The Man Who Got Away: The Bugs Moran Story--A Biography

In telling Moran's story, some of the twentieth century's most fascinating gangland figures are revisited, among them Al Capone, Johnny Torrio, Dean O'Banion, Vincent Drucci, Earl "Hymie" Weiss, showboating Chicago Mayor "Big Bill" Thompson, the gang-hating yet oddly pro-Moran Judge John H. Lyle, and two of Ohio's most colorful and brazen robbers, Virgil Summers and Albert Fouts.

While Moran was not killed in the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in February 1929—a bloodbath that was meant for him but instead claimed the lives of seven of his associates—it marked the beginning of Moran's end as a gangland power. Cops and journalists dismissed Moran, figuring the losing his top men in the Clark Street garage and Capone's steady absorption of the North Side would either force Bugs out of town for good or make him a vulnerable target for a hit man.

Moran suffered neither fate. His career showed him to be a cunning and determined survivor. Moran was street-smart in the style of the pre-World War I gangsters, rough-and-tumble brawlers who relied on their instincts, guts, and guns. He outlived O'Banion, Weiss, Capone, and probably most of those who predicted his imminent demise in 1929.

Moran did not escape scot-free, however, serving the latter part of his life in both Ohio State and Leavenworth prisons on bank robbery charges. Despite his violent career, it was cigarettes, not bullets, that did him in; he died in prison in 1957 from lung cancer.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

No Killer Here, 2008-04-09
I really enjoy reading about the mafia, and the history of how the syndicate came to be. I believe this was a story that was begging to be told. A peer, and an arch-enemy of Al Capone, Bugs Moran was the 1920's gangster "experience".

I picked up this book with alot of anticipation, but this author virtually killed this subject.

With each hit, the build-up should have been palpable. It was often anti-climactic, or worse. Sometimes, I would have to read the passage twice to make sure someone had actually died.

This was less about Bugs Moran, than about many of the other 1920's gangsters, like Johnny Torrio, Dean O'Banion and Hymie Weiss. These are all formidible figures in their own right, however, I wanted to know more about Bugs Moran, and aside from the fact that he liked children, I really never learned much about his motivation, his passions, or what really drove him to hate Al Capone.

The writing style is often flowery, and the author takes three sentences to explain what could easily have been said in one.

I hope a better biography is written on this subject sometime soon. I slogged my way through this one, without learning much.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Read This!!, 2007-06-12
Wonderful book. Full of little-known details. If you have any interest in true crime, you'll like this one. Rose Keefe strikes again.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

The Most Mysterious Bootlegger Revealed at Long Last, 2007-03-24
Although this book can be seen simply as a companion piece to Rose Keefe's "Guns and Roses: The Untold Story Dean O'Banion, Chicago's Big Shot before Al Capone," in many ways "The Man Who Got Away: The Bugs Moran Story - A Biography" is the superior book and a more important contribution to the history of the Prohibition Era. Comparisons between the two books cannot be avoided, but do not dismiss "The Man Who Got Away" as a quickly churned out sequel intended to capitalize upon the success of the first book.

It is a pity that some critics think in those terms because the research that Keefe put into "The Man Who Got Away" must have exceeded her earlier effort. A certain amount of overlap between both titles occurred since both men were in the same North Side gang, but the Moran biography is significant for breaking new ground and revealing facts that have never been reported. "The Man Who Got Away" does not merely correct often repeated mistakes as to the subject's birthplace and the common misspelling of his name as was the case in "Guns and Roses."

The subtitle of "Guns and Roses," is something of a marketing gimmick: prior to the publication of this definitive biography many O'Banion anecdotes had previously appeared in print, but the varied accounts were scattered and dispersed until Keefe gathered them together and saw to it that the entire story was finally recounted in one coherent book with the embellishments and myths cleanly excised. She also included new facts from interviews that she conducted with the handful of surviving O'Banion acquaintances. Most of the journalistic errors that Keefe corrected had gained widespread currency due to constant repetition. Keefe elevated O'Banion from his status as an interesting historical footnote in books written about his contemporaries and rivals. Only a few minor facts concerning O'Banion were omitted from this superb biography.

While the O'Banion biography has been rightly praised, I think that the Moran book has been unfairly neglected. In death as well as life, O'Banion's star has burned more brightly than that of his friend and eventual successor, "George Clarence Moran." O'Banion was more of a quotable bon vivant with numerous newspaper friends dating back to his "employment" in the circulation wars. Moran was a much more private person who has been chiefly depicted as an O'Banion lieutenant who gained a leadership role due to gang war attrition and subsequently faded into obscurity after narrowly escaping with his life on St. Valentine's Day of 1929. This shorthand is half true. Readers of "The Man Who Got Away" will learn far more about Moran than has ever been reported before.

This is a greater achievement because summarizing Moran's life presented a more complicated challenge than chronicling O`Banion. Researching Moran's life did not entail correcting and improving upon prior accounts. Keefe literally had to start from scratch with Moran. Using her investigatory and interviewing skills, she reconstructed Moran's ancestry and childhood and added the final chapters to his post Valentine's Day criminal career. She documented more than thirty years of Moran's life that had largely eluded everyone else who has written about him. Her painstaking research resulted in locating actual Moran relatives who had been hiding in plain sight for decades. She persuaded an obstinate and reticent octogenarian to discuss Moran despite his previous steadfast refusals to be interviewed so as to preserve his own anonymity.

The only criticism that I had about the research is that Keefe seemed to cite articles from "The Chicago Tribune" to the exclusion of almost all other Chicago daily newspapers. Many researchers rely upon the Tribune since its readily accessible online, but the paper has its limitations due to the biases of its editor and publisher, Robert R. McCormick. The author did consult a few other newspapers, but did so quite sparingly judging from the endnotes. This is a trifling complaint. The book omits a few random details (one or two capers are missed), but otherwise all of the essentials are in place.

The significance of Keefe's accomplishment becomes clearer when readers learn how well "Moran" concealed himself from his enemies and shielded his immediate and extended family from any scrutiny. As a young adult, he adopted an assumed identity that defied the combined efforts of legions of historical researchers, journalists, law enforcement officials and screenwriters to uncover his true background until the publication of "The Man Who Got Away." It is no exaggeration to say that Moran carried his personal secrets to the grave. Keefe exhumed the truth almost fifty years after his demise.

Apart from familial considerations, Moran believed that close media scrutiny was simply bad for business. This was a lesson lost upon his opponent, Al Capone. Continual newspaper coverage served to intensify the resolve of the Federal government to prosecute Capone on tax evasion charges. Unlike Capone who basked in the spotlight, Moran was seldom interviewed. Rather than holding press conferences, Moran and his allies staged a series of epic gun battles to eliminate those opponents who helped orchestrate O'Banion's assassination and threatened to encroach upon the lucrative North Side bootlegging and gambling territory.

Ultimately, Moran's precautions may have saved his life. The team of out of town killers assigned to rub out Moran failed to correctly identify their intended target and wound up shooting seven other gang members in the mistaken belief that someone in the assembled group must have been Capone's archrival. A tardy Moran escaped unscathed after he spotted what appeared to be a police car parked opposite one of his booze depots.

If Moran lacked the wit and charm possessed by his colorful and charismatic friend, some of those same qualities earned the cocksure O'Banion the enmity of rival gangsters and put him into an early grave. Moran, a mobster who let his violent actions speak for him, was one of the few Capone foes to die of natural causes.

"The Man Who Got Away" may have sold fewer copies than the more popular "Guns and Roses" because it has not been released in paperback. Seek out the hard cover which I highly recommended.






1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

The best book on Chicago crime history, 2007-02-02
Rose Keefer did a great job on the book "The man who got away." The only problem I saw with this book, is it was mistitled ... It is one of the best books I have ever read about the overall crime history of Chicago, but it took 204 pagess to get to the "Bugs" part. Once you reach the last chapter, it seems the author was in a hurry to finish it leaving so many questions unaswered.


3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Authoritative but dry, 2006-08-29
I'd hoped to read the life story of Bugs Moran, with personal details about his childhood, family relationships, and later criminal activities and relationships. Because I was mostly interested in his "interior" life, his psychological makeup, quirks, etc., and the passions that moved him and his peers, I was disappointed in this book. It was more a historical document than anything else, full of documentation and facts. I found it very dry reading, which I realize is a reflection on my tastes, but I include these comments for others who might have the same preferences.

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