Evening star., 1939-01-08
Bv John Lear,
Associated Press Stat Writer.


NAH
Plain Alphonse Capone.
Doctors who should know say that
1.-The disease which drives Al mad one
week in every four will not permit
him to live long at the Federal Cor
rectional Institution at San Pedro,
where he was taken from Alcatraz
yesterday. But even if he lives, AL
will never again be the CapOne of
the legend
The machine-gunning gang he
led when he was the baddest of the
bad men has broken up in his alb
sence, victim of its own dark genius
for organized assassination.
The prohibition law from which
He derived his biggest racket, illicit
alcohol, has been repealed. Boot
Logging still goes on, but its income
is picayune compared to AIS old
time take" of $4,000 a month.
The glamour that covered under
world kings in AIS heyday has been
transferred since to the hunters OF
criminals, the G-men. For it is
hard to make idols of frightened
creatures shot down like rats in the
miserable manner of John Dillinger
and Ma" Barker's brood.
The old Chicago Al knew is less
flamboyant and less violent. Land
marks of the past, like "Bathhouse"
Coughlin, have passed on. Gang
deaths have declined from 701 in the
IL years of Capone activity to a
mere dozen in 1888. And the public
temper has shifted to the point
where Dwight Green, the former as
sistant United States district attor-
ney who sent Al to Jail, can make
a serious bid for election as Mayor
aon the Republican ticket and a
'rid of rackets" platform.
The tinsel about Capone has
turned tawdry, too. He was taken
to Alcatraz from the Atlanta Peni-
tentiary for fear his gang would
free him. He made the trip west
chained to seat in railroad car.
He was, indeed. bold bad man.
He entered Alcatraz as one of the
original tough guys" in the tough
guys" prison. He engaged in at
least one fight behind the walls,
and was sent at least once to soli-
tary.
But soon the bold bad man be-
came a model prisoner. The hater
of law refused to take part in
prison break plot. The foe of
society subscribed to magazine
devoted to social progress, The Sur
vey Graphic. And now his master
mind" has fallen prey to the decay
science knows as paresis.
AS long as he remained on ''The
Rock" something of the Capone
legend would persist from the for
,bidden nature of the place. But
when he left secretly yesterday for
Terminal Island for the year he has
still to serve he was no criminal
kingpin, but broken man.
So thin shell of his one-time
dangerous self remains that the
man who directed AIS incarceration
on "The Rock" four years ago says
today:
1.-The best thing to do is to ignore
. him"
To be ignored would be a new
experience for AL. He was in the
limelight of the underworld from
the time he came of age. He had
Just turned 22-approXimately %,
that is, for no one knows the exact
date of his birth in old-world Naples
when Johnny Torrio took him
from New York to Chicago to be the
bodyguard of big jim" Colosimo.
Torrio was a gangster pal of
Lefty Louie" and "Gyp the Blood"
who with others were hired by
Police 1t. Charles Becker in 1912
to slay the gambler, Herman Rosen-
thai, in New York City.
Colosimo was a street sweeper
who pulled himself up by his pol
ltical bootstraps to place of power
In the night life of the turbulent
twenties" on Chicago's South Side.
Torrio seized control of Colosimo's
realm after that booze baron was
shot to death at the bar of his
cafe. Capone became Torrio's aide,
and Torrio AIS tutor in the fine
art OF, racketeering.
Torrio organized vice and crime
into. 100000 week business, en-
forcing his rule with bullets. But
he engineered his own downfall in
the murder of rival, Dion
O'Banion. O'Banion's followers shot
him in retaliation, and Torrio fled
to save what was left of his skin.
That brought Capone to power
In 1925. He was only %, but al
> ready old in the profession. His
apprentice mark was a scar on his
left cheek. From it came the nick
name-"Scarface AL"
Capone introduced the machine
gun and extended racket rule to
gambling, dog racing and politics.
To maintain this 81 900 900 900 syn
dicate, he waged constant war on
the O'Banion, the O'Donnells, the
Gennas and the Salts until COM
petition from those mobs was stifled.
1t was bloody business.
q There were some $50 gang deaths
m Capone territory between 1925
and 1880, and every one was blamed
by the police on "Capone allies" or
~Capone enemies"
AAe seIiuSted 1eSenu grew TO Sucn
proportions that it included more
victims than any one man or gang
men could have done away with
h the time allotted.
As AL once put it: ..
They've blamed everything on
ms but the Chicago fire"
Although new death was laid
at his door by public repute almost
daily, he was legally charged with
killing only twice. In those two
cases. he went free. ID,
The first was the shooting of old
Joe Howard, derelict hi-jacker, who
told police before he died that
young AL" had done him in.
The second was the assassination
OF William H. McSwiggin, assistant
GfAfafc otfnrrou in Oo,,,,