St Valentine's Day Massacre Bricks

[ineverlistentoFM]

Does anyone have one of the original bricks for sale which they bought directly from Mr. Patey, the Canadian who purchased most of a section of wall where the Victims here lined up and murdered, when the building was demolished in 1967? Most of it resides in a museum in Vegas though, now, but about 75 bricks are in the hands of private collectors sold before Patey died in 2005. If so send me a PM. I'm aware of two people who have one for sale, but price is too high.

[OCM]

Contact Mario Gomes at Myalcaponemuseum.com , I think that's the web site or close. He's a great guy, knows all about Capone- The web site is killer too. He's in Canada. Chuck, here on the board, Gijive is very knowledgeable on the SVDM too. Thy these guys.

[ghostsoldier]

Yeah...Mario has got the stuff...his site is the bomb when it comes to anything Big Al.

 

Rob

[ineverlistentoFM]

Thanks for the tips; I contacted Mario and he was very nice and responsive; he says $2-3000 is the going rate for SVDM "Patey" bricks, that's ones without a bullet hit. This portion is the area directly behind the victims and is incomplete, but on display at the museum in 'Vegas. The one I'm considering is in that range. I found another site with them for $800, but they are from the surrounding walls and not labeled by row/column. Also, the guy is no longer alive. I haven't tried to call the phone number. For all interested parties: http://ghosttours.com/bricks.htm

[ghostsoldier]

I think a few of those bricks came up for sale on ebay a few years back, but didn't last very long. One could always steal a brick from the wall that was behind the SVDM wall, lol.

 

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3428/3707744629_f4a86ff91f_b.jpg

 

Rob

[OCM]

Yes, Mario is the man- Glad you hooked up-

Collector bricks: I used to have a bunch of bricks from all over the places I visited, usually just stole them laying around ( John would be proud)

One I had, I got from Helmer, who got from Joe Pinkston. The story was he got it from behind where Dillinger was standing at the farm, in the Thompson picture with wood gun. The young couple that owned the farm at the time were remodeling stuff, like windows and other things- Joe got the original window and had it displayed in his museum. The couple had no connection with Dillinger so it was no big deal to them. Somehow Joe acquired the brick, maybe did a "Dillinger" on it- Then Bill got it.

Bill sent me the brick, I'm sure for some trade, to have it cut in half and each get a half, which I did. I've studied the picture of John many times for all sorts of historical, insignificant stuff, including the exact brick.

 

Fast Forward to 1990s. A group of about 20 of us historians, gathered in Indiana for a very geeky Dillinger tour, hosted by Dillinger's great nephew-

Wonderful time, watched old films of the farm and all in the original farm house, all sorts of stuff- Toured the town of Mooresville and all.

We went out and took pictures at the historical spot where JD stood with the Thompson at the farm and I noticed there was a missing brick in the foundation behind us- I had to tell the nephew I had 1/2 of it , Helmer ( who was standing there ) the other half.

Just fun stuff... Good laughs about that one brick.

[ineverlistentoFM]

they say that gated parking area for the nursing home is "haunted?" I've never been to Illinois, so I can't agree nor disagree.

[ineverlistentoFM]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281214979216?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 they aren't worth 3k apparently.

[ghostsoldier]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281214979216?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 they aren't worth 3k apparently.

 

Looks like the same one(s) I've seen before.

 

Sandy...I know what you mean about 'borrowing' stuff that others would just overlook, or disregard completely (or, have thrown away); i have a few pieces of 'historical' stuff I've collected through the years (mostly vintage baseball-oriented)...the provenance can't be proven 100%, but it's close enough for me.

 

Rob

Edited December 3, 2013 by ghostsoldier

[TAS1921AC]

I corresponded with Mr Patey sometime around 2002 about his bricks. They were $800.00 which was more than I wanted to or could spend at the time. I asked him about the hauntings and bad luck. He said he had enjoyed a wonderful life working in the movie industry among other things. (And had met Marilyn Monroe) But he had experienced no bad luck after purchasing the wall. In fact he talked of his life with rather fond memories. And he spoke of the myth of dogs howling as they passed the location of the garage, saying he had stood there and seen dogs walk by without giving so much as a whimper or anything else. I printed out our emails and have them somewhere around here. I'll have to locate and reread them and see if there's anything of interest I can post.

P.S. I've been to the sight of the garage and ghostsoldier's picture pretty much sums up all there is to it. But if you're in the area, it's kind of cool to look out and picture what happened there back in 29. (I was surprised at how close it was to the lake.)

Edited December 10, 2013 by TAS1921AC