noted, when we compare a bullet from the Smith & Wesson revolver, plate 20, with one from a Thompson gun, plate 17, that, in addition to the clean cut grooves inclining upward to the right from the bottom of the bullet, we find on the revolver bullet a second set of grooves, including upward to the left, rather smeary, and ill defined. This second set is characteristic of a bullet fired from a revolver, no matter how well made, and is present only in much attenuated form on bullets from automatic arms. The reason is that bullets from revolvers must jump through a space, in passing from the cylinder into the barrel, the diameter of which is greater than their own, which inevitably results in their tipping to one side or another, entering the barrel "off centered," and showing the results in the reduplication of groove marks already described. The automatic pistol bullet has no such tippy journey to perform n passing from chamber to barrel, and as a result the groove marks upon it fail to show this particular type of reduplication.

All of the bullets of Exhibit B were free from these "tippage" marks, and had therefore not issued from revolvers. By exclusion, the only arm remaining that could have fired them was the Thompson machine gun.

To determine which of these bullets had been fired from one of the Thompson guns employed by the killers, and which from the other of the two, would have been a matter of many hours, or days, of effort, and would have added nothing to our information. This work must be done under a comparison microscope, and is usually tedious and difficult at best. So I satisfied myself with finding one or two matching pairs of bullets among the fourteen – i.e., bullets which had issued from the same barrel, and let the matter rest there for the time being.

Exhibit C. This was made up of 25 jacket fragments found about the floor of the garage. These were all of the same type of metal, "gilding metal," such as is used in the jackets of .45 caliber automatic pistol bullets made by the U.S. Cartridge Company. Such fragments as were large enough showed the typical identifying cannelure and the letter "s" I already described. Arranging them roughly in order of their decreasing size, I scratched upon them serial numbers of 1 to 25. Those of them that showed rifling marks, which included the majority, bore groove characteristics of the Thompson type of rifling. All fragments were incomplete, i.e., less than 28 ¼ grains in weight. The total weight of all fragments was 458 grains.

Exhibit D. The next exhibit constituted 22 core fragments from the garage and was labeled Exhibit D. Grading these roughly in order of size, I assigned them numbers 1 to 22. Their total weight was 2289 grains which, added to the weight of the jacket fragments, would account for 11 complete 230 grain bullets with an excess of 217 grains or almost enough to make up a twelfth.

Exhibit E. comprised of 2 empty 12-gauge shotgun shells, U.S. Cartridge Company make, "Climax" brand, black color. These had been picked up on the floor of the garage and examination of their interiors showed that they had contained smokeless powder and had been loaded with buck-shot. This latter fact was evident from an inspection of the inner walls where the resting points of the individual buck-shot could be seen as small dark splotches.

A study of the firing pin imprints in their primers, and of the extractor and ejector marks on their rims and heads showed them to have been fired from the same gun. The presence of ejector marks on their heads gave evidence that the weapon firing them was of a repeating or automatic type, for such marks do not appear on shells fired in double-barrel or single-barrel shotguns.

Exhibits F, G, H, I, J, K, and L. These were made up of bullets, bullet fragments, and buckshot from the bodies of the seven victims (plate 21). The body of Adam Heyer yielded 14 such, which were designated Exhibit F. That of James Clark produced 7, Exhibit G. From Pete Gunsenberg a single complete bullet, much flattened, was recovered, Exhibit H. Alexander Weinshenk’s body gave up 6 bullets, Exhibit I. 3 more came from the body of John May, Exhibit J. 7 practically complete bullets were extracted from the body of Frank Gusenberg, Exhibit K. That this man could have lived some hours following the infliction of such terrific wounds (as he did) was mute evidence of what the human organism can sometimes withstand. * The remains of Reinhardt Schwemmer were the only ones in which buckshot were discovered. His body yielded 1 complete .45 caliber bullet and 7 buckshot.

All of the bullets removed from the bodies were of .45 automatic pistol type, U.S. make, cannelured, in other words, identical in caliber, type, make and vintage with those found on the floor of the garage. The buckshot found in the corpse of Schwemmer were identical in type with those used by U.S. Cartridge Company in Climax brand shells. All complete bullets from the several bodies and all bullet fragments on which rifling marks appreared, showed evidence of having passed through the barrel having 6 grooves inclined to the right, the grooves being the width and angle, which tallied with the Thompson rifling specifications.

Here again I made no effort to determine exactly through which of the two Thompson guns used each particular bullet had been fired. As in the case of Exhibit B, I satisfied myself with matching an occasional pair of bullets here and there to ascertain whether they were from the same gun or not. When two were found that had passed through the same barrel, they gave a picture under the comparison microscope such as seen in plate 22.

Testing Various Chicago Guns

Since two of the members of the execution squad had worn police uniforms, and since it had been subsequently intimated by various persons that the wearers of the uniforms might really have been policemen rather than disguised gangsters, it became a matter of no little importance to ascertain, if possible, whether these rumors had any foundation in fact. One way of approaching this subject was to test out various Thompson guns in the hands of the Police of the city of Chicago, its suburbs, and of the Cook County Police Force to determine if possible whether any of these had been employed in the massacre. Accordingly, I examined altogether some 8 Thompson guns, 5 in the hands of the Chicago Police, 1 at Melrose Park Police Headquarters, and 2 from the Cook Count Highway Police. I fired a number of rounds of ammunition of the same caliber, type, make and vintage as used in the murder, through each of these. The bullets were recovered undeformed from a receptacle of cotton waste into which they were fired, and each bullet and empty shell was numbered with the number of the gun from which it had issued. The bullets and shells so recovered were carefully compared with specimens of the fatal bullets and shells. In no instance did I find a duplication of markings to indicate that any of the police weapons had been employed in the killings.

Since shotgun shells had been found in the garage, it became desirable to study the shotguns used by the various police authorities in and around Chicago. Consequently, a number of such weapons were tested. These included 2 Marlin riot guns of the Chicago Police, 4 Remington automatics, and 1 Remington hammerless repeater from Ciceo Police Headquarters; 3 more Remingtons, 1 Winchester, and 1 Revenoc (Marlin) from the Melrose Park Police, and 4 Winchester repeating hammerless guns use by the Cook County Police. U.S. Climax shells were fired in all of these and the marks left upon them by extractor, ejector, firing pin, and breech face, compared with those on the two shells recovered at the scene of the murders. In no instance were similar markings found.

I returned to New York, to my office in which city various Thomson machine guns were forwarded from time to time by Coroner Bundesen for testing. These were all carefully studied, but in no instance did any bullet or shell fired from them show markings identical with the fatal bullets or shells from the garage. We seemed to have reached the end of a blind alley.

* He died without revealing any information at to the identity of his assailants.

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