Scarface and the Untouchable

by Max Allan Collins

  Nor are we convinced Robsky’s use of the name “Edna” proves (or even suggests) that Edna Ness, as Perry claims, “was probably” the secretary who placed the call into the Montmartre. The fanciful details in Robsky’s book strongly suggest the use of that name, which he describes as a pseudonym, is coincidental. (In Phil Karlson’s The Untouchables 1959 telefilm, Eliot’s girlfriend “Betty” makes the call, possibly starting all of this nonsense.) If anything, the most likely candidate for the woman who placed the call is Ione Nugent, a Prohibition Bureau secretary who later worked for the Secret Six. An FBI memo from 1932 notes Nugent “has been used for the purpose of contacting individuals whose telephone wires had been tapped so as to identify the voices of the persons conversing over the telephone.” (W. A. McSwain to J. Edgar Hoover, August 6, 1932, in FBI-RIR.)

  Fraley’s books appear to be the only primary sources placing Robsky on the pole behind the Montmartre Café. We’ve located several interviews with Robsky, including two before the publication of his book and one in which he claims not to have read The Untouchables. He tells a few consistent anecdotes in those interviews, versions of which are included in The Last of the Untouchables, but the Montmartre wiretap is not one of them. (Miami News, April 20, 1959; March 27, 1966; October 9, 1973. Milwaukee Journal, January 10, 1961.) Given the lack of corroborating evidence outside Fraley’s own work and Fraley’s record of embellishment, it seems highly likely he misidentified Robsky as the man on the pole.

  The Untouchables describes the background details of several members of Ness’s squad quite accurately, typically men Ness served with for a long time, such as Lahart and Seager. Others—often men who served only briefly on the team—are characterized lightly if at all, with details contradicted or uncorroborated by other sources. Fraley had a list of names in Ness’s scrapbook to work with, and when Ness couldn’t flesh out the men on his team Fraley apparently filled in the gaps himself. This seems to be the case with Robsky. He came to the squad late, and his description in The Untouchables does not fit the known facts, suggesting his character is a product of Fraley’s imagination. Later, when Fraley wrote The Last of the Untouchables, he corrected what The Untouchables got wrong about Robsky’s background and character, but preserved the one scene from that book in which Robsky plays a major role—the Montmartre wiretap—even though it seems Robsky had nothing to do with it.

  After removing Robsky from the equation, the remaining evidence clearly suggests the Montmartre wiretap happened in early 1930. Various news clippings indicate that Ness and Alexander Jamie investigated Ralph Capone in the first half of 1930 before Ness went after Bottles’s brother. (CT, May 9, 1930; May 29, 1930; July 11, 1930. “Capone’s Club Raided Again; Manager Held,” n.p., n.d., in ENPS, Roll 1, Scrapbook 1, p. 122. Reading Eagle, May 10, 1930. CN, September 23, 1947, in FBI-ENA.) A 1932 memo from Untouchable Lyle Chapman explains the investigations of Ralph’s Montmartre Café and Cotton Club were separate from and happened previously to the Untouchables’ investigation into Al Capone, sometime between 1928 and 1930 (Lyle B. Chapman, memo to W. E. Bennett, September 7, 1932, in Lyle B. Chapman OPF/ATF).

  But easily the strongest pieces of evidence placing the Montmartre wiretap in early 1930 are the wiretap transcripts preserved among George E. Q. Johnson’s papers at the National Archives (in “Wire Taps (1 of 12)” folder, RRPAC). These transcripts are dated from February to April 1930, and several record conversations involving or concerning Ralph Capone. The locations aren’t given (though at least one apparently came from a wiretap on the Greyhound Inn), but if Ralph’s other clubs were under surveillance then, the Montmartre certainly was as well. The agents monitoring these taps were Ness, Lahart, and Seager—all future Untouchables. That would make it easy for Ness to misremember this tap as part of the later Capone investigation.

  Given all this circumstantial evidence, it seems almost certain that with the Montmartre incident, as with the Chicago Heights raids, Fraley took an incident occurring before the Untouchables were formed and falsely made it part of the Al Capone investigation. Later writers have mistakenly taken him at his word.

  NITTO TAX INVESTIGATION: Pasley, Al Capone, p. 352. IRS-2, p. 48. Irey and Slocum, Tax Dodgers, pp. 45–46. Eghigian, After Capone, pp. 159, 163–164, 166.

  MEDICINE BALL CABINET: NYT, November 29, 1931. “The House: Hoover’s Next-to-Worst,” Time, November 10, 1930, p. 18 (“Medicine Ball Cabinet”). Irey and Slocum, Tax Dodgers, pp. 35–36. Eig, Get Capone, pp. 219–220.

  GREAT DEPRESSION: NYT, November 12, 1930 (“a sort of,” “at the corner,” “Building construction may”). Hoover, Memoirs, p. 195 (“left their jobs”). Robinson and Bornet, Herbert Hoover, p. 133 (“that the worst”). Liebovich, Bylines in Despair, p. 116 (“I am sure”). McElvaine, Great Depression, pp. 58–62 (62, “Gentlemen, you have”). Leuchtenburg, Herbert Hoover, pp. 104–111 (104, “The fundamental business”; 107, “Gentlemen, you have”), 113–114 (113, “Hoovervilles,” “Hoover Pullmans”), 130–131. Eig, Get Capone, p. 334.

  HOOVER MEETS LOESCH, TARGETS CAPONE: Boston Globe, May 14, 1930. CEA, June 15, 1931. CHE, June 17, 1931 (“Have you got”). Dillard, “How the U.S. Gov’t,” p. 55. Irey and Slocum, Tax Dodgers, p. 36. Hoover, Memoirs, pp. 276–277 (276, “much more than”). Public Papers 1929, pp. 101–106 (106, “the very essence”). Public Papers 1930, p. 723. Calder, Origins and Development, pp. 5–12, 14–19, 28–38, 77–85, 100. Eig, Get Capone, pp. 210, 220–221.

  Chapter Fifteen

  CAPONE LEAVES PRISON: CHE, March 17–18, 1930 (March 17, “Each one cost”). CT, March 18, 1930 (“You get the”). “Coming Out Party,” Time, March 24, 1930, p. 15. Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 333–335 (334, “the lights going”; 335, “I cannot estimate,” “He had peace”). Sullivan, Chicago Surrenders, pp. 26–27. Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, pp. 128–131. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, p. 249. Lindberg, Return to the Scene, p. 332. Annie Anderson, “Al Capone: Approved Source for Tour Content,” May 2013, p. 7.

  CAPONE MEETS STEGE: CT, March 22, 1930 (“Did you pay,” Capone, Stege, and Ditchburne quotes).

  HERRICK INTERVIEWS CAPONE: CT, March 22, 1930 (quotes).

  CAPONE TAX INVESTIGATION: “The Cabinet: Dry Hope,” Time, November 11, 1929, pp. 11–12. Robert H. Lucas, memorandum for Assistant Secretary Hope, March 19, 1930 (“to proceed vigorously,” “a desire to”); A. P. Madden to Chief, Intelligence Unit, April 28, 1930, both in Presidential Subject Series, Box 164, “Federal Bureau of Investigation—Capone Tax Case, 1930–1931” folder, HHPL. Boston Globe, May 14, 1930. IRS-2, p. 1. Irey and Slocum, Tax Dodgers, pp. 32 (“Treasury’s prime function,” “custom, not law”), 36–38. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 255–256. Calder, Origins and Development, pp. 133–135 (134, “The difficulty”; 135, “prepared himself for,” “is the type”).

  CAPONE INTERNAL REVENUE INTERVIEW: Testimony of Louis H. Wilson, n.d., pp. 11–15, 18, in Box 1, “Transcripts From U.S. v. Al Capone (Various Witnesses) [1 of 2]” folder, USvAC (quotes). CHE, October 9, 1931. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 257–258.

  CAPONE AS TOURIST ATTRACTION / TIME MAGAZINE COVER: CT, March 22, 1930 (“Where can I”). “Coming Out Party,” Time, March 24, 1930, pp. 15–16 (15, “No desperado of”). Pasley, Al Capone, p. 62. Allsop, Bootleggers, p. 64.

  CAPONE IN MIAMI: Miami Daily News, March 11, 1930 (“Our people have”). CT, March 20–21, 1930; March 23, 1930; March 25, 1930 (“He may for”); April 21, 1930 (“I have no”); April 23, 1930 (“the scene of”); April 27, 1930 (“It is no”); May 11, 1930; May 13, 1930; May 17, 1930 (“reign of terror”); May 19–20, 1930 (May 19, “The lawns were”); May 24, 1930 (“having some visible”); May 28, 1930; May 30, 1930; June 11–15, 1930 (June 13, “Why not,” “It wouldn’t do”); July 11–13, 1930. NYT, March 20–21, 1930 (March 20, “Arrest [Capone] promptly”); March 23, 1930; March 25, 1930; April 23, 1930; April 26, 1930; April 27, 1930 (“Capone is charged”); May 9–11, 1930 (May 9, “I was in”); May 14–15, 1930; May 25, 1930; June 12–13, 1930
(June 12, “He harbors people”); June 15, 1930. Alphonse Capone Witness Transcript, State of Florida v. S. D. Mccreary, et al., May 27, 1930, in Box 1, “Court Filings From Related Cases” folder, USvAC (4, “in the shit”; 5, “I asked him,” “I wonder how”). Pasley, Al Capone, p. 335 (“And all I’ve”). Girton, “Al Capone Tells,” pp. 70–71 (70, “the invasion of,” “Al Capone’s the”; 71, “I like Florida”). IRS-2, p. 43. Kobler, Capone, pp. 291–293. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 254, 261–273. Bergreen, Capone, pp. 359, 369–373. Eghigian, After Capone, p. 325. Shmelter, Chicago Assassin, p. 207. Bair, Al Capone, pp. 195–196.

  “PUBLIC ENEMIES”: CEP, December 6, 1927. CHE, April 24–25, 1930 (April 24, “The purpose is,” “constant observation,” “law abiding citizens,” “dealing with those,” “Gangsters must be”). CT, April 24, 1930; January 22, 1931 (“the No. 1 public enemy”); February 28, 1931 (“the chief public enemy”); June 13, 1931. NYT, April 24–25, 1930. Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 349–350 (350, “I never heard”). Hearings . . . on the Nomination of James H. Wilkerson, p. 148 (“a list of”). Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, pp. 371–372 (371, “The phrase ‘public’ ”). Hoffman, Scarface Al, pp. 110–115 (113, “Public Enemy Number One”; 114, “Capone is the”). Helmer and Bilek, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, pp. 186–187, 286–287. “Crime Commission in Chicago,” British Movietone, 2:06, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4g0nrfiemo (accessed March 31, 2017).

  Chapter Sixteen

  OUTFIT BUSINESS SUFFERS: Atlanta Constitution, March 16, 1930 (“Beer deliveries have,” “Capone will return”).

  WIRETAPS: S. M. Seager, Wiretap Transcript 14, February 14, 1930; E. Ness, Wiretap Transcript 34, February 14, 1930; S. M. Seager, Wiretap Transcript 72, February 16, 1930 (“help their man”); S. M. Seager, Wiretap Transcript 155, February 20, 1930 (“Say, Dutch” exchange); S. M. Seager, Wiretap Transcript 191, February 22, 1930 (“bum stuff”); S. M. Seager, Wiretap Transcript 204, February 24, 1930 (“Have you got” exchange); E. Ness, Wiretap Transcript 215, February 24, 1930 (“I’m in a” exchange); M. J. Lahart, Wiretap Transcript 250, February 26, 1930; S. M. Seager, Wiretap Transcript 267, February 27, 1930 (“good stuff”); M. J. Lahart, Wiretap Transcripts 291 and 295, March 1, 1930; M. J. Lahart, Wiretap Transcript 71, March 11, 1930 (“Say, I’m out” exchange); M. J. Lahart, Wiretap Transcript 73, March 12, 1930 (“raising hell”); M. J. Lahart, Wiretap Transcript 72, March 11, 1930 (“Say, I was” exchange); M. J. Lahart, Wiretap Transcript (unnumbered), April 12, 1930 (“The state’s attorney”), all in “Wire Taps (1 of 12)” folder, RRPAC. CPD, January 23, 1936. Buffalo Courier-Express, March 2, 1937, in ENPS, Roll 1, Scrapbook 5, p. 174 (“Well, we settled,” “The criminal, you”). Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, pp. 120–123. Calder, Origins and Development, p. 136.

  Eig (Get Capone, pp. 257–258) quotes Transcript 215, but given the reference to one of the speakers as “Vic,” it seems doubtful this was Jack McGurn, as Eig claims. Nor, given the harried nature of “Dutch” and the lack of any evidence Ralph Capone used that nickname, is Eig’s identification of the other caller as Ralph likely.

  Though the CPD article describing Ness learning about the two politicians working with Capone doesn’t name the candidates, they were probably Big Bill Thompson (the Capone candidate) and Anton Cermak (the supposed reformer). Cermak beat Thompson in the mayoral election of 1931 by pledging to end gang rule, with sub rosa help from Capone forces (Lyle, Dry and Lawless Years, pp. 258–262; Bergreen, Capone, pp. 416–417, 423–424).

  This would further support the Montmartre wiretap going in before Paul Robsky arrived in Chicago. The mayoral election in 1931 was held in April, around the time Robsky joined the Untouchables, but only the February primary was truly contested. In the primary, Thompson faced off against Judge John Lyle, a true reform candidate. Supporting Thompson and Cermak, the latter in secret, kept the mob’s bases covered. If Ness heard the gangsters discussing that election, it was almost certainly well before April 1931.

  RALPH CAPONE TRIAL: M. J. Lahart, Wiretap Transcript 4, March 10, 1930 (“fix up”); S. M. Seager, Wiretap Transcript 999, April 9, 1930 (“This is Jim” exchange), both in “Wire Taps (1 of 12)” folder, RRPAC. CHE, April 9, 1930; April 11, 1930 (“What are those,” “More records”). CT, April 10, 1930; April 16, 1930 (“poor race horse”); April 26, 1930. IRS-1, p. 8. Irey and Slocum, Tax Dodgers, p. 35. Bergreen, Capone, p. 363.

  FEDS TARGET CAPONE: “Telephone Message from Mr. Youngquist of Dept of Justice,” March 31, 1930; A. P. Madden to Chief, Intelligence Unit, April 28, 1930; “Mr. Youngquist of Justice Telephoned,” May 12, 1930 (“I impressed upon”), all in Presidential Subject Series, Box 164, “Federal Bureau of Investigation—Capone Tax Case, 1930–1931” folder, HHPL. Boston Globe, May 14, 1930. “Crime: Capone’s Week,” Time, May 19, 1930, p. 13 (“reach”). Calder, Origins and Development, pp. 136–137 (137, “The enclosed,” “many lengthy cases”), 257n38–39.

  RALPH CAPONE BOOTLEGGING INVESTIGATION: Lawrence Journal-World, May 8, 1930. Pittsburgh Press, May 8, 1930. CT, May 9–10, 1930; May 29, 1930. De Kalb Daily Chronicle, May 9, 1930. “Capone’s Club Raided Again; Manager Held,” n.p., n.d., in ENPS, Roll 1, Scrapbook 1. Reading Eagle, May 10, 1930. CHE, May 11, 1930; May 29, 1930. Indictment, U.S. v. Ralph Capone, et al., May 1930, in Box 690, Criminal Case 21504, CCF. Indictment, U.S. v. Ralph Capone, et al., May 1930, in Box 690, Criminal Case 21505, CCF.

  RALPH CAPONE SENTENCING: CT, June 17, 1930 (“I don’t understand”). CEP, June 16, 1930. Irey and Slocum, Tax Dodgers, p. 35.

  HAWTHORNE KENNEL CLUB INVESTIGATION: A. P. Madden to Chief, Intelligence Unit, April 28, 1930, in Presidential Subject Series, Box 164, “Federal Bureau of Investigation—Capone Tax Case, 1930–1931” folder, HHPL (“There is nothing,” “As a matter,” “the head of,” “already been before,” “a more determined”).

  E. J. O’HARE: Willebrandt, Inside of Prohibition, pp. 98–100. T. D. Metz, “Mystery of Eddie O’Hare’s Mile-a-Minute Murder,” True Detective Mysteries, July 1941, pp. 46 (“Artful Eddie”), 49, 87 (87, “If I can’t”). Lyle, Dry and Lawless Years, p. 147. Kobler, Capone, pp. 243–245 (244, “You can make”). Spiering, Man Who Got Capone, pp. 81–82. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, p. 295. Calder, Origins and Development, pp. 138–139. Ewing and Lundstrom, Fateful Rendezvous, pp. 3–4, 27–31, 34–35, 85–86 (85, “I have never”). Eghigian, After Capone, pp. 131–133. Cook, King of the Bootleggers, pp. 25–26 (25, “for medicinal purposes”), 78–79, 104–107, 114, 195–196. Okrent, Last Call, pp. 198–199. Eig, Get Capone, p. 162 (“Fast Eddie”).

  Most sources give O’Hare’s first name as “Edward,” which he apparently used officially when not using his preferred nickname, “E. J.” But Ewing and Lundstrom’s biography of O’Hare’s son (Fateful Rendezvous, pp. 3–4), produced with the family’s cooperation, reports his true first name as “Edgar.”

  The family’s input left that book with a sanitized portrayal of O’Hare. For instance, Ewing and Lundstrom (ibid., p. 85) stress O’Hare’s defense in his 1926 bootlegging trial, involving his refusal “to reveal information on the grounds of attorney-client privilege.” They also date Edward O’Hare’s acquisition of the nickname “Butch” to the spring of 1936 (ibid., p. 58), suggesting the younger O’Hare wasn’t known by that name during this period.

  FRANK WILSON: Frank J. Wilson Diary for 1930, April 5–18, April 29, May 15–16, June 2–7, in Box 1, “Personal Papers—Diaries—Frank J. Wilson, Judith Wilson, Mae Wilson, 1904–1906,” FJW. 1930 U.S. Census Record for Frank John Wilson. 1940 U.S. Census Record for Frank John Wilson. IRS-1, p. 2. IRS-2, pp. 1, 53. Ward, “Man Who Got Al Capone,” pp. 7, 9 (“investigating some politicians”). Richard Hirsch and Boyd Mayer, “Behind the Scenes with the United States Secret Service,” True Detective, December 1938, p. 15. Wilson and Whitman, “Undercover Man,” pp. 14–15 (14, “There are some”). Hynd, Giant Killers, p. 31. Irey and Slocum, Tax Dodgers, pp. 36 (“Wilson fears nothing”), 54. Wilson and Day, Special Agent
, pp. 7–9 (7, “regulation forty-five”), 12–25, 29–31, 71 (“A year—ten”), 228. Spiering, Man Who Got Capone, pp. 46–62 (47, “Wilson would investigate,” “sweats ice water”), 65–66, 83–84. Calder, Origins and Development, pp. 139, 258n49. Folsom, Money Trail, p. 78. Wilson can be heard speaking in Doubtful Dollars (Affiliated Aetna Life Companies, 1945), 15:55, Prelinger Archives, https://archive.org/details/doubtful_dollars (accessed July 22, 2016).

  Like Ness and Irey, Frank Wilson would later publish his own embellished account of the Capone investigation. Unlike the other two, Wilson published multiple versions of the same story, which sometimes don’t agree in the details. Revisionist historians who dismiss Ness’s account of the Capone case tend to take Wilson’s at face value, even though it plays fast and loose with the truth in ways that make him seem more central to the investigation than he was.

  Typical is the date for Wilson’s arrival in Chicago. Virtually all accounts accept Wilson’s claim of taking charge of the Capone investigation in about 1928 (see Eig, Get Capone, p. 240). But IRS records are clear that Wilson’s involvement in the investigation began in May 1930 (IRS-1, p. 2; IRS-2, p. 1). He had been in Chicago in 1928 or 1929 to investigate Terry Druggan and Frankie Lake, which might be the source of his claim that he joined the Capone case that early, but his work on the Capone case began in earnest the following year (Ward, “Man Who Got Al Capone,” p. 9).