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Al Capone — Part 30
Page 2
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ee a a elite
C.
“THAT is just a chapter—albeit the climathe
, chapter—in the story pf the investigating
that ended in Capone's sentence to eleven
"years in prison. The whole story would have
to cover months of painstaking accumula-
_tion of fragmentary bils of evidence, pieces
of a gigantic jig-saw puzzle patiently assem-
tee «Mr. Wilson began to put it together im the
_ summer of 1929, when he was sent to Chicago
' for five months to work on the Lake and
Druggan cases. That done, he returned to
Baltimore, not to go back to Chicago for the
final clean-up until May 1, 1930. It was then
“that he took charge of the Capone case and
embarked upon 4 task that was nol completed
until November, 1031. eighteen months later.
“The reports that we had an ‘army’ of
men working on the case were just a bitte
exaggerated,’ Mr. Wilson said. “As a matter
of fact, seldom were there more than cight
of us, and only five were sent to Chicago for
that particular purpose. I believe 1 was se-
lected because of my familiarity with Chi-
cago. I had worked there on and off since
1920. T bad the very efficient cooperation of
Agents H. N. Clagett, W. C. Hodgins, J. C.
Wesireich, Nak Tessem, M. F, Malone, J.
Sullivan acd many ober offiiess of the Bu
reau of Internal Revenue in gathering the
evidence.”
As he talked, Mr. Wilson, who will be 42
in June, chewed his cigar. The ace investiga-
tor's desk was strewn with papers. There was
one book—a volume on birds.
Mr. Wilson was transferred to the Balti-
MOTE Puss wie Las we weegs Eve years aga,
so that be could settle down, wouldn't have
to travel any more, He smiles when be speaks
‘of it, smiles because in the last four years he
has spent only about nine months in all in
Baltimore. The rest of the time the house be
and Mrs. Wilson bought has been closed.
im
MRS. WILSON accompanied him to Chicago
when he went there to take up the Capone
trail. It is an evidence of the secrecy with
which he and his colleagues worked that for
the first nine months they were there Mrs.
Wilson thought be was “investigating some
politicians.” .
Mr, Wilson was born in Buffalo and schooled
there. He studied law for a while at the Uni-
versity of Buffalo, then embarked in the real
estate business. He enlisted in 1917, bet was
discharged from the army after a few months
for defective sight. Then be joined the Food
Administration 2s an investigator, bls ‘trst
Federal post, and until the end of the war
.’ At the ether extreme was the ina who
* stated he was going to issue five or six checks,
but that he wanted payment stopped on all
“" of them as soon as they were presented.
‘Equally bard to fathom was the process
* of reasoning employed by some panicky peo-
1 ple recently when one of the local chain sys-
- tems was having a slight and altogelbet ur
_. justified run on one of its outlying branches.
They hurriedly withdrew their funds from
+ this branch and, rushing down to the center
‘ad
=" ( PECULIAR CUSTOM ebserv@l by « family of
five was for each of them te-give the “others
a $5 gold piece at Christmas, One coin would
have done the work, but twenty of them were
always solemnly withdrawn just before the
holidays and just as solemnly returned to the
several accounts a few days tbereafter. -
A depositor who was a doctor made it «
rule ta place whatever fees he collected in
the nearest bank in whichever town be hap-
ay
Al
L2/T7; mire
Son
eA nm meg
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