AL CAPONE IN GAOL

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1934, Page 10

AL CAPONE IN GAOL

ELEVEN YEARS FOR TAX EVASION. PRECAUTIONS AGAINST ESCAPE. Al Capone, the one-time beer king of Chicago, who is serving an 11 years’ sentence for non-jfeyment of incometax, now gazes forlornly over the vast Pacific, or casts his eye longingly on the hill-topped beauty of San Francisco. Cold winds sweep round the island fortress which holds him prisoner, and swift currents rush along its rocky foundation. Alcatraz Island, designed for criminals who restlessly seek to escape or who try to maintain contact with their friends in freedom, is an embattled gaol from whose towers some of the best marksmen of the United States keep unwearying vigil. Water craft, aeroplanes and swimmers are forbidden to ap-.oach. The few visitors who are allowed inside are never out of sight of the guards, and private conversation with any of the convicts is against the rules. Should Al. Capone turn his despairing eyes inside his stone walls, he may find comfort in the fact that his gaolers carry no arms. There are other and more startling means, however, of preventing riots. While the convicts take their meals they can see over their heads rows of steel pipes opening into the long room. Should any disturbanc. arise, streams of tear gas can instantly be projected on the convicts, causing them to weep unceasingly.