February 14 Illinois History Minute

February 14th is Saint Valentine’s Day, and also the anniversary of the 1929 Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. Seven members and associates of “Bugs” Moran’s North Side Gang were shot and killed in a garage in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. The prime suspects for the shooters --- members of Al Capone’s rival South Side Gang, and possibly Chicago Police officers seeking revenge for the killing of an officer’s son.

Another mass shooting occurred on this day in DeKalb in 2008. Steven Kazmierczak, a University of Illinois grad student with a history of mental illness, opened fire on students in a lecture hall on the campus of his alma mater, Northern Illinois University. 23 students were shot and six of them died, as did the shooter, by his own hand.