Evening Post. TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 1932.

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 80, 5 April 1932, Page 8

Evening Post. TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 1932.

CHICAGO'S UNDERWORLD When Mr. Fred a Pasley's "Al Capone: The Biography of a Selfmade Man, 5" after having had a great run in the United States, was published in England early last year, the circulating libraries are said to have had some doubts whether so intimate a picture of triumphant crime1 would be good for their subscribers' morals. It was described by Mr. Edgar Wallace as "the best, the most authentic history of Chicago and its gangland" that he had read, and as "more fascinating than any novel" that he had read on the subject, and by the "Daily Telegraph" as "one. of the most remarkable documents in the history of crime." Regarded as entertainment, or as a study in national corruption, said the "Telegraph," it is of enthralling'interest., i I|ore arb the facts about 'the rise .of an obscure Italian to ,the highest pinnacle a criminal ever scaled. But, according to a report cabled from Washington yesterday, the interest of Mr., Pasley's amazing' story seems to have been exceeded by another publication which has the advantages of greater detail and official status-. A remarkable document was laid before the Ameiican public to-day—a document unparalleled in the history of any. modern people,' save,' perhaps, in the ,case of Signor Mussolini's revelations of /the extermination of the Sicilian Mafia. ... It ivas^a tale principally of/murder, liqiior trafficking, and, prostitution, but accentuated-almost beyond belief by its brutality of detail. This remarkable document is a transcript of evidence recently submitted to a Committec'of the Senate by Mr. George'.E. Johnson, Federal District Attorney, regarding the campaign which was instituted by the Federal Government four years ago against the gangsters of Chicago, with special reference to their evasions of income tax. The atmo.sphere in which Mrs'1 Johnson set to work is illustrated by the greetings which a special squad of Prohibition agents, sent from Washington at; the same time, received from "Big Bill" Thompson, who had;just been reelected Mayor. Like Mr. Johnson, this squad owed its appointment to Mr:- Deneen, c dry Republican Senator, and its activities proved so obnoxious to "Big Biljy'. bootlegging friends that he .promptly'' "declared war* .from thei plafiFprm.*; Ij will'do all. in-my'powqr, said .'tee Mayor,r,ti ■Bave;<JHioago*citizenß"from anymore suffering1 at;tu'o'lands of the thugs- and tgunm^fl j;seni" Jhere: by the1 Federal*;.Government',/to' further Deneen's politicall--influence. ~ Deneen ie filling this' town, with dry agents from "Washington, tf.who. _ run around like a-lett of cowboys'with, re-£ volvera and shotguns.- Our would have us belie,ve~we-'don't ltnowhow to run quiv tp.wiu.,' Vote v 'fof*-.the ,flag, the constitution, ■ your.freedom, your property," as Ab.aham Lincola'and William Hale Thomson would'1 like to have you do. •» ' ; v'" > Chicago has certainly made 'some advance during the last four,years. "Big Bill" is no longer Mayor.-Mr, Johnson has,stuck faithfully-to' Kis job, and one result of his courage^ and energy is; that Capone has1 been convicted and sent to prison". Though American justice has little to boast of when it is only able to convict one of the vilest of criminals on relatively trivial charges, it is certainly, as the "New York HeraldTribune" said, "better that he should be finished finally for the least of his offences than,not at all," and it is evidently not Mr. Johnson's fault that Capone had not received the treatment that he deserved. According to our cabled report, Mr. Johnson was specially concerned with evasions of income tax by Capone and the other gangsters, but his report indicates that his inquiries have covered every branch of their multifarious activities, and it is possible that the information which the report contains may prove to be of even greater value than the eleven years' imprisonment to which Capone was sentenced and the fine of 50,000 dollars. Even the procuring of con.victions on these minor charges has evidently been a blatter of Immense difficulty and danger. The initial difficulty was ' that Xapone "never kept a bank account in his own-name, and was 'always two or, three removed' from the actual commission of any crime." - But after the-ac-counts had been identified they Had, of course,' to be legally proved, and here the prosecution was confronted with1 exactly the same terrorism whicb had rendered the proceedings against Capone on capital charges abortive,- When the charge was murder, witnesses who had obviously told the truth to the police were subject afterwards,to strange lapses of memory or disappeared altogether. So successful was the system that, according to tbeinvetigation made by the "Chicago Tribune" at the time of Linglc's murder, ' * ' ' in Cook County [which includes Chicago] since 1923 there had been more than 500 gangster killings with not a single conviction. Our report shows that Mr. Johnson encountered similar obstacles. The document refers to the difficulties the District Attorney had with witnesses because they were nearly always killed before they pould testify; also, how bankers wept while they re-

fused to divulge tho names of dummy ■bank-account holders for fear of can" vengeance; finally, how, at the very last, Capone announced that his sentence .would only bo two or throe years "by arrangement." When intending witnesses were being killed and bankers terrified into silence, we may assume that the District Attorney himself worked in peril of his life, and if one considers what the difficulties were the result must be credited to him as a personal triumph. Even when Capone was under lock and key his organisation was still able to exercise what the Judge described as little less than "an insurrection against tho laws of the United States, and when Capone was in the dock their intimidation was still active in Court. In, passing a sentence of six months' imprisonment on Philip Andrea, a friend of Capone, who was arrested in Court for carrying firearms during the ttial, the' Judge said: The Court would be blind indeed if it had not noticed *ho intimidation of witnesses under it(< eyes. Andrea had sat behind Capone *>ith a loaded revolver in,his "pocket, and when the defendant, glared, at witnesses they faltered in. testimony and were suddenly unablo to remember things in connection with Capone's business. It took a Federal jury more than eight hours of deliberation before they were able to find Capone guilty on five of the twenty-three counts charging'evasion of incometaxes, arid it is probable that doubt as to his guilt had less to do with their hesitation than the possibility that a verdict of guilty might be tantamount to a capital sentence upon themselves. That they also played the game is much to their credit, but the chief honours are due to the District Attorney who worked up the case and appeared to have traced all the ramifications of Chicago's criminal underworld in this startling document.