◆ SpookStack

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 fer the encouragement given us by Commissioner Burnet and Mr. Lrey, would have giver. up several times and gone home. We just @dn’t seem able to get any evidence inking directly with Capone, and when we did we couldn't get witnesses to make it stick. . * + “cveny One was hostile. Bvery witness we needed was dumb as 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 i midnight I had decided that it amounted to ” just about nothing and was ready to go borne. 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, put 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 I hooked inside bat book I knew we had our case. It was the account of a big gambling house. The memorandum on it said it bad teed taken in a 526 raid on & gambling joint in a little Tinos town. I knew the piace and I knew there was no house there doing that big a business. I was cer- tain these were the accounts of 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. ak “WE MAD BEEN COLLECTING SAMPLES of hand- writing of all the men in any way connected . with Capone, We compared them with the handwriting in the book, which showed that _ between May, 1924, when the place opened, and December, the house made gbout $300,- 000, and in two years cleared about $600,000. None of the handwriting samptes 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 wat been “kept by Leslie A Shumway, who, we had "tablished, was cashier of the | Teak the “Well, we bad the evidence we'd been Ysoking for. Now, our job was to find‘our “witnesses and get them to stand up to it, We " Jooked for Shumway. Weeks passed.“ Word came throufh underground channels that be was in Florida” “we wrxT To rLoema and found working for Capone im a j power to @ man and to examine bin under oath. We issued a subpoena for Shum- way to appear in a case involving the While Steel Company, which doesn’ exist, to my knowlege. The subpana was served on Shumway half an hour before he was lo ap- {pear at the postoffice so he woulda bave , Mauch time to think things over. “Of course, Shumway said be didn't, krow 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 some time, but we finally convinced Shum- way tbat Capone's day. was done and tbat he had better came clean. You could do that with only a few of Capone’s henchmen. “But the fact shal ve wot any of these men to talk wax the result of carefully tnd plan. We had to convince them Capone , Could ‘be convicted, that he was not bigger " than the Government. We had to build a lot of heat around Capone, and we we did it iby a = nnn ee rr Ballinore~ Jun March 20 S952.