After arriving in Chicago, Capone worked for Torrio, who was part of a criminal network headed by a man named Big Jim Colosimo.
In January , Torrio was gunned down outside his Illinois home. He survived the attack but left Chicago later that year, choosing year-old Capone as his replacement. The group of attackers consisted of at least four men, two of them dressed as police officers. The crime became known as the St. Authorities investigated a variety of theories and suspects to little avail. There eventually was ample public speculation that Capone, a Moran rival, had masterminded the murders he was in Florida when they took place ; however, he was never charged in the case, which went unsolved.
In fact, much of the memoir was embellished by its co-author, Oscar Fraley. Because the agents supposedly refused to accept bribes, they were dubbed the Untouchables by the press. Although he controlled a criminal empire and ordered hits on a multitude of his enemies, Capone managed to avoid prosecution for years by paying off police and public officials and threatening witnesses. The mob boss finally was slapped with his first criminal conviction in May , after he was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon in Philadelphia—at the time, he was on his way back to Chicago following a summit of organized-crime honchos in Atlantic City, New Jersey—and swiftly sentenced to a year in jail.
Meanwhile, on orders from President Herbert Hoover to nail Capone, the federal government built a case against the crime boss for income-tax fraud, and in June , he was indicted on charges of tax evasion.
Capone agreed to a plea deal that included a recommended prison sentence of two-and-a-half years; however, the judge in the case refused to accept the deal. The U. In contrast to the standard movie plot of tommy gun-firing G-Men bringing down the Mob, accountants and prosecutors assembled the most effective cases against people like Capone. And it was clear that Capone had to have substantial income to support such a lavish lifestyle. On October 18, , Capone was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.
Capone was infected with syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease, which in advanced cases was then incurable. By the time he left Alcatraz in , the disease had profoundly affected his mental and physical health.
Doctors reported that Capone had, in , the cognitive processes of a year-old child. He essentially retired with his family to his Florida mansion, where he died in at age Capone essentially retired from the Mob after his imprisonment in , but the Outfit he had built up through bootlegging and other rackets went on without him under the leadership of Capone disciples such as Frank Nitti, Paul Ricca, Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana.
This gave Elmer Irey his chance to document Capone's income and spending. But Capone was clever. Every transaction he made was on a cash basis. The only exception was the tangible assets of the Palm Island estate, which was evidence of a major source of income.
I want that man in jail. Mellon set out to get the necessary evidence both to prove income tax evasion and to amass enough evidence to prosecute Capone successfully for Prohibition violations. Eliot Ness , a dynamic young agent with the U. Prohibition Bureau, was charged with gathering the evidence of Prohibition violations. He assembled a team of daring young men and made extensive use of wiretapping technology.
While there was doubt that Capone could be successfully prosecuted for Prohibition violations in Chicago, the government was certain it could get Capone on tax evasion.
In May , Capone went to a "gangster" conference in Atlantic City. Afterward, he saw a movie in Philadelphia. When leaving the cinema, he was arrested and imprisoned for carrying a concealed weapon. Capone was soon incarcerated in the Eastern Penitentiary, where he stayed until March 16, He was later released from jail for good behavior but was put on America's "Most Wanted" list, which publicly humiliated a mobster who so desperately wanted to be regarded as a worthy man of the people.
Elmer Irey undertook a cunning plan to use undercover agents posing as hoods to infiltrate Capone's organization. The operation took nerves of steel. Despite an informer ending up with a bullet in his head before he could testify, Elmer managed to amass enough evidence through his detectives, posing as gangsters, to try Capone in front of a jury.
With two vital bookkeepers, Leslie Shumway and Fred Reis, who had once been in Capone's employment, now safely under police protection, it was only a matter of time before Capone's days as Public Enemy No.
Agent Ness, angered by Capone for the murder of a friend, managed to enrage Capone by exposing Prohibition violations to ruin his bootlegging industry. Millions of dollars of brewing equipment was seized or destroyed, thousands of gallons of beer and alcohol had been dumped and the largest breweries were closed. The jury returned an indictment against Capone that was kept secret until the investigation was complete for the years to Capone and 68 members of his gang were charged with 5, separate violations of the Volstead Act.
These income tax cases took precedence over the Prohibition violations. Fearing that witnesses would be tampered with, and having doubts that the six-year statute of limitations would be upheld by the Supreme Court, a deal was secretly struck between Capone's lawyers and government prosecutors.
Capone was to plead guilty to a lighter charge and would receive a sentence of between two and five years. When word got out, the press was outraged and campaigned against what they saw as a blatant whitewash. The overconfident Capone, who believed he would receive less than five years in prison, became less cocky when he realized that his plea bargain was now null and void. He was dressed in a conservative blue serge suit and was without his usual pinkie ring and gaudy jewelry.
It was inevitable that Capone's henchmen procured a list of jury members to bribe, but unbeknownst to Capone, the authorities had been aware of the plot. When Judge Wilkinson entered the courtroom, he suddenly demanded that the jury be exchanged with another in the same building. Capone and his lawyer were shocked. The fresh jury was even sequestered at night so that the Capone mob couldn't get to them.
During the trial, Attorney George E. Johnson made a mockery of Capone's claim to be a "Robin Hood" figure and man of the people. He stressed the hypocrisy of a man who would spend thousands of dollars on meals and luxuries but gives little to the poor and unemployed.
How, he asked, could Capone possess so much property, vehicles and even diamond belt buckles when his defense lawyers profess that their client had no income? After nine hours of discussion, on October 17, , the jury found Capone guilty of several counts of tax evasion. Bail was denied. His days of privileges in jail were gone, and contact with the outside world, even through letters and newspapers, was minimal. Capone died on January 25, , of cardiac arrest at the age of During his last years in prison, Capone's declining health was exacerbated by tertiary syphilis, and he became confused and disoriented.
After release, Capone slowly deteriorated at his Palm Island palace. His wife Mae stuck by him until the end. We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!
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