Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone

by John Kobler

  "Do you know why you did it?" the judge asked when Sonny appeared in Criminal Court and pleaded nolo contendere to the charge of petty larceny. "No, Your Honor." Considering his exemplary past, the judge passed no sentence but put him on probation for two years. "Everybody has a little larceny in him, I guess," Sonny said with infinite sadness as he left the courtroom.

  The supermarket manager had, meanwhile, kept his perishable purchases on ice. "I bet you have contempt for me," Sonny said, when he returned for them.

  "No," the manager replied, "but I will have if you don't come back next week and get your groceries from me."

  The following year Albert Francis Capone, only son of Alphonse Capone, changed his name.

  For access to a mine of material about Al Capone and his associates, much of it unpublished, I am thankful to the Internal Revenue Service, which allowed me to examine its investigative files on Capone, Torrio and others, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which turned over to me invaluable documentation and photographs; and the General Services Administration, which granted me permission to visit Alcatraz.

  I am deeply indebted to Herman Kogan, John J. McPhaul and Ray Brennan of the Chicago Sun-Times for sharing with me their special knowledge of the Capone era;

  Robert St. John, owner and editor of the Cicero Tribune during Capone's heyday;

  Ralph Daigh, vice-president of Fawcett Publications;

  James V. Bennett, former director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons;

  Morris "Red" Rudensky, reformed safecracker, who was Capone's cellmate in the Atlanta Penitentiary, and Alvin Karpis, Capone's fellow prisoner on Alcatraz; Dr. William E. Ossenfort, medical officer at Atlanta during Capone's term there; Loring P. Mills, former general administration manager of Alcatraz; John Hart, Alcatraz guard and latterly security contractor on the island for the General Services Administration;

  The late Frank W. Wilson, the Special Agent of the Internal Revenue Service, who directed the investigation of Capone's tax delinquencies, and his colleagues Nels Tessem and James N. Sullivan;

  William Makepeace, a member of the U.S. Attorney General's team that prosecuted John Torrio;

  Captain William Duffy of the Chicago Police Department, Ralph Salerno, former sergeant of the New York Police Department, and Edward J. Allen, chief of police, Santa Ana, California, formerly chief of police, Youngstown, Ohio, three of the country's leading authorities on the Mafia;

  William F. Parker, one of Capone's Miami lawyers, and George Bieber, the Chicago lawyer who represented Sam "Golf Bag" Hunt and George "Bugs" Moran;

  Joe E. Lewis, one of Capone's favorite entertainers; George Jessel, who also came to know Capone when he played Chicago; Louis Armstrong, Eddie Condon, and Austin Mack, veterans of Chicago's great jazz era;

  Marvin L. Hayman, owner of Chicago's New Michigan Hotel (formerly the Lexington), once Capone's Chicago headquarters, and Roy Fowler, the present owner of Capone's Miami Beach mansion;

  And the numerous lawyers, prison officials and acquaintances of Capone who prefer to remain anonymous.

  For their patient and generous help I wish to thank Miss Margaret Scriven of the Chicago Historical Society Library, Palmer Brynildsen of the Brooklyn Public Library and the staffs of the New York Public Library's American History, Local History and Genealogy, and Newspaper Microfilm divisions.

  For allowing me to range at will through the libraries of their respective publications I wish to thank John G. Trezevant, executive vice-president of the Field Enterprises; John G. McCutcheon, Jr., editorial writer of the Chicago Tribune; Lawrence Jinks, editor of the Miami Herald; and Albert P. Govoni, president of True Detective Corporation.

  I wish especially to thank my editor, William Targ of Putnam's, who taught me what creative editing means.

  I am immensely grateful to my wife, Evelyn, for her tireless help in research and in the preparation of the final typescript.

  BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS

  ANONYMOUS, Alcatraz. San Francisco, E. Crowell Mensch, 1937.

  ALLEN, EDWARD J., Merchants of Menace-The Mafia. Springfield, Ill., Charles C. Thomas, 1962.

  ALLEN, FREDERICK LEWIS, Only Yesterday. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1957.

  ALLSOP, KENNETH, The Bootleggers. London, Hutchinson, 1961.

  ARMBRUSTER, EUGENE L., Brooklyn's Eastern District. Brooklyn, 1942.

  ASBURY, HERBERT, The Gangs of New York. Garden City, Garden City Publishing Co., 1928.

  Gem of the Prairie: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1940.

  The Great Illusion: An Informal History of Prohibition. New York, Doubleday & Co., 1950.

  AUDETT, JAMES HENRY ("Blackie"), Rap Sheet. New York, William Sloane Associates, 1954.

  BENNETT, JAMES O'DONNELL, Chicago Gangland. Chicago Tribune, 1929.

  BENNETT, JAMES V., I Chose Prison. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1970.

  BERGER, MEYER, The Eight Million. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1942.

  BIDDLE, FRANCIS, In Brief Authority. New York, Doubleday & Co., 1962.

  BOETTIGER, JOHN, Jake Lingle. New York, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1931.

  BURNS, WALTER NOBLE, The One-Way Ride. New York, Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1931.

  BuscH, FRANCIS X., Enemies of the State. New York, Bobbs-Merrill, 1954.

  CASEY, ROBERT J., and DOUGLAS, W. A. S., The Midwesterner-The Story of Dwight H. Green. Chicago, Wilcox & Follett Co., 1948.

  CHURCHILL, ALLEN, A Pictorial History of American Crime. New York, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1964.

  COHN, ART, The Joker Is Wild: The Story of Joe E. Lewis. New York, Random House, 1955.

  CONDON, EDDIE, We Called It Music. New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1947.

  COOPER, COURTNEY RYLEY, Ten Thousand Public Enemies. New York, Blue Ribbon Books, 1935.

  CRESSEY, DONALD R, Theft of the Nation. New York, Harper & Row, 1969.

  CUMMINGS, HOMER, Selected Papers. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1939.

  DEDMON, EMMETT, Fabulous Chicago. New York, Random House, 1953.

  DEMARIS, OVID, Captive City. New York, Lyle Stuart, 1969.

  DOBYNS, FLETCHER, The Underworld of American Politics. New York, Fletcher Dobyns, Publisher, 1932.

  ELLEN, MARY; MURPHY, MARK; and WELD, RALPH FOSTER, A Treasury of Brooklyn. New York, William Sloane Associates, 1949.

  ELLIS, STEVE, Alcatraz Number 1172. Los Angeles, Holloway House Publishing Co., 1969.

  ENRIGHT, RICHARD T. (Earl Buell), Al Capone on the Spot. Graphic Arts Corporation (Fawcett Publications), 1931.

  FEDER, SID, and JOESTEN, JOACHIM, The Luciano Story. New York, David McKay Co., 1954.

  FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT, The Italians in New York. New York, Random House, 1938.

  GLAZER, NATHAN, and MOYNIHAN, DANIEL PATRICK, Beyond the Melting Pot. Cambridge, Mass., M.I.T. Press, 1963.

  GODWIN, JOHN, Alcatraz 1868-1963. New York, Doubleday & Co., 1963.

  Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics. U.S. Senate, 1963.

  Hearings Before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. U.S. Senate, 1950.

  HECHT, BEN, A Child of the Century. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1954.

  HELMER, WILLIAM J., The Gun That Made the Twenties Roar. New York, Macmillan Co., 1969.

  HYND, ALAN, The Giant Killers. New York, Robert M. McBride & Co., 1945.

  IREY, ELMER L. (as told to William J. Slocum), The Tax Dodgers. Garden City, Garden City Publishing Co., 1948.

  JESSEL, GEORGE, So Help We. New York, Random House, 1943.

  JOHNSTON, JAMES A., Alcatraz Island Prison. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949.

  KEFAUVER, ESTES, Crime in America. New York, Doubleday & Co., 1951.

  LANDESCO, JOHN, Organized Crime in Chicago. Part III of the Illinois Crime Survey. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1929.

  LEWIS, LLOYD, and SMITH, HENRY JUSTIN, Chicago: The History of Its Reputation. New York, Harcourt,
Brace and Co., 1929.

  LYLE, JOHN H., The Dry and Lawless Years. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., PrenticeHall, 1960.

  LYNCH, DENIS TILDEN, Criminals and Politicians. New York, Macmillan Co., 1932.

  MAAS, PETER, The Valachi Papers. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1968.

  MARIANO, JOHN HORACE, The Second Generation of Italians in New York. Boston, Christopher Publishing House, 1921.

  MATTFELD, JULIUS, Variety Music Cavalcade. New York, Prentice-Hall, 1952.

  MCCLELLAN, JOHN L., Crime Without Punishment. New York, Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1962.

  MCPHAUL, JOHN J., Deadlines & Monkeyshines: The Fabled World of Chicago Journalism. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1962.

  MERZ, CHARLES, The Dry Decade. New York, Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1931.

  MESSICK, HANK, The Silent Syndicate. New York, Macmillan Co., 1967.

  Secret File. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1969.

  MEZZROw, MILTON ("Mezz"), and WOLFE, BERNARD, Really the Blues. New York, Random House, 1946.

  NATIONAL COMMISSION ON LAW OBSERVANCE AND ENFORCEMENT. Report on the Enforcement of the Prohibition Laws of the U.S., 1931.

  NEss, ELIOT (with Oscar Fraley), The Untouchables. New York, Julian Messner, 1957.

  PASLEY, FRED D., Al Capone: The Biography of a Self-Made Man. New York, Ives Washburn, 1930.

  Muscling In. New York, Ives Washburn, 1931.

  PETERSON, VIRGIL, Barbarians in Our Midst. Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1952.

  REDSTON, GEORGE, and CROSSEN, KENDELL F., The Conspiracy of Death. New York, Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1965.

  REID, ED, Mafia. New York, Random House, 1952.

  The Grim Reapers. Chicago, Henry Regnery Co., 1969.

  RICHMAN, HARRY (with Richard Gehman) , A 'Heil of a Life. New York, Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1966.

  Ross, ROBERT, The Trial of Al Capone. Chicago, Robert Ross, Publisher, 1933.

  RUDENSKY, MORRIS, My Keeper's Brother. An unpublished manuscript.

  RUDENSKY, MORRIS (Red), and RILEY, DON, The Goniff. Blue Earth, Minn., 1970.

  ST. JOHN, ROBERT, This Was My World. New York, Doubleday & Co., 1953.

  SALERNO, RALPH, and TOMPKINS. JOHN, The Crime Confederation. New York, Doubleday & Co., 1969.

  SANN, PAUL, The Lawless Decade. New York, Crown Publishers, 1957.

  SHAPIRO, NAT, and HENTOFF, NAT, Hear Me Talk in' to Ya: The Story of Jazz and the Men Who Made It. New York, Rinehart & Co., 1955.

  SMITH, ALSON J., Syndicate City. Chicago, Henry Regnery Co., 1954.

  SONDERN, FREDERIC, JR., Brotherhood of Evil: The Mafia. New York, Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1959.

  SULLIVAN, EDWARD DEAN, Chicago Surren lers. New York, Vanguard Press, 1930

  Rattling the Cup on Chicago Crime. New York, Vanguard Press, 1929.

  The Snatch Racket, New York, Vanguard Press, 1932.

  THOMPSON, CRAIG, and RAYMOND, ?ALLEN, Gang Rule in New York. New York, Dial Press, 1940.

  THRASHER, FREDERIC M., The Gang: A Study of 1,313 Gangs in Chicago. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1927.

  TOLAND, JOHN, The Dillinger Days. New York, Random-House, 1963.

  ToUHY, ROGER, with RAYVBRENNAN, The Stolen Years. Cleveland, Pennington Press, 1959.

  TURKUS, BURTON B., and FEDER, Sip, Murder, Inc. New York, Farrar, Straus and Young, 1951.

  VANDERBILT, CORNELIUS, JR., Farewell to Fifth Avenue. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1935.

  VITRAY, LAURA, The Great Lindbergh Hullabaloo: An Unorthodox Account. New York, Wm. Faro, 1932.

  WALDROP, FRANK, McCormick of Chicago. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1966.

  WALLER, IRLE, Chicago Uncensored. New York, Exposition Press, 1965.

  WENDT, LLOYD, and KOGAN, HERMAN, Lords of the Levee. New York, BobbsMerrill Co., 1943.

  Big Bill of Chicago. New York, Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1953.

  WHITEHEAD, DON, The FBI Story. New York, Random House, 1956.

  WHYTE, WILLIAM FOOTE, Street Corner Society. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1943.

  WILSON, FRANK J., and DAY, BETH, Special Agent. New York, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1965.

  ZORBAUGH, HARVEY W., The Gold Coast and the Slum. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1929.

  PERIODICALS

  ANONYMOUS, "Mild-Mannered Mr. Volstead, the 'Goat' of the Wets." Literary Digest, Dec. 27, 1919.

  "Philadelphia Justice for Chicago's Al Capone." Literary Digest, June 15, 1929.

  "Capone's Amazing Proposal." Literary Digest, November 22, 1930.

  1 ' "Capone Caught for Contempt." Literary Digest, March 14, 1931.

  "Uncle Sam Taking Capone for a Ride." Literary Digest, June 27, 1931.

  "Gangdom's King Guilty as a Tax Dodger." Literary Digest, October 31, 1931.

  "Al Capone's Victory." The New Republic, September 9, 1931.

  (RAY BRENNAN), "The Capone I Knew." True Detective, June, 1947.

  ASBURY, HERBERT, "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre." '47 The Magazine of the Year, September.

  BECHDOLT, FREDERICK, "The Rock," Saturday Evening Post, November 2, 1935.

  BETTS, LILLIAN W., "The Italians in New York." University Settlement Studies, October 1905-January, 1906.

  BRANNON, W. T., "The Modest Mr. Guzik." True Detective, April, 1946.

  BRENNAN, RAY, "Al Capone." True Detective, August, 1961.

  "Dion O'Banion." True Detective, June, 1961.

  CHILDS, M. W., "The Inside Story of the Federal Government's Secret Operations in Convicting Al Capone." St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday Magazine, September 25, 1932.

  CONWAY, BRYAN (as told to T. H. Alexander), "20 Months in Alcatraz." Saturday Evening Post, February 19, 1938.

  CUMMINGS, HOMER, "Why Alcatraz Is a Success." Collier's, July 29, 1939.

  DAVIDSON, BILL, "How the Mobs Control Chicago." Saturday Evening Post, November 9, 1963.

  DE LACY, CHARLES (ed., 13-13: Official Organ of the Chicago Police Department), "The Inside on Chicago's Notorious St. Valentine's Day Massacre." True Detective Mysteries, March-April, 1931.

  DILLARD, JACK (R. A. Faherty) , "How the U.S. Govt. Caught Al Caponel" The Master Detective, February, 1932.

  FucHs, DANIEL, "Where Al Capone Grew Up." The New Republic, September 9, 1931.

  GENTILE, NICOLO, A series of interviews of Paese Sera, Rome, September, 1963.

  GUNTHER, JOHN, "The High Cost of Hoodlums." Harper's Monthly Magazine, October, 1929.

  HALLGREN, MAURITZ A., "Chicago Goes Tammany." The Nation, April 22, 1931.

  HOSTETTER, GORDON L., and BEESLEY, THOMAS QUINN, "The Rising Tide of Racketeering." The Political Quarterly, London, July-September, 1933.

  MANGIL, WILLIAM, "Torrio 'the Immune.'" True Detective, September, 1940.

  MARTIN, JOHN BARTLOW, "Al Capone's Successors." American Mercury, June, 1949.

  MURRAY, WENDELL, "'When I Get Out of Prison ...' Al Capone Talks." Look, October 24, 1939.

  NELLI, HUMBERT S., "Italians and Crime in Chicago: The Formative Years, 1890-1920." The American Journal of Sociology, January, 1969.

  PETERSON, VIRGIL W., "Nation-Wide Implications of Organized Crime." Criminal Justice, September, 1948.

  "Rackets in America." The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science, April, 1959.

  "The Career of a Syndicate Boss (Tony Accardo)." Crime and Delinquency, October, 1962.

  "Chicago: Shades of Al Capone." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May, 1963.

  PRINGLE, HENRY F., "Obscure Mr. Volstead." World's Work, July, 1919.

  RANDOLPH, COLONEL ROBERT ISHAM, "How to Wreck Capone's Gang." Collier's, March 7, 1931.

  RODANN, CURTIS (Charles Remsberg), "'Big Daddy' of the Underworld (James Colosimo)." True Detective, August, 1960.

  SHEPHERD, WILLIAM G., "Can Capone Beat Washington, Too?" Collier's, Oct. 16, 1931.

  STURM, J. E. THOMPSON, A three-part series on the Thompson submachine gun. The New York Daily Mirror, August 7, 14 and 21, 1932.

  SULLIVA
N, EDWARD DEAN, "I Know You, Al." North American Review, September, 1929.

  SUTHERLAND, SIDNEY, "The Machine-Gunning of McSwiggin and What Led Up to It." Liberty, July 3-Aug. 7, 1926.

  "The Mystery of the Underworld King." Liberty, March 22, 1930.

  TAYLOR, FRANK J., "Trouble House." Collier's, July 25, 1936.

  TRAIN, ARTHUR, "Imported Crime: The Story of the Camorra in America." McClure's Magazine, May, 1912.

  TURANO, ANTHONY-M., "America's Torture Chamber." American Mercury, September, 1938.

  VANDERBILT, CORNELIUS, JR., "Interview with Al Capone." Liberty, October 17, 1931.

  WHITE, OWEN P., "Machine Guns for Sale." Collier's, December 4, 1926.

  WILSON, FRANK J. (as told to Howard Whitman), "How We Trapped Capone." Collier's, April 26, 1947.

  "The Al Capone Story." Retirement Life, October, 1954.

  WOLFE, EDGAR FOREST (R. H. Faherty), "The Real Truth About Al Capone." The Master Detective, September, 1930.

  I drew heavily upon the files of the following newspapers:

  In New York, the Brooklyn Eagle, the Daily News, the World-Telegram, Herald Tribune and Times.

  In Miami, the Herald and the Daily News.

  In Atlanta, the Constitution.

  In Chicago, the Daily Times, Daily Tribune, Daily News, Herald-Examiner, Evening American, Evening Post, and the Sun-Times.

  In San Francisco, the Chronicle and the Examiner.

  * The corporal recounted the episode in a letter to the Brooklyn Eagle. September 27, 1947.

  * Schofield's sons continued to run the shop up to 1960, when it was razed to make way for a parking lot. At last reports they had a flower shop at 714 North State, half a block south of the old address. Holy Name Cathedral remains.

  * Until World War II, when the United States and its allies bought almost 2,000,000. Today the tommy gun is obsolete.