U. S. v. Capone

Last week the third Federal lash was laid across the porcine back of Chicago's Alphonse Capone. In addition to the six-month sentence he received (and has appealed) for contempt of Federal Court (TIME, March 9), and the indictment for income tax evasion for which he may receive 32 years in prison and a fine of $80.000 (TIME, June 15), he and 68 henchmen were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for conspiracy to violate the national Prohibition laws. The true bill did not mention the various Capone sidelines such as gambling, bordellos, whiskey peddling, specified only the "manufacture and transportation of beer for beverage purposes in the Chicago area on a large scale." Brought to light were 5.000 separate offenses, the unit of manufacture for each offense being one 1,500 gal. vat of beer, the unit of transportation one 30-bbl. truckload.

Evidence against Capone and his followers had been gathered by Prohibition agents with the co-operation of the same agents who dug up the grounds for his tax evasion indictment. Their facts and figures had the sound of Big Business. The Capone beer syndicate, they found, had a daily turnover of $75.000, an annual gross income of $27,000,000, or $270,000,000 for the ten years it has been in operation. The personal Capone fortune was reckoned at $20,000,000, although agents were only able to find direct evidence of a $260,000 maximum annual income on which he failed to pay taxes. By tapping wires Federal operatives also uncovered another little-known bit of information. Public Enemy Capone is known as "Snorkey" to his intimates.

Leading executives of Snorkey & Co. indicted last week were: Joe Fusco, business manager of the syndicate's beer department; Bert Delaney, superintendent of manufactures; Steve Swoboda, veteran brewmaster. Snorkey is liable to two years imprisonment, $10,000 fine if convicted. Federal punishment now hanging over the head of the arch criminal: 34 1/2 years in prison, $90,000 in fines. So impressed was Snorkey by the magnitude of the threatened punishment, it was said last week, that he offered to "compromise" the case with the Government by payment of $4,000,000. But officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, to whom the overtures had been made, let it be known that Capone-freedom was not for sale.

Prosecutor of the 68 culprits is Victor E. La Rue, First Assistant U. S. Attorney. He is used to wholesale liquor cases. At Rockford, 111., he recently tried a batch of 43 'leggers, convicted 36. But the driving force behind the Federal battering ram against Chicago gangdom was softspoken, bush-haired U. S. District Attorney George Emmerson Q. Johnson, born and bred on an Iowa farm 56 years ago. When he was graduated from Lake Forest College of Law, he put a Q meaning nothing into his name to distinguish him from all other George E. Johnsons. He has practiced law in Chicago since 1900. plays much golf badly. So confident was he that the Capone gang has been financially wrecked that he permitted Snorkey to go free on the $50,000 already posted.

While messages of congratulation poured into Attorney Johnson's office, he insisted that the credit should be shared by eight sleuths of the special Prohibition unit. Headed by Agent Elliot Ness, their average age is 30, all are college graduates. Their average salary is $2,800. Not only did they risk death, said the prosecutor, but resisted bribes far in excess of a year's wages.

Asked if he thought he had good cases, happily replied Attorney Johnson: "We never indict unless we have a good case. This is the end of Scarface Al."

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