Scarface and the Untouchable

by Max Allan Collins

  Wilson’s own writings contradict the 1928 or 1929 date. In his Collier’s article (Wilson and Whitman, “Undercover Man,” p. 14), Wilson claims he got the Capone assignment because of his work on Druggan and Lake, both of whom were indicted in October 1929 (CT, October 12, 1931). In his memoir (Wilson and Day, Special Agent, pp. 29–30), Wilson gives the date of his arrival as 1928, but claims he was sent to Chicago after the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and Herbert Hoover’s inauguration, both of which happened in 1929.

  The best evidence for Wilson’s arrival in Chicago is in his diary (cited above). The diary ends in early June but proves Wilson was based in Baltimore before May 1930, working primarily on other cases. His visit to Chicago in mid-April appears to have been primarily concerned with Druggan and Lake, although he did some work on the Ralph Capone case and sat in on a meeting with Mattingly at A. P. Madden’s request. The entries for May 15 and 16, 1930, record Wilson’s meetings with Irey and other top officials in Washington to discuss the “Chicago cases,” after which Wilson “arranged to Be in Chgo. on May 26th, 1930.” These were almost certainly the meetings where Irey assigned Wilson to the Capone case full time.

  Wilson’s accounts of the Capone case also stretch the truth about his plans to meet with Lingle. His summary account of the Capone case gives the date of his Tribune meeting as June 1, and states that Lingle “was murdered before they were able to fix the date of the interview with me” (IRS-2, p. 54). But in his Collier’s article, Wilson claimed Lingle died just “twenty-four hours before” their scheduled meeting (Wilson and Whitman, “Undercover Man,” p. 15), and in his memoir, the two men were set to meet within forty-eight hours (Wilson and Day, Special Agent, p. 31). Nothing in Wilson’s summary report supports his claim (in both the Collier’s article and in Special Agent) that the editor he met with was Robert McCormick. Wilson’s diary is blank on June 1, the date given in IRS-2 for his meeting at the Tribune, but June 2 notes a visit to an “H. Ellis,” apparently an attorney, at the Tribune.

  Chapter Seventeen

  LINGLE MURDER: CHE, June 10–11, 1930 (June 10, “Play Hy Schneider,” “I’ve got him,” “REPORTER KILLED BY”; June 11, “a new high,” “This city is”). CT, June 10–11, 1930 (June 11, “The meaning of,” “There will be”); June 13–14, 1930; June 30, 1930 (“Alfred Lingle now,” “undreamed of,” “That he is”). Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 267–308 (267, “A prize specimen,” “unofficial chief of”; 268, “A Christmas present”; 270, “He knew all”; 271, “that nether stratum”; 280, “A Tribune man”; 285, “fixed the price,” “Lingle’s multifarious activities”). Edward Dean Sullivan, “Who Killed Jake Lingle?” True Detective, December 1930, pp. 20–25 (22, “Catch him!”), 104–108, 112. Boettiger, Jake Lingle, pp. 15–124. Enright, Al Capone on the Spot, pp. 81–95. Burns, One-Way Ride, pp. 283–298 (285, “Just a happy”; 289, “I am being”). Sullivan, Chicago Surrenders, pp. 3–12 (6, “Jake’s like a”; 9, “a major power”), 21–29. Kobler, Capone, pp. 290–299 (295, “a $65-a-week”), 308. Scott Miller, “The Assassination of Jake Lingle,” Chicago Reader, March 20, 1981, pp. 1, 20–24, 29–32. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 274–279 (275, “a $65-a-week”). Hecht and Macarthur, The Front Page, p. 86 (“a cross between”).

  LINGLE FUNERAL / SOUTH WABASH RAID AND WIRETAP: CEP, June 12, 1930. CDN, June 12, 1930. CT, June 12–13, 1930; June 13, 1931. CHE, June 13, 1930; June 13, 1931. U.S. v. Alphonse Capone, et al., indictment, June 1931, p. 7, Case No. 23256, in “Fusco, Joseph C. (Joe)” folder, Box 86, KC. Dillard, “How the U.S. Gov’t,” p. 56. Elsie L. Warnock, “Terms of Approbation and Eulogy in American Dialect Speech,” Dialect Notes, vol. 4, pt. 1 (New Haven, CT: Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor, 1913), p. 22 (“stylish,” “up-to-date”). Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, p. 176.

  The raid on 2108 South Wabash bears strong similarities to the raid on 2271 Lumber Street described in Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, pp. 70–73. Both accounts have the agents surprised to find heavy steel doors barring the entrance to the brewery, which keep them from entering quickly. But the actual raid on the Lumber Street brewery occurred much later (CDN, January 8, 1932; CT, January 9, 1932).

  Almost certainly, Fraley took Ness’s memories of the Wabash raid and applied them to newspaper clippings (in Ness’s scrapbooks) describing the later raid on Lumber Street. It’s also likely the detail in The Untouchables of Ness using his .38 Colt revolver to shoot open the lock on the steel door (p. 72) is an embellishment of Fraley’s. Tests carried out on the Discovery Channel show Mythbusters prove a handgun of that caliber would not be powerful enough to spring a lock, and that shooting a lock at close range would send dangerous shrapnel flying at anyone standing nearby. (Mythbusters, “Mega Movie Myths: Shootin’ Locks,” Discovery Channel, video, 5:49, September 13, 2006, http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/mega-movie-myths-shootin-locks/ [accessed April 22, 2016].)

  LINGLE BALLISTICS EVIDENCE: CDN, July 1, 1930 (“This town is”). Sullivan, Chicago Surrenders, pp. 15–17. Kobler, Capone, pp. 301–302. Hoffman, Scarface Al, p. 97. Keefe, Man Who Got Away, p. 186.

  NESS AND FOSTER’S GUN: Ness MS., pp. 18, 20 (“one of the”), in ENPS, Roll 1, Folder 2. See also Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, pp. 132–136, 151–157.

  The Daily News (CDN, July 1, 1930) claimed Jamie confiscated the gun from Foster, but they may have been generalizing, referring to members of Jamie’s squad (Ness and Lahart) and not Jamie personally.

  FOSTER’S ARREST AND RELEASE: Sullivan, Chicago Surrenders, pp. 17–18, 28–29. Burns, One-Way Ride, p. 296. Kobler, Capone, p. 302. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 279–280. Hoffman, Scarface Al, pp. 97–98. Keefe, Man Who Got Away, pp. 267, 270–271, 279.

  LINGLE MURDER INVESTIGATION: Boettiger, Jake Lingle, pp. 15–124. Eghigian, After Capone, pp. 167, 469.

  ZUTA: CT, July 1–2, 1930; July 24, 1930. Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 299 (“brains”), 301–305 (301, “a shrewder mind”; 305, “If we can”). Sullivan, “Who Killed,” pp. 108–109. Burns, One-Way Ride, pp. 293–295, 298–301 (298, “a noisome, slime-bred,” “spill his guts”; 300, “Here they come”; 301, “I’ll bet I”). Boettiger, Jake Lingle, p. 105 (“safe spot”). Sullivan, Chicago Surrenders, pp. 50–54 (51–52, “I’ll be killed”). Kobler, Capone, pp. 303–305. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 280–281. Keefe, Man Who Got Away, p. 193.

  BRUNDIDGE INTERVIEWS CAPONE: CT, July 13, 1930; July 19–20, 1930 (July 19, quotes).

  ZUTA MURDER AND AFTERMATH: Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 305–310. Sullivan, “Who Killed,” pp. 109–110, 112. Boettiger, Jake Lingle, pp. 107–124. Burns, One-Way Ride, pp. 302–305. Sullivan, Chicago Surrenders, pp. 54–60, 64–66. Kobler, Capone, pp. 305–306.

  Chapter Eighteen

  WILSON AND O’HARE: Ward, “Man Who Got,” p. 7 (“Every witness we”). IRS-2, p. 51. “The Press: Reporter Rogers,” Time, March 15, 1937, p. 49 (“The whores”). CT, November 16, 1939. Frank J. Wilson, Inside the Secret Service, pp. 25-A–25-B, 32–38, in Box 12, “Manuscripts—Inside the Secret Service By Frank J. Wilson” folder, FJW (35–36, “He didn’t then”; 38, “I saw my,” “Eddie said here’s”). Wilson and Day, Special Agent, pp. 31–32, 39–40. Spiering, Man Who Got Capone, pp. 77, 79–84 (83, “received a big,” “unreported income of”). Calder, Origins and Development, pp. 138–139 (139, “knocked off”), 257–258. Ewing and Lundstrom, Fateful Rendezvous, pp. 8–9, 33–38 (38, “If we have”). Cook, King of the Bootleggers, pp. 105–107.

  Wilson’s unpublished memoir, like the published versions “Undercover Man” and Special Agent, omits any reference to tracing profits from the Hawthorne Kennel Club, instead claiming Rogers arranged for O’Hare to meet Wilson to satisfy O’Hare’s desire to help out on the Capone case. But the version presented by Calder, and substantiated by the documents Calder cites, seems much more credible.

  Many sources, following Wilson’s version of events (cited above), claim or imply O’Hare sought some sort of deal to win a place for his son at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapol
is, Maryland, in exchange for O’Hare informing on Capone. Ewing and Lundstrom (Fateful Rendezvous, pp. 33–37) debunk this at length, though their theorizing about O’Hare’s true motives for informing (drawing upon the rosy recollections of his relatives) are less convincing.

  Perry (Eliot Ness, p. 97) lists O’Hare (along with Leslie Shumway and Parker Henderson) as one of the witnesses who testified against Capone in open court during his tax trial, apparently unaware O’Hare’s role in the investigation was kept confidential.

  GUZIK INVESTIGATION / FRED RIES: CT, November 20, 1930; November 16, 1931. IRS-1, pp. 5, 7. CHE, October 14, 1931. IRS-2, pp. 4–5, 17–24 (17, “When we questioned”), 36. CDN, February 26, 1936. Howard R. Marsh, “Untold Tales of the Secret Service,” Liberty, January 16, 1937, pp. 14–15. Wilson and Whitman, “Undercover Man,” p. 82. Irey and Slocum, Tax Dodgers, pp. 46–48. Wilson and Day, Special Agent, pp. 46–48. Spiering, Man Who Got Capone, pp. 140–141. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, p. 256. Eghigian, After Capone, pp. 129, 145, 168.

  Wilson and Whitman (“Undercover Man,” p. 82) don’t explain how the Intelligence Unit linked “Dunbar” and Ries. Marsh (“Untold Tales,” p. 14) credits Leslie Shumway, but this is impossible, as Wilson hadn’t yet found him. Wilson and Day (Special Agent, pp. 46–47) credit a bank teller with giving them a description of the “Fred” who purchased the checks, and telling Wilson about Ries’s supposed fear of insects, but this seems too neat. Spiering (Man Who Got Capone, pp. 140–141) credits O’Hare with tipping Wilson off to Dunbar’s identity, as does CT, November 16, 1939.

  Irey and Slocum (Tax Dodgers, p. 47) give a slightly different account of Ries’s capture, with Wilson learning of Ries’s location after encountering a “hoodlum” who had just been in St. Louis, but this seems too coincidental. The CT article also differs, claiming John Rogers and the local authorities induced Ries to cross into Illinois, though it doesn’t explain why federal officials would need him to cross state lines (CT, November 16, 1939).

  Years later, Wilson would claim it took more than simple persuasion to get Ries to talk. Knowing the cashier had a crippling fear of insects, Wilson supposedly arranged to lock him in a cell swarming with bugs until he cracked (Wilson and Whitman, “Undercover Man,” p. 82; Wilson and Day, Special Agent, pp. 48–49). But Wilson’s habit of stretching the truth casts doubt. There’s no contemporary evidence any of this happened; another report had it that the Intelligence Unit moved Ries around between several jails until he gave in (CT, November 16, 1939). Irey and Slocum (Tax Dodgers, pp. 47–48) make no mention of the infested cell. Neither does Marsh (“Untold Tales,” p. 14), though he describes the jail as hot, “uncomfortable,” and infested with rats.

  If the story of the roach-ridden cell is in any way true, it could have undermined the government’s whole case. Such psychological torture is tantamount to coercion, no less than if Wilson had beaten Ries until he talked. Any statement obtained under duress couldn’t be trusted; a good lawyer could get such testimony thrown out of court. And without Ries’s word, the Dunbar checks proved nothing.

  When the American Bar Association held a mock retrial of the Al Capone tax case in 1990, the defense made Wilson’s coercion of Ries a central part of their argument. This destroyed the jury’s faith in Ries’s testimony and contributed to their verdict of not guilty. But Thomas R. Mulroy Jr., who played a prosecutor at the mock trial, later explained evidence of coercion wouldn’t have meant as much to a jury in 1931 as in 1990. During Jack Guzik’s tax trial in 1930, the defense tried to attack Ries’s credibility on similar grounds, but apparently got nowhere with the jury. (CT, November 20, 1930; August 6, 1990. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 257, 324.)

  WILSON FINDS LEDGER: Ward, “Man Who Got,” p. 7 (“By midnight I,” “As I was,” “As soon as”). IRS-2, pp. 4–5, 35 (“town,” “Ralph,” “Pete,” “Frank paid $17,500”). CDN, February 27, 1936. Marsh, “Untold Tales,” pp. 13–14. Hirsch and Mayer, “Behind the Scenes,” p. 15. CT, November 16, 1939. Metz, “Mystery of Eddie,” p. 91. Hynd, Giant Killers, p. 56. Wilson and Whitman, “Undercover Man,” p. 15. Irey and Slocum, Tax Dodgers, pp. 52–53. Hearings Before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, pt. 2, p. 169. Wilson and Day, Special Agent, pp. 36–37.

  The date that Wilson found the ledger is conjectural. Wilson later noted the “investigation had proceeded for several months” since May 1930 before he found the ledger (IRS-2, p. 5), and after they identified Shumway’s handwriting, they searched “four months” before finding him in Miami the following February (ibid., p. 6). In an interview, Wilson said the Intelligence Unit “worked another month” to identify the handwriting as Shumway’s (Ward, “Man Who Got,” p. 7). Therefore, if they began searching for Shumway circa October 1930, September is the most likely month for Wilson’s discovery of the ledger. It certainly wasn’t “a bitter cold night in the winter of 1929,” as Marsh (p. 13) claims.

  Wilson’s accounts offer slightly differing versions of how he learned Shumway’s name. Both “Undercover Man” and Special Agent suggest he learned of Shumway through handwriting comparisons alone, but in the Baltimore Sun interview (his earliest known narrative of the case) Wilson clearly states he somehow knew Shumway had filled out the ledger, even though the handwriting didn’t match. The CT article, on the other hand, states O’Hare told Wilson about Shumway, and the True Detective article implies it. The True Detective article claims “government men were looking for Shumway for a long time before they . . . finally located him . . . on an anonymous tip,” which investigators later suspected came from O’Hare. “Undercover Man” and Special Agent both refer to an unnamed “tipster” who gave Wilson a description of Shumway and suggested he might be found in Miami; this might also be a reference to O’Hare. O’Hare’s prior history with Shumway seems to bear this supposition out. Furthermore, O’Hare’s involvement solves the apparent contradiction in Wilson’s narratives; Shumway kept books for Capone, Wilson knew, but needed the handwriting sample to prove it.

  NITTO ARREST AND CONVICTION: CT, October 31, 1930. Boettiger, Jake Lingle, pp. 186–188. Dillard, “How the U.S. Gov’t,” p. 54. IRS-2, p. 49. CDN, February 25, 1936. Irey and Slocum, Tax Dodgers, pp. 48–50. Wilson and Day, Special Agent, p. 41. Eghigian, After Capone, pp. 168–173, 177–182 (178, “a velvet glove,” “no suggestion of”; 180, “useful life”; 181, “I have never”).

  GUZIK CONVICTED / RIES IN HIDING: CT, November 20, 1930. Ward, “Man Who Got,” p. 7 (“When the witnesses”). Robert Isham Randolph, “Secret Six,” The Clevelander, vol. 6, no. 12 (April 1932), p. 29, in RIR Scrapbook III. Detroit Saturday Night, February 13, 1932, in RIR Scrapbook III. IRS-2, p. 18. Japan Advertiser, March 3, 1934, in RIR Scrapbook IV, p. 64. CDN, February 26, 1936. Marsh, “Untold Tales,” p. 15. Robert Isham Randolph to Frank J. Wilson, November 17, 1946, in Box 5, “Auctorial—Correspondence, 1946” folder, FJW. Wilson and Whitman, “Undercover Man,” p. 82. Irey and Slocum, Tax Dodgers, p. 48. Wilson and Day, Special Agent, p. 49.

  MATTINGLY LETTER / CAPONE TRIES TO SETTLE: Pasley, Al Capone, p. 87 (“sources of income”). David Burnet, memorandum to Walter E. Hope, December 18, 1930, in Presidential Subject Series, Box 164, “Federal Bureau of Investigation—Capone Tax Case, 1930–1931” folder, HHPL (“at least $3,500,000,” “I have been”). Louis H. Wilson Witness Transcript, pp. 19–20, in Box 1, “Transcripts From U.S. v. Al Capone (Various Witnesses) (1 of 2)” folder, USvAC (“Mr. Mattingly . . . said”). IRS-2, pp. 25–26. Ross, Trial of Al Capone, pp. 58–61 (61, “taxable income for”). Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 259–260. Trespacz, Trial of Gangster Al Capone, pp. 56–59, 65–66. Eig, Get Capone, pp. 298–299.

  ROCHE’S RAIDS: Boettiger, Jake Lingle, pp. 125–135, 147–188. Kobler, Capone, p. 307.

  LYLE’S VAGRANCY WARRANTS: CT, September 17, 1930 (“Public Enemies”); October 5, 1930 (“There’s Al Capone”); December 19, 1930 (“reptile”). Lyle, Dry and Lawless Years, pp. 232–238 (233, “I had within”). Schoe
nberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 300–301. Hoffman, Scarface Al, pp. 118–122 (118, “lawfully provid[ing] for,” “houses of ill”), 125–129 (129, “It sought to”).

  CAPONE OFFERS LINGLE’S KILLER: John Boettiger, “The First Story of Al Capone in Lingle Inquiry,” CT, April 20, 1931 (quotes). Boettiger, Jake Lingle, pp. 177–188. Binder, Al Capone’s Beer Wars, pp. 232–233.

  AIELLO MURDER: CT, October 24, 1930. Enright, Al Capone on the Spot, pp. 64–68. Burns, One-Way Ride, pp. 305–306. “ ‘Red’ Barker, the Racketeer, Assassinated,” n.p., n.d., in Box 0202, “[Capone, Alphonse] Capone-Atlanta #1 [40886-A] [Folder 4 of 4]” folder, BOP-AP. Eghigian, After Capone, pp. 123–124, 173–175.

  Chapter Nineteen

  SOUP KITCHEN: CEP, November 14, 1930 (“keen-eyed, silent men,” “FREE SOUP, COFFEE,” “Today it became,” “out of the,” “Nobody else was,” “at a cost”). CT, December 25, 1930; April 29, 1932; May 7, 1932; February 14, 1980 (“At that time”). CHE, April 29, 1932. Borden, “Chicago Revisited,” p. 542 (“a connection between”). Vanderbilt, “How Al Capone,” p. 18 (“If machines are”). James Doherty, “How Capone Captured Hinky Dink!” CT Magazine, July 20, 1952. Lyle, Dry and Lawless Years, p. 41. Allsop, Bootleggers, pp. 241, 280–281. Murray, Legacy of Al Capone, pp. 22, 145–146, 163–167 (163, “You gotta have,” “Do you guys”). Kobler, Capone, p. 315 (“My brother is”). Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, p. 179. Bergreen, Capone, pp. 400–403. Russo, Outfit, pp. 78–81. “Capone’s Soup Kitchen—221178–17,” Footage Farm, August 11, 2016, 02:24, https://youtu.be/yCMEzxJpQTs (accessed April 4, 2017) (“first real meal,” “It wasn’t for,” “Look at what”). Paula Mejia, “The Capones’ Foray Into the Dairy Business,” Atlas Obscura, February 9, 2018, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/al-ralph-capone-dairy-industry-milk-cheese (accessed February 9, 2018).