14th February: This Day In Cleveland's History ...sort of.

The Valentine's Day Massacre conjures up images of gangster-era Chicago, and stories of legendary Chicago mobsters, Bugs Moran and Al Capone.  But how many remember or even know Cleveland's connection to this infamous event in US history?  Find it below...

On February 14, 1929, the country witnessed the culmination of the Al Capone and George "Bugs" Moran war when four men dressed as police officers entered Bugs's headquarters - lined seven of Moran's men up against the wall and and sprayed them with gunfire, killing all.

After surviving a 1,000 bullett riddling of a hotel where he and his henchmen were having lunch, and having learned of a $50,000 bounty on his head - Capone had reached his limit with Moran and ordered the hit.  He was vacationing in Florida at the time.  The only reason Moran wasn't included in the massacre was his tardiness, and good sense, not to walk in when he saw the fake officers entering his building, to conduct what he thought was a raid.

In the end, Al Capone was brought down by Eliot Ness - who was hired that very same year as a special agent by the US Department of Justice to head the Prohibition bureau in Chicago, with the express purpose of investigating and harassing Capone.  After infiltrating the underworld in Chicago with his group of loyal agents, termed "The Untouchables" for their inability to be bribed, Ness and his men gathered enough evidence to send Capone to prison for income-tax evasion.

After Prohibition, Ness worked for the US Treasury as a liquor tax agent - and was assigned to Cleveland, Ohio in 1934.  In December 1935, the Mayor of Cleveland hired him as the City's Safety Director - putting him in charge of the local fire and police departments.  He transferred later for a time to Washington DC, then back to Cleveland for an unsuccessful campaign as mayor in 1947.  Sometime after his death in 1957, his ashes were spread over a pond at Lake View Cemetery here in Cleveland.

Lake View is a treasure-trove for genealogists and the casual historian alike.  Stunningly beautiful, it also boasts an incredible resource for today's family historian - an online, easily searched database for everyone buried or memorialized there.  You may access it at: http://www.webcemeteries.com/lakeviewcemetery/search.asp

In addition to President James A. Garfield - the 20th President of the United States, Lake View is the final resting place of John D. Rockefeller, Carl B. Stokes, members of President Lincoln's cabinet, Civil War generals and Revolutionary War soldiers, not to mention twenty-two Cleveland mayors.  On memorials throughout the cemetery, names like Winton, Sherwin, Morgan, Grasselli, Hughes, Mather, Severance, Bolton, Cushing, Carabelli, Hanna, Crile, Glidden, Blossom, and Brush, all synonymous with Cleveland history, can be seen.

Do you have ties to this history-rich cemetery?  Should you plan a visit, don't forget to see The Jeptha H. Wade Memorial Chapel - designed by none other than Louis Comfort Tiffany himself.