Love is dead, Cyril proclaims. Undoubtedly, his Valentine's decree strikes a discordant note for many, strikes fear into the hearts of legions of Hallmark junkies and proposal hopefuls. He is a sacrilegious man, this Cyril, they would say, if they could get their noses out of the informative brochure provided with their box of Godiva long enough to glance at this month's issue.

But February 14 is a day long steeped in death. Indeed, Hallmark owes death a debt of thanks this day. No one can say definitively why the most famous Valentine (Saint Valentine) was executed: some say he helped Christians during their persecution; some say he refused to worship pagan gods; some say he performed wedding ceremonies at a time marriages were outlawed; but one thing is certain. In the year 269 AD, a man named Valentine was imprisoned and subsequently executed on February 14. Thus, we have Valentine's Day, and thus, Hallmark and its competition enjoy gazillions of dollars in sales. Despite these facts, up and down the aisles of CVS I traverse, year after year, and still I find no card honoring the man for whom it all began; still I find no card to the effect of, "Valentine, I am a political prisoner of your love," no conversation hearts with the inscription "Martyr."

Before they've even finished selling off their Christmas cards at half price, the always helpful, always thoughtful, greeting card companies bombard us with signage insisting "Remember your Valentine." I know Christian martyrdom doesn't nearly as well as a cute bunny holding a rose while standing in a doily, but the fact that the card companies don't remember the Valentine, the man whose death launched their marketing campaigns, strikes a discordant note for me. I'd appreciate them making up for their lack of authenticity with a little candor. Instead of pretending they're some kind of extension of everyone's personal assistant with the "Remember your Valentine" signs, I suggest they get rid of them and put up some pink and red "We've Invented Another Way To Get Your Money" placards. Hey, if the bunny's cute enough, I'll consider buying the card.

Valentine's Day was born out of one man's execution, but death on Valentine's Day did not stop there. America's most famous gangster slaughter took place on the morning of February 14, 1929, a grisly reminder that Valentine's Day is not all hearts and flowers.

Al "Scarface" Capone engineered the Valentine's Day Massacre from Florida. With the help of his men in Chicago, he planned on radically eliminating the competition that George "Bugs" Moran and his gang represented. Through a third party in Detroit, Capone arranged for Moran and his gang to receive delivery of bootlegged liquor at a Chicago garage. Capone's men arrived in a police car. Some wore police uniforms, others, ostensibly detectives, wore trenchcoats. When Capone's men entered the garage, the seven members of Moran's gang believed they were being raided, and so when Capone's men ordered them to face the wall, they did as they were told. As Moran's men stood defenselessly with their backs turned, Capone's men sprayed them with machine gun fire and then left them for dead. Capone's men, those wearing trenchcoats led out at gunpoint by those in police uniforms, drove away quietly from the scene that would remain in America's Valentine's Day consciousness for decades to come.