◆ SpookStack

ee eg a ee ee Here's the way Mr. Wilson tells the story: “We'd been working for months and we didn't seem to bave got anywhere. I was pretty discouraged and if it badn’t been for the encouragement given us by Cotamissioner Buroet and Mr. Irey, would have giver up several times and gone home. We just didn’t seem able to get any evidence linking directly with Capone, and when we did we couldn't get witnesses to make it stick. « - “every one was hostile. Byery witness we needed was dumb ag an eyster when it came to talking about Capone. They were a bun- dred times more afraid of being killed by Ca- pone guns than they were of having to serve ’ @ Prison term for perjury. “I was working late at my office, checking : . up to see just what we had accomplished. By ¢ midnight I had decided that it amounted to ” just about nofhing and was ready to go borae. I started to put my papers away and the file was locked. I was afraid to leave them out There were some old files cpen there that couldn't be locked. “I thought I'd take the papers out of them, pul my stuff in and put the papers back on top of mine. As I was doing this I uncovered a ledger. It had been lying there in that file for about five years and the label on it didn’t mean a thing to me. But curiosity made me open it. “As soon as J booked inside chat book I knew we had our case. It was the account of a big gambling bouse. The memorandum on it said i Sad taed Uekiu in ao 3920 raid on & gambling joint in a little Tiinois town. T knew ibe place and I knew there was no house there doing that big a business. I was cer- tain these were the accounts ef Capone's gambling jomt at Cicero, Later we found out the police had made two raids that day and the books they seized had got mixed up. we “WE HAD BEEN COLLECTING SAMPLES of hand- writing of al! the men in any way connected > . with Capone, We compared them with the -handwriting in the beck, which showed that _ between May, 1924, when the place opened, _and December, the house made about $300,- 000, and in two years cleared about $600,000. None of the handwriting samples matched. “Well, we worked another month, cpllect- ing samples of handwriting and comparing “them with the book, but they didn’t jibe. I “ was pretty certain these accounts had been "kept by Leslie A ‘Shumway, ee ba Tt matched. Shumway had two different gyles of writing. When be used « pencil his writing | was swift and sure like a certified public ac- tountant's; when be used a pen be wrote like a schoolboy, with a slow, unformed scrawl, a “ “Well, we bad the evidence we'd been ‘YWeoking for. Now, our job was to find ‘our “wilnesses and eet them to stand up to it, We " Jooked for Shumway. Weeks passéd.- Word a tame throu umdereround channels that Ce LER Gerri gp ui tees ne was in Florida = “ “It wasn't hard to find bir there. Shum- rv up at the Elis’ Club fav # friendly game of bridge * @we went To rLoema and found _ working for Capone im a. house there. Now, Interna ue agents have power to @ man and to examine han under oath. We issued a subpoena for Shum- way to appear in a case involving the While Steel Company, which doesn’t exist, to my knowlegige. The subpoena was served on Shumway half an hour befere he was lo ap- . pear at the postoffice so he woulda bave -mouch time to think things over. “Of course, Shumway said be didn't know anything about the White - Steel Company. The agent serving the summons said there'd probably been some mistake but that Shum- way had better appear, that he’d be excused as soon as the authorities found out their " mistake. “Once we had Shumway where we wanted, “him, we showed him the records, It took aome time, but we finally convinced Shum- way that Capone's day. was done and that he had better come clean. You coukd do that with only a few of Capone's henchmen. “But the fact that we got any. of these men to talk was the result of a carefully inid plan. We had to convince them Capone , Could de convicted, that he was not bigger " than the Government. We had to build a lot af beat around Capone, and we did it by " tablished, was cashier of the bout 5, the ee co ‘ : BR wee > a ete & Sa a et ag a a rr SI RRR a EI eg mr faliinore ~ Jun March 20 (93 2.