On this day, July 6, in 1946, FBI agents arrested Chicago gangster George “Bugs” Moran in Kentucky.
During the Prohibition era, Moran was one of the biggest organized crime figures in America, and has been credited with popularizing the drive-by shooting. He was a rival to Al Capone, who gunned down seven members of Moran’s gang in the 1929 Saint Valentine’s Day massacre.
Unlike Capone, Moran wasn’t a clever crime boss. By 1946 he had been reduced to common crimes like bank heists. He was basically penniless. The FBI found him renting an upstairs apartment from a law-abiding couple in Henderson, Ky.
Moran was sent to Leavenworth. He died of lung cancer 11 years later in prison.
-Scott McCabe
