The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-08-08
HOODLUMS ARE HAMS


 doing the best he can in New York Sdled Up to me and in a hoarSt whisper from the near side of his mouth, said: Words around that Al is due any hour" AL of course could be no one but Capone.
 His presence would be nothing to start a panic. Capone has many le g it m a e business interests Though he muscled in on them in his violent days, they are respecta- ble enterprises and he has the stock socked away.
 Despite reports that the rem- nants of his hoodlum empire are active again in Chicago, I don't think Scarface is back in person running the rackets Alcatraz took most of him out of him; he is sick, well of. has a growing son whom he ldolizes, and can baSk in his Florida hacienda on a handsome income.
 Capone, always ruthless and bold, was also a businessman. His real estate and auditing and even ar tillery departments were run with executive efficiency. I have read from time to time that Jack Guz- ick was his treasurer. If so, that happened after my happy Chicago days. When I knew Jack. he was chiseling, short-changing waiter in a speakeaSy run by his brother. Harry, who was a fat little brothel operator as well.
 It was my business to know such people. They were copy
 When I began to specialize in un- dervorld stories, my bride was scared. She thought these desper- ate criminals would kill me for exposing" them. In truth. they loved it-kept scrapbooks like ham actors and treasured their mo- tices." l got many an exclusive inside tale because the bad babies were hot to see their names in print. It built them up with their own kind and 1t fed their distorted egos.
 Duffy the Goat" had done stretch in Michigan City, Ind for murder. He returned to his haunts. went to the Cadillac (Hotep bar bershop. where he had Stashed his gun before he went away.
 The place had changed hands. He got shaved, then opened the cash register, and there, sure enough. was his pearl-handled gat. He took 1t and stuck up the bar Der. Then he went across the street to 8 saloon run by a bird named Jimmy Leather, as tough as his name He didn't know Duff. who ordered drink, remarked that 1t was cozy place-he thought Leather needed a partner-well, he had one. The Goat took his coat of, walked behind the bar, moved the rod" into his hip-pocket.
 Next day. painters put Duffy & Leather" on the windoW-and so 1t remained, until the Goat killed a second-class pug upstairs over a red-headed madame named Frisco Kate
 The Goat was a hound for pub licity. He used to lie in wait for me in front of the Hearst Building. fall in step, complain I had been negleeting him. I told him there was nothing to write-he had been uninterestingly quiescent, or words to that effect.
 That night, a touring-car fre- member?9 swung through one of the "levee" streets. There was blast through it's mica curtain. "Terry" Teranova, a gambler, was killed-a mystery
 Next day the Goat phoned me You can say I done that" he said. T won't get in no trouble. I fixed an airtight ahbi"
 published that Duffy was Suspected" He was picked up by the dicks. He had his alibi, and 1t stuck
 He had witnesses to prove that he had spent the whole evening in dalliance with a lady-who hap pened to be the wife of the man who was riddled!
 Another keen publicity hound was "Big Jim" ColoSimo, really the fa- ther and founder of modern racke- teering, smart cookie who fore sow blIS SIS 014lAN EOoN4Dl4Lt4CS O1 Prohibition, and who imported Ca- pone (then Al Brown) from Brook lyn.
 Colosimo had a cafe Gstill op- erating) which was his headquar- ters, blind and stage. Impeccably dressed in sWalloW-tail and striped trousers, he hosted it and met the best as well as the lowest people He had a long, sordid record in vice, blackrnail and corruption, but you'd never have known 1t to sit at his table, for he was affabIe. in- telligent, and a connoiSseur of fine music.
 When Jim chucked over his wife, Victoria, who had come with him from Sicily and worked with him in his early days of very loWdoWn livelihood, it was to marry Dale Winter, q beautiful young choir singer.
 On his honeymoon, in West Ba- den, Ind, he had himself and his bride photographed in varied happy