Latest news with #St.Valentine'sDayMassacre
Metro
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Metro
The most famous inmates of Alcatraz as Trump orders notorious prison to re-open
Once home to some of the US's most dangerous criminals, these days Alcatraz only opens its doors to tourists looking for a taste of the darker side of history. However, Donald Trump has now ordered the former maximum security prison be reopened for 'the dregs of society'. Posting on his platform, Truth Social, the US president called for Alcatraz to house 'America's most ruthless and violent offenders' He wrote: 'For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat criminal offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than misery and suffering.' Alcatraz is marooned on an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, and housed more than 1,500 prisoners in the 30 years it ran. Inmates only had the right to food, shelter, clothing and medical care, everything else was deemed a luxury, and had to be earnt under the strict regime. Here we take a look at some of its most notorious prisoners. Karpis, once officially public enemy number one, was the leader of a gang of robbers, hijackers and kidnappers. The group killed anyone who got in their way, including innocent bystanders, and even pulled off a train robbery in Garrettsville, fleeing with a £27,000 fortune. He was eventually captured and sentenced to life in prison in 1932 for ten murders, six kidnappings and a robbery. Karpis served out the longest sentence of any other prisoners at 26 years long. One former guard Al Bloomquist described him as a 'mild nuisance' and said he often complained about the prison's poor conditions and fought with other inmates. He was transferred to McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washington as Alcatraz began closing down in 1962, where he died. Alphone Gabriel Capone – also known by his nickname 'Scarface' – was an infamous gangster and criminal mastermind. He had strong political connections meaning he was able to evade justice for a long time, until he orchestrated the St. Valentine's Day Massacre which saw the killings of seven members of a rival gang. His capture became a priority for newly inaugurated President Hoover, and in 1934 Al Capone was sent to Alcatraz. He experienced harsher prison life in Alcatraz after coming from Atlanta Jail, where he bribed guards to bring him home comforts. Two years into his time at Alcatraz, he was stabbed in the back by a fellow inmate, but he recovered quickly, and lived well during his incarceration. He even formed a prison band called 'Rock Islanders' in which he played the banjo. Capone spent the last year of his sentence in a prison hospital as his health detiorated, and he died at one of his mansions in 1947. Barnes became a bootlegger during prohibition to avoid financial ruin. But after meeting and falling in love with fellow outlaw Kathryn Thorne, he became increasingly notorious. After he attempted to kidnap and ransom oil tycoon Charles Urschel, Kelly received a life sentence – but boasted to the press he will break out in time for Christmas. The authorities took him seriously, and he was sent to Alcatraz, where he remained for three years. But he boasted to inmates about a range of crimes he never committed. He took a job as an alter boy in the prison chapel, with guards saying he seemed to be remorseful for what he had done. He told guard James A. Johnston: 'My family are good people. Only I turned out to be a heel.' He died on his 59th birthday in 1954. Stroud was initially jailed for the murder of a bartender, who he claimed owed money to a prostitute he was pimping. He was described as an 'extremely dangerous and menacing psychopath'. He was a violent prisoner, eventually stabbing a guard in Leavenworth Prison, Kansas, before being placed into solitary confinement. He dedicated his alone time to studying and breeding canaries, even publishing books on the subject. However Stroud was eventually sent to Alcatraz after he was caught using his ornithological equipment to brew alcohol. He spent 17 years there – with no birds – writing and illustrating books and died in 1963, the same year the prison closed. Gardner committed a number of crimes throughout his life, but he became notorious after robbing a US Mail truck in 1920, fleeing with a substantial fortune. He escaped prison multiple times, and even managed to over power his guards on a moving train. Gardner was sentenced to 25 years on McNeil Island, but orchestrated a succesful escape, manipulating two other prisoners – Lawardus Bogart and Everett Impyn – into joining but ultimately sacrificing themselves for him. As the three men made their escape during a prison baseball game, they were hit by bullets, seriously injuring Bogart and killing Impyn. As Impyn lay dying, he revealed: 'Gardner told us those fellows in the towers couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.' The law eventually caught up to Gardner, who only suffered a leg injury in the escape, and he was sent to various prisons, with his final being Alcatraz. He described it as 'the toughest, hardest place in the world' despite being one of the most hardened criminals there. During his time there, his wife divorced him and he worked at the mat shop and was released in 1938. In 1939 he published his autobiography 'Hellcatraz', detailing his time there. Morris and the Anglin brothers 'escaped' from Alcatraz after they were sent there for committing a number of crime sprees. The group stole tools which they used to dig tunnels off the island, and built a raft and dummies from their beds and raincoats. They went so far as to create life-size paper dummies to trick prison guards into thinking they were asleep. They escaped on June 11 1962, and were never seen or heard from again. It was presumed they had all drowned in the strong current, but no bodies have ever been found. Alcatraz closed in 1963 due to several factors, including high operational costs and a deteriorating infrastructure. More Trending Maintaining a prison on an island cost significantly more than running one one on the mainland, while the harsh environment led to severe wear and tear on the building which was expensive to fix. There was also a shift in correctional practices, with more of a focus on rehabilitation, which didn't fit with Alcatraz's harsh approach. High profile escapes, meanwhile, raised doubts about the prison's security. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Police officer 'run over and killed by dad of teen who died in police shooting' MORE: Donald Trump becomes a lo fi guy with his own MAGA beats MORE: Trump follows up bizarre Pope post with image posing as Star Wars beefcake
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration fires thousands for ‘performance' without evidence, in messy rush
The first message from her manager on Saturday afternoon misspelled Amanda Mae Downey's name. The second mentioned 'the news' about probationary federal workers, and how the Trump administration planned to fire them. When Downey called her boss at a Michigan branch of the U.S. Forest Service for an explanation, she learned her name was on a firing list. She would have to come into the office to sign a letter formalizing her termination. And she had to do it before the holiday weekend was over. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. 'I'm glad that our agency at least has decided we can do it in person,' her manager said, according to a recording Downey provided to The Washington Post. 'So we can add a little human touch to what's going on.' Many federal government employees were dismissed over the holiday weekend as managers confronted a Trump administration demand to fire workers by Tuesday. In group texts and in online forums, they dubbed the error-ridden run of firings the 'St. Valentine's Day Massacre.' The firings targeted new hires on probation, who have fewer protections than permanent employees, and swept up people with years of service who had recently transferred between agencies, as well as military veterans and people with disabilities employed through a program that sped their hiring but put them on two years' probation. Most probationary employees have limited rights to appeal dismissals, but union heads have vowed to challenge the mass firings in court. The largest union representing federal workers has also indicated it plans to fight the terminations and pursue legal action. Critics warned of swift consequences as the administration raced to execute a vision Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have touted for a leaner, reshaped government. The latest wave of personnel actions already prompted an administrative complaint on behalf of workers at nine agencies, adding to more than a dozen legal tests of Trump's power filed one month into his term. The Trump administration will not disclose how many workers it cut since last week ahead of its Tuesday deadline, but the government employed more than 200,000 probationary workers as of last year. The firings have extended to touch employees at almost every agency, including map makers, archaeologists and cancer researchers, The Post found, in choices that some workers said contradicted a U.S. Office of Personnel Management directive to retain 'mission-critical' workers. This account of how the Trump administration's firing spree played out over the weekend, sowing pain and chaos, is based on interviews and messages with more than 275 federal workers, as well as dozens of government records and communications reviewed by The Post. The Federal Aviation Administration let go hundreds of technicians and engineers just weeks after a midair collision miles from the White House killed 67 people, eliciting promises from Trump officials to improve air safety, workers said in interviews. FEMA, which handles the nation's natural disasters, is preparing to fire hundreds of probationary employees, according to four people familiar with the situation who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The agency is already stretched thin responding to fires in California and floods in Kentucky. And the administration terminated scores of employees who work to bolster America's nuclear defense, only to realize its error and start reversing the firings. 'I'd understand a strategic reduction in force if needed,' said one USDA employee, who was fired over the weekend. 'But this was a butchering of some of our best. Does the public know this?' The termination letters hitting inboxes all struck the same note: Probationary workers were getting the ax for poor job performance. But many of those fired had just received positive reviews, or had not worked in the government long enough to receive even a single rating, according to interviews with federal employees and documents obtained by The Post. Internal communications from the Office of Personnel Management obtained by The Post appeared to tie the performance directive to Trump's plans. In a message sent Friday to agencies, an OPM employee wrote that, because of Trump's mandated hiring freeze, probationary employees 'had no right to continued employment. … An employee's performance must be viewed through the current needs and best interest of the government, [in] light of the President's directive to dramatically reduce the size of the federal workforce.' OPM also provided a form email agencies could use to terminate workers, citing 'performance.' Firing employees en masse with the same claim of poor performance is illegal, said Jim Eisenmann, a partner at the Alden Law Group, a law firm specializing in litigation by federal employees. It violates federal law covering career civil service employees, he said. 'It can't be true,' Eisenmann said. 'They're clearly not articulating this on an individual basis, which is what makes it so suspect.' The White House referred questions about the firings to individual agencies and OPM. An OPM spokeswoman reiterated what the agency has previously said about the terminations: 'The probationary period is a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment.' Musk, whose U.S. DOGE Service is leading the drive to downsize government, over the weekend shared triumphant messages on X, the social media platform he owns. Close to 2 a.m. Monday, he reposted a picture of himself in a gladiator outfit and declared he was destroying 'the woke mind virus.' A few hours after the post, Downey, the U.S. Forest Service employee, climbed into her car. She drove a half-hour to her office and signed her name to a letter putting an end to the income she relies on to support three children, an ailing mother and a husband who just lost his own job. Before she walked out, she jotted five words above her signature: 'Received and accepted under duress.' - - - Mistakes, miscommunication and confusion The firings started Thursday, by email and on video calls, after the Trump administration held calls with agency heads ordering them to terminate most probationary and temporary employees. The dismissals picked up pace into the weekend, hitting thousands more at the Interior Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Energy Department. Some employees said the proceedings seemed rushed, the details botched. Termination letters at Education listed the wrong job, or the wrong start date. A legal help number offered in a notice sent to a Small Business Administration employee led to the voicemail for an apartment building, not a lawyer. Some firing letters seemed copy-pasted from a form and left out the name of the agency where employees worked. The Friday email to agencies from OPM only caused more confusion. The email at first directed agencies to finish all their firings by close of business Monday, a federal holiday. Agency leaders were supposed to send a spreadsheet listing all their terminated probationary employees to OPM chief of staff Amanda Scales by 8 p.m. that day, the email said. OPM later adjusted the deadline. The 'tracker' should include 'which probationary employees have been terminated and which you plan to keep,' the email said. 'For those you plan to keep, provide an explanation of why.' OPM also offered a template notice agencies could send to fired workers. It read in part: 'The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.' Federal law gives agencies wide latitude to fire probationary workers so long as they provide written notice 'as to why he is being separated [and] the agency's conclusions as to the inadequacies of his performance or conduct.' The Alden Law Group and Democracy Forward, a legal group that has challenged several Trump policies dating back to his first term, filed a complaint on behalf of fired probationary employees. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan is weighing a request from a group of states to block Musk's team from accessing sensitive data and ousting employees from seven federal agencies. In a hearing Monday, she signaled that she may reject the complaint, saying that DOGE appeared to be moving unpredictably but that the plaintiffs had not pointed to enough evidence of irreparable harm to justify an immediate ban on its activities. Government personnel rules state that newly hired career employees serve probationary terms of one to two years, with attorneys and others who do specialized work falling in the lengthier category. Others, including scientists, can be hired for limited terms of one to four years, depending on the agency and role. Some of these have now been let go, federal workers said in interviews. Others who served at one agency but transferred to another job elsewhere in the government in interviews reported being dismissed, since the probation clock starts anew with a new agency. In one division within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), firing emails began to go out Friday morning without supervisors' knowledge, prompting a division director to call an all-hands meeting that afternoon. There, the director said all probationary workers were being terminated, according to a probationary employee. There were two mistakes on the list of probationary people, the director noted, which leadership was working to fix. The NIH employee hoped she was one of the 'mistakes.' She waited, anxiety building, until Saturday at 6 p.m., when she got her answer - in the form of an email stating her 'ability, knowledge and skills' no longer 'fit the Agency's needs.' Directors at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS, were told Friday to reassure their probationary workers they would not be targeted, said a manager there. Then on Friday afternoon, probationary workers began to be 'deactivated' in CMS systems, losing their access and user profiles with no notice. The letters started coming in a trickle at noon the next day - then a flood, the manager said. By Saturday evening, it was clear: All had been cut. Americans have long held an appetite for government reform, but the breakneck pace of change could imperil public services, said Donald Kettl, a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland who specializes in the civil service. 'If there's any one thing that anyone on government's inside would quietly agree about, it's that the current civil service is badly broken and that the system is full of wasteful bloat,' Kettl said. 'But a clumsy fix is worse than no fix at all. It's like going to a meat market, getting a piece of steak, and trying to cut out the fat with a sledgehammer. That would only make a mess of the meat.' - - - 'Above fully successful,' fired for performance One Transportation Department worker found out he was fired on Valentine's Day just after putting his children to bed, as he sat down to watch a movie with his wife. An Agriculture employee discovered he was terminated the morning after attending an ex-partner's funeral. A Natural Resource Conservation Service employee was cut months after the government paid $20,000 to relocate his family North Dakota. Others targeted in the wave of firings fixated on the emails explaining why, struggling to understand. Employees who were told their performance was at issue said they had earned evaluations, reviewed by The Post, that offered evidence of their good work. 'Above fully successful,' read a November assessment of a fired General Services Administration worker. 'An outstanding year, consistently exceeding expectations,' stated a review for a former NIH employee, whose manager credited her for 'mastering a steep learning curve and becoming an invaluable asset.' One well-rated Veterans Affairs staffer texted her boss to complain after she was fired. In text messages obtained by The Post, he replied: 'It states it's due to your performance which is not true. … Your performance has nothing to do with this.' Others were stunned to find themselves included in the probationary category, including a federal nurse with more than five years of government employment who recently moved under military orders with her spouse - and had to switch agencies as a result. Now she's out of a job. A veteran of the National Park Service, who had worked parks including Yosemite, Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountains, last year left a permanent position to accept a promotion in a new park. There, she was told she'd have to serve one year of probation. On Valentine's Day, she was fired for 'performance,' ending a quarter-century of service. 'It is very brutal,' she said. 'Especially after working and dedicating most of my life to the NPS.' Some lamented that they had hoped to forge careers in federal service but won't get the chance. Luke Graziani, a disabled Army veteran, was five weeks from completing his probation year on Friday, when he logged into his work computer at the Bronx Veterans Affairs hospital. Waiting on the screen was a boilerplate termination email citing performance concerns. Graziani printed out the message and took it to his boss, who was shocked - and promised to submit a request for exemption. 'You're critical staff,' Graziani recalled his boss saying. 'We're going to try.' Graziani, who is 45 and has four children, had believed until this weekend that his veteran status would protect his job. He served 20 years in the Army, first as a supply specialist and then in public affairs, deploying for two tours in Iraq and another two in Afghanistan before retiring in 2023. In the hours after his termination, Graziani tried to figure out what to do. Then he thought of Douglas A. Collins, the newly appointed veterans affairs secretary, who vowed in his confirmation hearing that 'we will not stop until we succeed on behalf of the men and women who have worn the uniform.' Graziani sat down and composed a letter. 'You see, I am a Veteran too. Just like you, Sec. Collins, I spent those same hot nights in Iraq, waiting for the all-clear after an incoming round set off the alert system, praying that there wouldn't be another,' he wrote. Then he asked for his job back: 'This can't be how my service to my country ends.' As of Monday, Collins had not replied. - - - Derek Hawkins and Brianna Sacks contributed to this report. 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Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Yahoo
Deseret News archives: St. Valentine's Day Massacre stole the headlines in 1929
A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives. On Feb. 14, 1929, the 'St. Valentine's Day Massacre' took place in a Chicago garage as seven rivals of Al Capone's gang were gunned down. Known as the 'Valentine's Day Massacre,' this is one of the most violent events of the Chicago gang era, per the FBI. Seven members of a rival gang were shot to death execution-style by gangsters impersonating the police. Although no one was ever convicted of the crime and Capone himself was in Florida at the time, the Chicago Tribune reported then that Capone was widely believed to have orchestrated the murders, as it eliminated his last rivals. It was big news across the nation, and the Deseret News splashed the news across its Page 1 for several days. At first, some blamed the Chicago police force. Capone ruled the criminal underground of Chicago in the 1920s. Also known by the nickname 'Scarface,' he ran several illegal operations, including prostitution, bootlegging and gambling, and was suspected of orchestrating an unknown number of murders. But on Oct. 17, 1931, he was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Tax evasion. During Prohibition, Capone reportedly stepped off a train in Ogden and took a stroll down 25th Street, then nicknamed 'Two-Bit Street,' scouting business opportunities. He supposedly found drugs, prostitutes, thugs, thieves and card sharks. Below his feet were subterranean tunnels for running hooch between speakeasies. Capone hopped the next westbound train at Union Station, muttering to an associate: 'This is too rough a town for me.' Deseret News archives are full of stories of Capone's exploits, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and Prohibition in the 1920s. There is a wonderful tale of a Utah man who treated some of the Feb. 14 victims at a Chicago-area hospital as a young man: 'The real-life 'Scarface': a timeline of Al Capone's life and crimes' 'Oldest Utahn left a legacy of hard work' 'Capone's luxury lockup unlocked for the public' 'Ogden museum to display historic artifacts from Al Capone, Butch Cassidy, Einstein on Saturday' 'Crime linked to breakup of family' 'Legacy of Capone still lures tourists' 'Capone clippers bring big bucks' 'Capone may have one more hit — in music' ''Scarface' timeline' On another historic note, on Feb. 14, 2018, a gunman identified as a former student opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people in the nation's deadliest school shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years earlier.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Today in Chicago History: St. Valentine's Day Massacre on Clark Street
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 14, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) High temperature: 62 degrees (1954) Low temperature: Minus 11 degrees (1905) Precipitation: 0.94 inches (1950) Snowfall: 8.3 inches (1990) Women get the vote 1920: The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago; its first president was Maud Wood Park. 1929: Seven men, suspected to be members of George 'Bugs' Moran's gang, were lined up against the wall of a garage on Clark Street, the gang's headquarters, and killed by rivals' machine guns in what became known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. It became the most infamous of all gangland slayings in America, and it savagely achieved its purpose — the elimination of the last challenge to Al Capone for the mantle of crime boss in Chicago. 1951: 'St. Valentine's Day Massacre II.' Sugar Ray Robinson won the middleweight championship from 'Raging Bull' Jake LaMotta on a 13th-round TKO at Chicago Stadium. LaMotta, who had never been knocked down, preserved that record. LaMotta won only one of his six fights with Robinson and once observed, 'I fought Sugar Ray so many times it's a wonder I didn't get diabetes.' 1980: City firefighters went on strike for the first and only time as the department's first female recruit — Lauren Howard — began her career. 1990: Snow began falling in the early afternoon and quickly increased in intensity, with visibility dropping to near zero. It peaked during the evening commute as northeast winds reached more than 20 mph. Normal one-hour commutes turned into ordeals lasting hours longer. O'Hare airport closed at 7:30 p.m. after a jet slid off a runway while attempting departure. Mayor Richard M. Daley received criticism after the 10-inch snowfall was met with a slow response by the city's snow removal crews. 'I don't think this is going to cost me my job,' Daley said, adding, 'I'm not going to run and hide. I'm the mayor of Chicago, and I accept responsibility.' Vintage Chicago Tribune: Michael Jordan — 23 stories about No. 23 Also in 1990: Michael Jordan wore No. 12 after his No. 23 jersey was believed to be stolen. He scored 49 points in an overtime loss to the Orlando Magic. 2008: A former student dressed in black walked onto the stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University and opened fire on a packed class; Steven Kazmierczak killed five students before committing suicide. Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past. Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@ and mmather@
Chicago Tribune
14-02-2025
- Climate
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: St. Valentine's Day Massacre on Clark Street
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 14, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) High temperature: 62 degrees (1954) Low temperature: Minus 11 degrees (1905) Precipitation: 0.94 inches (1950) Snowfall: 8.3 inches (1990) Women get the vote 1920: The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago; its first president was Maud Wood Park. 1929: Seven men, suspected to be members of George 'Bugs' Moran's gang, were lined up against the wall of a garage on Clark Street, the gang's headquarters, and killed by rivals' machine guns in what became known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. It became the most infamous of all gangland slayings in America, and it savagely achieved its purpose — the elimination of the last challenge to Al Capone for the mantle of crime boss in Chicago. 1951: 'St. Valentine's Day Massacre II.' Sugar Ray Robinson won the middleweight championship from 'Raging Bull' Jake LaMotta on a 13th-round TKO at Chicago Stadium. LaMotta, who had never been knocked down, preserved that record. LaMotta won only one of his six fights with Robinson and once observed, 'I fought Sugar Ray so many times it's a wonder I didn't get diabetes.' 1980: City firefighters went on strike for the first and only time as the department's first female recruit — Lauren Howard — began her career. 1990: Snow began falling in the early afternoon and quickly increased in intensity, with visibility dropping to near zero. It peaked during the evening commute as northeast winds reached more than 20 mph. Normal one-hour commutes turned into ordeals lasting hours longer. O'Hare airport closed at 7:30 p.m. after a jet slid off a runway while attempting departure. Mayor Richard M. Daley received criticism after the 10-inch snowfall was met with a slow response by the city's snow removal crews. 'I don't think this is going to cost me my job,' Daley said, adding, 'I'm not going to run and hide. I'm the mayor of Chicago, and I accept responsibility.' Also in 1990: Michael Jordan wore No. 12 after his No. 23 jersey was believed to be stolen. He scored 49 points in an overtime loss to the Orlando Magic. 2008: A former student dressed in black walked onto the stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University and opened fire on a packed class; Steven Kazmierczak killed five students before committing suicide. Want more vintage Chicago?
