Catching a Killer PROBL SOLUT EM/ ION Nonfiction AL CAPONE Could anyone stop America’s most vicious gangster? S THE LAW on the city of Chicago. The many illegal activities in which he was known to be involved included bootlegging (the A top-notch team finally put Capone behind bars. illegal sale and distribution of alcohol), gambling, bribery, racketeering (getting money through the use of force or E threats), and drug trafficking—not to mention murder. carface. Snorky. The Big Fellow. Maybe these Capone was the head of a powerful organization of nicknames sound a little silly to you, but don’t criminals during the era known as Prohibition (1920- laugh. Each of them once belonged to Al 1933). During Prohibition, it was illegal to produce, sell, Capone, and you don’t want to make Al Capone or transport alcoholic beverages in the United States. liot Ness was going to bring down Al Capone, or he was going to die trying. It was as simple as that. For years, Capone had been robbing, angry. Bad things happen to people who make Al Capone People still wanted alcohol, though, and criminal gangs angry. Really bad things. Found-at-the-bottom-of-a- like Capone’s quickly took over the alcohol industry. illegal businesses in Chicago. The whole country river-with-a-hole-in-the-head kinds of things. Competition among the gangs was fierce and violent; knew about it, but no one seemed able to stop him. Capone’s rivals had a habit of turning up dead. Herbert Hoover, who became President in 1929, found During the 1920s, this notorious gangster held a tight grip reportedly $100,000,000 a year—a stunning amount of money at that time. The public, as well as law-enforcement In 1930, Chicago declared Capone “Public Enemy Number One.” officials, was well-aware of Capone’s activities. For example, he was widely believed to be behind the brutal shootings of seven members of a rival gang on February 14, 1929. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, as it became known, made national headlines—though neither Capone nor anyone else was ever arrested for the murders. So how did Capone get away with it all? For one thing, he bribed the police and other public officials. Capone was also very good at making sure his name never appeared on any document linked to his illegal activities. He did not hold bank accounts or sign checks. In cases of murder, Capone always had an alibi. He was not able to avoid the law forever, though. In 1931, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released after 8 years, at which time he was very sick. His reign of crime was over and he died, quietly, 8 years after being released. 14 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • APRIL 4, 2011 the situation appalling. He decided it was time for the Between 1925 and 1930, Capone’s income was • federal government to step in and finally stop Capone. A special unit was formed to close down Capone’s NESS: ©HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; WILSON: ©THE GRANGER COLLECTION, NEW YORK; HOOVER: ©BETTMANN/CORBIS; NEWSPAPER: ©THE HISTORICAL NEW YORK TIMES. he was alive, Capone was not the type of guy to cross. killing, and running millions of dollars worth of CAPONE: ©TOPHAM/IMAGE WORKS; PAPER: COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION; MUGSHOTS: ©BETTMANN/CORBIS. Well, OK—Capone has been dead since 1947. But when Al Capone met his match in Eliot Ness (top), Herbert Hoover (bottom), and Frank J. Wilson (left). but another team of federal agents. At the same time that Ness’s unit was going after Capone for bootlegging, a team headed by Frank J. Wilson was gathering evidence against Capone for tax multimillion-dollar bootleg business and to prosecute evasion, or not paying taxes. Wilson proved that Capone Capone for violating the Prohibition laws. Ness was had made millions and millions of dollars and never chosen to be its leader. He was a young Bureau of paid a single cent in taxes—a major crime. Prohibition agent with a reputation for honesty and reliability. He also had a lot of guts. Through painstaking investigative work, Ness and On October 17, 1931, Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison. When a new prison opened on Alcatraz Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay in 1934, his team began to uncover Capone’s beer and liquor Capone was transferred there. Alcatraz was designed businesses—and to shut them down. Capone was to be the ultimate prison, a place for America’s worst furious, but he had his ways of dealing with problems criminals. And that—despite his official crime of tax like Ness. First, he tried bribing Ness. That failed, so evasion—was exactly what Capone was. Capone ordered his henchmen to follow the agents and tap their phones. He stationed gangsters outside Ness’s parents’ house. Ness refused to be intimidated. He • PROBLEM /SOLUTION refused even after Capone murdered one of Ness’s best friends, and even after Capone tried—three times— to have Ness himself murdered. Ness severely damaged Capone’s business. What finally brought Capone down, though, was not Ness, GET THIS ACTIVITY ONLINE SCHOLASTIC.COM/SCOPE • APRIL 4, 2011 15
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