Episode 18 Al Capone

Explore the life and crimes of Al Capone with Joey and Sabryna of Ghost and Gavel. 
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Sources:
Www.fbi.gov
Cnu.libguides.com
Mobmuseum.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

Welcome to coasting level with Supreme Man. This is gonna be episode number eighteen, and we're handing this one over to Joey.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

On today's episode, we are going to be talking about Al Capone. I would try to pronounce his name. I'm gonna probably butcher his first name, but Al Foz Gabriel Capricone was born January 17th of 1899, and he died on January 25th, 1947. Sometimes known as the nickname Scarface was an American gangster and businessman who attended notary during the probation era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago outfit form from 1925 to 1931. His seven-year reign as a crime boss ended when he was imprisoned at the age of 33. Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, a broad of New York City. His parents were Italian immigrants, Teresa and Gabriel Capricorn.

unknown 1:48

Cowpone.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

I know I fucked that up. Cowpone, yes. Egeria or Angeria were born in uh Italy. The exact cities, I know I'm gonna butcher them, so I don't even want to attempt those. At least somebody knew how to do it. His father was a barber and his mother was a seamstress. Which is like sewing. Oh, okay. That I'd never heard of that term being used for that. Just probably different airs. Capacone's family had immigrated to the United States in 1893 by ship. By first going through the port city of Thalum, Austria Hunger or Hanger.

SPEAKER_06 3:12

Austria Hungary.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Okay, that's what I thought that was. Hey, at least I actually got one right. Yay. The family settled at the 95 Naval Street in Brooklyn Navy Yard where Capone was age 11. He and his family moved to 38 Garfield Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Capone's parents had eight other children. Who were later changed his name to Richmond Hart. Oh, eight other children. James Capricone, who later changed his name to Richard Hart and became a prohibited agent in Homer, Homer, Nebraska. Raphael James Capone, also known as Ralph or Bottles, who took charge and his brothers, who took charge of his brothers' belvage industry. Frank Capricorn. Capricorn. Ralph F. Frank worked with AI and his criminal enterprise. Yeah, I just realized I said that wrong. And it just hit me as like AI wouldn't have existed back then. Frank did so until his death in uh April of 1924. Ralph ran Al's bottling companies, both legal and illegally, early on. Was also the front man for the Chicago outfit until he was in prison for tax evasion in 1932. Capricorn showed promises as a student, but had trouble with the rules at his strict uh Catholic school. His school ink ended at the age of 14 where he was expelled for hitting a female teacher in the face. Damn, violent. Capone worked at odd jobs around Brooklyn, including a uh I was about to say a cat a candy factory, but it's a candy store in bowling alley. From 1916 to 1918, he played semi-professional baseball following this. Capone was influenced by the gangster Johnny Torro, whom he came to regard as a mentor. Capone married May Josephina Coughlin at the age of 19 on in December of 1918. And she was Irish Catholic and early that month she had given birth to their son Albert Francis Sony Capone 1918 to 2004. Albert lost most of his hearing in his left ear as a child. Capone was under the age of 21 and his parents had two consent writing to the marriage by all accounts. The two had a happy marriage. Capone initially became involved in small time gangs that including the junior 43s. Capone initially became involved with a small time gangs that included the junior 3040s or the junior 40 thieves and the Bovarra Boys. Then he joined the Brooklyn Rippers, then the powerful five-point gang based in Lower Manhattan. During this time, he was employed and mentored by fellow racketeer Frankie Yale. A bartender in a Coney Island dance hall and saloon called the Harvest End. Capone individually assaulted women or insulted a woman while working the door. And he was slashed with a knife three times on the left side of his face by her brother. The wounds led to the nickname Scarface, which Capone loadered. The day when this occurred has been reported with a consistency.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

Inconsistencies?

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Yes. When Capacone was photographed, he hid the scars on the left side of the face, saying that the injuries were war runes. He was called snorky by his closest friends a term for a sharp dresser. Then in 1919, Capone left New York City for Chicago at the invitation of Toror Toro, who was imported by crime boss James Big Jim as a forcer. Capone began in Chicago as a bouncer and a brothel. Which is thought to be the most likely where he contracted syphilis?

SPEAKER_04 10:37

Syphilis?

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Yes, syphilis. Capone was aware of being affected at an early stage and timely use of saliva racism.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

I don't know. I guess uh medication for back then.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Could have been. But he apparently never apparently never saw treatment. And it is rumored in from 1920 to 1923 Capone purchased a 20 or a two-story two-flat six-bedroom building on a 68-foot wide double lot built in 1905 and moved in in August of 1923. At the Park Manor neighborhood Gratering Grand Crossing, Chicago for$55,500. As originally reported in the Chicago Trubin Tribune hijacker Joe Howard was killed on May 8th of 1924 after he tried to interfere with Capacone. Yes, I know I'm doing it on purpose because I just love your reaction. But Capone and Torudo's bootlegging businesses in a 1936 article highlighting Capone's criminal career, the tribune. But some of these I'm just doing on purpose.

SPEAKER_05 13:26

I think you are.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Yes. Okay. Do you? Yes. That was the 1920s. When they took alcohol away.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Mm-hmm. But Capone was involved in Canada bootleggers who helped smuggle liquor into the U.S. when Capone was asked if he knew Rico Peru. Bill asked Canada's king of the bootleggers. He replied, why? I don't even know which street Canada is on. Other sources claim that Capone had in certainly visited Canada where he maintained some hideaways, although the Royal Canada Mounted Police states that there is no evidence that he ever stepped foot on Canada soil and pushed. Twelve days later, Torro was returning from a shopping trip when he was shot several times after recovering. He effectively resigned and handed control over to Capone at the age of 26, who became the new boss of an organization that took in illegal breweries and transport networks that reached to Canada with political law enforcement and protection. In turn, he was able to use more violence to increase revenue. Any establishment that refused to purchase liquor from Capone often got blown up. As many as a hundred people were killed in such bombings during the 1920s. Rivals saw Capone as a re as responsible for the proliferation of brotherless in the city. Chicago politics or politicians had long been associated with the questionable methods and even newspapers circulation wars, but needed them for bootleggers. Well do not even what the fuck I just said, but bootleggers.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Bootlegers.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

But bootleggers to have a protection in City Hall introduced as far more serious level of violence and craft. Capone is generally seen as having a apparent and a paper effect. Bring in about the victory of replication.

SPEAKER_06 17:39

Calpone is generally seen as having an appreciable effect on people among the victory of the Republican Roman candidate William Hale Thompson, who had campaigned on a platform of non-enforcing prohibition, and at one time hinted that he'd reopen illegal saloons. Thompson allegedly accepted a contribution of$250,000 from Cam. Thompson be Democratic candidate William Mm 1927. It's memorial race by a relatively slim margin.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Wow, I had a fucking total blonde moment. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_05 18:44

When aren't you having blonde moments?

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Touche. On the day of the pineapple primary on April 10th at 1928, voters booths were targeted by Capone's bomber James. James was accused of murdering lawyer Octavius C. Gwander? An African American who challenged Thompson's candidate for the black vote and was chased through the street by the streets on polling day by corps of gunmen before being shot dead. Four policemen among those charged along with James. But all the charges were dropped after a key witness recanted their statements. An indication of the attitude of local local law enforcement towards Capone's organization came in 1923 when James was wounded in the shooting. Police suggested to skeptic skeptical journalism.

SPEAKER_06 20:39

Well skeptical journalists, maybe?

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Yeah, I'm just blind moment right now. That James was an independent operator. A 1929 report by the New York Times connected Capon to the 1926 murder of assistant state attorney William H. McWinger. The 1928 murders of chief investigator Ben Newmark and former mentor Frankie Yale. Now we're going to get into the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Capone was widely assumed to have been responsible for ordering the 1929 St. Valentine's Massacre. Despite being his Florida home at the time of the massacre. It's not so you held. I wanted to do this episode because I was originally gonna do this in Valentine's Day massacre for. But instead I done Al Capone and all of that. The massacre was an attempt to eliminate bugs more in the head of the Northside gang, and the motivation for the plan may have been, in fact, that some of the expensive whiskey that was illegally imported from Canada via the Detroit River had been hijacked while it was being transported to Cook County, Illinois. Moran was the last survivor of the North Side gunmen. His successions had come about become similarity aggressive prosecutors. To monitor their targets, habits, and motivation or movements. Capone men rented an apartment across from the trucking warehouse and garage at 2122 North Clark Street, which served as Moran's headquarters on the morning of February 14th, 1929. Capone's lookout signaled four gunmen disguised as police officers to initiate a police raid. Photos of the Selene victims shocked the public and damaged Capone's image within days. Capone received a summons to testify before a Chicago grand jury on charges of federal probation violations, but he claimed to be unwill to attend. In an effort to clean up his image, Capone donated to charities and sponsored soup kitchens in Chicago during the depression. Now we're gonna get into the federal in vertice. In the wake of the same Valentine's Day massacre, Walter A. Strong, publisher of the Chicago Daily News, asked for his friends, President Hoover Hoover for federal intervention to steam Chicago's lawlessness. He arranged a secret meeting at the White House just two weeks after Hoover's inauguration on March 19, 1929. Strong joined the Frank of the Chicago Crime Commission and Lorette Bell made their case to the president in Hoover's 1952 memory book. Menor. Memorial? Yeah, memorial. The former president reported that Strong agreed Chicago was in the hands of gangsters, that the police were completely under their control, that the federal government was only a force by which the city's ability to govern itself could be restored. Once I directed that all the federal agencies concrete up Mr. Capone and his allies, that meeting launched a multiple agency attack on Capone. Treasurer and Justice Departments developed plans for income tax prosecutions against Chicago Gangster. Chicago gangsters and a small elite squad of probation probation bureau agents whose members included Eli Ness were deployed against Bootleggers. In a city used to corruption, these lawmen were incorruptible. Charles Swartz, a writer for the Chicago Daily News, dubbed themselves untouchable. Where did that just go? To support federal efforts, strong security used his new paper newspaper's resources to gather and share intelligence on the Capone outfit. Now we're gonna start getting into the trials. On March 27, 1929, Capone was arrested by FBI agents as he left a Chicago courtroom after testifying to a grand jury that was investigating violence or violations of federal probation laws, which he was charged with contempt of court for forging illness ill illnesses to avoid an earlier appearance on May 16th, 1929. Capone was arrested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for carrying a concealed weapon. On May 17th of 1929, Capone was indicted by a grand jury and a trial were held before Philadelphia court judge John E. Walsh. Capone was sentenced to prison term of one year on august eighth, nineteen twenty nine. Capone was transferred to Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary. A week after his release in March of nineteen thirty, Capone was listed as public enemy number one on unofficial Chicago Crime Commission's widely publicized the list. In April of nineteen thirty, Capone was arrested again while visiting Miami Beach. The governor had ordered sheriffs to run him out of the state. Capone claimed that Miami police has refused him food and water and threatened to arrest his family. He was charged with pre-jury for making these statements. But he was acquitted after a three-day trial in July. Then in September, a Chicago judge issued a warrant for Capone's arrest on charges of vagiscy. I'm assuming that's how you pronounce it. A reinforced questioning of Capone's doctor by the prosecutor. Wilkerson sentenced Capone to six months, but he remained free while on the appeal of contempt convictions. In February of 1930, Capone's organization linked to the murder of Julius Rosemy, who served as a police affordant in Chicago Alpha for 20 years. The U.S. Assistant Attorney General Mae Walker is said to have initiated the tactic of charging obliviously wealthy crime figures with federal tax evasion on the basis of their luxurious lifestyles in 1927. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the United States versus Sullivan that the approach was legally sounded. The key to Capone's conviction on tax charges were not his spendings but providing his income. And most of the valuable evidence that regarded originated in his offer to pay taxes. Ralph, his brother and gangster in his own right was tried or trialed for tax evasion in 1930. Ralph spent the next eighteen months in prison after being convicted in a two-week trial over which Wilkinson presented tax evasion. Seeking to avoid the same faith, Capone ordered his lawyer to regulate his tax positions, though it was not done yet. His lawyer made a critical omissions when stating that the income of Capone was willing to pay tax on various years emitting income of a hundred thousand dollars from nineteen twenty-eight to nineteen twenty nine. For instance, without any investigation, the government had been given a letter from a lawyer acting for Capone, conceding his large taxable income for certain years he had paid no tax on. On March thirteenth, nineteen thirty-one, Capone was charged with tax evasion from nineteen twenty four. In a secret grand jury on June 5th, 1931, Capone was indicted by a federal grand jury on 22 counts of tax evasion from 1925 throughout 1929. He was released on a$50,000 bail. Capone was then indicted on a$5,000 violations of the valicid act probation laws. Okay, in other words, probation laws, okay. On June 16th, 1931, at the Chicago Federal Building in the courtroom of Wilkerson, Capone pleaded guilty to income tax evasion and the$5,000 probation law act. As part of a two and a half year prison sentence plea bargaining on July 30th, 1931. Wilkinson refused to honor the plea bargain and Capone's counsel. Reed declined the guilty pleas. On the second day of the trial, Wilkinson deemed that the 1930 letter to the federal authorities can be admitted into evidence, overruling objections that a lawyer cannot confess for his client. Wilkinson later tried Capone only on the income tax evasion charges. Well, charges. As he deemed that they took to that they took to the proceedance over the probation laws act. Or act charges, should I rephrase? Much was later made of other evidence such as a witness and leaders, but these strongly implied Capone's control rather than starting it. Capone's lawyers who had relied on the plea bargains, Wilkerson refused to honor, therefore he had more hours to prepare for the trial. Ran a weak defense focusing on claiming that essentially all of his incomes were lost to gambling. This would have been irrelevant regardless since gambling losses can only be subtracted from gambling winnings. Wilkerson allowed Capone's spendings to be presented at a very great length. The government charged Capone an evasion of$215,000 in taxes of a total income of$1,038,654 during the five-year period. Capone was convicted of or convicted on five counts of income tax evasion. And he was sentenced to uh a week later to 11 years in federal prison, fined$50,000 plus$7,692 for court costs and held liable for the$215,000 plus interest due to his PAC back taxes. The contempt of court sentence was served currently new lawyers hired to represent Capone, Washton based tax experts. They filed a writ of Hubean's corpse based on a Yes. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Come on.

SPEAKER_02 41:19

It's corpus, not corpse. That was the point I was trying to get to.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

I know. Corpus based uh on a Supreme Court ruling that tax evasion was not fraud, which apparently meant that Capone had been convicted on charges relating to years that were actually outside of the time limit for prosecution. However, a judge intercepted the law said that the time that Capone had spent in Miami was subtracted from the age of the offensives, thereby denying the appeal of both Capone's convictions and sentencings. In 1931, interview with the Chicago Herald and Exclaimer after an initial guilty plea before his final conviction sentencing, Capone offered what he called a swan song of rocketeer. I'm only 32, Capone said. I want the people to realize that in my few adult years, it would have been utterly impossible for me to do all of those things that have been credited to me. I see nothing morally wrong in making a living out of probation and violating the probation law and running some gambling places make up only the so-called crimes I have ever committed. Capone, as portrayed in books and newspapers and controversials or conversations by people who are supposed to know me well, is a person d I don't recognize or know. I have always been opposed to violence, to shootings, and I have fought yes, but fought for peace, and I believe I can only take credit for all the peace that now exist in racketing game in Chicago. Capone apparently confessed by the forces that have brought him to justice, credit the Secret Six for his downfall, the powerful, well funded. Visually anti-organization launched in 1930 and brought down by the scandal in 1933 has reportedly said one of the bookkeepers on a South American crew so Capone could murder him before he testified. But the Secret Six did not otherwise contribute to the tax eight case against Capone, nor to the raids on his brewist by Elliotness and his untouchable untouchables. Nevertheless, Capone said the Secret Six had licked the rackets. They licked me, they made it, so there's no money in the game anymore. Most of the fellowers who have been working with me realize this is me as I do. That's why I don't think they do the same thing as I'm going to do when I come back from Leavenworth. Go into honest pen is this. Capone was sent to Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary in May of 1932 at the age of 33. Upon his arrival, Capone was diagnosed with syphilis. And let's see if you can just guess this one.

SPEAKER_06 45:50

I have no clue.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Oh, I thought you might have heard it before, but it's gonorrhea.

SPEAKER_04 45:57

Not when it pertains to Outphone, no.

SPEAKER_00 46:01

Oh I thought you might have heard about that one before. Morris Rootsey was a formal small-time criminal associated with the Capone gang and found himself becoming a protector for Capone. And other prisoners drew oxizations from less friendly inmates and fueled suspicion that Capone was receiving special treatment. No solid evidence ever emerged, but formed part of the moving of Capone to the recent open Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco. In August of nineteen thirty four. Oh, already did that. Blind moment. Capone's decline became increasingly evident as his mental facilities, his formal diagnosis of the brain was made in February 1938. He spent his last years on Alcatraz sentence to the hospital section, confused and distorted. Capone completely his terms in Alcatraz in January of 1939 and was uh transferred to a federal corrections facility in Terminal Island in California to serve out his sentence for content of court. He was paroded on November sixteenth, nineteen thirty-five, after his wife applied to the court based on his reductive mental health capabilities. Now we're gonna get into the illest illness and death. Due to his health or failing health, Capone was released from prison on November 16, 1939, and reformed to Johns Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for his treatment of syphilis because they were his unsavory repetition or reputation. Jones Hobsins refused to treat him, but Baltimore's Union Memory Hospital did Capone was grateful for the compensation care that he received and donated to Japan, weaving cherry trees to the Union, Memorial Hospital in 1939, better sources needed for that. After a few weeks of patient and outpatient care on March twentieth, nineteen forty, a very sickly Capone left Baltimore and traveled to his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. Capan was one of the first American patients treated by the new drug. So it was too late for him to reverse the damage to his brain. It did slow down the progression of the disease. In 1946, his physician in Baltimore psychiatrist examined him and concluded Capon had the mentality. He spent his last years of his life at his Palm Beach mansion spending time with his wife and grandchildren. Or well. Bronchitis?

SPEAKER_06 52:21

He regained consciousness and started to improve. Oh shit. And started to improve but contracted bronchial pneumonia. He suffered a cardiac arrest on January 22nd and on January 25th, surrounded by his family in his home, died after his heart failed as a result of apoplexy.

SPEAKER_04 52:57

His body.

SPEAKER_00 53:29

Capone's remains among with those with his fathers, Gabriel and brother Frank were moved to Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. Bum bum bum.

SPEAKER_06 53:53

You guys don't forget that we have an email open, ghostandgavel at gmail.com, for any of your Paul's personal encounters. Um any encounters that you member with a family, friends with notorious criminals and um criminals and things like that. Any experiences you've had at all, you are free to message us. We also have all of our socials, which I do apologize now. I know we have not kept upon very well over the past few weeks as we've been trying to readjust our schedules a bit, but we are on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok on ghosting it all.