The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-07-03
Chance Discovery of $500 Slot Machine Check Three Years Ago
Led to Unc0verng of Cap0ne Gangs Millions In Chicago Banks
big

Remittance sheets of the bank
showed checks sent to other banks
for collection. Though details may
vary, every bank keeps such a rec
ord of every check. This led to a
new trail. For six weeks six men
did nothing else but trace ideally
thousands upon thousands of old
checks. Bales of dusty remittance
sheets and other bank records,
long stored in warehouses, We're
taken out and scanned.
Ralph Capone Trail
Leads to GuZilx Account
In the end, they got what they
wanted. The trail of the Ralph Ca
pone checks led to Jack Guzik's ac-
counts in other Chicago banks-ac-
counts that represented yearly
transactions running into hundreds
of thousands of dollars. Gangdom
was being linked together.
BY some means best known to
themselves, the agents found Fred
Reese, Guzik's financial helper, in
st Louis and brought him back here.
Reese testified he, at various times,
had purchased $25O,00O worth OF
cashiers checks with gang profits
from gambling houses. Practically
all of these We're traced to Guzik.
! just as Reese said they could be.
Guzik, trying to be shrewd, had
turned in his money and bought
cashiers checks. but he was too
dumb to know that cashiers checks
| leave the clearest trail of all.
The Capone gangs Hawthorne
dog track was paying huge profits
in one year it actually paid a 800
per cent cash dividend. These divi-
dend checks were traced and some
found deposited to the account of
DR. David &. Owens in a certain
bank. Strangely enough, an iden-
teal sum of money had been with
drawn from DR. Owens account the
next day Strangely, too, an exact
ly similar amount had been de-
posted to Guzik's credit in another
Chicago bank the following day.
on the stand, DR. owens admitted
that the stock held in his name
really belonged to Guzik.
The trail led next to the accounts
Of Sam Guzik, Jacks brother. Sam
was hiding behind aliases, too, and
dabbling with various brokerage
houses, but again the careful check
ing of accounts nailed its man. Sam
pleaded guilty
Nitti. Gang Treasurer,
Is Finally Nailed
On and on the trail led to Frank
Nitti and his transactions, as it was
eventually ascertained, of 100000
to 100000 in two years. But Nitti
had a different system; he didn't
deposit the checks he collected, but
would merely leave them at the
bank to be cleared, call back again
after they had been cleared and get
the cash. 1t looked like Nitti hadn't
left much of a trail.
But investigators who had been
trained as expert accountants knew
better. They knew that every bank
keeps a record Of "out clearings,'
showing where checks sent to 1t for
collection went when they went
home. Tedious tracing followed
these checks back to the alcohol
buyers and others whence they
came. Nitti soon found it advis-
able to enter a plea of guilty AMI
take IS months in Leavenworth,
where he now is.
Trail at Last Leads
To big Shot" Himself
On and on the trail led, through
maze of bank records of one sort
or another. Weeks and months had
gone by since the government
agents had stumbled on that first
$500 slot machine check that led
its devious path to Ralph Capone.
otherwise James Carson" but al
ways the object was the same.
Higher still was the man who was
vet to be gothic big Fellow"
himself
The other day the Internal Reve-
nue. Bureaus men found themselves
o.t
sought missing link. They struck.
ments against AL Capone himself
were returned. A few days later
Capone came into court and pleaded
guilty.
You may guess what that MISS
ing link was, Until Capone is ac-
tually behind the bars at Leaven-
worth penitentiary. these shrewd
investigators will not reveal it.
specifically, Al was charged with
failure to file, failure to pay, at
tempt to defeat and evade" income
taxes for the years 1924, 1926. 1926,
1927. 1928 and 1929 on an income
totaling S.659.S9. The govern
ment says it can prove that he
now-with the so per cent penalty
for fraud and interest charges
amounts to 100000. They say they
can prove this much income in
court; there may be much more.
Others of the income tax bu-
reau's secret service who aided in
getting the goods on AL Capone
were: Special Agents N. K. Tes-
sem and Clarence Converse OF Chi
cago; Archie Martin OF Kansas
City; u. S. Revenue Agents Wes-
trich and Claggett of Brooklyn, and
William Hodgins. Chicago revenue
agent
TOMORROW: How prohibition
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