The infamous gangster George Clarence “Bugs” Moran narrowly escaped an assassination plot that saw his Chicago North Side Gang exterminated on February 14, 1929. Assumed dead, Moran organized a series of bank robberies between St. Louis and Cincinnati before resurfacing in Owensboro on Littlewood Drive, formerly known as “Millionaire’s Row.”
Coined the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the event left Moran without his top gunmen and drastically dampened his organized crime efforts. Journalists at the time assumed rival mobster Al Capone ordered the attack, which Moran dodged because he was late to the meeting and noticed police cars out front.
Moran relocated to Owensboro in the fall of 1945, when he and his wife rented the home at 1921 Littlewood Drive from H.C. Farmer. He told the locals he was an oil tycoon, and though tycoon may be a stretch, locals state he was interested in the major oil and gas exploration in southern Illinois.
Shortly after Moran’s emergence in the area, a local family — the Harrelds — found themselves at the center of a sting operation.
The late William Grady Harreld Jr. was closing his drugstore on the corner of 4th and Allen Streets when then-Owensboro Chief of Police Vernie Bidwell visited him at closing time. Unbeknownst to them, Harreld and his family lived next door to the infamous mobster, and Bidwell had questions for him.
Harreld’s daughter, Camilla Harreld Taylor, wasn’t born then but can recall several first-hand accounts of the goings-on from her mother and father at the dinner table. She and her husband, Glenn Taylor, still live in her childhood home. They said Harreld remained quiet about Moran’s tenure in Owensboro for decades out of fear of retaliation from his gang.
“The police chief went in the drug store before it closed and said, ‘Before you come home, there’s someone I want you to meet,’” Glenn said. “He introduced him to Hanby Jones, an FBI agent tracking Moran, and asked him what he knew about his neighbor.”
Glenn said Moran’s presence in the area became known after officers discovered a woman’s body with cash strapped to it in a field between Owensboro and Reo, Indiana.
“Owensboro wasn’t involved at the time because it was in Indiana,” he said. “Somewhere along the line, a prisoner connected Moran to the crime and offered information in exchange for a favor.”
According to the family, Harreld’s interactions with Moran were minimal, so he had minimal information to offer the FBI. The one time he did try to introduce himself, Moran simply beelined back to the home.
Harreld told Jones about Moran’s reclusive lifestyle, saying he always kept his curtains closed and was one of the only people in town at the time with an automatic garage door. That garage door allowed Moran to enter and exit his home without being seen by neighbors.
Camilla recalled, “He was rude by the standards of the day and lacked hospitality.” “This was when everything was easy-going and laid-back, and kids were always outside playing.”
Harreld agreed to let the FBI into their home, and the agents launched a full-on undercover investigation from the second-floor bedroom. The agents disguised themselves as neighbors and servants and used wiretaps, recorders, night vision goggles, and binoculars for surveillance.
Camilla said telephone party lines were the modern-day equivalent of social media. Agents would often allow her father to listen in to the wiretaps, and she recalled one occasion when a neighbor nearly exposed the entire investigation on the party line. She said agents wasted no time visiting that neighbor.
“During the day, my mother said there were several times when the FBI would say to get the kids in the house,” Camilla said. “That went on for a while; anytime they would notice a strange sedan or out-of-state plate on Ford or Griffith.”
As Farmer returned home from his winter stint in Florida the following spring, Moran headed to Henderson before the FBI could mount enough evidence against him.
Not long after the move, OPD’s Bidwell and Jones and his team approached Harreld at Gabe’s Steakhouse of the South on Frederica Street. Glenn said the FBI entered the restaurant from the rear and told Harreld they needed to speak with him “out back.”
“They sat him in the back of a ’45 sedan that was equipped with Tommy guns and pistols,” Glenn said. “They said, ‘Moran’s in a motel in Henderson; do you want to go?’”
Harreld replied, “No, I don’t believe I will,” according to Glenn.
The agents arrested Moran and his accomplice Virgil Summers in Henderson on July 7, 1946. The FBI charged him with armed robbery. They lodged him at the Daviess County Jail briefly before he eventually died in federal prison from lung cancer.
Harreld and his family lived with the secret for years until he finally felt comfortable speaking out in 1991, when his grandson, Glenn Taylor, Jr., approached him about conducting a class history project about the events.
The youngster was a 5th grader at Sutton Elementary at the time. After speaking with his grandfather, he called Hamby Jones to arrange a meeting. Impressed by his son’s initiative, the senior Glenn took junior to Robinson, Illinois, where he used a camcorder to document the interview.
“Growing up, I was always enthralled by the story, so when the opportunity came to do some independent research, I did. I wanted to tell my friends about how my grandad was the center of an FBI sting operation,” Glenn Jr. said. “It was neat to tell the story and put it in the public eye.”
Several historians question who Moran was running from. Was it the FBI? Capone? Another rival gang?
Regardless, the Owensboro investigation and eventual arrest marked the end of an era.
The home remains intact and is part of the Dogwood Azalea Trail.
