GREAT GANGSTER GOES TO GAOL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 137, 11 June 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

GREAT GANGSTER GOES TO GAOL.

CAPONE'S LAST LOOK ON LIBERTY

PRISON DOORS CLOSE BEHIND BEER BARON WHO STARTS ON ELEVEN-VEAR-SENTENCE— HIS ALTRUISM IS UNQUENCHED—"I'LL BE AN ISSUE AT NEXT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION"—COMPLAINT OF BEING POLITICAL PAWN—GREATER INCOME TAX SINNERS HAVE FREEDOM.

The ponderous gates of Atlanta penitentiary closed behind Al Capone last month as the notorious underworld leader ended his 23-hour journey from rliicago, prepared to be a model prisoner [luring the service of an eleven-year sentence for income tax evasion. Warden V C. Aderhold supervised the proceedings h" which Capone becomes Convict Xo. 40,883 instead of an overlord of .rjingdom. The prisoner wae brought within Uie gray walls of Atlanta in a sedan convoyed by other automobiles tilled with nulice, prison officials and newspaper men. The train bearing the Capone party nrrived at the Union Station at 8.10 o'clock, and while penitentiary officials consulted with United States Marshal H. C. \V Laubenheiiner, Capone's custodian, ilie gang lender was the centre of interest of" a large group of newspaper men and photographers. Tn his conversation with the Atlanta reporters, the gangster seemed particularly interested in the local institution's reputation for its treatment of 'prisoners. When informed that impartiality was the rule he remarked: "That's great." Cries of "Hello, Al," and "Welcome to Atlanta, Al," were shouted by inmates to the new arrival as he appeared at the penitentiary, "Let the lads have their Hiiig," was the gangster's reply to this greeting.

Dons a Denim Suit. He was given a denim convict suit before he retired. On the following clay he was officially registered, photographed and finger-printed. After a physical examination he was kept segregated lor three weeks to determine if he had any contagious disease. After that he was aligned to his permanent cell—a room of sis feet by nine—which will house him for his term. The prisoner probably will be put to work in the laundry. His sentence is hard labour," and he will have an opportunity to trim down from hie present 2551b. He is resigned to that, and to Atlanta. "I'll mate out wherever I am," he said, . self-aeeuring conclusion, reached, apparently, through the hours spent on the train bearing him and his guards from Chicago. A temperature of 85 in the Capone drawing room as the train passed through Tennessee's tree-clad bills was a forerunner of the heat the gang chief might expect during the summer. He mopped hie brow ae he gazed over the gleaming trees and remarked about the heat. "I can stand that, though, he said. "But I'll miss my beer."' The eleven years prospect seemed to bear heavier upon Capone as the penitentiary drew nearer, and he began to talk about "the goat" of political aspirations. To the guards sitting with him he esid it was "funny justice" that pute a man in prison eleven years for not paying his income taxes. 'Tα be made an issue in the Presidential campaign,". he said. We sent Capone to the penitentiary, they 11 be saying. It wouldn't seem eo bad if they didn't nee the income-tax law for political purposes. . _ . "There's ft lot of big men in Chicago who heat the Government out of most of the taxes they ought to pay, and they pet away with it. I tried to settle with the Government and they used it against me. I don't think that's playing fair, but got me and I'll have to take the medidne." He mentioned the names or several eminent Chicagoans, and cited what purported to be the amount of taxes they paid end the v amount they evaded.

Capone and His Altruism. The talk turned to conditions in Chicago, and Capone was off on a favourite theme —hig altruism. His liquor business was a good thing for Chicago, he said, for he took hundreds o£ men away from, their pursuit of violent crimes and put them to work driving trucks, tending stills and breweries. To let Capone tell it, none of liis men ever indulged in violent crimes, such as bombings and hold-ups, and killing, of course, was undreamed of. The gangster said Colonel Robert Isham Randolph, organiser of the Secret Six, tame to him in Florida and appealed for aid in the efforts to stop industrial and commercial bombings. He told of a proposition he made to Colonel Randolph, and lie could not understand why it was not accepted. All Capone wanted was a free hand in the liquor business, and he would co-operate with the Secret Six in stopping bombings. He'd run down the bombers and put them to work in his organisation. " I laid my cards on the table and asked him to lay his," said Capone. " Well, what do you think I got? " Hβ shrugged his shoulders and turned to the window with a gesture of futility. Capone also informed his guards that the profits of his liquor trade had been greatly overrated by the government experts. His best times, he said, were under the previous city administration, and his beet months were 5000 cases of whisky. With overhead, pay-offs, loss of goods through raids, and putting up bonds for his men, tlie net profit could never exceed 10 dollars .1 case, he eaid. He did not go into the beer side of his business, which the government experts who brought about his indictment for conspiracy say brought in 10 000,000 dollars a year. With reporters, Capone limited himself to small talk most of the time, but he ventured the prophecy that legal beer will return in four years. But a new Congress "ill be needed, he said. " The ' Literary Digest' poll is encouraging," observed the Kangster. " Their polls are always representative, and the 3-to-l wet vote, with only two dry States, shows sentiment is growing against prohibition." In response to questioning. Capone said he had no idea what sort of work they will put him at in the penitentiary, and (hat be had no profession. "I'll take what they give me for two reasons," he said. " One is, the only way you can expect to set a pardon is to go •ilong and be a good prisoner. The other is. I won't have any eay about it. But an indication of what ho hopes to 'I" was given in an observation to the pinrds. He had been talking with Vico Moriei, his fellow-prisoner, whose father owns a spaghetti factory in Chicago and lifi mentioned that he is an excellent cook of Italian dishes. " T hope the warden likes spaghetti.' , he said. Capone at times, however, appeared in ji genial mood for a man facin? 11 years imprisonment, laughing at the crowds assembled at the stops, and becoming voluble with the guards.

Leg Irons Cause a Snarl. Only once after the train left Chicago <lid hig temper give way to snarling rage, '■lliis was shortly after leaving Danville. Illinois, when he called for Marshal l.aubenheiiner and complained about the '?S irons with which he was manacled to Moriei in an upper berth. He asked that •lie leg irons at least be taken off, if the handcuffs had to stay on. The .marshal Bnid ho was sorry, but could take no jliaiices, and he tinned out the lights as |;e .left the room and closed the door. '"Thanks," Cnpone snarled. All down the lino the crowds gathered ■U tlie stations, in the larger towns reach- '"■-' several hundreds. They pressed alongsi'Jo the Pullman cars and peered into f'lmlows. Capone answered their waves ■yith broad smiles and the gesture of a '■nndahake. In some of the small towns, little negro ™.vs stood well back from tho train and "ointed at the car in which they thought ~Jnone was a passenger, seemingly afraid. ;'t at Kvansvillc, Mnrfreesboro, Nash- "■' e- and the other larger places, the

curious were more intrepid, and were restrained from getting on the train only by special railway police waiting at all stops. Capone is familiar with the route and the train, having gone this way on several occasions to Florida. James A. Brown, Pullman conductor, recalled several tripe which Capone made with largo parties, trips on which whole cars were engaged and tips wore generous. The gangster is familiar with Atlanta, having stopped over there at times, but said he knew nothing about the penitentiary. Receives Gift of a Pipe. At Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Will E. Campbell, who is celebrated for his hickory pipes in those parts, sent two of them aboard, one for Capone and one for the Marshal. Capone took it and said: "That's the first time anybody ever gave me anything." The gangster, however, smoked 25-cent cigars, and he ordered 22 at lunch, putting them on the table in his drawing room

and telling the guards to help themselves. He ate heartily both at breakfast and luncheon. The Capone car carried only the guards, newspaper men and the two prisoners, but passengers on the other ears strolled through often to get a glimpse of Capone, for everyone on the traiu knew of his presence, as the townsmen along the way did. Only one passenger, however, entered the drawing room. She was an elderly woman, Mrs. Lillian Fitzgerald, of Ghattanooga. "I just wanted to shake hands and say I wish you luck," she said. Capone arose, bowetl, shook hands and thanked her. Whereupon Deputy Marshal William G. Thompson cams to relieve another guard. "Meet my father," said Capone to Mrs. Fitzgerald. The train conductor, who makes the run from Nashville to Chattanooga, C. H. Damon, came back to shake with Capone, and the engineer, J. M. Smith, sent word back that he hoped the gangster liked the ride. Besides two prohibition agents, who left the train at Terre Haute, Indiana, the prisoner had plenty of guards—the Marshal, Deputy Thompson, Kobert Clark of the Secret Service, Deputy James Nordsieck and three railway detectives. Capone was kept in the drawing room most of the time, his meals having been brought back, to the expressed disappointment of the coloured waiters who failed to get the job, but once he was permitted to sit out in a section back of the drawing room with the newspaper men for halt an hour. He watched them at work and said he hoped they would write good stories. Then he returned to the drawing room and resumed 'a card game with Mono, with whom he learned to play pinocchle rummy in the county gaol. The Government's campaign which sent Al Capone and others to prison brought in more than 1.000,000 dollars in delinquent income taxes in the Chicago area alone, according "to Mr. George E Q. Johnson, United States District Attorney. J he Capone investigation, he said, cost the Government about 100,000 dollars with the actual cost of the gangsters trial being added to the 50,000-dollars hne imposed upon him.