Long-forgotten autopsy reports written after the 1929 Valentine's Day Massacre have been unearthed - and have given a new account of one of Chicago's bloodiest crimes.
The files, which also include inquest transcripts, were tucked away in a metal file cabinet in a Cook County government warehouse, the Chicago Sun-Timesreported.
They describe in detail the injuries sustained by the seven men who died that day, gunned down by a group of gangsters dressed as police officers. Five of them worked for George 'Bugs' Moran, a gangster and Al Capone's rival.
'Both thoracic cavities contain a large amount of blood,' the reports for Reinhardt Schwimmer, an optometrist and mob member who died in the attack, reads. 'The lungs are perforated 12 times, there is laceration of the thoracic aorta, laceration of the liver and of the diaphragm.'
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Autopsy reports and inquest transcripts written after the 1929 Valentine's Day Massacre have given a newly detained account of the attack carried out in Chicago (pictured)
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A group of men dressed as police officers carried out the shooting on February 14, 1929 at a Lincoln Park garage, killing seven mean and leaving more than 160 machine gun casings littering the scene (pictured)
James Sledge (pictured with one of the reports), an executive officer at the Cook County Medical Examiner's office in Chicago, asked to see the documents when he joined the office in 2014
Five of the seven men who died worked for George 'Bugs' Moran, a gangster and Al Capone's rival. Pictured, police remove the bodies from the scene of the shooting
Gangsters John May (left) and Adam Heyer (right), who also worked as an accountant, are two of the seven men who died during the Valentine's Day massacre. Both were members of Moran's gang
The files were uncovered after James Sledge, the county medical examiner's executive officer, asked if he could see them in 2014 after joining the office.
Sledge, who was born in Chicago and has a passion for local history, told the Chicago Sun-times he left a little chill down his back when his team found the records after several trips to the warehouse.
'The reports are very graphic about what happened,' he said. 'You read about history, you talk about it, but to have something in your hands — it gives you an odd feeling.'
The Cook County medical examiner's office is now considering how best to preserve and display the reports.
A group of men dressed as police officers carried out the shooting on February 14, 1929 at a Lincoln Park garage, killing seven mean and leavingmore than 160 machine gun casings littering the scene.
The crime remains unsolved but is widely believed to have been ordered by Capone in a bid to eliminate his rival Moran in gang-riddled Chicago.
The documents also reflect the difficulty of carrying out an inquest at the time. Some witnesses were too scared to testify and others said they knew nothing of their relative's ties with the mob.
Sledge's office is now deciding how the documents should be stored and how accessible they should be.
'On the one hand, we want to have them readily available,' Sledge told the Chicago Sun-Times. 'But we don't want them so accessible that we in some way anger some part of the population who feel we are not paying proper respect to the deceased.'
Peter Gusenber (left) and his brother Frank (right) were both killed during the shooting. They lived for about three hours after the attack but refused to talk
Albert Weinshank (left) is one of seven men killed during the Valentine's Day massacre. He was described as Moran's henchman in a New York Times article at the time. Fred Goetz (right) is said to have stood guard with another man as they carried sawed-off shotguns, dressed as policemen, while the other four mowed down seven victims
The crime remains unsolved but is widely believed to have been ordered by Capone in a bid to eliminate his rival Moran in gang-riddled Chicago
Sledge and his team are now trying to decide how public the documents should be.'On the one hand, we want to have them readily available,' Sledge told the Chicago Sun-Times. 'But we don't want them so accessible that we in some way anger some part of the population who feel we are not paying proper respect to the deceased'
