Citation Needed - Al Capone

Episode Date: February 14, 2024

Alphonse Gabriel Capone (/kəˈpoʊn/;[1] January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nicknames "Scarface" and "Snorky", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1925 to 1931. His seven-year reign as a crime boss ended when he went to prison at the age of 33.

Hello and welcome to Citation Needed, the podcast where we choose a subject, read a single article about it on Wikipedia and pretend we're experts, because this is the internet and that's how it works now. I'm knowing I'm going to be ring leading this outfit, but I can't do it without a few accomplices. First up, I'm going to need a couple of heavies, Tom and Eli. Hey, we are heavy Noah, but we are not a couple yet. We can't run for that long.

Because of the heaviness. It's my thought, exactly. Water you. And also joining us tonight, the numbers guy and the guy who goes, I don't know, boss, Keith and Cecil. Okay, I'm just flipping this coin over and over. Yeah, yeah, I know. Obviously numbers are interesting.

All I know is, I know nothing. And you know, now that I say that, I realize Socrates wasn't a fucking rat. That's pretty ball Now obviously look this is a lovely podcast you've got here for your commuted be ashamed of somewhere to happen to it And if you'd like to learn how to keep that from happening Be sure to stick around to the end of the show with that out of the way Tell us Eli what person place concept phenomenon event or thing we'll be talking about today. We'll be talking about Al Capone. All right, Cecil you read the indictments are you ready to sing like a canary? I'd be a boring podcast if I just pled the fifth Noah.

Right, right. All right, so who was Al Capone? But committed committed to the thing I said. Definitely. Alfons Gabriel Capone was a first generation American born to Italian immigrant parents in 1899. He was one of nine children and his father was a barber and they lived in Brooklyn. It appears that Capone was a bright student and he was doing pretty well in school until he slapped his teacher around in the sixth grade.

I guess back then they would just send you to the principal's office to get an ass beating your own and that's exactly what happened. Al left school after his principal thrashed him and he started working shortly thereafter. These days Al Capone would just call himself a rapper and go on Facebook Live to address his haters while still living with his parents. So it was a different time. It was a different time. Jesus Christ, Cecil. Hey man, just for reference, was this when America was great?

When men were men and 12 year olds could drop out of school after getting beaten by the authorities, was that? It's hard to pinpoint that. Yeah, it is hard to pinpoint. Al did try many careers before he settled on organized crime, though. It does make it easy to try on a lot of different hats when you start off buying them in the kids section. Yeah, I know. You grow out of them. He was a pin setter at a bowling alley also worked at a munitions factory

presumably with a different kind of pin. He was a cloth cutter at a book binder and he was also worked at a candy store. Al even played some semi pro baseball for a couple years from 1916 to 1918. But he was also a kid who grew up in a rough part of town and most of his childhood He was getting in trouble and joining various gangs So eventually that would lead him to his lifelong career as a gangster Okay, being a baseball player during that time. That's pretty good mobster training People with bats rigging world series, but yeah

Ringing World Series, but yeah. Yeah, I know. I was joking. I was saying I was. You are one story of Alice youth that I found was that Capone witnessed the theft of a washboard in his neighborhood and the victim was an elderly widow. He gathered a bunch of kids together to get it back and they found the young rap scallions that stole it

and he and his gang kicked the shit out of him and took it back. And at this point, his Italian roots took over, and he kind of organized a victory triumph. Ah, really hoping it's not a Bunga Bunga party, because that's what it sounds like you're saying. He marched down the street in a parade-like fashion to let everyone know what kind of hero he was. How so serene of him.

And this sort of theater was commonplace in Capone's life as he liked to portray himself as something of a Robin Hood character. So like I said, Capone belonged to a number of gangs as a young man, the junior 40 thieves, the Bowrie boys, the Brooklyn Rippers, and finally the Five Points Gang. It was in this gang that Al Capone was introduced and started working for a racketeer named Frankie Yale. Yale owned a Coney Island bar called the Harvard Inn. And pun intended, I guess. Yeah. Nice.

And Al Capone, the 200 pound 511 street thug, was his doorman and odd job lackey. Okay, sorry, this doesn't really matter. I just, I keep seeing AI, Capone, and taking like artificial intelligence, and that's one. No, Capone never stole that in Australia. Come on. It's not really nice information ecosystem, be ashamed of something more to happen to it. ecosystem be a shame if something were to happen to it. Yeah. Capone one day while at the Harvard Inn came to the table of two-bit hood, Frankie Galuccio or Galuccio. I don't know.

Galuccio sounds a little like Pinocchio. Let's call him Galuccio. He was out that evening with his girlfriend and his sister. Al comes up to his sister and said, now this is a quote from a historian. It might not be real. It might be apocryphal, but he said something in the vein of, quote, honey, you have a beautiful ass. And I mean that as a compliment and quote, well, Galuccio did not take it as a compliment as it was intended. And he went after Al with a straight razor. He slice wasn't even complimenting Al Guluchio's ass.

Yeah, right. He was jealous. He wasn't even his girlfriend's ass. This is sister's ass. So defending his sister's honor, Tom, he slices Al a couple of times on the face and. Did he think she had a bad ass? I mean, right?

That's the thing. Yeah. She's like, no. What was he just beautiful? You give me the lie, sir. You give me the lie. I know with faint praise But anyway slices al a couple of times and gives him a cup big enough for a dozen stitches

From that point on he was given the name Scarface and he hated this name and would try to cover his face with powder Oh, I thought you were talking about AI Pacino. My show. He would insist on getting photographed from one side of his body to hide the scar. He also claimed several times that it was a war wound. Okay. So then I guess my question for you, Cecil, is why your essay is about Al Capone and not feminist icon, Frankie G. You know what I'm talking about.

Right. icon Frankie G. You know what I'm talking about. Right? Yeah. I mean, I feel like being the guy that gave Al Capone his scar bumps you up to three bit. Yeah. Yeah. So he really liked another nickname. And this was for snappy dresser in the 1920s that I genuinely think should make a comeback. Snorky. So nice. in the 1920s that I genuinely think should make a comeback snorkely.

So nice. I guess snorkey dresser Al was flamboyant and he wore very expensive colorful suits. He would gravitate toward bright yellows, lime greens, light purples. Well, I'm sorry. I have a hard time believing a suit could be both expensive and bright. I don't. I don't think anyone on our cast Harvey would like to. hard time believing a suit could be both expensive and bright I don't think anyone on our cast Harvey would like to Skin tones who really rock He also wore a pinky ring that cost $50,000, Italian gloves, silk underwear, and a cream colored fedora.

This sort of dress was similar to Al's attitude. Many gangsters tried to keep a low profile and not be in a limelight, but Al Capone was very different and loved to be the center of attention and to be talked about in the papers. Sure, and a pinky ring made of, I guess, anti-matter is the eye. Get a little attention. 50 K in 1920 is like three quarters.

I have a little sidecar next to him wherever you walk. See, so I have no idea what Italian gloves, silk underwear is, but it is now the only thing I want. Right. That's all I ever want now. Yeah. So 1919, Al Capone was introduced to Johnny Torio, who was the second in command in a gang from Chicago. Torio. Sorry, I'm just picturing an Italian man who comes with it and he cradles for you. He just holds whatever you want him to hold. I don't know. This nice silk gloves. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That makes sense. Torio worked for Big Jim Colissimo

as an enforcer. Big Jim was running an extortion, loan-sharking, gambling, and prostitution ring in Chicago, and Al came on as an enforcer as well, working in a brothel. It's there that people believe Al Capone contracted syphilis, although Al had many prostitution operations throughout his career, and it could have happened later in his life. Pin in that syphilis thing, though, for later. Oh, you're not supposed to do that so easily. Just take a pill now. Yeah. Just a four-day course. So now Al and Johnny, they hit it off really well and Capone learned a lot from Torio.

At some point, Johnny suggests Al goes to night school to read him of his New York accent. I guess at the time there were accent classes at night school, no idea. I don't know. Anyway, I hope I shouldn't have done that with his accent and so on. He's doing that rid of it. That was rough. I hope it was an entirely unrelated class season like typing.

Just confused why he's sitting there. Does he need help at all? No, I'm sitting there next to a half a sleep Tom. This guy seems like he's having a really rough time. So anyway, he goes to night school and also this is a great time to point out that everyone who worked with Capone throughout, they thought he was a very smart guy. Sure, he was literally evil, but most of the people talked about him said

that if he lived a legitimate life, he would have been like a CEO or some other bootstrap daydreamer. Okay, so like ethically, it's a while. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and we know how honest employees are

about their bosses when said bosses have the tendency to murder people So yeah, no, that's true. That's true to CEO Capone just walks into the gang hideout Haring a sink. Hey everybody our new gang is called rebranding it's called It's that we we could send him to a school to lose the accent? Of all the things we want him to lose, the accent is so low down on the list. So Big Jim Colissimo was happy with his current offering to the underbelly of Chicago's crime scene.

He was an unambitious pimp, and when Prohibition went into effect in 1920, his underboss Johnny Torio saw a chance for a business expansion. Big Jim rebuffed suggestions by Torio that the operation could start bootlegging, and Torio responded by calling his friends in New York to take Big Jim out so he could be the shotcaller. Frankie Yale, the bar owner, hitman I mentioned earlier, came out and ambushed Big Jim at his restaurant, the Colosimo Cafe on Chicago's south side. It's also suggested that Al Capone was the trigger man, but no one was ever charged with a crime. With Big

Jim out of the way, Torio opened up a new wing of the business, shipping and producing illegal booze. Moral of the story, maybe take the time to compliment sandwich the things I suggest in our business meetings, gentlemen. I'm just saying. Okay. Okay. I don't know.

I feel like in terms of knowing Hitman, I'm either leading this group or tied for the lead with Hitman. That's fair. It's one of those two. That's fair. At this point, the shipments of alcohol were coming from Canada by boat to Chicago. The gang was also making its own beer to sell to local establishments. The salespeople would go to a bar and then they would tell the owner that it is very

much in their best interest to buy the beer from them. The owner refused, they would pressure them again. The third refusal would normally be some sort of damage to the establishment. Often windows getting blown out, but it could be a firebombing or something similar. And then they would come back and they would offer loan money for the damages and sign them up for shipments of beer. Okay, I like how they did racketeering with a system like a scoldy parent. It was like, I'm going to count to three over multiple days. And then like Al Capone comes back on day three being like two and a half or I racketeer you.

And it's still easier than canceling most gym members. Right. It's gotta say you live out of town now, that's the key. The alcohol bootlegging in Chicago was dangerous with lots of gangs vying for territory It was in 1922 that Al Capone's boss Johnny Torrio decided to get all the gangs together to come to a peace agreement The boss suggested that there was enough business in Chicago for everyone and the gangs Abidied by this for a couple years all making profit and eschewing violence to solve their disputes with each other at this point

Torrio and Capone operation was bringing in about $100 million a year, which in today's currency is about $1.85 billion. Jesus. Wow. Well, I mean, it was peaceful, but Intergang Shit Talk reached a real nadir during this time. The worst thing you could threaten to do was file a grievance with the assistant to the regional director of over gang operations.

It was a sad time. I'm not doing any more trust falls. I'm just going to say it right now. I'm not going to let them again. What if there was to be a strongly worded left in HR? This mugging could have been an email. Oh, he put a 15 minute meeting on my calendar. I hope he's just going to kill me.

Al Capone set out to start a protection racket in Chicago that covered people involved in illegal activity, giving them immunity from law enforcement. It's set at times during the height of Capone's power that he bribed half the law enforcement in the city, and he would use his bribe connections to get people off charges, including himself. 1922, after a night out drinking, he's driving, and he's slammed into the back of a taxi cab. He gets out of the car and he waved a gun at the driver of the taxi cab, who was injured. The cops were nearby, apprehended Capone, and

while he's getting shoved into the car and taken in, he boasted that he would fix this thing. And he did. Within a few days, the charges against Al were dropped and he was free. All right. Well, with the assurance that though he'd lost the accident, he kept that pet in New York belligerency. We're going to take a quick break for some apropos of not like that gentlemen thank you for coming I have you, the heads of all the gangs of the city of Chicago, to make you a proposal. Proposal? Sorry, Tony, you're not my type, so I don't know. Very funny, Luigi.

For too long, we've been at each other's throats, scrapping for a piece at a buy when there's plenty for everybody. What I'm suggesting is that we declare a truce, live and let live, and we all end up a whole lot richer. Yeah, well, that's pretty sad. Also, it's become obvious to me that since the industrial revolution, we are now capable of production far beyond our needs. These means of production must be controlled by the people, and their surplus must be put towards the greater good. I'm sorry, what does this have to do with crime? Further, the idea of the solitary family unit, recent as it is, must be abolished. The chains

of monogamy, a construct created explicitly for the sexual enslavement of women must be cast off as must are aqueic notions of heteronormativity. We must return to what and who we were meant to be. A family, interconnected and woven together only by love and mutual support. Is he smart? Though this will be uncomfortable at first it is the only way for us to truly thrive in time luigi you may find i am your type uh uh can we just do the crime truce thing at last thing it seems like uh i don't know much yeah we could just do the crime truce that much. Yeah, we could just do the crime truth. That's what I just had to say.

I don't want to do that. So you want to drink some time? Not now, Luigi, the moment has passed. OK. and were back when we last left off everybody was strong arm and local business owners into selling tainted boost and often blinded their customers peacefully uh... times never last do they say they never do know they never do nineteen

twenty five wiki claims that there were Attempts on the lives of both Johnny Torio and Al Capone I can't tell you anything about the one on Capone except this line quote an ambush in January 1925 left Capone shaken But unhurt end quote 12 days after this attempt Torio was coming home and was shot several times. The Northside Gang, run by Dino O'Banion, and his underbosses, Jaime Weiss and Bugs Moran, come responsible. While recovering, Torio made plans to kill O'Banion, and he was on trial, Torio was on trial for bootlegging at the time. Okay, I am feeling Al Capone's intelligence here. Apparently every mobster's name was either like

an F. Scott Fitzgerald anti-Semitic stereotype or a cartoon with a giant cigar. Is that right? Nobody noticed just like fucking Allen making hundreds of millions of dollars on Crown Royal and PBR. That's awesome. And I'm trying to imagine how dire the situation must be to have to resort to drinking the crown royal. Oh, I know. God.

Apocalypse. We talk about this a lot. If it's bootleg, you still get the little velvet bag though. That's the only reason. There's all these names. There's a nice in a bag just like playing D&D. Al Capone hires Frankie Yale from New York to come out and kill O'Banion. Okay, the name place combinations in this story

are a fucking night here. Can I get a prescript? And the story goes that O'Banion was a florist and was working in a shop that day. Frankie and two other men come in and when O'Banion shook Yale's hand, Yale held it and the other two men unloaded pistols at point blank range into the florist mob boss.

Yes, I said those in the right order, florist mob boss. The Northside gang then started a gang war called the Beer Wars that would last several years and claim hundreds of lives. Okay, I wonder how good a florist he was, right? I feel like somebody was like, hey, I know O'Banion's a stone cold killer, but the lilac really does make the irises pop, right? I think he's really good at this. Well, and you got to figure the like the flowers for your grave retorts. They just write themselves.

Sure. Yeah. I like it. I get the kind of- But then he takes too long and you're like, I'm sorry, $70. Did you say $70? We could come to some sort of arrangement. There it is. We found it. In 19... I said the mum's the worst. I don't know why I keep going. Stupid.

In 1924, a new mayor was elected and he happened to be a law and order mayor. So Al Capone set up shop in Cicero, which is a suburb of Chicago. With Toria retired and in prison, Al Capone became the new boss of Chicago Southside gang at the age of 26. They rigged the Cicero election

to have a favorite ally in the mayoral seat. They opened 160 gambling and 123 saloons in the small suburb of 60,000 people Jesus Christ What a chicken in every pot in a roulette wheel in every home I love this look there had to be kids that grew up there at that time and just assume that that's how earth was. It's amazing. One local reporter, Robert St. John, wrote about the takeover of the police and politics in Cicero, and he tried to expose the corruption.

He detailed the brothels, illegal gambling, and alcohol operations. This of course made him an enemy of Al Capone. One morning, on his way to the office, he sees a large black car speeding toward him. A group of men get out, armed with billy clubs, blackjacks, and woollen socks filled with bars of soap. And so, he laid down in the fetal position and they beat him into unconsciousness.

And when he wakes up in the hospital, and then he checks himself out, he discovered that a man with a scar had already paid his hospital bill. Okay, I feel like if the guy you're supposed to beat up as like a mob warning does the fetal position, there's a moment where everyone's like, do we still do it? It feels like this moment's Bruce, right? Like we can't, he's in the fetal position. St. John went to the police with the details about who beat him up,

one of whom he recognized as the brother of El Capone. The police tell him to come back the next day, so he does. When he arrives, they send him into a room with an already waiting El Capone. Jesus Christ. Capone offers Saint John a lot of cash to stop writing stories and exposing his operations. Apparently Saint John walked out of the room without taking any of the money.

But it really didn't matter because Capone had already bought a controlling stock in the newspaper and he was removed from this journalistic endeavor. All right, look, I know Jeff Bezos owning the Washington post is different. But is it? I mean, yeah, I would be entirely unafraid of Jeff Bezos with a billy. Like, cool, I'm going to take that from you. I just I wanted on record that if anyone offers me a wad of cash after having previously beat me unconscious, I am walking out of that room with the cash.

No, yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I am walking out of that room with the cash Took the cash that was a lie 100% lie. Yeah 100% lie. Yeah. Also, you don't have to beat me unconscious And if I if I'm in a room and somebody offers me a lot of cash Yeah, I would fuck it if they came at me with bars is soap and wool and socks I would spike my fucking typewriter on the ground A bandaid and be like, you need to take, I'd be like, yep, taking the money. Yep. It's offered to give you a lot of cash to not work.

That is the dream. That's the dream. That's the dream. On a regular basis. We change our careers because of mean emails people send us. We all know we're inside of the bread we're buttered on. We guys want to start exposing the mafia as our podcast is trying to get paid off. Maybe beat up and then paid off. Either way, I'm good. I bet we could expose shit Jeff Bezos is doing. Sure. Absolutely. Yeah.

On May 8th of that year, Al Capone's accountant, greasy thumb Jack. What is that? A sweet name. That's a fucking best. That's a sweet name. Better. Greasy. I don't see.

Greasy. Greasy thumb Jack. Goose. That came to Al with a problem. He was getting roughed up by a local bootlegger. Boy, you gotta figure that the greasy thumb prime made it really hard to count money. That poor bastard. You're a terrible career choice.

The poem found out who was smacking around his bookkeeper and he shot him in the face point blank several times. Jesus. Oh, Al. He didn't have one of three witnesses too and they couldn't remember a lot of details about the killing. Al fled and then after a while he turned himself in but no charges stuck and he was let free. He also a year later went to New York to see his friend Frankie Yale and like for a gift he killed three people there for him and again no one could find out any evidence against him so

he was in charge and they let him let him go free. Okay now I'm picturing Al Capone and Frankie Yale in like a vacation montage right? They're murdering people on a ferris wheel. They're murdering people while they share a big cotton candy. They're murdering people looking out over a dock in a sunset in two different bath pubs. They walk out of Bloomingdale's with bags full of dead people that they kill. They spin around. Yeah. Like, let me tell you about that. It's one of those big Coney Island dogs.

They're eating both ends at the same time and they kiss in the middle. It's just amazing. All right. I had already mentioned that Al Capone loved the good life and he spent a lot of money. He had bought a house on the coast in Florida for $40,000 cash and then he spent over $100,000 fixing this place up to his specifications. Or two pinky rings. Yeah. He comes up with a crowned royal bag. It just dubs two pinky rings. Yeah. He comes up with a crown royal bag. It just dubs to pinky rings out. How many I will be.

It's for this. How's what it costs is my question for you. He also wrote around in essentially an armored car. It was a twenty thousand dollar limousine that was completely bulletproof. Expect except the tires, I guess. And then you could remove the back window of the car and fire out at people trailing you. Okay, yeah, impressive.

But he did also leave that dealership with the undercoding and the extended warranty. So it does inflate the price a little. Here I am. Yeah, I would ask if you could write that off on his taxes, but that's a bit of a spoiler, I guess. Spoiler, spoiler. Actually Cecil, can't you shoot out the back of most windows? I mean, is that really an added feature? It was bulletproof. It was bulletproof, Tom. It was bulletproof. If you're

in a bulletproof window, wouldn't you want like a little hole the size of your gun and not just remove the whole thing? I'll tell you, you know, you might sound smarter than Al Capone, who could have been a CEO, by the way. Sorry, now I'm picturing 1920s gangster Heath trying to drill the perfect size hole while Tom is killed inside his bulletproof. Okay, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks,

thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, There's a little slidey window that's also made of bulletproof, right? And then the hole, it exposes the hole. And then you put your gun out. You own two companies. Pay attention. I'm a mafia now. Put some effort into your murder. So armor cars can certainly help keep you safe,

but you have to get out of them from time to time. So one day Al's enjoying a little midday meal at the Hawthorne Hotel in Cicero. And a convoy of 10 black cars came by and they unloaded 5000 rounds of ammunition into the building in an attempt to kill Al Capone. It was around this time that the gangsters in Chicago, they started to get a hold of automatic Thompson machine guns and they used these in the attempt. Al's bodyguard held Capone down as they shot the place up. One of the assailants even got out of his car

to shoot the restaurant on foot, but no one was killed and they probably at that point should have gone back to pistols, I think. 5,000 rounds! That one guy looks inside. It's just Al Capone eating lunch calmly inside another limo that's inside. Three thousand rounds in.

Anybody hit anything? No one. I skipped you and boys. But remember, never aim your guns at anything. All right. Yeah. Right. No, maybe we give George Lucas too much. Right.

Yeah. Right. It's a good thing they had the machine goes off. Finger cramp. Ah, right. No, maybe we give George Lucas too much, right? Right? It's a good thing they had the machine because of finger cramp. Ah, ah, ah. Ah, ah, ah. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah from Jaime Weiss's office. Jewish. I guess... I guess gangsters needed to get a mail. How did you tell? And they needed a brick and mortar underworld office.

So anyway, one day when Jaime was walking across the street, Al Capone's men came out and they gunned him down in the crosswalk. Al, of course, was out of town and he sent a message with a bunch of flowers to Jaime's associate, Fugs Moran. OK, did flowers like used to be menacing and we forgot about that? I want to bring that back. I think that's awesome. Like, it could be romantic or menacing.

I like that. It was around this time that Frankie Yale, the hitman from earlier, and Al Capone's first boss decided to hijack a few shipments of Capone's alcohol in New York. Word gets back to Al and Capone sends hitmen to the Big Apple and they murder Yale on the street. Back in Chicago, Moran does the same thing. Hijacks some of Capone's liquor, he takes some shipments that belong to Capone, and he earns himself the same prize. Can I say this truce is going very badly?

Right. He's crooks and hitmen, can't be trusted at all. Al supposedly plotted out the hit of Moran while he's in Florida and he planned that day at the exact time of the killing, he would be in Florida giving a deposition to the state's attorney. The day of the hit was 95 years ago today and it was called the St. Valentine's Day massacre. It went down like this. Now one of Moran's properties, a garage where liquor was delivered, a shipment of alcohol

was expected and Moran himself was supposed to be there, but he was held up and he couldn't make it. At the time that was designated for the shipment, four men pull up outside and they come into the garage. Two of the men were in plain clothes and the other two were in police uniforms. It's suspected that the gangsters inside thought this was a police raid so they turned around and they put their hands against the wall. At this point, the men who were masquerading as police officers opened fire with machine guns, killing six of them instantly and leaving one with 14 bullet wounds, and he would die later that day.

Alright guys, nice murder. I brought a really nice arrangement of orchids in hand-throwing pottery. I was thinking centerpiece for their table, is that menacingly, right? Would that go? You think that would go? So, so I want to be clear, because based on their behavior, like, are we sure that these weren't cops? We're not, we're not, we're not. So this hit was a real blow to Moran, who was viewed as weak because he let this sort of thing happen to his men.

A few months later, some of the gangsters in Chicago wanted a wacapone, and Al got word It was a real blow to Moran who was viewed as weak because he let this sort of thing happen to his men. A few months later, some of the gangsters in Chicago wanted a wacapone and Al got word of it. He invited the three, John Scalise, Joseph Hoptoad-Gunta and Albert Anselm to a roadhouse in Indiana for some kind of-

Hoptoad? That's what his in quotes middle Gangster nickname is hop toad. I don't know man. I don't know. I'm worried. That's a slur that even we don't know No, I don't know But anyway, the three of them get invited to some kind of banquet at a roadhouse in Indiana They all come and at the end of the night Al Capone beat all three to death with a baby Jesus and then shot them for good measure Al Capone beat all three to death with a baseball bat and then shot them for good measure Okay, banquet flowers the accessories budget for gangsters used to be way higher

What's that's probably why you had to kill him with a bat right use over budget on the bank Should not have gone for the chocolate fountain. Would you all mind? Waiting while I kill you. This is so hard. Hey, he's beating the first guys. I can't wait your turn. Huh? They try to feel actually while you wait, I'll get over it. I paid extra for the coffee. Still a lot of money for this fucking beat.

Yeah, by all means. Really enjoy it. So I'm killing you at the end. That would have been a total waste to kill you at the beginning. All these recent violent outbursts turned what was a somewhat accepting public against him and he decided to let the steam blow over in jail. No idea why he decided jail and not a mansion in Florida. Because Florida is worse than jail season. As I said it, I realize that you're right.

So he actually arranged for himself and his bodyguard to get arrested on a concealed weapon charge. All right. I'm grounding myself. No more Nintendo for me for the rest of the day. I deserve this. I guess he was expecting a mild sentence, but the judge put him away for a year on the charge, and Al ran his business from prison. While he was inside, the government was going after his assets and his colleagues. The president, Herbert Hoover, made it a personal mission to see him prosecuted for something more substantial. His brother, the greasy thumb to count and I mentioned earlier, and his underboss, Frank Nitty, were all prosecuted by the federal government for tax evasion and sent to prison

while Capone was in jail. When he came out, he was named Public Enemy Number One by the Chicago law enforcement. Which had to be undercut by the fact that they had just released him from jail, right? He was like, right, you're free to go, but as soon as I can get you back. He did get a lovely bouquet on his release though. So that was. I'll try to change the public perception of him when he got out of prison. And it was the beginning of the Great Depression. And he opened a soup kitchen in Chicago that fed 3000 people a day.

It was around this time that Elliot Ness and his Untouchables were doing some PR draining of beer barrels to show that the government was cracking down on Capone. In reality, this was not the thing that brought him down. And Ness and his team of unbrivable, untouchable agents were more of just a show than anything else. The real danger to Capone were the tax agents that were looking into his finances. Right, which is why when you find a good accountant, you keep him even if he hates you and says it a lot. See, so that was a terrible thing to say about Sean Connery. He gave his life for that hour.

I can't believe you said that. Throwing the book at Al Capone for tax evasion took five years. He owned nothing in his name. His house in Florida was owned by his wife, his house in Chicago by his mother. He didn't own the car that he drove. He didn't own any of the businesses he ran. But Al did admit guilt on non-payment of income tax twice. First, he tried to pay income tax to get out of trouble when they were investigating him. And second, when he tried to plea bargain his way out of it. The government rejected his plea and he went to trial.

Now there's a story that isn't in the wiki, but told in another source that at the trial, Al Capone had already bribed the jury pool. But the judge came in that morning and he switched jury pools with the next door courtroom, foiling the plans that Capone had of bribing everyone and getting away with it. Now, no word on how he would know who would be in his jury pool, so this might be apocryphal. Okay, great work by the judge, though.

That's like Johnny Carson not letting Uri Geller touch any of the props. Just be like, all right, I'm gonna shuffle the jury now. And now you can go ahead. Mr. do magic now. You got this, right? Gerr, any Gerr. El Capone was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. He was eventually sent to Alcatraz and his days as a gangster were pretty much over. He tried to serve his time quietly without incident,

playing the banjo and composing songs for it. But he was stabbed in prison by someone trying to make a name for himself, James C. Lucas. See how well that worked? We all know who that is. Yeah, I know, obviously. Or maybe he was just trying to get him

to stop playing the banjo. Did you think of that? Okay, so. Valid point, valid point. At this point, we circle back to Alciferous. Finally. We can hold the MSI. He had an untreated case of it

and that eventually caused him to have dementia. He was let out of prison for medical reasons after seven years and he lived a few more years in the property in Florida. He wasn't sane at this point and he regressed to a childlike state. He died of stroke-induced cardiac arrest a few years later at the age of 48. The world's most famous gangster had fallen into obscurity. All right. If you had to summarize what you'd learned in one sentence, what would that be?

Never piss off math nerds. Just don't do it. Good. Amen. Good. Amen. All right. So are you ready for the quiz? Shoot. All right, Cecil. We actually had a platinum night for a citation needed live show at Harry Carries.

It is a steakhouse now, but what was the building used for in the past? A, an illegal slot machine operation. B, a museum for taxidermy to animals. C, a bootlegging liquor operation. Or D, a speakeasy owned by Capone's buddy Frank Needy and home to a series of tunnels connecting the building to the courthouse across the street. What about E, rat storage and deep dish pizza dough storage, I think? Probably D. Was it D or all of the above?

It is all of the above. That is a story. All right, Cecil, which of the following is my favorite flower based mobster movie? Is it A, Kill iris man, be capo D to T poppy C La Rosa Nostra. D. Lila stock and two smoking. The sod father. They're all so glad. E, the sod father. They're all so amazing. I realize that a lot of people don't appreciate your punage here, but they're all amazing.

But D steals the show. Lylok stock and two smoking barrels. That is a popular choice. I get it. It was actually the sod father, though. Oh, it's D actually. My favorite was E. For the thing to wear. My favorite was E.

There's a real answer. It wasn't. It actually wasn't though. Cecil, my favorite part of Al Capone's legacy happened long after his death. When TV host, Geraldo Rivera, acquired his vault and opened it live on TV after a month of promotion. What did he find inside? A, nothing.

B, seriously, it was nothing. C, he wandered around inside on live television for like four minutes. Then he was like, fuck, why didn't we tape? It was so sad. It was so sad. I remember this. i am not too Too, young to remember this it is it is answer d all the above that is correct

No, it's not no Is he like no matter what you guys Have herald Sorry, but if who do you want to write an essay yes I Herald Couple of pals joking around Cecil Eli Heath and Tom, I'm Noah. Thank you for hanging out with us today. We'll be back next week and by then Tom will be an expert on something else between now And then you can hear more from us on kind of this and its DND minus dear old dad's got off a movie slothless Every the scathing a the season liberally the skeptic rat and talking ship Jesus Christ

Okay, this show going you can make a per episode donation at patreon.com So I citation pot or leave us a five star review everywhere you can and if you'd like to get in touch with us check out past episodes night with social media or check the show notes be sure check out citation pod.com so I catch up to the rain and I say I don't care what mob thinks I don't care what the world thinks I only care what I think. And I think I love you. Wow! And then did you and Grandpa get married? And have been for 33 years, Timmy. And have been for 33 years. Tom, are you crying?

No. I'm just happy they worked it out. Yeah, me too.