This week on The Parallax Podcast, Karisa and Willow explore the razor-thin line between love and violence, tracing the twisted history of Valentine's Day from ancient ritual to infamous massacre.

Karisa begins by unearthing the surprisingly dark and tangled origins of Valentine's Day. She traces its roots from the raucous Roman festival of Lupercalia—a day of fertility rites and ritual sacrifice—through the murky legends of martyred saints, to its eventual transformation into a celebration of courtly love and commercial romance.

Then, Willow shifts the mood from the poetic to the perilous, recounting one of the most notorious mob hits in American history: The St. Valentine's Day Massacre. On February 14, 1929, in a Chicago garage, seven men were lined up and executed by gunmen dressed as police—a brutal power play in Al Capone's war for control of the city's underworld. Willow breaks down the chilling details of the ambush, the bloody aftermath, and how this single morning of violence came to symbolize the ruthless era of Prohibition-era gangland warfare.

From pagan rites to Prohibition hits, this episode reveals how one date on the calendar has forever held space for both devotion and death.

Keywords:
Valentine's Day origins, Lupercalia, St. Valentine, history of love, St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Al Capone, Chicago mob, Prohibition, true crime, female hosts, Karisa and Willow, holiday history, gang violence.

Some dates are written in ink. Others, in blood. 💌