Crime is as old as humans, probably. Gorg had more firewood, so Thog stole a piece or two. And so it began. These days, we can’t go one day, without hearing of a dozen crimes being committed anywhere and everywhere.
Which brings me to this. Today is the birthday of George “Bugs” Moran. A criminal, a gangster, a husband, and a father.
But he is best known for the gangster part.
“Bugs” Moran was born Adelard Cunin, on August 21, 1893, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Yes, that was his given name. His parents were immigrants, his father from France, Jules Adelard Cunin, and his mother, a Canadian, Marie Diana Gobeil.
He was raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, too, and where he attended Cretin High School, a private Catholic school. Here’s a hint. If you don’t want your kid to be a cretin, don’t send him to a school called Cretin High.
Anyway, it was about that time that he joined a local juvenile gang and left school completely. From there, he was caught robbing a store and was sent to the state juvenile correctional facility. He was on the road to be a hard-nose and was put in jail three times before he turned 21.
I’m sure Saint Paul was just fine for crime, but there is something about doing bad things in a Saintly City that might come back on you later at the Pearly Gates. Being a Catholic and all. So, Bugs fled to Chicago, where he was caught trying to rob a warehouse, taking part in a horse-stealing ring, taking part in a robbery involving the death of a police officer, and robbing a freight car. For this, he received a variety of prison and jail sentences.
Seems to me, Bugs Moran was a criminal who was good at getting caught.
I could go on about his wrongdoings, but mostly he had it out for Al Capone. He hated Capone, and those two were always in wars over the Southside of Chicago. Most notably, seven members of Bugs Moran’s gang were gunned down in a warehouse in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre of February 14, 1929, supposedly on the orders of his rival Al Capone.
In the mid-1930s, he seemed to fade out of the life of gang crime, switching more to things like mail fraud and robbery.
In and out of prison, for various things, he was almost penniless by the 1940s, only 17 years after being one of the richest gangsters in Chicago.
At some point, he drifted over to Ohio, as we are such an attractive state.
Here, on July 6, 1946, he was arrested for his involvement in the robbery of a Dayton, Ohio tavern on June 28, 1945, and he received a sentence of 20 years after being found guilty.
More crime, more prison, where he died of lung cancer in February 25, 1957, (aged 63) at Leavenworth State Penitentiary in Kansas.
I always wondered how he got his name — the whole “Bugs” thing. And, all the others named “Bugsy.” It seems kind of cute, like a rabbit chewing on a carrot. What’s up, Doc? But. To call someone “bugs” or refer to a person as “buggy” was to call him crazy or unstable. Pretty fitting for a criminal looking to create a reputation for violence and destruction.
And so it went with this Bugs. That’s all, folks.
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“Once I pulled a job, I was so stupid. I picked a guy’s pocket on an airplane and made a run for it.”
― Rodney Dangerfield
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“Illegal is always faster.”
― Eoin Colfer
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“Some people steal to stay alive, and some steal to feel alive. Simple as that.”
― V.E. Schwab
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Bugs. Not like bugs. But buggy.
