◆ SpookStack

’ come ~ r THE gangsters shot and bribed their way into places of power in the Roaring Twenties and the FBI was virtually powerless to deal with such hoodlums as Alphonse “Scarface” Capone, who rose from an errand boy in a bawdyhouse to become the overlord of Chicago’s un- derworld. These were the years in which the gangsters created their own in- visible empires through unholy alliances with crooked politicians, crooked lawyers, crooked doctors and crooked police. The gangsters’ revenues from bootleg whiskey, beer, alcohol, robberies, prostitution, gambling, narcotics and “protection” rackets ran to uncounted hun- dreds of millions of dollars. The income of Chicago gangs alone was estimated variously as from $100,000,000 to more than $300,000,000 at the peak of their power. Curiously, the FBI was powerless to move against these underworld empires unless and until the gangs violated a federal law, such as the Anutrust Act, which forbids restraint of interstate commerce. Capone was only in his mid-twenties when he took over full com- mand of the Chicago underworld. Even when he “retired” to a plush estate on Palm Island, near Miami, Florida, in 1927, he ruled the mob \s remote control and remained a symbol of evil and terror. When beg: issued a command—men died. + Capone was virtually untouchable for years. But finally he made slip and the FB] went after bim. In 1929 he pleaded illness as an ex- Page 83 of "The FRI Stor A Report to the People" by Don Whitehead b9-/fo- xe OCU a oo