An
organized crime war breaks out between two rival gangs in Chicago during the
Roaring Twenties. The leader of the
Southside Gang is the notorious
Al Capone, who resents the growing activities of his nemesis
George "Bugs" Moran, the leader of the
North Side Gang. Moran also wants control of the city's bootlegging and gambling operations, and his lieutenants
Peter and
Frank Gusenberg use threats and intimidation to make
speakeasy owners do business with them in exchange for "
protection". Peter Gusenberg also argues and fights with his moll Myrtle, particularly over her extravagant spending of his money. As the body count escalates (most notably with a failed assassination of Capone hitman
Jack McGurn), Capone remembers how Northside leader
Hymie Weiss tried to kill him, with a flashback sequence of the September 1926 lunchtime attack on Capone at the Hawthorne Hotel restaurant in
Cicero by Weiss and Moran, while Moran reminds his men (also with flashbacks) how Capone had eliminated previous North Side leader
Dean O'Banion in November 1924 and Weiss in October 1926. Capone assigns the recovered McGurn the task of eliminating Moran, expressing indifference as to whether or not any of Moran's men are also eliminated. Moran gives the order to have
Patsy Lolordo, a crony and personal friend of Capone's who is also the representative of the Sicilian Mafia in Chicago, eliminated in order to replace him with an envoy more sympathetic to Moran. Moran's assassination plan sees him conspire with low-level
mafiosi Joe Aiello to kill Lolordo and replace him with Aiello. Lolordo's bodyguards are corrupted, and the unarmed Lolordo is murdered in his apartment. In retaliation, Capone has Aiello tracked down and personally executes him as Aiello is fleeing the state on board a train. With McGurn setting an elaborate plan in motion to eliminate Moran and his gang, Capone retreats to his winter home in
Miami to establish an alibi. On the morning of February 14, 1929, two Capone henchmen, dressed as police officers, feign a police raid on the northside garage used by Moran and his gang. Two more Capone hitmen enter carrying
Tommy guns, and the four execute five members of Moran's gang, including Peter Gusenberg, using shotguns to eliminate any potential survivors. Also at the garage and victims of the attack are two civilians: mechanic Johnny May and
optometrist Reinhardt Schwimmer (who enjoyed being around gangsters). Of the victims, only Peter's brother Frank survives long enough to be taken to a hospital, but despite knowing that he will soon die he refuses to tell the police anything. Moran, the focus of the attack, is not present as he had seen the "police car" approaching the garage and went instead to a diner, thereby escaping certain death. In a press conference at a hospital where he is supposedly being treated for influenza, Moran drops a verbal clue to the crime: "Only Capone kills like that," while Capone, holding a similar press conference in Miami, disparages Moran's sanity and intelligence. In the aftermath, Capone is shown personally dispatching two of the men who carried out the attack (
John Scalise and Albert Anselmi) after he learns of their plans to betray and kill him. Moran is eventually forced out of Chicago and years later dies of lung cancer while in
Leavenworth Prison, while Capone, following his release after serving a prison term in
Alcatraz, dies of
syphilis. No one is ever actually charged for the murders, but those responsible either disappear by going into hiding or are violently killed. ==Cast==