19 Facts About Bugs Moran

George Clarence "Bugs" Moran was an American Chicago Prohibition-era gangster.

Bugs Moran was incarcerated three times before his 21st birthday.

Bugs Moran attended Cretin High School, a private Catholic school in Saint Paul, but he joined a local juvenile gang and left school at age 18.

Bugs Moran was later caught robbing a store and was sent to the state juvenile correctional facility, and was put in jail three times before he turned 21.

Bugs Moran then fled to Chicago where he was caught trying to rob a warehouse, taking part in a horse-stealing ring, taking part in robbery involving the death of a police officer, and robbing a freight car, for which he received a variety of prison and jail sentences.

That is when young Adelard Cunin first adopted the name George Bugs Moran; it was the first name he thought of when police asked him who he was.

George Moran was a violent and unstable man who got the nickname "Bugs" because everyone thought he was nuts or "buggy".

The bootlegging operation of Hymie Weiss and Bugs Moran continued to pose a significant challenge to Capone's South Side Gang.

In retaliation, Weiss was killed by Capone's gang, and Bugs Moran became the new boss of the North Side Gang.

On February 14,1929, seven members of Bugs Moran's gang died in what came to be called the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre.

Bugs Moran denied involvement in the massacre, though he was twice summoned to court, which he avoided by claimed illness.

Bugs Moran managed to keep control of his territory and what remained of his gang through the early 1930s, but the North Side gang never fully recovered its power or former place in Chicago's underworld as the chief rival to Capone's Italian mob.

Bugs Moran reverted to committing petty crimes, such as mail fraud and robbery.

Bugs Moran was freed on appeal when he posted a bond; he fled but was captured and not released until December 21,1944.

Bugs Moran was almost penniless by the 1940s, only 17 years after being one of the richest gangsters in Chicago.

Bugs Moran was paroled in 1956, but was immediately arrested for his role in the 1945 robbery of a bank in Ansonia, Ohio.

Bugs Moran was found guilty in 1957 and sentenced to 10 more years in prison.

Bugs Moran died of lung cancer a few months into his 10-year sentence at Leavenworth Federal Prison in Kansas on February 25,1957, at the age of 63.

Bugs Moran married Lucille Logan Bilezikdian, with whom he had a son, John George Bugs Moran.