Al Capone Downfall

by 1931 Al Capone was at the top of his game he had no real rivals anymore among Chicago's mobsters and he continued to expand his empire in case prohibition was repealed he took over labor unions chauffeurs plumbers city workers motion-picture projectionists soda pop peddlers kosher poultry dealers and he toyed with the idea of going into the dairy business because more people bought milk than booze besides the markup was higher honest-to-god he said we've been in the wrong racket right along meanwhile President Hoover remained determined to put America's most famous bootlegger behind bars one way or another the income tax was a fairly new phenomenon and a lot of people didn't understand it and if you're a criminal in all your business all of your income is illegally gained it makes sense that you are not going to file a return and admit that you're taking in all this illegal income tell the government basically in case you hadn't noticed I've been bootlegging for the past year and here's how much I made when the Supreme Court announced that yes illegal income is taxable it was a great moment of confusion for these all these criminals and many of them went down and filed tax returns Capone did not get around to filing neither did his brother Ralph for two years the government tried without success to build a case any case against Capone President Hoover is sitting there with the group of investigators that couldn't find an elephant and a phone booth paying these people a lot of money results zilch none they couldn't get Capone on gun charges they couldn't get him on murder they couldn't get him on bootlegging they thought they could get him on taxes but even that was very hard case to make because Capone was smart in this way he kept no books he had no bank accounts he owned no property except for a house in Florida that he bought in his wife's name he did everything in cash and he seemed to pay out almost as much as he was taking in it made it almost impossible for anybody to prove that he had income the first time he sat down with the IRS and tried to settle you know he admitted that he hadn't paid his taxes all these years he said I really didn't make a lot I don't have a lot of money to to claim I've been just delivering beer supplying beer I'm a public servant he said I'm just doing it for the good of the people on June 5th 1931 the United States finally accumulated enough evidence to indict Al Capone on 22 counts of income tax evasion Capone's trial was the story of the year reporters from all over the world were coming in for it actors from Hollywood are coming in because they wanted to play parts based on Capone they wanted to see how he presented himself Jimmy Cagney was there and Damon Runyon came in from New York to cover it the celebrity journalists were all coming in for this and partying with Capone at night for the trial component managed to beat every rap before us so I think he thought there was no reason this would be any different Capone's optimism was understandable his men had bribed or threatened most of the people in the jury pool but at the last moment the judge got wind of it and brought in a whole new group of potential jurors on October 24th 1931 after a 10-day trial Al Capone was sentenced to the stiffest penalty ever given to a tax evader 11 years in federal prison the king of the gangsters is about to be taken for a ride by your uncle Sammy it's moving day for Scarface Al Capone the camera boys are all ready so look sharp here he comes fat Sal wearing the big white hat seems to be in a hurry but where he's going he'll have time and nothing butter and none of the good citizens of Chicago is exactly weeping about it was my own fault Capone said publicity that's what got me I think the general feeling was that he deserved it there's a sense he was you leave a lot of other things and that society would be better off if he were behind bars a lot of people in the profession have felt that he was punished he was punished for something that he was not was not his primary crime but rather they found that he ceased to put him away rather than they trying to punish him for things he probably had done despite Capone's imprisonment despite all the government's efforts the flow of liquor into Chicago never even slowed

Channel: UNUM Ken Burns

Views: 1,450,066

Rating: 4.7604728 out of 5

Keywords: Prohibition, Ken Burns, PBS, WETA, Florentine Films, History, Documentary, Alcohol, Al Capone

Id: axd6KWtytr8

Length: 5min 4sec (304 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 26 2012