JURORS GASP

Evening Star, Issue 20996, 9 January 1932, Page 16

JURORS GASP

CAPONE'S BUYING MAGNIFICENT WARDROBE SURPRISING PRICES The jury in the Alphonse Capone trial for income tax evasion—rural gentlemen of simple and rather careless habits of dress—pursed its lips in the Federal Court as it learned from salesmen witnesses for the Government what the well-dressed gangster wears, his tastes in home decoration, and his preference in diamonds and motor cars (says the ‘New York Times’). Silk shirts at 30dol each, silk underwear at 14dol a sot, suits at 135d0l apiece, diamond belt buckles at 275d0l each (bought by the dozen), ties at sdol (by the dozen) were a few samples of Mr Capone’s taste in haberdashery and suitable garments for street wear. His cars cost him 12,000d0l apiece, his glassware and silver came high, and he was finicky about interior decorations for his home, picking the colours and fabrics himself. Grave, sometimes lost In day dreams, Capone listened to the public revelations of his expenditures as if he were disinterested; but when one of the salesmen began to describe the texture of the glove-silk underwear he blushed all over his fat face, and added an embarrassed smirk to the chorus of laughter evoked by the description. A rough estimate of the expenses of Mr and Mrs Capone on the proxy shopping tour through which the jury was guided would be between 80,000dol and 90,000d01. It covers only a part of what was spent during the period under consideration in the trial, out the Government, adding it to the record of expenditures for real estate and other properties, gleaned from other witnesses, felt it has enough to prove that Capone was a man with a big income. Jean llievcs, bookeeper for a Chicago furniture house, was the first witness against Capone. She stood on the witness stand, reading from the company records under the green-shaded lamp on the bench to refresh her memory as to Capone purchases. Capone, his head resting on a hairy fist, had a far-away look in his jet-black eyes. “ China bowls, elephants, lamps, more lamps, rockers, fernery, chaise longue,” she droned off. The jurymen nodded. Jacob I. Grossman, assistant Federal Attorney, took over the records and began to read them to the jury. “ Chairs, more chairs, armchairs, rockers, more lamps (there must have beeen scores of them in the Capone home), more bronze elephants .” Capone had selected most of the stuff himself, had paid the deposit with three COOdol cheques drawn on the Equitable Trust Company by Jack Guzik, his financial secretary. Two days later Capono paid the balance with separate cheques, one for 1,500d01, two for 2,000d0l each. In cross-examining the witness Albert Fink, a counsel for Capone, referred to the defendant as AI.” He had done it on other occasions, and so had Mr Grossman, but this time the court stopped it. “ When counsel speaks of AI, I assume he means the defendant?” Judge Wilkerson’s voice was a bit chilly and his eyebrows shot up. Mr Fink hastened to assure the court that no affront was intended. “THE DEFENDANT.”

“I think,” said the judge, “that I would prefer to have the defendant referred to as the defendant ”; and only once the rest of the day did Mr Fink forget himself. Guy 0. Buxton, automobile salesman, testified he first saw Mr and Mrs Capone in his place of business in 1924. He sold a 12,500d0l “special built” cabriolet, which was to bo used by Mrs Capone. Later the car was exchanged for a new model, and Mrs Capone’s chauffeur came for. it, bringing 3,500 dollars in cash to make up the difference between the price of the used car and the new one. C. M. Arl, of the shirt department of the city’s biggest department store,

replaced Mr Buxton on the stand. He identified Mr Capone. He had sold him shirts. No, not out of stock—custom made. “ How much did you get for the shirts, Mr Arl?” asked Grossman. “ From 80 to 27d01 apiece.” Somewhere in the deep court room, back where the blinds were drawn and the shadow was deeper, somebody gave a low whistle of surprise. The gentlemen of the jury cocked their ears, almost wabbled them. They had been stirred out of their lethargy. Judge Wilkerson was ruffling the_ pages of a heavy law volume. He did not even look up. Mr Arl read off an order he got on May 18, 1927: “Four shirts, 22.50d0l each; one for 23.50d01; three for 27.50d0l each; one for 30dol; three at 12dol each; eighteen collars at 2dol each; six collars at Idol each; twenty-four monograms for the sleeve at 17dol.” A low murmur worked its way around the chamber. Two jurors who park their false teeth outside let their upper lips drop a little lower on their chins in astonishment. Mr Arl recited other purchases, batches of shirts at 22d0l each or 24d0l each, more 2dol collars, more monograms, all bought by Capone. Sometimes he had some of his followers with him. He picked their shirting, too, and paid for it, teaching the boys what well-dressed racketeers should wear. As Arl testified Capone shifted a mint in his heavy jaws and stared off into space. A look of baby-like innocence was spread over his countenance. Earl Corbett, another salesman in the shirt department of the same store, noted from his order book that on November 14, 1927, he got 213.50d0l worth of orders . front Mr Capone; sold him twenty-eight ties at 4dol and sdol each, and twenty-eight handkerchiefs at 2.75d0l each. Paul H. Mincer, rug salesman for a Chicago furniture house, took up the thread of Capone expenditures and did a bit of weaving, but didn’t seem to enjoy it. His voice was slightly cracked and quavery. EXPENSIVE RUGS. Yes, he admitted Mr Capone had come in and bought rugs—Chinese rugs. One order ran up to about 1,400 or 1,500d01. Some went to the Capone home in Prairie avenue, some to the Capone headquarters at the Lexington Hotel. Mr Capone paid in currency. F. W. Wehrhan, another rug salesman, told how he sold Mr Capone some rugs in November, 1927, for “ about 3,000 or 4,000dol,” and some bronze elephants and some book ends. The name on the sales slip, he testified, was “ A 1 Brown,” one of the Capone aliases. And he told about chairs. . “ Canary-coloured chairs,” the witness droned as he scanned the sales slip; “canary-coloured tables, green chest, green cabinet.” Capone seems to have a weakness for canary and green. One of his suits was pea green. It was too much for the rural gentlemen in the box. They look like men who would have no use for Chinese rugs and wouldn’t feel right in canary chairs and green rockers. One of them spanned his forehead with a tired hand, as if dazed by it all. Johanna Sullivan, a nice lady in a peach costume and green hat, told or the purchase by Mr Capone, for cash, of a new seven-passenger sedan. Then came C. A. Boy, of Palm Beach, interior decorator. Through Ins testimony the jury got a peep into the bedroom in the Capone winter home on Palm Island, near Miami. He told how Capone picked the drapes and gave his ideas on what to use for the bedspreads and for upholstering. With the end of Roy’s testimony, the morning session ended and the spectators went into the windy streets with an impression of A 1 Capone, the home man; Capone, the Beau Brumraell. REAL ESTATE. The new slant on the seigneur of Chicago’s, underworld went deeper at the afternoon session. Capone wont into court wearing a tan topcoat with a rich brown velvet collar. When Russell Garnett, Miami real estate man, took the stand, a breezy figure in a light suit, white shoes and flaming tie, he flashed him a grin , pf recognition, Mr Gsrngtt told how

he took Mr Capone around Palm Beach in November, 1927, and finally got him a six months’ lease on an Indian Creek property for 2,600d01. That was before Capone bought the Palm Island bungalow. , , . * Mr Natham Shapiro, wholesale jeweller, testified that ne sold Mr Capone a chest of silver for 400dol in December, 1928, then another for 400dol, ana some glassware for 800dol. The glassware items were read into the record, and there was a list of silver champagne buckets and silver trays. Oscar De Feo, partly bald, near* sighted, and rather short,, was the next witness. He is a tailor in a large department store. Yes, he knew M- r Capone; had measured him for suits. He couldn’t recall how many suits he had made for the defendant, more than twenty, and they cost 135d0l each. Ira Gay, of the clothing department in the same store, figured that Ms Capone’s suits and topcoats cost him about 2,635d0l in 1927 and about l,oßodol for part of 1929. They were all paid for in currency, not cheques. ; Sam Steinberg, jeweller, brought ai gasp from the rural gentleman when he told of Mr Capone’s purchase, around Christmas time in .1927, of “ all the beaded bags I had in the place, about twenty of them,” and of thirty diamond belt buckles at 275d0l each. A sample buckle, handed to the jury for inspection, kicked fire and colour where the overhead lights teased it. One juror put on his glasses for a better look at the bauble. UNDERWEAR. Then came the underwear salesman, Mr Oles. Gasps and laughs greeted his description pf the silky underthinga purchased by big Al Capone. “Well," said Mr Owles, “he bought some suits of underwear at 12dolcaeh, athletic style, you know. And another man in the department sold him nine undershirts ana nine shorts at 4dol a garment. He paid it all in cash. . “ Were these undergarments specially made?” Mr Fink wanted to know. “No, sir,” said the underwear man, “They were not specially made, but they wore of th« finest Italian glove silk, ready made,” “ GJove silk? What’s that?" “It is knit silk,”'Mr Oles informed the lawvor “It is similar to the ladies’ silk knit gloves. It’s really just a nice suit of underwear.” . Capone’s head turned around in a: pivotal attempt to show all in the room; that he was laughing with them, but the half-inch scar that seams his left cheek, from temple to the month corner, stood out as he blushed. “The price of that underwear hat come down 2dol now,” the witness informed Mr' Fink.