Welcome to my series about the many famous people who met my grandfather, Colonel Cloyce Joseph Tippett, as he pursued his passion for aviation, big game sport fishing, and international diplomacy.
Introducing:
Bugs Moran
George Clarence Moran met my grandfather, Tip, in the winter of 1930, when George was thirty-nine years old and Tip was sixteen. Tip was a short-order cook working the night shift in his step-father’s restaurant in Port Clinton, Ohio. Bugs Moran was a Chicago gangster, ordering up steak and coffee on a freezing night while leading a midnight bootlegging convey away from the shores of Lake Erie.
Bugs Moran’s gang had recently been gunned down by Al Capone in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, but Moran had found twelve more men to help him that night, and Tip fed them all. In Tip’s memoir, which is included in my book, Tip noted that the men’s appetites were insatiable. He cooked and served twenty steak dinners. And noticed the shoulder-holstered .45 automatics some of the men were wearing.
Tip came through just fine. Turns out Bugs Moran was a good tipper.
Tip went on to become the director of the South American office of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Bugs Moran went on to spread mayhem and eventually die of lung cancer, which seems somewhat ironic considering his line of work.
More cool stories are in my soon-to-be-released book about my grandfather, Colonel Cloyce Joseph Tippett. Contact me if you’d like to be put on the book release list! And check back soon for the next Famous Person Who Met My Grandfather.
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