“Everywhere they went”: ibid., pp. 186–187.
“angry that the whole”: ibid., p. 188.
“The brakes shrieked”: ibid., p. 189.
Capone henchmen kidnapped: St. John interview; St. John, This Was My World, p. 190.
“He was rather dark”: ibid., pp. 190–191.
“as clean-cut”: ibid., p. 191–192.
talcum powder: St. John interview.
“He was impeccably”: St. John, This Was My World, pp. 192–194.
“Maybe you don’t”: ibid., p. 195.
“I telegraphed”: St. John interview.
As he was delivering: St. John, This Was My World, pp. 196–197.
The journalists: Author’s interview with Tony Berardi.
rumors trailed him: Author’s confidential interview.
Chapter 3: Memento Mori
the survey: CCC.
“Two-thirds”: Sullivan, Rattling the Cup, p. 49; Allsop, The Bootleggers, p. 76.
“You can hardly”: Literary Digest, October 30, 1926.
$1 million annually: Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, p. 344.
“Dion was all right”: Sullivan, Rattling the Cup, p. 48.
Torrio proposed: Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, p. 345.
“alky-cookers”: Pasley, Al Capone, p. 49; Allsop, The Bootleggers, pp. 76–77.
Gennas’ homemade brew: Kobler, Capone, pp. 90–91.
When the Gennas began: Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, pp. 345–347.
“He was spoiling”: Sullivan, Rattling the Cup, p. 49.
retire from bootlegging: Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, pp. 348–349.
“Oh, to hell”: ibid., p. 349; Pasley, Al Capone, p. 50.
Don Miguel Merlo: Balsamo and Carpozi, Under the Clock, p. 188.
Mike Merlo’s passing: Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, pp. 349–350; Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 54–55. Pasley says that the effigy was made of wax rather than flowers.
The selection: Kobler, Capone, p. 127.
“Two of them”: ibid., p. 128.
“Hello, boys”: Burns, The One-Way Ride, p. 101.
the police did not try: Pasley, Al Capone, p. 57.
John A. Sbarbaro: ibid., p. 58.
“lay in state”: Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, p. 351.
“the Simon Legree”: Pasley, Al Capone, p. 51.
The cortege: ibid., p. 58; Burns, The One-Way Ride, pp. 104–105.
“Are we living”: Allsop, The Bootleggers, p. 87.
“O’Banion was a thief”: Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, p. 352.
Sylvester Barton: Allsop, The Bootleggers, p. 91.
Johnny Torrio traveled south: Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, p. 353.
“Hymie” Weiss: ibid., p. 352.
“You’d expect”: Kobler, Capone, p. 84.
“That’s a beautiful”: ibid., p. 85.
Thompson submachine gun: Helmer, The Gun that Made the Twenties Roar, passim; Levell and Helmer, The Quotable Al Capone, pp. 29–34.
“Sure Defense”: Levell and Helmer, The Quotable Al Capone, p. 34.
The gun sold: Kobler, Capone, p. 97.
“That’s the gun!”: Sullivan, Rattling the Cup, p. 37.
kidnapped the new man: Kobler, Capone, pp. 135–136.
On January 24: Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, p. 353; Allsop, The Bootleggers, p. 92.
“loud, checked suit”: McPhaul, Johnny Torrio, pp. 33–34.
“I know you”: ibid., pp. 34–35.
“most brutal gunman”: Kobler, Capone, p. 96.
When he was: McPhaul, Johnny Torrio, p. 215.
“I know who”: Lyle, The Dry and Lawless Years, pp. 111–112; Allsop, The Bootleggers, p. 92.
the “Terrible Germas”: Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, pp. 355–356; CT, May 11, 1929.
Capone moved: CT, October 10, 1931.
“The first time”: Author’s interview with Tony Berardi.
Capone appeared: Author’s interview with Stanley Pieza.
“There was a lot”: Berardi interview.
“I never saw”: ibid.
“There were roughly”: ibid.
“I used to work”: ibid.
“Kid, how you doing?”: ibid.
The first time: Lyle, The Dry and Lawless Years, p. 115.
“was a miserable”: ibid.
“This is the last”: CT, October 8, 1931.
“What is your”: Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 72–73.
“The body was”: ibid., pp. 78–79.
“Preceding the portable”: ibid.
the schvitz: Author’s confidential interviews.
In search of a cure: Balsamo and Carpozi, Under the Clock, p. 202.
Chicago’s supply: Woods, “Was the First Interstate Trucking Pioneer . . . Al Capone?” Dunes Country Magazine, Summer 1982.
The plan was: Balsamo and Carpozi, Under the Clock, pp. 202–205.
Capone, Scalise, and Anselmi: ibid., pp. 206–209.
“You can bet”: Kobler, Capone, p. 164.
“I was visiting”: New York Daily News, August 15, 1982.
“Chicago is the imperial”: Johnston, “Gangs à la Mode,” The New Yorker, August 25, 1928.
After Dion O’Banion: ibid.
“reign of terror”: Allsop, The Bootleggers, pp. 100–101; Kobler, Capone, pp. 166–167.
“The first shipment”: Woods, “Was the First.”
“If Al Capone”: ibid.
Jack Richie: ibid.
MCSWIGGIN: CT, April 29, 1926.
on the last day: Spiering, The Man Who Got Capone, p. 10.
“idolized his brilliant son”: Lyle, The Dry and Lawless Years, p. 81.
“I have an appointment”: Burns, The One-Way Ride, p. 162.
“ ‘Samoots’ Amatuna”: ibid., p. 164.
“ ‘Scarface’ was at”: ibid., p. 165; Chicago Daily News, May 1, 1926.
“I saw a closed”: Wendt and Lloyd, Big Bill of Chicago, p. 452.
“Pretty cold-blooded”: Kobler, Capone, p. 175.
“Mrs. McSwiggin was”: Chicago Daily News, April 28, 1926.
Gangsters Turn: CT, April 28, 1926.
BARE MCSWIGGIN: Chicago Daily News, April 28, 1926.
wielded sledgehammers: CT, April 30, 1926.
“such as was”: CT, April 29, 1926.
The police then invaded: Chicago Daily News, May 8, 1926.
“Let him stay”: CT, April 29, 1926.
“On the way”: CT, May 2, 1926.
“I thought my life”: Spiering, The Man Who Got Capone, p. 13.
“He was only”: Burns, The One-Way Ride, p. 162.
“It will be”: Spiering, The Man Who Got Capone, p. 12.
“The town is wet”: Kobler, Capone, p. 169.
“Everybody knows that”: Chicago Daily News, April 30, 1926.
“When I wanted”: Kobler, Capone, p. 173.
It has been: Pasley, Al Capone, p. 131.
“All of the investigators”: Lyle, The Dry and Lawless Years, p. 81.
“A conspiracy of silence”: Sullivan, Rattling the Cup, p. 141.
print their full names: Chicago Daily News, May 3, 1926.
cartoon cynically detailed: Chicago Daily News, April 30, 1926.
“Why not blame”: Chicago Daily News, May 3, 1926.
“10,000 gallons”: Indictment dated September 1926, District Court of the United States of America for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. NAGL.
For the week: Kobler, Capone, p. 179.
“She was the best”: Burke interview.
“One day my maid”: ibid.
Chapter 4: Round Lake Refuge
Angelo Mastropietro: Author’s interview with Grazia Mastropietro.
“Life was very hard”: ibid.
“The men who worked”: ibid.
lavished presents: ibid.
“Al Capone and his family”: ibid.
two principal bodyguards: Russo interview.
“We were all thrilled”: Author’s interview with Giovanna
Antonucci.
The Al Capone he knew: Russo interview.
“When he was angry”: ibid.
“He even controlled”: ibid.
“In those days”: ibid.
“Angelo was”: ibid.
“In my personal”: ibid.
“He never carried”: ibid.
“John O’Brien came”: G. Mastropietro interview.
“could be tough”: Russo interview.
“When I first”: letter from Lloyd Moles to author, January 2, 1992.
Saginaw Street: G. Mastropietro interview.
“He took us kids”: Antonucci interview.
“I remember him”: G. Mastropietro interview.
“My brother and I”: Antonucci interview.
“You were brought”: G. Mastropietro interview.
“My mother would say”: ibid.
“There was one family”: G. Mastropietro interview.
No, Angelo counseled: ibid.
“Al loved music”: ibid.
the assassination of the superintendent: For a full account of this event, see Gambino, Vendetta, and Botein, The Hennessy Case.
the first time: Organized Crime: Twenty-Five Years After Valachi, p. 294.
“Who killa”: Katz, “The Hennessy Affair,” New Orleans, October 1990.
“NONE GUILTY!”: New Orleans Daily Picayune, March 14, 1891.
White League: Botein, The Hennessy Case, p. 22.
Arriving at the prison: Kendall, “Who Killa De Chief?” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, April 1939; Botein, The Hennessy Case, pp. 111–112.
women stopped by: Gambino, Vendetta, p. 87.
“terribly effective”: NYT, March 15, 1891.
speaking tour: Katz, “Hennessy Affair.”
“I intend”: Gambino, Vendetta, p. 162.
He began holding: Russo and G. Mastropietro interviews.
On July 28, 1926: Landesco, Organized Crime in Chicago, p. 19.
“We have been talking”: Kobler, Capone, p. 181.
Chapter 5: The Return of Al Capone
On July 29, 1926: Pasley, Al Capone, p. 132.
“Of course”: Kobler, Capone, pp. 181–182.
“Why should I”: Landesco, Organized Crime in Chicago, pp. 19–29.
“I paid McSwiggin”: Kobler, Capone, pp. 181–182.
“This complaint”: Pasley, Al Capone, p. 132.
“If you think”: ibid., p. 134.
Thorn Grove: Holli and Jones, p. 240.
“was a place”: ibid.
Vincenzo Ammarati: Petition for Naturalization, March 30, 1922, Cook County, City of Chicago Heights, Illinois, #1414. His petition for naturalization was “Vacated, Cancelled and Set aside” in 1932, when he ran permanently afoul of the law.
Frankie La Porte: Petition for Naturalization, May 20, 1926, Cook County, City of Chicago Heights, Illinois, #1334.
Rio Burke: Burke interview.
April 14, 1924: CT, April 13, 1986.
“Dominic made”: Burke interview.
“Of course Al”: ibid.
“While we lived”: ibid.
violating the Volstead Act: CT, April 13, 1986.
“I became”: Burke interview.
“shot four times”: Chicago Heights Star, April 24, 1924.
On June 2, 1926: Chicago Heights Star, June 4, 1926.
“Murder . . . Fades”: Chicago Heights Star, July 27, 1926.
“Even grandmothers”: Holli and Jones, p. 263.
Vera Emery’s life: Author’s confidential interviews.
“I was in”: Author’s interview with John Pegoria.
“Al came to”: Author’s interview with Sam Pontarelli.
“Since the beginning”: Literary Digest, October 30, 1926.
On August 10: Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 120–123; Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era, p. 119.
Six weeks later: Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 113–114.
Everything happened: ibid.
“It’s a stall”: ibid.
Half a minute: ibid., p. 117.
The marauders: ibid., pp. 118–119.
“Never saw them”: ibid., p. 123.
“Capone is very anxious”: Burns, The One-Way Ride, pp. 188–189. Burns locates this exchange in a subsequent peace conference, at the Hotel Sherman, but since Weiss was dead by then, it is apparent that it occurred earlier, at the Hotel Morrison conference, which only Weiss and Lombardo attended.
“I wouldn’t do that”: Kobler, Capone, p. 187.
Oscar Lundin rented: Pasley, Al Capone, p. 125.
the assassins: ibid., p. 126. Saltis was ultimately acquitted of the murder.
At The Name: Lyle, The Dry and Lawless Years, p. 120.
campaign posters: ibid.; Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era, p. 121.
array of evidence: Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era, p. 119; Kobler, Capone, p. 189.
“Capone played”: Literary Digest, October 30, 1926.
“If there was”: Author’s interview with Walter Trohan.
“is sick today”: Literary Digest, October 30, 1926.
“The Trib was”: Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era, pp. 361–362.
“the one object”: Literary Digest, October 30, 1926.
“There is enough”: ibid.
emissary to Judge John Lyle: Lyle, The Dry and Lawless Years, pp. 19–20.
“Here they sat”: Pasley, Al Capone, p. 142.
“I told them”: Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era, p. 125.
“Remember that night”: Kobler, Capone, p. 194.
“I’d never have”: ibid.
“Just like the old”: ibid., p. 195.
For seventy days: Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 143–144.
January 6, 1927: ibid., pp. 67–68.
“I am out”: Bennett, Chicago Gang Land, p. 81.
“Capone lives on”: ibid., p. 87.
$25,000 yacht: Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era, pp. 209–210; Wendt and Kogan, Big Bill of Chicago, p. 13.
To exhibit his displeasure: Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era, p. 210.
“left-handed Irishman”: Green and Holli, The Mayors, p. 94.
immense prestige: ibid., p. 95.
“treason-tainted histories”: Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era, p. 211; Peterson, Barbarians in Our Midst, p. 140.
“The city is overrun”: Lindberg, To Serve and Collect, p. 184.
contributed $260,000: Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era, p. 211; NYT, February 17, 1931.
“money was ladled”: CT, February 17, 1931.
The Thompson Republican Club: Lindberg, To Serve and Collect, p. 185.
Election eve found: ibid., Wendt and Kogan, Big Bill of Chicago, p. 271.
“Drucci said”: Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era, pp. 129–130; Pasley, Al Capone, p. 160.
$400,000 estate: Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era, p. 130.
515,716 votes to Dever’s 432,678: ibid., p. 213.
aboard his yacht: ibid.
Capone’s ally: Nelli, Italians in Chicago, pp. 232–233.
“DECIDES BOOTLEGGERS”: NYT, May 17, 1927.
“We are of”: ibid.
“make fabulous profits”: ibid.
the unit toiled in the shadow: Spiering, The Man Who Got Capone, pp. 43–44.
Insull was fired on: Foster, “Dodging Death with ‘Emperor’ Insull,” Startling Detective Adventures, n.d. CHS.
Insull contributed: Wendt and Kogan, Big Bill of Chicago, p. 276; Sargent, “Chicago, Hands Down,” The Forum, November 1927.
Sam Pontarelli: Pontarelli interview.
Gabby Hartnett: Berardi interview; Lyle, The Dry and Lawless Years, p. 115.
“He was wearing”: Sullivan and Kobler, “Caddying for a Man Who Never Shot Par,” Sports Illustrated, November 6, 1972.
Blind Robin: ibid.
“The boys made”: ibid.
“I would keep”: ibid.
“The bullet plowed”: CT, September 21, 1928.
“After that”: Sullivan and Kobler, “Caddying.”
“One afternoon on the links”: ibid.
“Throughout my career”: Ross and Abramson, No Man Stands Alone, p. 125.
“Al told me”: ibid.
From his two-room office: Brenner and Nagler, Only the Ring Was Square, p. 2.
“on the day”: letter from Vern Whaley to author, August 1, 1991.
Among the fighters: Sullivan and Kobler, “Caddying.”
Dempsey became: Fox, Blood and Power, p. 90.
Capone bet $50,000: ibid., p. 91.
one hundred ringside: Russo interview.
“He’d better get”: Kearns and Fraley, The Million Dollar Gate, p. 226.
“To the Dempseys”: Fox, Blood and Power, p. 91.
Damon Runyon: Breslin, Damon Runyon, p. 259.
“They came in”: CT, September 23, 1927.
“They stood”: ibid.
“savage”: ibid.
“By the time”: Chicago Daily News, September 23, 1927.
After the fight: Breslin, Damon Runyon, p. 258.
“I quit because”: Fox, Blood and Power, p. 92.
“Capone took over”: CT, February 17, 1931.
“Watching an official”: Pasley, Al Capone, p. 163.
In 1927: ibid., p. 60.
Joseph Aiello: Lyle, The Dry and Lawless Years, pp. 9–11.
311 South Clark Street: ibid., pp. 11–13.
“You’re dead”: Pasley, Al Capone, p. 175.
“I’m willing”: Kobler, Capone, pp. 207–208.
Richard Hart placed: Hart interview; Ironwood (Michigan) Daily Globe, September 6, 1990.
“Hart was notified”: Unidentified newspaper clipping in possession of Harry Hart.
life on a reservation: Hart interview.
“TWO-GUNS” SLEUTH: Unidentified newspaper clipping in possession of Harry Hart, Omaha World-Herald Magazine, October 7, 1951.
“He loved to dress”: Hart interview; photographs in possession of Harry Hart.
President Calvin Coolidge: Fuess, Calvin Coolidge, p. 390.
Chapter 6: The Jazz Age
“Everybody came to Chicago”: Author’s interview with Milt Hinton.
“we wanted our kind”: ibid.
“When Al Capone opened”: ibid.
“alcohol and whiskey”: ibid.
“They took me”: ibid.
He died: Hinton and Berger, Bass Line, p. 21.
Fats Waller: Waller and Calabrese, Fats Waller, p. 62.
“Capone’s University”: Mezzrow and Wolfe, Really the Blues, pp. 52–53.
“Al always showed”: ibid.
“a sandy-haired”: ibid., pp. 53–54.
“One of you guys”: ibid.,
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