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Al Capone — Part 28
Page 39
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t
CRIME
Capone & Caponies
Alphonse Capone-cocked one blue-clad
leg over another blue-clad lee in Chicago's
Federal Court Last week. and every news-
hawk in the courtroom® gasped in amaze-
ment. Snorkey wore no garters.
As acutely sensitive to Snorkey Capone's
fartorial condition as the newshawks were;
the jury that was trying him for attempt-
ing to evade payment of 2 £215,000 Fed-
tral Tax on $1.038.0¢5 income from 1974
to 1929; Judee James Herbert Wilkerson;
Prosecutor Georee Emmerson Q. John-
son; Defense Attorneys Michael! Ahern
and Albert Fink After hearing Snorkey
linked to Cicero g2mtiine houses ('goid-
belching pits of e: i!" 10 eloquent Michael
Straus of the New Vork Evening Post)
and hearing accounts of lavish personal
and houschold expenditures in Florida
(Trae, Oct. 19) the judee. the jury and
the reporters had been treated to a de-
talled description of the rich raiment in
which Gangster Capone clothed himself.
Eleven rustic jurors and one from the city
had listened, gaping, to witnesses who told
S Among them: o sence-sncation of hl oh
ae Scicace Afeetter, which widom prints erime
Pens
about the $135 suits be bought by the
half-dozen, the $27.50 shirts ordered by
the dozen, the Sro hats & shoes, S150
overcoats. the 30 diamond belt buckles
for which he had paid $275 each.
The newshawks jJooked temporarily
baffled, then went out and began writing
stories about who would succeed Snor-
key as gang chief, Consensus was thet
it would be cocky, sleek-baired Hymie
Levin, not his quieter Heutenant, Mur-
ray Humphries. Editor Jack Leach of
The Daily Northwestern, student paper
at Northwestern University. published an
editoria] entitied “Get This, Capone,”
warning Snorkey not to attend any more
football games.
Next move for the prosecution was to
call bald. be-spectacied Fred Ries; who
testified he handled the finances of four
Cicero gambling bouses. gave the checks
te wizened Hitle Bobby Barton, chsuticut
for Jack Gusick, Capone's “financial sec-
retary.” Barton. known as “The Little
Man,” did not tesfify, but kept ponoing in
& out of court to be identibed. Snorkey
seemed interested in Riess testimony.
caused spectators to recall gossip that
gangsters were Jookine for him since he
helped to get Gusick a five-year sentence.
A handwriting expert identified Capone's
Signature on onc of the checks Ries said
were gambling profits Up jumped T’rose-
tutor Johnson. spoke bis first words of the
tria]:*
“The Government rests.”
a nr ee ee
The Defense was not ready. Sadly. in-
dignantly Lawyer Fink protested that
was unfair to give him no wxrning. J
fense would have to be ready by rc a. m.
wext day.
By 10. m. Lawyers Abern & Fink had
assembled eight bookmakers with shiny
abocs. To them Snorkey was Bo smart
mbler. One William Vario said Snorkey
d lox some $50,000 in two years to
him, Bookie Sam Gitelson thought his
ts were $25,000. Bookie George
rman took another $::.000. Bookie
Milton Held. got $33.000. A sharp-eyed
hunchback named Oscar Gutter swore he ~
had won $30.000 from Capone; Harry Bel-
ford, better known as “Hickory Stim. the
Dice Guy.” $z5.0c0. Other bookmakers
got smaller amounts. Altozc:her Snorkey's
fondness for playing the Caponies seemed
to have cost him some §200.000. Snorkey _
smirked. did not seem ashamed. One Bud |
Gentry brfezed up om the siond, recalled
that Prizefighters Sharkey & Stribling and
Sire, Tex Rickard had been Capone's
geests in Florida. said that at the end of
the 1929 racing season he had won $110.-
ooo from Snorkey. He could not remem-
ber any of the horses Snorkey had bet on.
The defense rested.
During much of one day‘s testimony
Snorkey had his eyes on slim Beatrice
Lillie, who sat with the reporters. He
wanted to meet her. but his wyers ob-
jected. Chirruped Actress Lillie: “Well,
I wasn't billed. but if pressed I'll sing a
gong for you.”
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