Could the ghost of a legendary gangster be haunting a Moraine Sports Bar? Did you know that former flashy Chicago gangster George “Bugs” Moran has a Moraine connection due to his 1946 robbery and kidnapping crime? Moran is forever linked to Chicago’s infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Mob Boss Al Capone was the leader of Chicago’s south side gang. Bugs Moran was the leader of the north side gang. On February 14, 1929, Capone’s gang (several dressed as police officers) machine gunned Moran’s top seven gangsters in a north side garage (Photo#1). Moran was late arriving or he would have also been killed. After the massacre Capone took control of organized crime and bootlegging in Chicago.
Fast forward to 1946 in Dayton, Ohio. Moran was not the big time crime boss that he once was in Chicago. He needed money and a new city to flex his muscle. Dayton, Ohio was a promising, blooming, industrial city. Along with Dayton bootlegger Al Fouts and Moran’s partner Virgil Summers, the trio of killers followed Silas Tavern bar manager Paul Kurpe, Jr. from Winters Bank on West Third Street. They forced Kurpe’s car off the road, kidnapped him at gunpoint and drove him to a wooded area on Vance Road (Photo#2). Kurpe was led into the woods, bound hand and foot and robbed of the $10,000 bank withdrawal that he was going to use to cash pay checks for workers at the nearby Frigidaire Plant in Moraine. Eventually, he got free and called police.
Within two weeks all three criminals were apprehended by Dayton Police (Photo#3) and the FBI with their trial being a big media sensation in Dayton. All three were convicted to 20 years in prison (Photo #4) where Bugs Moran eventually died in prison of cancer. The end of the story? Not quite.
Fast forward to 2017 in Moraine. City of Moraine employees Dave Miller & Jim Hall received a call from Upper Deck Tavern Manager Tammy Brackney. Brackney stated that during the past several years, Upper Deck (located at the corner of Blanchard Ave. and Springboro in Moraine) has had many paranormal claims, from waitresses feeling cold spots, hearing voices, having their hair pulled, hearing chairs being moved and footsteps. One female employee in the basement saw a full body apparition of a man with the meat slicer (Photo#5) being clearly seen through and behind him. The man wore 1930’s style clothing and a gangster style hat. Tammy was closing the sports bar one night, opened a storage room door & saw a shadow figure of a man. Since the building was locked at the time, a search revealed no other person in the bar. Brackney speculated that the ghost may be Roy Rogers (Photo#6), a patron who was killed in a homicide at the bar in the late 1960’s or a deceased man who once rented an apartment upstairs.
During historical research, Miller spoke with retired Moraine police officers and detectives who had worked the Rogers homicide case and found an incredible fact. Upper Deck Tavern had several different prior names through the years – John Bulls Restaurant & Sports Bar, The Lighthouse and Silas Tavern. Could the gangster looking apparition in the basement be the ghost of Bugs Moran who pulling his last big robbery heist 80 years earlier on the manager of this bar?
Hall, Miller, Brackney and Carin Bell (Photo #7) did a night ghost hunt investigation at Upper Deck on October 4, 2017. Around 2am, a loud slam was heard near the kitchen entrance. Upon investigation, both swinging doors were latched open and could not have made the slamming sound. Hall caught several elevated EMF readings on the first floor but debunked them as excessive wiring. The investigators along with local TV personality & writer Jim Bucher (Photo #8) and his two-man crew conducted a second investigation live on Facebook on October 18th. Tape recorders caught second floor doors being opened and closed while investigators were in the basement. Future investigations will be conducted. Today, few people realize that one of the nation’s top gangsters who battled Al Capone during Chicago’s bloody bootlegging era pulled his final kidnapping crime by robbing a Moraine, Ohio tavern manager. So, it’s funny to think that when patrons visited Upper Deck Tavern and sat eating a delicious burger, they may have not realized that “Bugs” may have not left the building! Recently, Upper Deck Tavern was sold and is being renovated to possibly become a Mexican restaurant. I have heard from a source that the new renovation has stirred up some strange occurrences. I hope that we can return and investigate there soon to see if we can find any evidence of paranormal activity.
