Evening star., 1932-04-03

| cent QeQuct1on can be applied 2galnS
| $4,000 (the normal income tax rate
are 2 per cent on the first $4,000; 4 pc
cent on the next $4,000 and 7 per cen
! whether it would not be advisable tC
| deprive him of liberty and take hin
into custody.
! "I never discussed this with Judge
| Wilkerson, but it seemed an affront
| to the court. I was right curious about
| how this information got out about
what my recommendation would be
The defendant himself, 1 am informed
by newspaper men, disclosed that infor-
nation, so he brought this upon him
| self clearly by his conduct"
When the case opened before the
| court, johnson said, Capone's attorney
claimed he had an agreement that the
gangster would rot be questioned
! johnson said he had entered no such
agreement and when the judge insisted
on hearing some evidence Caponf
withdrew his guilty plea and the case
went to trial
Previously, he said. he had told the
court he had the Attorney Generals
authority to make the recommendation
and the Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury in charge Of revenue, had
| concurred.
Bankers Were Subpoenaed.
Continuing his testimony on the
| checking of the bank accounts main
tanned by the gangster leaders, johnson
said:
Take the matter of violence. In the
Ralph Capone case, which may be used
as an Illustration, because it is typi-
cal gangster case of the type we have
prosecuted under the income tax laws
the agents discovered bank accounts
There were eight or ten and the pecu-
liar thing about it was about every
three months one account was closed
James Carter, James Brown and so on.
1t was rather odd that each first name
began with James
Il subpoenaed the bankers. 1t was a
small bank, with not more than S3,000,-
600 in deposits, and personally con-
Quoted those examinations before the
grand jury and the cashier Of the bank
was frightened to death. did not
know why.
II was pressing him as to who owned
these accounts" he continued, and
thought he must know because the
bank was small and in one of these
three months periods-usually the ac-
count shifted in three months-in one
instance there was an overdraft of $4-
900 and another overdraft of $4,000
which they permitted, and in this small
bank the cashier said he did not know
who owned the account
Later he was very much broken
down and I was very severe with him
and he wept. Later his counsel told
me every night when he came home
some gangster was there and threat
ened him.
Violence Encountered.
Eventually we got the information
Generally, in dealing in these cases. in
the difficult cases, we encountered ter
rife violence"
Describing the difficulties of obtain
ing witnesses to testify against gang
sters, johnson said: I'VE had one rather
painful experience when we convicted
man by the name of Basile. He wa!
about to 60 to prison. He had beer
associated with the Juliano mob.
They had 81 murders there in five
years and Basile gave evidence he was a
partner of Juliano. that he had quar-
relied with Juliano and Juliano had
paid $1,000 to a gunman by the name
| of Schemer Drucci to kill him. Anc
Drucci was shot and killed by po-
| liceman before he could execute the
murder.
"Basile gave evidence which was
very helpful to the Government anc
| just before Christmas in 1929 I tool
him before the grand jury and talked
to him about II o'clock. We were
, getting ready to return an Indictment
| but that night he was murdered before
| q
ences of that kind.
Our purpose of finally reach
| ing Al Capone had been the objective
i we sought after for the last three years
He had one syndicate that was in th'
beer violations. You might add tn,
source of income to these gangster!
cores from gambling and beer, distri
button of alcohol being in small
amounts, but dealing with beer, they
deal with bulk. They must have un
derstandings with the police in ordel
to distribute that.
I'VE encountered that many times,
he continued.
Pursued System Relentlessly.
This cquod from the district attor,
young man by tae name of Ness, Whc
is a graduate of the University of Chi
cago, and he selected the squad Th,
plan was to cause the Capone gang t
lose money, and this squad took brewer,
after brewery, and something like 81
of these very large, expensive truck
that cost $4,000 to SIS, 600 apiece
They developed system of detect
ing these violations and they pursued
that relentlessly. That ended in an in
dictment against some So and late
the investigations have been pursue.
and I think we now have all the mer
vino were connected with the Capon
crowd on that side of the case, on tn
beer side.
"All of them were leaders-not all O
these-but there are dozen of the BIZ
leaders of organized crime. They ar
under indictment and WILL be brough
to trial In the near future, and unde
this indictment was AL Capone.
we are going to try that case ant
want to say this-that the evidenc
against AL Capone was rather circum
stantial because, of course, these lead
ers do not commit the substantive of
. fense. They do not sell; they do no
| manufacture; they do not transport
and usually we never reach them ex
cept under the conspiracy statute.
The agents had been at work on tn
income tax case for long time. I ma
add they were probably the most ca
pable investigators I have ever worke
with and were headed by A. p Madde
and Frank Wilson Of the intelligenc
unit.
For year We had daily conference.
Everywhere we encountered fear. Ever
! witness was reluctant. In March W
returned the first indictment and sup
pressed it. We did that to stop tn