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Al Capone tax evasion case, in a Chicago newspaper...
Al Capone tax evasion case, in a Chicago newspaper...
Item # 722528
June 08, 1931
CHICAGO DAILY TRIBUNE, June 8, 1931
* Gangster Al 'Scarface' Capone
* Income tax evasion case
* Best title to be had (rare)
The front page has a one column heading: "HUNT CAPONE'S HIDDEN RICHES FOR U. S. DEBT" with subhead. (see)
Related photo is on the back page. Capone would plead guilty about a week later.
Terrific to have this report in a Chicago newspaper, home to so much of the gangland activity during the Prohibition era.
Complete with all 32 pages, rag edition in great condition. A few small binding holes along the spine.
AI notes: By June 7, 1931, the federal government had successfully cornered Al Capone through a strategic "pincer movement" that transitioned from street-level raids to forensic accounting. Just two days earlier, on June 5, a federal grand jury had returned a devastating indictment charging Capone with 22 counts of income tax evasion, the result of years of clandestine work by IRS agent Frank Wilson. While Eliot Ness and his "Untouchables" dominated the headlines by dismantling Capone’s breweries, it was this paper trail—specifically a recovered gambling ledger from the Hawthorne Smoke Shop—that provided the "smoking gun" needed to prove Capone had significant unreported income. On this specific Sunday in June, Capone was caught in a brief, tense limbo; he was officially a marked man by the Treasury Department, yet he was still five days away from being hit with a second massive indictment for 5,000 Prohibition violations. This week effectively stripped away his aura of invincibility, forcing him into a desperate and ultimately failed attempt to negotiate a plea deal to avoid the long prison sentence that would eventually follow.
Category: The 20th Century
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$72.00
