Allies With Bugs Moran
Aiello had recently taken up an alliance of sorts with George "Bugs" Moran, an enemy of Capone from the North Side Gang of Chicago. Two of Moran's hitmen, the brothers Frank "Tight Lips" Gusenberg and Peter Gusenberg, were soon given the task of removing Antonio Lombardo, which they succeeded in doing on a busy Chicago street on September 7, 1928. Though never arrested for the crime, they appear to remain the chief suspects to this day, in that as well as the murder of Lombardo's successor as head of the Unione Siciliana, Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo.
Still believing he had a chance to take the throne himself, and apparently ignoring the fact that it appeared to be a somewhat dangerous position to occupy, Aiello was due to attend a mob meeting at the Statler Hotel in Cleveland, at which the Unione Siciliana leadership would be discussed. Allegedly, Aiello elected instead to inform the police of the meeting, leading to the arrest of 23 apparent mob figures, including such notables as Joe Profaci and Joseph Magliocco.
The murder of Lolordo was the next major event in the battle for control of the Chicago mob, and again Aiello was believed to have masterminded the killing, as with that of Lombardo. Capone had long ago had enough of Aiello and Moran, and retaliated with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, a hit that wiped out the Gusenberg brothers and their regular partner-in-crime James Clark, two other Moran men but not Moran himself. The shooting decimated Moran's forces (he was effectively removed as a threat from this point) and removed almost all support Aiello had banked on in recent months. But the massacre had another side to it as well. True, Moran's forces had been weakened, but he himself survived the attack. With the remainder of his gang, he managed to keep his territory through the end of prohibition and the early thirties. The massacre did one thing that Capone did not expect - bring down the big man himself. After the massacre, the government went after Capone with everything they had.They were able to get him on tax evasion charges and ship him off to prison, effectively ending his reign as boss.
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