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Al Capone — Part 8
Page 6
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lol 4 Where is
iSMr. SALTIS
Pollack” Joe Saltis lost a great deal of prestige
in Boozedom in 1928 when he submitted to capture
and was “settled” in the Cook County jail for two
months on a charge of violation of the liquor laws.
The feat of clamping a beer baron in the “can”
was not accomplished with all the ease of falling
off a log, however, for Mr. Salttis made himself
scarce except to his beer clients for 139 days, by
actual newspaper count, before he was finally ap-
prehended. The newspapers made a great deal of
noise about the search for Mr. Saltis and, every
day for 139 days, you could open up your newspaper
and see in very large type the numbers 102 days
and no Mr. Saltis or 103 days and no Mr. Saltis
and so on and on up until the day Joe was brought
in mumbling “I’m out of the beer racket, and this
is a bum rap.” The public took a great deal of
interest in the newspaper count, which, until the
Dempsey-Tunney fight was leoked upon as the
longest count Chicago had ever seen. It had all
the wallop of a serial story with the hot stuff
continued until tomorrow.
When Joe was emptied from the jail cell he
made straight for the flower shop in the back-of-
the-yards district where his affairs were being
ably directed by his lieutenants, amiable John
“Dingbat” Oberta and Paddy Sullivan. Joe was in
a tranquil condition of mind for the next few
weeks, but panic struck him and the “Dingbat” ©
when they came upon a newspaper story which
said that all hoodlums in
Chicago were to be submitted
to a mental test. If found of
unsound mentality, as most
assuredly they would be, sug-
gested the story, they would
be confined for treatment. Joe
and the “Dingbat” may not
have been afraid of machine
guns, pistols, automatics and
pineapples, but words like psy-
chology, phychiatry, psycho-
pathic, were monstrous and
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AMITA PHILA LEE ULS, An wieéir
first quarrel is said to have
been precipitated when the
“Dingbat,” who pretended to
be book-learned couldn't rattle
off a definition of psycho-
paresis. But Little Johnny re-
stored himself in his boss’s
estimation when he hit on the
scheme of having their own
personal psychiatrist examine
them and give them a certifi-
Frankis Bic, body guard cf the Big Fellow,
ankie
Alphonse Capone. Fr:
Philadelphia with Al and sentenced to a year's
imprisonment in jail for
‘Weapons.
cate of high and normal intelligence. And so, a
few days later, Chicago was treated to the spec-
tacle of “Pollack” Joe and Johnny ‘“Dingbat’”
Oberta in the office of the police commissioner
proudly waving certificates of mental health. “We
won't have to play with no blocks,” said Johnny
and Joe as they walked away, and then, catching
himself, he said, “I mean we won’t have to play
with any blocks.” Safe from confinement in the
“bug” house Joe and Johnny and their henchmen
now began to look around for Edward “Spike”
O'Donnell. Joe hadn’t had a shot at “Spike” for
many months and the strain was telling on him.
Besides rumors were reaching Joe that “Spike”
was about to make a great beer offensive and had
surrounded himself with a formidable gang of
muscle men. One of them, strangely enough was
the redoubtable Frankie MacEarlane and his kid
brother, Vincent. The underworld gossiped for a
long time about the split between Saltis and Frank
who had been pals from the very beginning. The
truth was that MacEarlane could no longer endure
the nasty-nice “Dingbat.” As we have seen Mac-
Earlane was at heart a bank-robber and, just to
keep in practice, used to wander around knocking
over a safe here and there. When Saltis was in
jail the “Dingbat” tried to clamp down on Frankie,
telling him that he would spoil the real dough for
all of them if he persisted in the bank-busting
tendency. “Aw, hell,” responded Frankie, “It
takes real brains to hoist a bank. And to hell with
this Sunday School outfit. I’ll make some real con-
nections.” The fact that his boss, Saltis, was in
jail was proof enough to Frankie that he was in
with a wrong bunch of guys.
Saltis saw no real obstacle from the Sheldon
mobsters who, it was then being rumored, were
having internal trouble. Sheldon, suffering from
tuberculosis aggravated by constant breathing of
gun-powder, was ordered by his physician to seek
strength in the purer atmosphere of Arizona. He
did so, leaving his mob in
charge of Danny Stanton, an
arrangement which was
okeyed by the Big Fellow, Al
Capone. Stanton, a former
member of the “four horse-
men” group of taxi-cab slug-
gers which also included John
“Mitters” Foley, had for his
right hand men, Hugh “Stub-
by” McGovern: and William
“Gunner” McPadden, both
tough boys de luxe who had
been brought up from baby-
hood in the famous Ragan
Colts gang. At this time Joe
Saltis, finding it difficult to
buy beer elsewhere and im-
possible to manufacture it,
made connections with the Big
Fellow. King Capone wel-
comed Big Joe but told him
to behave himself and to stay
out of Danny's territory.
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