Fred Burke

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Fred "Killer" Burke is the gunman who murdered Frankie Yale. He had not been paid for the murder and was threatening to take the papers to the police. He was later identified in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. He returned to Detroit, and was later arrested on May 26th 1931 at his father-in-law's house in Milan,Missouri. Bullets extracted from the St. Valentine's Day Massacre victims matched the ones found at the home. His arrest followed his shooting of patrolman Charles Skelly in St. Joseph, Michigan during a traffic accident investigation. He chose to be extradited to Michigan, rather than Illinois and was sentenced to life imprisonment on April 27th 1940 in the state prison in Marquette. Burke is also suspected in the murder of Meyer "Fish" Bloomfield, a groupier at the Grand River Athletic Club who worked for The Purple Gang. He also assisted in the murder of Frank Wright, Rueben Cohen and Joseph Bloom. Frank Wright supposedly murdered Johnny Reid, a friend of Abe Bernstein. They were brought to a rented suite at 106 East Alexandrine Avenue by gunmen Eddie Fletcher and Abe Axler. Wright, Bloom and Cohen were machine gunned upon entry by Fred Burke. This is the second massacre that Burke was involved in. Fred Burke is a relative to Elmer Burke.

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