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Al Capone — Part 30

81 pages · May 08, 2026 · Broad topic: Organized Crime · Topic: Al Capone · 81 pages OCR'd
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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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