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Eliot Ness
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Eliot Ness
Eliotness.jpg
Bureau of Prohibition
Cleveland Division of Police

April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957 (aged 54)

Place of birth
Chicago, Illinois
Rank
Chief Investigator of the Prohibition Bureau for Chicago in 1934
 Director for Public Safety for Cleveland, Ohio
Eliot Paul Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent, famous for his efforts to enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois, and the leader of a legendary team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables.[1]


Contents  [hide]
1 Early life
2 Career 2.1 1927–1931
2.2 1931–1957
3 Personal life
4 Legacy
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

Early life[edit]
Eliot Ness was born April 19, 1903 in Chicago, Illinois. He was the youngest of five siblings born to Norwegian immigrants, Peter and Emma Ness. Ness attended Christian Fenger High School in Chicago. He was educated at the University of Chicago, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, graduating in 1925 with a degree in economics. He began his career as an investigator for the Retail Credit Company of Atlanta. He was assigned to the Chicago territory, where he conducted background investigations for the purpose of credit information. He returned to the University to take a course in criminology, eventually earning a Master's Degree in the field.[2][3]
Career[edit]
1927–1931[edit]
In 1926, Ness' brother-in-law, Alexander Jamie, an agent of the Bureau of Investigation (which later became the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935), influenced Ness to enter law enforcement. He joined the U.S. Treasury Department in 1927, working with the 300-strong Bureau of Prohibition, in Chicago.[4]
Following the election of President Herbert Hoover, U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon was specifically charged with bringing down gangster Al Capone. The federal government pursued his illegal activities in two areas: income tax evasion and violations of prohibition. Ness was chosen to head the operations under the National Prohibition Act (informally known as the Volstead Act), targeting the illegal breweries and supply routes of Capone.
With Chicago's corrupted law-enforcement agents endemic, Ness went through the records of all Prohibition agents to create a reliable team, initially of 50, later reduced to 15 and finally to just 9 men called, "The Untouchables". Raids against illegal stills and breweries began immediately; within six months Ness claimed to have seized breweries worth over one million dollars. The main source of information for the raids was an extensive wire-tapping operation. An attempt by Capone to bribe Ness's agents was seized on by Ness for publicity, leading to the media nickname, "The Untouchables." There were a number of assassination attempts on Ness, and one of his close friends was killed.
The efforts of Ness and his team brought major damage to Capone's operations. Ness's efforts eventually led the IRS to prosecute Capone for income tax evasion, which led to Capone's downfall.[5] In a number of federal grand jury cases in 1931, Capone was charged with 22 counts of tax evasion and also 5,000 violations of the Volstead Act.[6] On October 17, 1931, Capone was convicted on five of the tax evasion charges, after the Volstead Act violations were dropped. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, and following a failed appeal, he began his sentence in 1932.[7][8]
1931–1957[edit]



 Marker at Lake View Cemetery
Ness was promoted to Chief Investigator of the Prohibition Bureau for Chicago and in 1934 for Ohio. Following the end of Prohibition in 1933, he was assigned as an alcohol tax agent in the "Moonshine Mountains" of southern Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee; and, in 1934, he was transferred to Cleveland, Ohio. In December 1935, Cleveland mayor Harold Burton hired him as the city's Safety Director, which put him in charge of both the police and fire departments. He headed a campaign to clean out police corruption and to modernize the fire department.[1][9]



 Billboard for Eliot Ness's 1947 campaign for mayor, seen in 1973
In 1938, Ness's personal life was completely transformed while his career began to have some ups and downs. He concentrated heavily on his work, which may have contributed to the divorce that year from his first wife Edna (Staley). He declared war on the mob, and his primary targets included "Big" Angelo Lonardo, "Little" Angelo Scirrca, Moe Dalitz, John Angerola, George Angersola, and Charles Pollizi. Ness was also Safety Director at the time of several grisly murders that occurred in the Cleveland area from 1935 to 1938. Unfortunately, his otherwise remarkably successful career in Cleveland withered gradually. Cleveland critics targeted his divorce, his high-profile social drinking, and his conduct in a car accident, but he continued with the next Mayor, Frank Lausche.[10]
Ness remarried in 1939, to illustrator Evaline Michelow. The Nesses moved to Washington, D.C. in 1942 where he worked for the federal government, directing the battle against prostitution in communities surrounding military bases, where venereal disease was a serious problem. Later he made a number of forays into the corporate world, all of which failed from his lack of business acumen. In 1944, he left to become chairman of the Diebold Corporation, a security safe company based in Ohio.[11]
After his second divorce and third marriage, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Cleveland in 1947,[9][12] after which he was expelled from Diebold in 1951.[11] In the aftermath, Ness began drinking more heavily and spending his free time in bars telling (often exaggerated) stories of his law enforcement career. He also spent himself into debt. Ness was forced into taking various odd jobs to earn a living, including as an electronics parts wholesaler, a clerk in a bookstore, and selling frozen hamburger patties to restaurants. By 1953, he came to work for an upstart company called Guaranty Paper Corporation, which specialized in watermarking legal and official documents to prevent counterfeiting. Ness was offered a job because of his expertise in law enforcement. The company soon moved from Cleveland to the quiet rural town of Coudersport, Pennsylvania, where operating costs were lower. He made a decent income from GPC and moved with his wife and adopted son into a modest rental house. Once again, he enjoyed going to local bars and regaling amazed audiences with his tales of crime fighting.
He collapsed and died at his home in Coudersport, Pennsylvania of a massive heart attack on May 16, 1957, at the age of 54. Collaborating with Oscar Fraley in his last years, he co-wrote the book The Untouchables, which was published a month after his death.[13] This book, among others about the Untouchables by Oscar Fraley, was heavily spiced with fiction including fictional characters and events to make the books more appealing to a general audience. The 21-page manuscript that Ness himself wrote for the book was a more trustworthy source and only included the real events that Ness experienced during his career. His manuscript is housed in the archives of the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio.[12] The Western Reserve Historical Society houses additional Ness papers, including a scrapbook (1928-1936), copies of newspaper clippings (1935-1950), a typewritten manuscript detailing Ness' career in Chicago, and miscellaneous papers, including a report on the Fidelity Check Corporation and Guaranty Paper, of which Ness was president.[14]
Personal life[edit]
Ness was married to Edna Staley (1900–1988) from 1929 to 1938, illustrator Evaline Ness (1911–1986) from 1939 to 1945, and artist Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1906–1977) from 1946 until his death in 1957. He also had an adopted son Robert (1946–1976). Ness's ashes were scattered in one of the small ponds on the grounds of Lake View Cemetery, in Cleveland. Vigil, Vicki Blum (2007). Cemeteries of Northeast Ohio: Stones, Symbols & Stories. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers. ISBN 978-1-59851-025-6
Legacy[edit]
Television programs and feature films have been made based on the life of Eliot Ness, and the legend surrounding his work in Chicago. The two best-known of these include the 1950s/1960s TV series titled The Untouchables, which starred Robert Stack as Ness and which Walter Winchell narrated, and Brian De Palma's film of the same title, The Untouchables, which starred Kevin Costner as Ness and also featured Sean Connery and Robert De Niro. These two fictionalized portrayals, more than actual history, have inspired numerous novels, a second, short-lived TV series, comic books, and references in animated cartoons and rap lyrics.
On January 10, 2014, Illinois' US Senators proposed naming the headquarters of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Washington, DC after Ness.[15] If approved, it would be called the Eliot Ness ATF Building. However, Chicago Aldermen Ed Burke (14th Ward) and James Balcer (11th Ward) opposed the resolution in an article in the Chicago Tribune. In a news release, Burke said, “Eliot Ness had a checkered career after leaving the federal government. I simply do not think his image matches the actual reality of his legacy.”[16]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Richards, George E. (2011). "The Last Boy Scout: Eliot Ness' Tenure as Cleveland, Ohio's Public Safety Director". International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 1 (12): 14–21. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
2.Jump up ^ Eliot Ness: The Real Story (Paul W. Heimel, author. Knox Books)
3.Jump up ^ Eliot Ness(Ohio Historical Society)
4.Jump up ^ Biography of Eliot Ness (Essortment)
5.Jump up ^ Okrent, Daniel (2010). Last Call : The rise and fall of prohibition. New York: Scribner. pp. 136 &345. ISBN 978-0-7432-7704-4.
6.Jump up ^ Searching for Eliot Ness (Fedora Chronicles)
7.Jump up ^ Eliot Ness Biography (Who2, LLC)
8.Jump up ^ Eliot Ness 1902-1957 The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.gov web site
9.^ Jump up to: a b Bardsley, Marilyn (2013). "Eliot Ness: The Man Behind the Myth". trutv.com. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
10.Jump up ^ "Eliot Ness". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. 21 July 1997. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
11.^ Jump up to: a b "A Man of Steel Leads a Company of Iron". Diebold, Inc. 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
12.^ Jump up to: a b McFarland, Marilyn; Stone, Mark Wade (January 2012). "Eliot Ness". Cleveland Police Museum/Cleveland Police Historical Society. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
13.Jump up ^ Whatever happened to Eliot Ness after the trial of Al Capone? (Ask Yahoo!)
14.Jump up ^ "Finding aid for the Eliot Ness Papers". OhioLINK. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
15.Jump up ^ Skiba, Katherine. "'Untouchable' idea -- building named for Eliot Ness". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
16.Jump up ^ Tribune staff report. "Pair of aldermen oppose effort to rename ATF HQ after Eliot Ness". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
Further reading[edit]
Ness, Eliot; Fraley, Oscar (1957). The Untouchables. Julian Messner.
Heimel, Paul W. (1996). Eliot Ness: The Real Story. Knox Books. ISBN 978-0965582407.
Rasmussen, William T. (2006). Corroborating Evidence. Sunstone Press. ISBN 0-86534-536-8.
Badal, James Jessen (2001). In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland's Torso Murders. The Kent State University Press. ISBN 0-87338-689-2.
Perry, Douglas (2014). Eliot Ness: The Rise and Fall of an American Hero. Viking Penguin. ISBN 978-0-670-02588-6.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eliot Ness.
Dusty Roads of an FBI era, about Eliot Ness And The FBI
Free Information Society, Biography of Eliot Ness
another Biography of Eliot Ness
FBI file on Eliot Ness
Eliot Ness at Find a Grave


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Untouchables (law enforcement)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search



 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)
The Untouchables were a group of eleven U.S. federal law-enforcement agents, led by Eliot Ness, who, from 1929 to 1931, worked to end Al Capone's illegal activities by aggressively enforcing Prohibition laws against Capone and his organization. In their conduct, they became legendary for being fearless and incorruptible, earning the nickname "Untouchables".


Contents  [hide]
1 The mission of the Untouchables
2 Members 2.1 Initial members
2.2 Subsequent members
3 References
4 External links

The mission of the Untouchables[edit]
Upon taking office in 1929, the 31st President of the United States, Herbert Hoover, charged his Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, with bringing down Al Capone. The federal government approached the problem by attacking Capone's organization on two fronts. The first front was mounted by criminal investigators of the Treasury's Bureau of Internal Revenue, who would examine the financial records of Capone and his subordinates to see if they could be prosecuted for tax evasion. This unit of IRS agents was headed by Frank J. Wilson under the close supervision of Elmer Irey.
The second front would consist of a special unit of the Bureau of Prohibition, a branch of the United States Department of the Treasury and later the Department of Justice, who would attack Capone's beer and liquor empire by raiding speakeasies, stills, and, particularly, breweries. The unit's main purpose was twofold: to make it apparent that law enforcement was indeed still active against Capone, whose opulent lifestyle was turning many people against him as the Great Depression progressed, and to deprive Capone of his sources of the income he needed to pay the corrupting graft that was his greatest protection against prosecution. Eliot Ness was chosen to head this elite squad.
Raids against stills and breweries began immediately, and within six months, Ness claimed to have seized breweries worth over one million dollars (the equivalent of US$13,628,596.49 today).[1] An extensive wire-tapping operation was the main source of information for the raids.
An attempt by Capone to bribe Ness's agents was seized on by Ness for publicity, leading to the media nickname "The Untouchables."[2]
With the conclusion of the Capone case, "The Untouchables" were disbanded and Ness, in recognition of his work, was promoted to Chief Investigator of the Prohibition Bureau for Chicago.
Members[edit]
Because corruption was endemic among law-enforcement agents, Ness combed records of all Prohibition Agents to create a reliable team, initially of 50, later reduced to 15, and finally to just 11 men.
Initial members[edit]
The initial ten, aside from Ness himself, were:
Bill Gardner, Native American member of the squad, an expert at undercover work, former athlete, former soldier, and lawyer; he was the oldest member, at age 50.
Lyle Chapman, a former Colgate University football player, tactician, and investigator.
Barney Cloonan, a muscular, Irish agent, known for his strength.
Martin J. Lahart, another muscular, Irish boxer and sports enthusiast.
Thomas J. Friel, a former Pennsylvania state trooper.
Mike King, a deceptively ordinary looking analyst and tactician.
Joe Leeson, an expert driver with the specialty of tailing.
Paul W. Robsky, a short and unobtrusive wire-tapping expert. (He later collaborated with Oscar Fraley, as Ness had on The Untouchables before him, on The Last Of The Untouchables, a companion book to Ness's own chronicles.[citation needed])
Samuel M. Seager, a former Sing Sing death row Corrections Officer.
Subsequent members[edit]
They were followed by:
Jim Seeley, a former private investigator.
Al 'Wallpaper' Wolff, who was transferred to Chicago from the Kentucky hills shortly after the St. Valentine's Day massacre.
Also deserving of mention is:
Frank Basile, a former convict whom Ness reformed, but who was killed in action.[3] Basile, who was Ness's friend, sometime assistant, and driver, was often present at the brewery raids,[2][4] even though technically he was not an agent.[5]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=1000000&year=1929
2.^ Jump up to: a b Crime Library about Untouchables
3.Jump up ^ Eliot Ness and The Untouchables background, on Storeplay
4.Jump up ^ (Fun) Trivia on The Real Untouchables
5.Jump up ^ War, Politics, and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film, by Marc Dipaolo, in Google Books
External links[edit]
Crime Library about Untouchables
Dusty Roads of an FBI era, about Eliot Ness And The FBI
TIME, about The Untouchables
Free Information Society, Biography of Elliot Ness
(Fun) Trivia on The Real Untouchables
another Biography of Elliot Ness
Eliot Ness and The Untouchables background, on Storeplay
War, Politics and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film, by Marc Dipaolo, in Google Books
[1]


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
The Untouchables


Members
Eliot Ness ·
 Martin J. Lahart ·
 Samuel M. Seager ·
 Bernard V. Cloonan ·
 Lyle Chapman ·
 Thomas Friel ·
 Joseph Leeson ·
 Paul W. Robsky ·
 Michael King ·
 William Gardner ·
 Others: Jim Seeley ·
 Albert H. Wolff ·
 Unofficial (ie, non-agent): Frank Basile
 

Context
Prohibition ·
 Volstead Act
 

Investigation



Targets

Chicago Outfit ·
 Al Capone ·
 Also: Frank Nitti
 


Law enforcement

Bureau of Prohibition ·
 Treasury's Bureau of Internal Revenue ·
 Frank J. Wilson ·
 Elmer Lincoln Irey
 


Book
The Untouchables (1957 book) ·
 Authors: Eliot Ness ·
 Oscar Fraley
 

Media
The Untouchables (1959 TV series) (episode list) ·
 The Untouchables (film) (1987) ·
 The Untouchables (video game) (1989) ·
 The Untouchables (1993 TV series) (episode list)
 

 


Categories: Prohibition in the United States
History of law enforcement in the United States
The Untouchables







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Untouchables (law enforcement)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Marty Lahart)
Jump to: navigation, search



 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)
The Untouchables were a group of eleven U.S. federal law-enforcement agents, led by Eliot Ness, who, from 1929 to 1931, worked to end Al Capone's illegal activities by aggressively enforcing Prohibition laws against Capone and his organization. In their conduct, they became legendary for being fearless and incorruptible, earning the nickname "Untouchables".


Contents  [hide]
1 The mission of the Untouchables
2 Members 2.1 Initial members
2.2 Subsequent members
3 References
4 External links

The mission of the Untouchables[edit]
Upon taking office in 1929, the 31st President of the United States, Herbert Hoover, charged his Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, with bringing down Al Capone. The federal government approached the problem by attacking Capone's organization on two fronts. The first front was mounted by criminal investigators of the Treasury's Bureau of Internal Revenue, who would examine the financial records of Capone and his subordinates to see if they could be prosecuted for tax evasion. This unit of IRS agents was headed by Frank J. Wilson under the close supervision of Elmer Irey.
The second front would consist of a special unit of the Bureau of Prohibition, a branch of the United States Department of the Treasury and later the Department of Justice, who would attack Capone's beer and liquor empire by raiding speakeasies, stills, and, particularly, breweries. The unit's main purpose was twofold: to make it apparent that law enforcement was indeed still active against Capone, whose opulent lifestyle was turning many people against him as the Great Depression progressed, and to deprive Capone of his sources of the income he needed to pay the corrupting graft that was his greatest protection against prosecution. Eliot Ness was chosen to head this elite squad.
Raids against stills and breweries began immediately, and within six months, Ness claimed to have seized breweries worth over one million dollars (the equivalent of US$13,628,596.49 today).[1] An extensive wire-tapping operation was the main source of information for the raids.
An attempt by Capone to bribe Ness's agents was seized on by Ness for publicity, leading to the media nickname "The Untouchables."[2]
With the conclusion of the Capone case, "The Untouchables" were disbanded and Ness, in recognition of his work, was promoted to Chief Investigator of the Prohibition Bureau for Chicago.
Members[edit]
Because corruption was endemic among law-enforcement agents, Ness combed records of all Prohibition Agents to create a reliable team, initially of 50, later reduced to 15, and finally to just 11 men.
Initial members[edit]
The initial ten, aside from Ness himself, were:
Bill Gardner, Native American member of the squad, an expert at undercover work, former athlete, former soldier, and lawyer; he was the oldest member, at age 50.
Lyle Chapman, a former Colgate University football player, tactician, and investigator.
Barney Cloonan, a muscular, Irish agent, known for his strength.
Martin J. Lahart, another muscular, Irish boxer and sports enthusiast.
Thomas J. Friel, a former Pennsylvania state trooper.
Mike King, a deceptively ordinary looking analyst and tactician.
Joe Leeson, an expert driver with the specialty of tailing.
Paul W. Robsky, a short and unobtrusive wire-tapping expert. (He later collaborated with Oscar Fraley, as Ness had on The Untouchables before him, on The Last Of The Untouchables, a companion book to Ness's own chronicles.[citation needed])
Samuel M. Seager, a former Sing Sing death row Corrections Officer.
Subsequent members[edit]
They were followed by:
Jim Seeley, a former private investigator.
Al 'Wallpaper' Wolff, who was transferred to Chicago from the Kentucky hills shortly after the St. Valentine's Day massacre.
Also deserving of mention is:
Frank Basile, a former convict whom Ness reformed, but who was killed in action.[3] Basile, who was Ness's friend, sometime assistant, and driver, was often present at the brewery raids,[2][4] even though technically he was not an agent.[5]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=1000000&year=1929
2.^ Jump up to: a b Crime Library about Untouchables
3.Jump up ^ Eliot Ness and The Untouchables background, on Storeplay
4.Jump up ^ (Fun) Trivia on The Real Untouchables
5.Jump up ^ War, Politics, and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film, by Marc Dipaolo, in Google Books
External links[edit]
Crime Library about Untouchables
Dusty Roads of an FBI era, about Eliot Ness And The FBI
TIME, about The Untouchables
Free Information Society, Biography of Elliot Ness
(Fun) Trivia on The Real Untouchables
another Biography of Elliot Ness
Eliot Ness and The Untouchables background, on Storeplay
War, Politics and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film, by Marc Dipaolo, in Google Books
[1]


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
The Untouchables


Members
Eliot Ness ·
 Martin J. Lahart ·
 Samuel M. Seager ·
 Bernard V. Cloonan ·
 Lyle Chapman ·
 Thomas Friel ·
 Joseph Leeson ·
 Paul W. Robsky ·
 Michael King ·
 William Gardner ·
 Others: Jim Seeley ·
 Albert H. Wolff ·
 Unofficial (ie, non-agent): Frank Basile
 

Context
Prohibition ·
 Volstead Act
 

Investigation



Targets

Chicago Outfit ·
 Al Capone ·
 Also: Frank Nitti
 


Law enforcement

Bureau of Prohibition ·
 Treasury's Bureau of Internal Revenue ·
 Frank J. Wilson ·
 Elmer Lincoln Irey
 


Book
The Untouchables (1957 book) ·
 Authors: Eliot Ness ·
 Oscar Fraley
 

Media
The Untouchables (1959 TV series) (episode list) ·
 The Untouchables (film) (1987) ·
 The Untouchables (video game) (1989) ·
 The Untouchables (1993 TV series) (episode list)
 

 


Categories: Prohibition in the United States
History of law enforcement in the United States
The Untouchables







Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

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Printable version

Languages
Deutsch
Español
Français
Polski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Edit links
This page was last modified on 3 August 2014 at 20:20.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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About Wikipedia
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Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Lahart








William Jennings Gardner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For other people named William Gardner, see William Gardner.


 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2011)
William Jennings Gardner

Date of birth:
January 23, 1884
Place of birth:
North Dakota, United States
Date of death:
June 15, 1965 (aged 81)
Place of death:
Prescott, Arizona, United States

Career information

Position(s):
Fullback, end, tackle
Height:
5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Weight:
172 lb (78 kg)
College:
Carlisle

Organizations

As player:

1904–1907
Carlisle Indians

Career highlights and awards

##Knute Rockne All-Time All-American team


Military service

Allegiance:
United States United States
Service/branch:
United States Army seal U.S. Army
Years of service:
1917–1919
Battles/wars:
World War I: Western Front
William Jennings Gardner (January 23, 1884 – June 15, 1965) was an American football player, coach, and law-enforcement agent. He was one of Eliot Ness's "Untouchables," a group of 13 hand-picked United States federal law-enforcement agents who, from 1929 to 1931, sought to put an end to Al Capone's illegal empire. Ness chose Gardner for his team because he was an expert at undercover work.[1]


Contents  [hide]
1 Background 1.1 Early life
1.2 Football career and athletics
1.3 Family life and war
2 The Untouchables
3 Later life
4 References
5 External links

Background[edit]
Early life[edit]
Gardner was born in North Dakota. He was the son of a half-white, half-Chippewa father and a Chippewa Indian mother. At an early age he and his brother, George, were taken from the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation reservation and sent to Carlisle, Pennsylvania to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Football career and athletics[edit]
Gardner, who stood just under six feet and 172 pounds at the time, played end, tackle, and fullback from 1904 to 1907, helping the little school defeat the powers of the time, which were Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Pennsylvania—known as the "Big Four". He also set a school record in track for the half mile, and also played basketball and baseball. Gardner enrolled in Dickinson School of Law his senior year in 1907. "Pop" Warner described his 1907 team as "nearly perfect", but was upset that Walter Camp had left Gardner off his All-American team. Later in the 1930s, Knute Rockne named Gardner to his All-Time All-American team for Collier's.
Gardner then served as Manual's coach from 1908 through 1911. Gardner was normally described in newspapers of the day as reserved, but sometimes he had a "wolf - like nervousness". One newspaper referred to him as "the 'Indian' athlete". Gardner had a feared trickery as a football coach. The Director of Harvard's Hemenway Gymnasium found him to be one of the strongest Americans in 1911, conferred after a series of measurements and physical tests. Gardner even outscored renowned boxers John L. Sullivan, Jack Johnson, and James J. Jeffries. Gardner then became director of athletics at Otterbein University. He then played on an all-star team in Atlanta and while in Indiana, Gardner recruited another star—Jim Thorpe.
Family life and war[edit]
Gardner finished law school in 1909 and was admitted to the Louisville bar in 1910. Gardner enlisted in the United States Army as a private during World War I and became the only "Indian" to receive a captain's commission at Fort Sheridan. As usual, Gardner captained the Camp Custer football team. He fought in the trenches in France and his pension stated that he had been gassed. Gardner married Alene French a socialite from Niles, Michigan in 1919 and fathered one son Frank Gardner and two daughters Jacqueline Gardner Carson and Alene Gardner Schnapf. The Gardner family traveled all over the United States, from Maryland to Texas, primarily because of Bill's highly mobile professional lifestyle, involved in both law and athletics.
The Untouchables[edit]
Eliot Ness was putting together a team of crack agents to combat the ruthless mob boss Al Capone. Ness wanted unmarried men who were accurate shots and could handle themselves in a fight. Gardner obtained a divorce and became a Prohibition Agent. He had been an undercover expert in a L. A. Division and participated in the raids on Capone's breweries, as well as battling gangsters.
Ness often noted that Gardner had high cheek bones and an olive complexion. He also was amazed at Gardner's large size, making a note that Gardner held a shotgun nonchalantly. At nearly 50, Gardner was the oldest member of the "Untouchables".
Later life[edit]
After Gardner left the "Untouchables", drinking, gambling, and women led to his downfall. He moved around until he died at the age of 81 from an illness at the Prescott Veterans Hospital in 1965. He was buried at the Prescott National Cemetery in Arizona, on 17 June 1965 his grave site number is 86, section number 12, row E. He was the real-life inspiration behind Abel Fernandez's character of William "Bill" Youngfellow, "full-blooded Cherokee" agent under Robert Stack's Eliot Ness in the original 1959–1963 The Untouchables T.V. series, and for Michael Horse's character, George Steelman, Native American agent under Tom Amandes's Ness, in the revived series syndicated to local stations in 1993.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Alfers, Kenneth G. America's Second Century. Kendall/Hunt Pub. Co., 1993, p. 106.
External links[edit]

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##William Jennings Gardner at the College Football Data Warehouse


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Prohibition
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about prohibition of alcohol. For prohibition of other drugs, see Prohibition of drugs. For the general concept of legal prohibition, see Prohibitionism. For other uses, see Prohibition (disambiguation).



 A police raid confiscating illegal alcohol, in Elk Lake, Canada, in 1925.
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the legal act of prohibiting the manufacture, storage, transportation and sale of alcohol including alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the prohibition of alcohol was enforced.


Contents  [hide]
1 History
2 Asia 2.1 Bangladesh
2.2 Brunei
2.3 India
2.4 Maldives
2.5 Pakistan
2.6 Philippines
2.7 West Asia
3 Europe 3.1 Czech Republic
3.2 Nordic countries
3.3 Russian Empire and Soviet Union
3.4 United Kingdom
4 North America 4.1 Canada
4.2 Mexico
4.3 United States 4.3.1 Repeal
4.3.2 Al Capone

5 South America 5.1 Venezuela
6 Oceania 6.1 Australia
6.2 New Zealand
7 Elections
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References

History[edit]



 The Drunkard's Progress: A lithograph by Nathaniel Currier supporting the temperance movement, January 1846
The earliest records of prohibition of alcohol date back to the Xia Dynasty (ca. 2070 BC–ca. 1600 BC) in China. Yu the Great, the first ruler of the Xia Dynasty, prohibited alcohol throughout the kingdom.[1] It was legalized again after his death, during the reign of his son Qi.
In the early twentieth century, much of the impetus for the prohibition movement in the Nordic countries and North America came from moralistic convictions of pietistic Protestants.[2] Prohibition movements in the West coincided with the advent of women's suffrage, with newly empowered women as part of the political process strongly supporting policies that curbed alcohol consumption.[3][4]
The first half of the 20th century saw periods of prohibition of alcoholic beverages in several countries:
1907 to 1948 in Prince Edward Island,[5] and for shorter periods in other provinces in Canada
1907 to 1992 in Faroe Islands; limited private imports from Denmark were allowed from 1928
1914 to 1925 in Russian Empire and the Soviet Union
1915 to 1933 in Iceland (beer was still prohibited until 1989)[6]
1916 to 1927 in Norway (fortified wine and beer also prohibited from 1917 to 1923)
1919 in the Hungarian Soviet Republic, March 21 to August 1; called szesztilalom
1919 to 1932 in Finland (called kieltolaki, "ban law")
1920 to 1933 in the United States
After several years, prohibition became a failure in North America and elsewhere, as rum-running became widespread and organized crime took control of the distribution of alcohol. Distilleries and breweries in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean flourished as their products were either consumed by visiting Americans or illegally exported to the United States. Chicago became notorious as a haven for prohibition dodgers during the time known as the Roaring Twenties. Prohibition generally came to an end in the late 1920s or early 1930s in most of North America and Europe, although a few locations continued prohibition for many more years.
In some countries where the dominant religion forbids the use of alcohol, the production, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited or restricted today. For example, in Saudi Arabia and Libya alcohol is banned; in Pakistan and Iran it is illegal with exceptions.[7]
Asia[edit]
Bangladesh[edit]
In Bangladesh, alcohol is strictly prohibited due to its proscription in the Islamic faith. However, the purchase and consumption is allowed for non-Muslims in the country such as the Garo tribe who consume a type of rice beer. Additionally, Christians drink and purchase alcohol for their holy communion.
Brunei[edit]
In Brunei, alcohol consumption in public and sale of alcohol is banned. Non-Muslims are allowed to purchase a limited amount of alcohol from their point of embarkation overseas for their own private consumption, and non-Muslims who are at least the age of 18 are allowed to bring in not more than two bottles of liquor (about two quarts) and twelve cans of beer per person into the country.
India[edit]
Main article: Prohibition in India
In some states of India, alcoholic drinks are banned, for example the states of Gujarat, Nagaland and Mizoram. Certain national holidays such as Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti (birthdate of Mahatma Gandhi) are meant to be dry days nationally. The state of Andhra Pradesh had imposed Prohibition under the Chief Ministership of N. T. Rama Rao but this was thereafter lifted. Dry days are also observed on voting days. Prohibition was also observed from 1996 to 1998 in Haryana. Prohibition has become controversial in Gujarat following a July 2009 episode in which widespread poisoning resulted from alcohol that had been sold illegally.[8] All of the Indian states observe dry days on major religious festivals/occasions depending on the popularity of the festival in that region. These dry days are observed to maintain peace and order during the festival days.
Maldives[edit]
The Maldives ban the import of alcohol, x-raying all baggage on arrival. Alcoholic beverages are available only to foreign tourists on resort islands and may not be taken off the resort.
Pakistan[edit]
Pakistan allowed the free sale and consumption of alcohol for three decades from 1947, but restrictions were introduced by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto just weeks before he was removed as prime minister in 1977. Since then, only members of non-Muslim minorities such as Hindus, Christians and Zoroastrians are allowed to apply for alcohol permits. The monthly quota is dependent upon one's income, but usually is about five bottles of liquor or 100 bottles of beer. In a country of 180 million, only about 60 outlets are allowed to sell alcohol. The Murree Brewery in Rawalpindi was once the only legal brewery, but today there are more. The ban officially is enforced by the country's Islamic Ideology Council, but it is not strictly policed. Members of religious minorities, however, often sell their liquor permits to Muslims as part of a continuing black market trade in alcohol.[9]
Philippines[edit]
Alcohol is prohibited to be bought two days prior to an election. The Commission on Elections may opt to extend the period of time of the liquor ban. In the 2010 elections, the liquor ban was on a minimum two days; in the 2013 elections, it was extended to five days.
Other than election-related prohibition, alcohol is freely sold to anyone above the legal drinking age.
West Asia[edit]
Numerous countries in West Asia including Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia[10] and Kuwait ban alcohol, ranking them low on alcohol consumption per capita, only small quantities are available on the black market.
Europe[edit]
Czech Republic[edit]
On 14 September 2012, the government of the Czech Republic banned all sales of liquor with more than 20% alcohol. From this date on it was illegal to sell (and/or offer for sale) such alcoholic beverages in shops, supermarkets, bars, restaurants, gas stations, e-shops etc. This measure was taken in response to the wave of methanol poisoning cases resulting in the deaths of 18 people in the Czech Republic.[11] Since the beginning of the "methanol affair" the total number of deaths has increased to 25. The ban was to be valid until further notice,[12] though restrictions were eased towards the end of September.[13] The last bans on Czech alcohol with regard to the poisoning cases were lifted on 10 October 2012, when neighbouring Slovakia and Poland allowed its import once again.[14]
Nordic countries[edit]
The Nordic countries, with the exception of Denmark, have had a strong temperance movement since the late 1800s, closely linked to the Christian revival movement of the late 19th century, but also to several worker organisations. As an example, in 1910 the temperance organisations in Sweden had some 330,000 members,[15] which was 6% of a population of 5.5 million.[16] Naturally, this heavily influenced the decisions of Nordic politicians in the early 20th century.
Already in 1907, the Faroe Islands passed a law prohibiting all sale of alcohol, which was in force until 1992. However, very restricted private importation from Denmark was allowed from 1928.
In 1914, Sweden put in place a rationing system, the Bratt System, in force until 1955. However a referendum in 1922 rejected an attempt to enforce total prohibition.
In 1915, Iceland instituted total prohibition. The ban for wine and spirits was lifted in 1935, but beer remained prohibited until 1989.
In 1916, Norway prohibited distilled beverages, and in 1917 the prohibition was extended to also include fortified wine and beer. The wine and beer ban was lifted in 1923, and in 1927 the ban of distilled beverages was also lifted.
In 1919, Finland enacted prohibition, as one of the first acts after independence from the Russian Empire. Four previous attempts to institute prohibition in the early 20th century had failed due to opposition from the tsar. After a development similar to the one in the United States during its prohibition, with large-scale smuggling and increasing violence and crime rates, public opinion turned against the prohibition, and after a national referendum where 70% voted for a repeal of the law, prohibition was ended in early 1932.[17][18]
Today, all Nordic countries (with the exception of Denmark) continue to have strict controls on the sale of alcohol which is highly taxed (dutied) to the public. There are government monopolies in place for selling spirits, wine and stronger beers in Norway (Vinmonopolet), Sweden (Systembolaget), Iceland (Vínbúðin), the Faroe Islands (Rúsdrekkasøla landsins) and Finland (Alko). Bars and restaurants may, however, import alcoholic beverages directly or through other companies.
See also: Alcoholic beverages in Sweden and Algoth Niska
Greenland, which is part of the kingdom of Denmark does not share its easier controls on the sale of alcohol.[19]
Russian Empire and Soviet Union[edit]
Main article: Prohibition in Russian Empire and Soviet Union
In the Russian Empire, a limited version of a Dry Law was introduced in 1914.[20] It continued through the turmoil of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War into the period of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union until 1925.
United Kingdom[edit]
Although the sale or consumption of commercial alcohol has never been prohibited by law, historically various groups in the UK have campaigned for the prohibition of alcohol, including the Society of Friends (Quakers), The Methodist Church and other non-conformist Christians, as well as temperance movements such as Band of Hope and temperance Chartist movements of the 19th century.
Formed in 1853 and inspired by the Maine law in the USA, the United Kingdom Alliance, led by John Bartholomew Gough, aimed at promoting a similar law prohibiting the sale of alcohol in the UK. This hard-line group of prohibitionists was opposed by other temperance organisations who preferred moral persuasion to a legal ban. This division in the ranks limited the effectiveness of the temperance movement as a whole. The impotence of legislation in this field was demonstrated when the Sale of Beer Act 1854 which restricted Sunday opening hours had to be repealed, following widespread rioting. In 1859 a prototype prohibition bill was overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Commons.[21]
North America[edit]
Canada[edit]
Main article: Prohibition in Canada
An official, but non-binding, federal referendum on prohibition was held in 1898. Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier's government chose not to introduce a federal bill on prohibition, mindful of the strong antipathy in Quebec. As a result, Canadian prohibition was instead enacted through laws passed by the provinces during the first twenty years of the 20th century. The provinces repealed their prohibition laws, mostly during the 1920s.
Mexico[edit]
Zapatista Communities often ban alcohol as part of a collective decision. This has been used by many villages as a way to decrease domestic violence and has generally been favored by women.[22] However, this is not recognized by federal Mexican law as the Zapatista movement is strongly opposed by the federal government.
The sale and purchase of alcohol is prohibited on and the night before certain national holidays, such as Natalicio de Benito Juárez (birthdate of Benito Juárez) and Día de la Revolución, which are meant to be dry nationally. The same "dry law" applies to the days before presidential elections every six years.
United States[edit]
Main article: Prohibition in the United States



 This 1902 illustration from the Hawaiian Gazette shows the Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian Temperance Union's campaign against beer brewers. The "water cure" was a torture in the news because of its use in the Philippines.
Prohibition focused on the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages; however, exceptions were made for medicinal and religious uses. Alcohol consumption was never illegal under federal law. Nationwide prohibition did not begin in the United States until 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect, and was repealed in 1933, with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment.
Concern over excessive alcohol consumption began during the American colonial era, when fines were imposed for drunken behavior and for selling liquor without a license.[23] In the eighteenth century, when drinking was a part of everyday American life, Protestant religious groups, especially the Methodists, and health reformers, including Benjamin Rush and others, urged Americans to curb their drinking habits for moral and health reasons. By the 1840s the temperance movement was actively encouraging individuals to reduce alcohol consumption. Many took a pledge of total abstinence (teetotalism) from drinking distilled liquor as well as beer and wine. Prohibition remained a major reform movement from the 1840s until the 1920s, when nationwide prohibition went into effect, and was supported by evangelical Protestant churches, especially the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Disciples of Christ, and Congregationalists. Kansas and Maine were early adopters of statewide prohibition. Following passage of the Maine law, Delaware, Ohio, Illinois, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York, among others, soon passed statewide prohibition legislation; however, a number of these laws were overturned.[23]
As temperance groups continued to promote prohibition, other groups opposed increased alcohol restrictions. For example, Chicago's citizens fought against enforcing Sunday closings laws in the 1850s, which included mob violence. It was also during this time when patent medicines, many of which contained alcohol, gained popularity. During the American Civil War efforts at increasing federal revenue included imposition of taxes on liquor and beer. The liquor industry responded to the taxes by forming an industry lobby, the United States Brewers Association, that succeeded in reducing the tax rate on beer from $1 to 60 cents. The Women's Crusade of 1873 and the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), founded in 1874, "marked the formal entrance of women into the temperance movement."[23] The WCTU and the Prohibition Party, organized in 1869, remained major players in the temperance movement until the early twentieth century, when the Anti-Saloon League, formed in 1895, emerged as the movement's leader.[23]
Between 1880 and 1890, although several states enacted local option laws that allowed counties or towns to go dry by referendum, only six states had statewide prohibition by state statute or constitutional amendment. The League, with the support of evangelical Protestant churches including the Episcopalians and Lutherans, and other Progressive-era reformers continued to press for prohibition legislation. Opposition to prohibition was strong in America's urban industrial centers, where a large, immigrant, working-class population generally opposed it, as did Jewish and Catholic religious groups. In the years leading up to World War I, nativism, American patriotism, distrust of immigrants, and anti-German sentiment became associated with the prohibition movement. Through the use of pressure politics on legislators, the League and other temperance reformers achieved the goal of nationwide prohibition by emphasizing the need to destroy the moral corruption of the saloons and the political power of the brewing industry, and to reduce domestic violence in the home. By 1913 nine states had stateside prohibition and thirty-one others had local option laws in effect, which included nearly fifty percent of the U.S. population. At that time the League and other reformers turned their efforts toward attaining a constitutional amendment and grassroots support for nationwide prohibition.[23]
In December 1917, after two previous attempts had failed (one in 1913; the other in 1915), Congress approved a resolution to submit a constitutional amendment on nationwide prohibition to the states for ratification.[24] The new constitutional amendment prohibited "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes".[25] On January 8, 1918, Mississippi became the first state to ratify the amendment, and on January 16, 1919, Nebraska became the thirty-sixth state to ratify it, assuring is passage into federal law.[23] On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act, which provided enabling legislation to implement the Eighteenth Amendment.[26] Congress ratified the Eighteenth Amendment on January 16, 1919, and nationwide prohibition began on January 17, 1920.[23]
During the first years of Prohibition, the new federal law was enforced in regions such as the rural South and western states, where it had popular support; however, in large urban cities and in small industrial or mining towns, residents defied or ignored the law.[23] The Prohibition was effective in reducing per-capita consumption, and consumption remained lower for a quarter-century after Prohibition had been repealed.[27] Sale of alcoholic beverages remained illegal during Prohibition, but alcoholic drinks were still available. Large quantities of alcohol were smuggled into the United States from Canada, over land, by sea routes along both ocean coasts, and through the Great Lakes. While the federal government cracked down on alcohol consumption on land within the United States, it was a different story along the U.S. coastlines, where vessels outside the 3-mile limit were exempt. In addition, home brewing was popular during Prohibition. Malt and hops stores popped up across the country and some former breweries turned to selling malt extract syrup, ostensibly for baking and beverage purposes.[citation needed]
Prohibition became increasingly unpopular during the Great Depression. Some believe that the demand for increased employment and tax revenues during this time brought an end to Prohibition. Others argue it was the result the economic motivations of American businessmen as well as the stress and excesses of the era that kept it from surviving, even under optimal economic conditions.[23]
Repeal[edit]
Main article: Repeal of Prohibition in the United States
The repeal movement was initiated and financed by the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, who worked to elect Congressmen who agreed to support repeal. The group's wealthy supporters included John D. Rockefeller, Jr., S. S. Kresge, and the Du Pont family, among others, who had abandoned the dry cause.[23] Pauline Sabin, a wealthy Republican who founded the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), argued that Prohibition should be repealed because it made the United States a nation of hypocrites and undermined its respect for the rule of law. This hypocrisy and the fact that women had initially led the prohibition movement convinced Sabin to establish the WNPR. Their efforts eventually led to the repeal of prohibition.[28][29]



 Prescription form for medicinal liquor
When Sabin's fellow Republicans would not support her efforts, she went to the Democrats, who switched their support of the dry cause to endorse repeal under the leadership of liberal politicians such as Fiorello La Guardia and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sabin and her supporters emphasized that repeal would generate enormous sums of much-needed tax revenue, and weaken the base of organized crime.[citation needed]
Repeal of Prohibition was accomplished with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment on December 5, 1933. Under its terms, states were allowed to set their own laws for the control of alcohol. Following repeal, public interest in an organized prohibition movement dwindled. However, it survived for a while in a few southern and border states.[28][29] To this day, however, there are still counties and parishes within the US known as "dry", where the sale of liquor (whiskey, wine) -not beer- is prohibited; several such municipalities have adopted liquor-by-the-drink, however in order to expand tax revenue.[30]
Al Capone[edit]
Main article: Al Capone
Al Capone was the most notorious gangster of his generation. Born in 1899, Capone settled in Chicago to take over Johnny Torrio's business dealing with outlawed liquor. Within three years, Capone had nearly 700 men at his disposal. As the profits came in, Capone acquired finesse—particularly in the management of politicians. By the middle of the decade, he had gained control of the suburb of Cicero, and had installed his own mayor. Capone's rise to fame did not come without bloodshed. Rival gangs, such as the Gennas and the Aiellos, started wars with Capone, eventually leading to a rash of killings of epic proportions. In 1927, Capone and his gang were pulling in approximately $60 million per year- most of it from beer. Capone not only controlled the sale of liquor to over 10,000 speakeasies, but he also controlled the supply from Canada to Florida. Capone was imprisoned for tax violations and died January 25, 1947, from a heart attack and pneumonia.[31]
South America[edit]
Venezuela[edit]
In Venezuela, twenty hours before every election, the government prohibits the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages throughout the national territory, including the restriction to all dealers, liquor stores, supermarkets, restaurants, wineries, pubs, bars, public entertainment, clubs and any establishment that markets alcoholic beverages.[32] This is done to prevent violent alcohol induced confrontations because of the high political polarization. The same is done during the holy week as a measure to reduce the alarming rate of road traffic accidents during these holidays, since Venezuelans have a tendency to drink and drive.[33]
Oceania[edit]
Australia[edit]



 The first consignment of liquor Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, following the repeal of prohibition laws in 1928.
In Melbourne, Victoria, in the late 1920s, the temperance movement drove suburban councils to hold polls and the residents of some of these municipalities voted for the creation of a dry area. This prohibited the granting of a liquor licence without a formal vote of approval by local residents. These areas continue to this day in the suburbs of Camberwell and Box Hill. Polls have been held since; however, the majority of voters continue to support the restrictions on liquor licences.
More recently, alcohol has been prohibited in many remote indigenous communities. Penalties for transporting alcohol into these "dry" communities are severe and can result in confiscation of any vehicles involved; in dry areas within the Northern Territory, all vehicles used to transport alcohol are seized.
Because alcohol consumption has been linked to violent behaviour in some individuals, some communities sought a safer alternative in substances such as kava, especially in the Northern Territory. Over-indulgence in kava causes sleepiness, rather than the violence that can result from over-indulgence in alcohol. These and other measures to counter alcohol abuse met with variable success. Some communities saw decreased social problems and others did not. The ANCD study notes that, to be effective, programs must address "...the underlying structural determinants that have a significant impact on alcohol and drug misuse." (Op. cit., p. 26) The Federal government banned kava imports into the Northern Territory in 2007.[34]
New Zealand[edit]
In New Zealand, prohibition was a moralistic reform movement begun in the mid-1880s by the Protestant evangelical and Nonconformist churches and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and after 1890 by the Prohibition League. It assumed that individual virtue was all that was needed to carry the colony forward from a pioneering society to a more mature one, but it never achieved its goal of national prohibition. However, both the Church of England and the largely Irish Catholic Church rejected prohibition as an intrusion of government into the church's domain, while the growing labor movement saw capitalism rather than alcohol as the enemy.[35][36]
Reformers hoped that the women's vote, in which New Zealand was a pioneer, would swing the balance, but the women were not as well organized as in other countries. Prohibition had a majority in a national referendum in 1911, but needed a 60% vote to pass. The movement kept trying in the 1920s, losing three more referenda by close votes; it managed to keep in place a 6pm closing hour for pubs and Sunday closing. The Depression and war years effectively ended the movement.[35][36]
Elections[edit]
In many countries in Latin America, the Philippines, Turkey and several US states, the sale but not the consumption of alcohol is prohibited before and during elections.[37][38]
See also[edit]
Bootleggers and Baptists
Iron law of prohibition
Legal drinking age
List of countries with alcohol prohibition           
 Prohibition of drugs
Prohibition Party
Scottish Prohibition Party

Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Chinese Administration of Alcoholic Beverages
2.Jump up ^ Richard J. Jensen, The winning of the Midwest: social and political conflict, 1888-1896 (1971) pp 89-121 online
3.Jump up ^ Aileen Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890–1920 (1965) pp 12–37.
4.Jump up ^ Anne Myra Goodman Benjamin, A history of the anti-suffrage movement in the United States from 1895 to 1920: women against equality (1991)
5.Jump up ^ Heath, Dwight B. (1995). International handbook on alcohol and culture. Westport, CT. Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 21 There seems to be agreement in the literature for 1948 but various dates are given for the initiation of PEI's prohibition legislation. 1907 is the latest. 1900, 1901 and 1902 are given by others.
6.Jump up ^ Associated Press, Beer (Soon) for Icelanders, New York Times, May 11, 1988
7.Jump up ^ "Tipsy Taboo". The Economist. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
8.Jump up ^ In right spirit, Gujarat must end prohibition, IBN Live, 14 July 2009
9.Jump up ^ "Lone brewer small beer in Pakistan". theage.com.au. 2003-03-11. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
10.Jump up ^ "Saudi Arabia". Travel.state.gov. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
11.Jump up ^ "Nečas: Liquor needs new stamps before hitting the shelves". Prague Daily Monitor (ČTK). 2012-09-20. Retrieved 2012-09-20.
12.Jump up ^ Reuters -Czechs ban sale of spirits after bootleg booze kills 19
13.Jump up ^ "Czechs partially lift spirits ban after mass poisoning". BBC News. 26 September 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
14.Jump up ^ "Slovakia, Poland lift ban on Czech spirits". EU Business. 10 October 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
15.Jump up ^ IOGT history (in Swedish) Retrieved 2011-12-08
16.Jump up ^ SCB Population statistics for 1910 (in Swedish) Retrieved 2011-12-08
17.Jump up ^ John H. Wuorinen, "Finland's Prohibition Experiment," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science vol. 163, (Sep., 1932), pp. 216-226 in JSTOR
18.Jump up ^ S. Sariola, "Prohibition in Finland, 1919-1932; its background and consequences," Quarterly Journal of Studies in Alcohol (Sept 1954) 15(3) pp 477-90
19.Jump up ^ http://thefourthcontinent.com/2013/07/26/imagine-drinking-water-only-alcohol-and-greenland/
20.Jump up ^ I.N. Vvedensky, An Experience in Enforced Abstinence (1915), Moscow (Введенский И. Н. Опыт принудительной трезвости. М.: Издание Московского Столичного Попечительства о Народной Трезвости, 1915.) (Russian)
21.Jump up ^ Nick Brownlee (2002) This is Alcohol: 99-100
22.Jump up ^ "The Zapatistas Reject the War on Drugs". Narco News. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
23.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j "History of Alcohol Prohibition". Schaffer Library of Drug Policy. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
24.Jump up ^ "Prohibition wins in Senate, 47 to 8" (PDF). New York Times. 1917-12-19. p. 6. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
25.Jump up ^ "Constitution of the United States, Amendments 11–27: Amendment XVIII, Section 1". The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
26.Jump up ^ David J. Hanson. "Alcohol Problems and Solutions: The Volstead Act". State University of New York, Potsdam. Retrieved 2013-01-08.
27.Jump up ^ Jack S. Blocker, Jr (February 2006). "Did Prohibition Really Work? Alcohol Prohibition as a Public Health Innovation". American Journal of Public Health 96 (2): 233–243. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2005.065409. PMC 1470475. PMID 16380559. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
28.^ Jump up to: a b Thomas R. Pegram (1998). 'Battling Demon Rum: The Struggle for a Dry America, 1800-1933. American Ways. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. ISBN 9781566632089.
29.^ Jump up to: a b Jeffrey A. Miron (2001-09-24). "Alcohol Prohibition". Eh.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
30.Jump up ^ http://archives.starhq.com/html/localnews/1104/110304drink.html
31.Jump up ^ America's Longest War. Praeger. 1974.
32.Jump up ^ http://www.eleccionesvenezuela.com/informacion-ley-seca-elecciones-municipales-venezuela-126.html
33.Jump up ^ http://www.el-carabobeno.com/nacional/articulo/31608/en-gaceta-decreto-de-quotley-secaquot-para-semana-santa
34.Jump up ^ Australian Broadcasting Commission (2007) "Kava Ban 'Sparks Black Market Boom'", ABC Darwin 23 August 2007 http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/23/2012707.htm?site=darwin Accessed 18 October 2007
35.^ Jump up to: a b Greg Ryan, "Drink and the Historians: Sober Reflections on Alcohol in New Zealand 1840–1914," New Zealand Journal of History (April 2010) Vol.44, No.1
36.^ Jump up to: a b Richard Newman, "New Zealand's Vote For Prohibition In 1911," New Zealand Journal of History, April 1975, Vol. 9 Issue 1, pp 52-71
37.Jump up ^ Massachusetts General Laws 138 33.
38.Jump up ^ Prohibition--View Videos
References[edit]
Susanna Barrows, Robin Room, and Jeffrey Verhey (eds.), The Social History of Alcohol: Drinking and Culture in Modern Society (Berkeley, Calif: Alcohol Research Group, 1987)
Susanna Barrows and Robin Room (eds.), Drinking: Behavior and Belief in Modern History University of California Press, (1991)
Jack S. Blocker, David M. Fahey, and Ian R. Tyrrell eds. Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia 2 Vol. (2003)
JS Blocker, Jr. "Did prohibition really work? Alcohol prohibition as a public health innovation." Am J Public Health. 2006 Feb;96(2):233-43. Epub 2005 27 December.
Ernest Cherrington, ed., Standard Encyclopaedia of the Alcohol Problem 6 volumes (1925–1930), comprehensive international coverage to late 1920s
Jessie Forsyth Collected Writings of Jessie Forsyth 1847-1937: The Good Templars and Temperance Reform on Three Continents ed by David M. Fahey (1988)
Gefou-Madianou. Alcohol, Gender and Culture (European Association of Social Anthropologists) (1992)
Dwight B. Heath, ed; International Handbook on Alcohol and Culture Greenwood Press, (1995)
Max Henius Modern liquor legislation and systems in Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden (1931)
Max Henius The error in the National prohibition act (1931)
Patricia Herlihy; The Alcoholic Empire: Vodka & Politics in Late Imperial Russia Oxford University Press, (2002)
Daniel Okrent. Last Call; The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York: Scribner, 2010.
Sulkunen, Irma. History of the Finnish Temperance Movement: Temperance As a Civic Religion (1991)
Tyrrell, Ian; Woman's World/Woman's Empire: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880-1930 U of North Carolina Press, (1991)
Mark Thornton, "Alcohol Prohibition was a Failure," Policy Analysis, Washington DC: Cato Institute, 1991.
Mark Thornton, The Economics of Prohibition, Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 1991.
White, Helene R. (ed.), Society, Culture and Drinking Patterns Reexamined (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, 1991).
White, Stephen.Russia Goes Dry: Alcohol, State and Society (1995)
Robert S. Walker and Samuel C. Patterson, OKLAHOMA GOES WET: THE REPEAL OF PROHIBITION (McGraw-Hill Book Co. Eagleton Institute Rutgers University 1960).
Samuel C. Patterson and Robert S. Walker, "The Political Attitudes of Oklahoma Newspapers Editors: The Prohibition Issue," The Southwestern Social Science Quarterly (1961)
Farness, Kate, "One Half So Precious", Dodd, Mead, and Company, (1995)


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Volstead Act
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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National Prohibition Act
Great Seal of the United States.
Long title
An Act to prohibit intoxicating beverages, and to regulate the manufacture, production, use, and sale of high-proof spirits for other than beverage purposes, and to ensure an ample supply of alcohol and promote its use in scientific research and in the development of fuel, dye, and other lawful industries
Nickname(s)
Volstead Act
Enacted by the
66th United States Congress
Effective
October 28, 1919 and January 16, 1920[1]
Citations

Public Law
Pub.L. 66–66
Stat.
ch. 83, 41 Stat. 305–323
Legislative history
##Introduced in the House as H.R. 6810 by Andrew Volstead (R–MN) on June 27, 1919[2]
##Committee consideration by: House Judiciary Committee
##Passed the House on July 22, 1919 (287–100, 3 Present[3])
##Passed the Senate with amendment on September 5, 1919 (Voice vote[4])
##Reported by the joint conference committee on October 6, 1919; agreed to by the Senate on October 8, 1919 (Voice vote[5]) and by the House on October 10, 1919 (230–69, 1 Present[6])
##Vetoed by President Woodrow Wilson on October 27, 1919
##Overridden by the House on October 27, 1919 (175–55, 3 Present[7])
##Overridden by the Senate and became law on October 28, 1919 (65–20[8])

United States Supreme Court cases
Jacob Ruppert v. Caffey, 251 U.S. 264 (1920)
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The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was enacted to carry out the intent of the Eighteenth Amendment, which established prohibition in the United States. The Anti-Saloon League's Wayne Wheeler conceived and drafted the bill, which was named for Andrew Volstead, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who managed the legislation.


Contents  [hide]
1 Procedure
2 Enforcement and impact
3 See also
4 References

Procedure[edit]
While the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited the production, sale, and transport of "intoxicating liquors", it did not define "intoxicating liquors" or provide penalties. It granted both the federal government and the states the power to enforce the ban by "appropriate legislation." A bill to do so was introduced in Congress in 1919. Later this act was repealed by the Twenty-first amendment.
The bill was vetoed by President Woodrow Wilson, largely on technical grounds because it also covered wartime prohibition, but his veto was overridden by the House on the same day, October 28, 1919, and by the Senate one day later.[9] The three distinct purposes of the Act were:
1.to prohibit intoxicating beverages,
2.to regulate the manufacture, sale, or transport of intoxicating liquor (but not consumption), and
3.to ensure an ample supply of alcohol and promote its use in scientific research and in the development of fuel, dye and other lawful industries and practices, such as religious rituals.[10]
It provided further that "no person shall manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, or furnish any intoxicating liquor except as authorized by this act." It did not specifically prohibit the use of intoxicating liquors. The act defined intoxicating liquor as any beverage containing more than 0.5% alcohol by volume and superseded all existing prohibition laws in effect in states that had such legislation.
Enforcement and impact[edit]
The production, importation, and distribution of alcoholic beverages — once the province of legitimate business — were taken over by criminal gangs, which fought each other for market control in violent confrontations, including murder. Major gangsters, such as Omaha's Tom Dennison and Chicago's Al Capone, became rich and were admired locally and nationally. Enforcement was difficult because the gangs became so rich they were often able to bribe underpaid and understaffed law-enforcement personnel and pay for expensive lawyers. Many citizens were sympathetic to bootleggers, and respectable citizens were lured by the romance of illegal speakeasies, also called "blind tigers". The loosening of social mores during the 1920s included popularizing the cocktail and the cocktail party among higher socio-economic groups. Those inclined to help authorities were often intimidated, even murdered. In several major cities — notably those that served as major points of liquor importation (including Chicago and Detroit) -- gangs wielded significant political power. A Michigan State Police raid on Detroit's Deutsches Haus once netted the mayor, the sheriff, and the local congressman.
Prohibition came into force at midnight on January 17, 1920, and the first documented infringement of the Volstead Act occurred in Chicago on January 17 at 12:59 a.m. According to police reports, six armed men stole $100,000 worth of "medicinal" whiskey from two freight train cars. This trend in bootlegging liquor created a domino effect, with criminals across the United States. In fact, some gang leaders were stashing liquor months before the Volstead Act was enforced. The ability to sustain a lucrative business in bootlegging liquor was largely helped by the minimal police surveillance at the time. There were only 134 agents designated by the Prohibition Unit to cover all of Illinois, Iowa, and parts of Wisconsin.[11] According to Charles C. Fitzmorris, Chicago's Chief of Police during the beginning of the Prohibition period: "Sixty percent of my police [were] in the bootleg business."[12]
Section 29 of the Act allowed 200 gallons (the equivalent of about 1000 750 ml bottles) of "non-intoxicating cider and fruit juice" to be made each year at home.[13] Initially "intoxicating" was defined as anything more than 0.5%,[14] but the Bureau of Internal Revenue soon struck that down[15] and this effectively legalized home wine-making.[13] For beer, however, the 0.5% limit remained until 1933. Some vineyards embraced the sale of grapes for making wine at home; Zinfandel grapes were popular among home winemakers living near the vineyards, but its tight bunches left their thin skins vulnerable to rot, due to rubbing and abrasion, on the long journey to East Coast markets.[16] The thick skins of Alicante Bouschet were less susceptible to rot, so this and similar varieties were widely planted for the home wine-making market.[16][17]
The Act contained a number of exceptions and exemptions. Many of these were used to evade the law's intended purpose. For example, the Act allowed a physician to prescribe whiskey for his patients, but limited the amount that could be prescribed. Subsequently, the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association voted to submit to Congress a bill to remove the limit on the amount of whiskey that could be prescribed and questioning the ability of a legislature to determine the therapeutic value of any substance.[18]
The Act called for trials for anyone charged with an alcohol-related offense, and juries often failed to convict.[citation needed] Under the state of New York's Mullan-Gage Act, a short-lived local version of the Volstead Act, the first 4,000 arrests led to just six convictions and not one jail sentence.[19]
Prohibition lost advocates as alcohol gained increasing social acceptance and as prohibition led to disrespect for the law and the growth of organized crime. By 1933, public opposition to prohibition had become overwhelming. In March of that year, Congress passed the Cullen-Harrison Act, which legalized "3.2 beer" (i.e., beer 3.2% alcohol by weight or 4% by volume) and wines of similarly low alcohol content, rather than the 0.5% limit defined by the original Volstead Act.
Congress passed the Blaine Act, a proposed constitutional amendment to repeal Prohibition, in February. On December 5, 1933, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, rendered the Volstead Act unconstitutional, and restored control of alcohol to the states. The creation of the Federal Alcohol Administration in 1935 defined a modest role for the federal government with respect to alcohol and its taxation.
See also[edit]
##Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
##List of amendments to the United States Constitution
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Titles I, Title II sections 1, 27, 37, 38, and Title III were effective immediately. The remaining sections of Title II were effective when the 18th Amendment became effective.
2.Jump up ^ 1919 Congressional Record, Vol. 65, p. 1944
3.Jump up ^ 1919 Congressional Record, Vol. 65, p. 3005
4.Jump up ^ 1919 Congressional Record, Vol. 65, p. 4908
5.Jump up ^ 1919 Congressional Record, Vol. 65, p. 6552
6.Jump up ^ 1919 Congressional Record, Vol. 65, p. 6697–6698
7.Jump up ^ 1919 Congressional Record, Vol. 65, p. 7610–7611
8.Jump up ^ 1919 Congressional Record, Vol. 65, p. 7633–7634
9.Jump up ^ David Pietrusza, 1920: The Year of Six Presidents (NY: Carroll & Graf, 2007), 160
10.Jump up ^ Subtitle of the Act, http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/wick/wick1.html National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement Report on the Enforcement of the Prohibition Laws of the United States Dated January 7, 1931 National Prohibition.
11.Jump up ^ Kobler, John. Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone. Da Capo Press, 2003, p. 68.
12.Jump up ^ Kobler, John. “Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone”. Da Capo Press, 2003, p. 69.
13.^ Jump up to: a b Pinney, Thomas (July 2005). A History of Wine in America From Prohibition to the Present. ISBN 978-0-520-24176-3. p. 2. Chapter 1
14.Jump up ^ Fizz Water Time 6 August 1928.
15.Jump up ^ ALLOWS HOME BREW OVER HALF PER CENT.; Internal Revenue Ruling Applies Only to Beverages Consumed in Domiciles. MUST BE NON-INTOXICATING Beer Not Included, and Only Cider and Fruit Juices May Be Sold. New York Times 25 July 1920.
16.^ Jump up to: a b Pinney p. 26.
17.Jump up ^ H. Johnson Vintage: The Story of Wine p. 444. Simon and Schuster 1989 ISBN 0-671-68702-6.
18.Jump up ^ "The A.M.A. and the Volstead Act", California and Western Medicine, 26:808 (1927). See also "Resolution in Regard to Volstead Act", Bull N Y Acad Med. 3(9):598-9 (1927).
19.Jump up ^ Okrent, Daniel. Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, Scribners, 2010, p. 253.


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Chicago Outfit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the criminal organization. For the women's roller derby group, see Chicago Outfit Roller Derby.
Chicago Outfit

Founding location
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Years active
1910–present
Territory
Chicago metropolitan area and other parts of Illinois. Other territories are in Nebraska, Indiana, Las Vegas, Florida and Southern California[1]
Ethnicity
"Made men" are people of Italian descent, and other ethnicities as associates.
Membership
28 members, 100+ associates[2]
Criminal activities
Racketeering, gun running, bribery, conspiracy, arson, burglary, coercion, labor racketeering, hijacking, loansharking, drug trafficking, fencing, fraud, money laundering, murder, illegal gambling, assault, battery, extortion, threats.
Allies
Five Families, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Patriarca and Los Angeles crime families, and the Outlaws[3][4]
Rivals
Various Chicago criminal groups that rivals it for power.
The Chicago Outfit (or simply the Outfit), also known as the Chicago Mafia, Chicago Mob, or Capone Mob, is an Italian American crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois. Dating back to the 1910s, it is part of the American Mafia. Originating in South Side Chicago, the Outfit rose to power in the 1920s under the control of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone. The period was marked by bloody gang wars for distribution of illegal alcohol during Prohibition. Since then, the Outfit has been involved in a wide range of criminal activities including loansharking, gambling, prostitution, extortion, political corruption, and murder. Although the Outfit had no true monopoly on organized crime in Chicago they were by far the biggest criminal organization in the Midwestern United States. The Outfit's control at its peak reached throughout the western and eastern United States to places as far away as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and parts of Florida.
Higher law enforcement investigations and general attrition led to the Outfit's gradual decline since the late 20th century. As of 2007, the Outfit's size is estimated to be 28 official members (composing its core group) and over 100 associates.[2] The Old Neighborhood Italian American Club is considered to be hangout of Old Timers, as they live out their golden years. The Club's founder was Angelo J. LaPietra "The Hook", who at the time of his death in 1999 was the main Council. The Chicago Outfit is currently believed to be led by John DiFronzo.


Contents  [hide]
1 History 1.1 Pre-Prohibition
1.2 Al Capone's empire
1.3 From Nitti through Accardo 1.3.1 1960s-1970s
1.4 21st century
2 Historical leadership 2.1 Boss
2.2 Street boss (front boss)
2.3 Underboss
2.4 Consigliere
3 Current family members 3.1 Administration
3.2 Capos
3.3 Soldiers
4 Government informants and witnesses
5 Outfit associates
6 In popular culture
7 See also
8 References 8.1 Citations
8.2 General references
9 External links

History[edit]
Pre-Prohibition[edit]
The early years of organized crime in Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were marked by the division of various street gangs controlling the South Side and North Side as well as the Black Hand organizations of Little Italy.
Big Jim Colosimo centralized control in the early 20th century. Colosimo was born in Calabria, Italy, in 1877, emigrating to Chicago in 1895, where he established himself as a criminal. By 1909 he was successful enough that he was encroaching on the criminal activity of the Black Hand organization.[5] Since its founding, the Chicago Outfit has been operating in order to keep and expand its status and profit throughout the Chicago area, among others.
His expanding organization required the procurement of extra muscle. This came in the form of Colosimo's nephew Johnny Torrio from New York. In 1919, Torrio brought in Al Capone, thus providing Capone's entrance to Chicago. In time, Colosimo and Torrio had a falling out over Torrio's insistence that they expand into rum-running, which Colosimo staunchly opposed. In 1920, Colosimo was killed on Torrio's order. Torrio reportedly brought in New York colleague, Frankie Yale, to murder Colosimo. Al Capone has also been suspected as Colosimo's assassin.
Torrio brought together different parts of Chicago criminal activity, with a lasting effect on Chicago in general, and Chicago crime in particular.
Al Capone's empire[edit]
During the Prohibition era, its leader Johnny Torrio, competed with other gangsters like Dean O'Banion for the bootlegging business and was involved in other rivalries. Because of this, there appears to have been a business and personal rivalry between the Northside (North Side Mob) and Southside Chicago gangs. Al Capone, Torrio's right-hand man, headed the southern and George Moran, the northern. There also appeared to have been cultural differences between the two sides, since the Northsiders were more Irish-American and the SouthSiders were more Italian-American.
Severely injured in an assassination attempt by the North Side Mob in January 1925, the shaken Torrio returned to Italy and handed over control of the business to Capone. Capone was notorious during Prohibition for his control of the Chicago underworld and his bitter rivalries with gangsters such as George "Bugs" Moran and Earl "Hymie" Weiss. Raking in vast amounts of money (some estimates were that between 1925 and 1930 Capone was making $100 million a year), the Chicago kingpin was largely immune to prosecution because of witness intimidation and the bribing of city officials. The Chicago Outfit under Al Capone's leadership was certainly one of the most dangerous gangs in the world. In the 1930s, Al Capone and his successor, Frank Nitti, developed the Outfit rapidly in all the surrounding areas.
One of the prime areas of interest was in Canada, the main source of alcohol which the Outfit was smuggling into the States. This illicit alcohol was then distributed to all the "titty bars" (brothels) of Chicago. During prohibition, this was one of the greatest sources of income for the Outfit. The Outfit, as established by Capone, functioned on relationships with a high degree of trust between the gangsters and the "boss of bosses".
The Boss controlled the heads of various divisions of the outfit through a system of informants placed throughout the various levels of the organization. Anyone who betrayed the honor of the organization was executed. Among the most active representatives of the Al Capone Outfit were "Happy Memories" DeLuca (assets in Illinois and Wisconsin), Bob Calandra (Ontario), Vince DeLuca, Tom Ciampelletti (Montreal) and Frank Nitti, who acted as intermediary between Al Capone, the Boss, and the other gangsters. Frankie La Porte and Ross Prio out of Chicago Heights, carried some heavy weight with Capone organizing his gang into an empire. Frankie La Porte, being Sicilian and having the ability to work in confidence with New York gangsters Joe Bonanno and Charles "Lucky" Luciano, who were also Sicilian, is believed to have been Capone's connection to the Commission. The conflict who the others gang led to numerous crimes, such as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and numerous drive-by shootings resulting in the death of George Moran's associates and others on both sides. The Tommy gun was a trademark weapon for drive-bys.
While Al Capone was in charge of the Chicago Outfit it has been reported that some members of organization would take the train from Chicago to Wabash County, Illinois and stay at a remote hotel called the Grand Rapids Hotel on the Wabash River next to the Grand Rapids Dam. The hotel was only in existence for nine years but many residents of the area remember seeing men who claimed to be from the Chicago Outfit at the Grand Rapids Hotel. Suspiciously, the Grand Rapids Hotel was burned down by a man with one leg who dropped a blowtorch.[6]
From Nitti through Accardo[edit]
After Capone was jailed for tax evasion, his hand-picked successor, Frank Nitti, a former barber and small-time jewelry thief, only nominally assumed power. In truth, power was seized by Nitti's underboss, Paul Ricca, who was acknowledged as "boss" by the leaders of the growing National Crime Syndicate. Ricca would rule the Outfit, either in name or in fact, for the next 40 years.
Over the next decade, The Outfit moved into labor racketeering, gambling, and loan sharking. Geographically, this was the period when Outfit muscle extended its tendrils to Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin, Kansas City, and especially to Hollywood and other California cities, where The Outfit's extortion of labor unions gave it leverage over the motion picture industry.
In the early 1940s, a handful of top Outfit leaders went to prison because they were found to be extorting Hollywood by controlling the unions that compose Hollywood's movie industry, and the manipulation and misuse of the Teamsters Central States Pension fund.[7] There were also allegations that The Outfit was involved in strong-arm tactics and voter fraud at polling places, under Salvatore Giancana in the 1960 presidential election. In 1943, the Outfit was caught red-handed shaking down the Hollywood movie industry. Ricca wanted Nitti to take the fall. However, Nitti had found, years earlier while in jail for 18 months (for tax evasion), that he was claustrophobic, and he decided to end his life rather than face more imprisonment for extorting Hollywood. Ricca then became the boss in name as well as in fact, with enforcement chief Tony Accardo as underboss—the start of a partnership that would last for almost 30 years. Around this time, the Outfit began bringing in members of the Forty-Two Gang, a notoriously violent youth gang. Among them were Sam "Momo" Giancana, Sam "Mad Sam" DeStefano, Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio and Fiore "Fifi" Buccieri.
However, later in 1943, following the "Hollywood Scandal" trial, Ricca was sent to prison for his part in The Outfit plot to control Hollywood. He, along with a number of other mobsters, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Through the "magic" of political connections, the whole group of Outfit mobsters was released after three years, largely due to the efforts of Outfit "fixer" Murray "The Camel" Humphreys. As a condition of his parole, Ricca could not associate with mobsters. Accardo nominally took power as boss, but actually shared power with Ricca, who continued behind the scenes as a senior consultant—one of the few instances of shared power in organized crime.
Accardo joined Ricca in semi-retirement in 1957 due to some "heat" he was getting from the IRS. From then on, Ricca and Accardo allowed several others, such as Giancana, Alderisio, Joey Aiuppa, William "Willie Potatoes" Daddano and Jackie "the Lackey" Cerone to nominally serve as boss. Most of the front bosses originated from the Forty-Two Gang. However, no major business transactions, and certainly no "hits," took place without Ricca and Accardo's knowledge and approval. By staying behind the scenes, Ricca and Accardo lasted far longer than Capone. Ricca died in 1972, leaving Accardo as the sole power behind the throne.
1960s-1970s[edit]
Along with the voting allegations, The Outfit was involved in a Central Intelligence Agency-Mafia collusion during Castro's overthrow of the Cuban government. In exchange for its help, the Outfit was to be given access to its former casinos if it helped overthrow Fidel Castro in (Operation Mongoose or Operation Family Jewels).[8] Having failed in that endeavor, and facing increasing indictments under the administration of President John F. Kennedy (JFK), the Outfit is the subject of conspiracy theories regarding the JFK assassination and that of JFK's brother Robert Kennedy.
The Outfit reached the height of its power in the early 1960s. With the aid of Meyer Lansky, Accardo used the Teamsters pension fund to engage in massive money laundering through the Outfit's casinos, aided by the likes of Sidney Korshak and Jimmy Hoffa. The 1970s and 1980s were a hard time for the Outfit, as law enforcement continued to penetrate the organization, spurred by poll-watching politicians. Off-track betting reduced bookmaking profits and illicit casinos withered under competition from legitimate casinos. Replacement activities like auto theft and professional sports betting did not replace the lost profits. The Outfit controlled casinos in Las Vegas and "skimmed" millions of dollars over the course of several decades. Most recently, top mob figures have been found guilty of crimes dating back to as early as the mid-1960s. It has been rumored that the $2 million skimmed from the casinos in the Court case of 1986 was used to build the Old Neighborhood Italian American Club, the founder of which was Angelo J. "The Hook" LaPietra.
Operation PENDORF (codenamed for penetrate Allen Dorfman) and the "Strawman" case ended the Outfit's skimming and control of their Las Vegas casinos. These events are fictionalized in the film Casino.
Operation GAMBAT proved to be a crippling blow to the Outfit's tight grip on the Chicago Political Machine. Pat Marcy, a made man in the Outfit, ran the city's First Ward, which represented most of downtown Chicago. With the help of Alderman Fred Roti and Democratic Committeeman John D'Arco Sr., close Outfit associates, Marcy and company controlled the circuit courts from the 1950s until the late 1980s. Together, the First Ward fixed cases involving everything from minor traffic violations to murder.
Attorney and First Ward associate Robert Cooley was one of the attorneys who represented many mafiosi and associates in which cases were fixed. As a trusted man within the First Ward, Cooley was approached and asked to take out a city police officer. Cooley, who was also an addicted gambler and in debt to certain undesirables, approached the U.S. Justice Department's Organized Crime Strike Force, declaring he wanted to "destroy Marcy and the First Ward."
Cooley was soon in touch with the FBI and began cooperating as a federal informant. Through the years, Cooley kept close with Marcy and the big shots of the First Ward. He wore a wire, recording valuable conversations at the notorious "First Ward Table", located at "Counselor's Row" across the street from Chicago City Hall. The results in Operation Gambat (Gambling Attorney) were convictions of 24 corrupt judges, lawyers, and cops.
Accardo died in 1992.[9] In a measure of how successfully he'd managed to stay out of the limelight, he never spent a day in jail (or only spent one day, depending on the source) despite an arrest record dating to 1922. Compared to how organized crime leadership transitions take place in New York City, Chicago's transition from Accardo to the next generation of Outfit bosses has been more of an administrative change than a power struggle.
21st century[edit]
Higher law enforcement investigations and general attrition led to the Outfit's gradual decline since the late 20th century. The Old Neighborhood Italian American Club is considered to be hangout of Old Timers, as they live out their golden years. The Club's founder was Angelo J. LaPietra "The Hook", who at the time of his death in 1999 was the main Council. On April 25, 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice launched Operation Family Secrets,[10] which indicted 14 Outfit members and associates under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel presided over the Family Secrets trial. The federal prosecutors were Mitchell A. Mars, T. Markus Funk, and John Scully.
As of 2007, the Outfit's size is estimated to be 28 official members (composing its core group) and over 100 associates.[2] Other references report that the Outfit has around 50-60 made members, and then more associates.[1][11] The Chicago Outfit is currently believed to be led by John DiFronzo.
Historical leadership[edit]
Boss[edit]
1910–1920 — Giacomo "Big Jim" Colosimo — murdered in 1920.
1920–1925 — John "Papa Johnny" Torrio — retired in 1925.
1925–1931 — Alphonse "Scarface Al" Capone — imprisoned in 1931, deceased in 1947.
1931–1947 — Paul "The Waiter" Ricca — stepped down in 1947, deceased in 1972.
1947–1992 — Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo[12] — died of natural causes in 1992.
1992-1996 — Samuel "Sam Wings" Carlisi — arrested in 1996, deceased in 1997.
1996–present — John "No Nose" DiFronzo
Street boss (front boss)[edit]
The position of "front boss" was created by boss Paul Ricca in efforts to divert law enforcement attention from himself. The family maintained this "front boss" deception for the next 60 years.
1931–1943 — Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti — imprisoned and committed suicide in 1943.
1957–1966 — Salvatore "Mooney Sam" Giancana — fled in Mexico in 1966, murdered in 1975.
1966–1967 — Samuel "Teets" Battaglia — arrested in 1967, deceased in 1973.
1967–1971 — Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio — imprisoned in 1967-1969, deceased in 1971.
1971–1986 — Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa — imprisoned in 1986, deceased in 1997.
1986–1989 — Joseph "Joe Nagall" Ferriola — deceased for natural causes in 1989.
1989–1992 — Samuel "Sam Wings" Carlisi — became official boss in 1992.
1996-2007 — James "Jimmy the Man" Marcello — sentenced in 2007, imprisoned for life in 2009.
Underboss[edit]
1910-1920 — John "Papa Johnny" Torrio — became boss in 1920.
1920–1925 — Alphonse "Scarface Al" Capone — became boss in 1925.
1925-1931 — Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti — became "front boss" in 1931.
1931-1943 — Louis "Little New York" Campagna — arrested in 1943, deceased in 1955.[12]
1943–1947 — Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo — became boss in 1947.
1947-1957 — Salvatore "Mooney Sam" Giancana — became "front boss" in 1957, murdered in 1975.
1957-1967 — Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio — imprisoned in 1967-1969, deceased in 1971.
1967-1986 — John "Jackie the Lackey" Cerone — imprisoned in 1986, deceased in 1996.
1986-1992 — Ernest "Rocky" Infelise — arrested in 1992, deceased in 2005.[12]
1992-1996 — James "Jimmy the Man" Marcello — became front boss in 1996.
1996-2006 — Anthony "Little Tony" Zizzo — disappeared and probably murdered in 2006.
2006–present — Joseph "Joe the Builder" Andriacchi
Consigliere[edit]
1925-1928 — Antonio "Tony the Scourge" Lombardo — murdered in 1928.
1928-1947 — Charles "Trigger Happy" Fischetti — retired in 1947, deceased in 1951.[12]
1947-1957 — Paul "The Waiter" Ricca — retired in 1957, deceased in 1972.[12]
1957-1992 — Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo — deceased for natural causes in 1992.
1992-1999 — Angelo J. LaPietra[12] — deceased for natural causes in 1999.
1999-2007 — Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo — sentenced in 2007, imprisoned for life in 2009.
2007-2009 - Alfonso "Al the Pizza Man" Tornabene — deceased in 2009.
2009–present - Marco "The Mover" D'Amico
Current family members[edit]
Administration[edit]
Capos[edit]
John "Pudgy" Matassa Jr. — capo of Melrose Park-based crew, Matassa was involved in the Operation Family Secrets.[13]
Frank "Tootsie" Caruso — son of Frank T. Caruso, deceased gambling racketeer and capo of the Outfit. Caruso control the South Side crew.[1]
Joseph "Joe Kong" Culotta — capo of West Side crew, Culotta control the mostly small crew of the Outfit.[1]
Soldiers[edit]
Robert "Bobby the Boxer" Salerno — Salerno was a former boxing trainer who knew Ernie Terrell very well. In 1995, he was sentenced to life in prison for murder, which he stated he didn't do.[14]
Nicholas "Nick" Ferriola — he was sentenced for three years in federal prison for his role in the Family Secrets case. Ferriola is also involved in bookmaking all over Chicago.[15]
Michael "Handsome Mike" Talerico — he is related Angelo LaPietra, and was a small-time bookie. Talerico was also once married to former Chicago Outfit hitman Frank Schweihs's daughter.[16]
Richard "Richie the Cat" Catazone — during the 1980s, he was involved in an Outfit gambling operation, which included former Cincinnati Reds manager, Pete Rose.[17]
Michael "Big Mike" Spano — Spano and his father Sr. had great influence in Cicero, Illinois and controlled the town after Rocky Infelice was convicted during the 1990s.[18]
Salvatore DeLaurentis ("Solly D") - He was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison after he was convicted under racketeering, extortion, and tax fraud.[19]
Government informants and witnesses[edit]
Name Rank and Year
William Morris Bioff associate (1943)
Ken Eto associate (1983)
Robert Cooley associate (1986)
Leonard Patrick associate (1992)
Nicholas Calabrese captain (2007)
Richard Cain turned informant in 1971, but he didn't become a witness, because he was murdered in 1973 after the discover of his pact with the authorities.
Outfit associates[edit]
The Outfit is notable for having had other ethnic groups besides Italians as high ranking associates since the family's earliest days. A prime example of this was Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, who was the top "bagman" and "accountant" for decades until his death. He was a Polish Jew. Others were Murray Humphreys, who was of Welsh descent, and Ken Eto (aka Tokyo Joe), who was Japanese-American. The Outfit also had Michael J. Corbitt, who was a police officer.
In popular culture[edit]
The Chicago Outfit has a long history of portrayal in Hollywood as the subject of films and television.
Scarface (1932)
Chicago Syndicate (1955)
The Scarface Mob (1957)
The Untouchables television series (1959–63; 1993–94)
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967)
Bullitt (1968)
The Outfit (1973)
Thief (1981)
The Untouchables (1987)
The Firm (1993)
Casino (1995)
Payback (1999)
Road to Perdition (2002)
Public Enemies (2009)
The Firm (2012)
The F.B.I.
Crime Story
Prison Break
Mob Wives: Chicago
The Mob Doctor (2012–13)
Boardwalk Empire (2010–present)
See also[edit]
Joe Aiello - rival to Al Capone during Prohibition-Era, Aiello was also allied to Salvatore Maranzano during the Castellammarese War [20]
North Side Gang - a rival gang to Al Capone
Hired Truck Program scandal
Organized Crime in Chicago
Unione Siciliane
Grand Rapids Hotel
References[edit]
Citations[edit]


 This article uses bare URLs for citations, which may be threatened by link rot. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (April 2014)
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d "Chicago Outfit Chart 2010". mobbedup.com. 11 February 2014.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=5681103
3.Jump up ^   Ann Pistone and Chuck Goudie (2009-07-27). "Aging bombing suspect linked to Outfit; Outlaws won't get out | abc7chicago.com". Abclocal.go.com. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
4.Jump up ^ [1]
5.Jump up ^ Binder, John (2003). The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 0738523267.
6.Jump up ^ Nolan, John Matthew "2,543 Days: A history of the Hotel at the Grand Rapids Dam on the Wabash River"
7.Jump up ^ Binder, John (2003). The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing. p. 56. ISBN 0738523267.
8.Jump up ^ Tisdall, Simon (26 June 2007). "CIA conspired with mafia to kill Castro". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
9.Jump up ^ Baumann, Edward (October 29, 1995). "FORMER FBI AGENT BILL ROEMER TAKES A LOOK AT MOB BOSS TONY ACCARDO". Chicago Tribune.
10.Jump up ^ "Powered by Google Docs". Google. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
11.Jump up ^ The Chicago Mafia, FBI, June 27, 2011
12.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "American Gangland: The Chicago Outfit". angelfire.com. 10 February 2014.
13.Jump up ^ "The feds draw a bead on "Pudgy"". Chicago Sun-Times.
14.Jump up ^ "Unmoved By Mobster's Plea, Judge Gives Him Life In Prison". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
15.Jump up ^ "Ferriola gets 3 years". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
16.Jump up ^ "Chicago mob: From hit men to ‘Wives’". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
17.Jump up ^ "Oak Brook Man, 9 Others Ran Gambling Empire, U.s. Charges". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
18.Jump up ^ "Murdered shipping executive paid mob figures". The Times. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
19.Jump up ^ "Lake County Mobster Gets 18 1/2-year Term". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
20.Jump up ^ Thomas P. Hunt, New Milford, CT, thunt@onewal.com (1930-10-23). "The American Mafia - Joe Aiello". Onewal.com. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
Jim Distler aka Jimmy Gambino sentenced for money laundering/bank fraud
General references[edit]
Binder, John. The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7385-2326-7
Cooley, Robert. When Corruption was King: How I Helped the Mob Rule Chicago, Then Brought the Outfit Down, 2004. ISBN 0-7867-1583-9
Russo, Gus. The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America, Bloomsbury USA, 2002. ISBN 1-58234-279-2
Mark Lombardi: Global Networks. Mark Lombardi, Robert Carleton Hobbs, Judith Richards; Independent Curators, 2003. (published for the traveling exhibition of his work, "Mark Lombardi Global Networks"). ISBN 0-916365-67-0
Nolan, John Matthew. 2,543 Days: A history of the Hotel at the Grand Rapids Dam on the Wabash River
External links[edit]
The F.B.I. (historical archives)


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Categories: Chicago Outfit
Italian-American crime families
Italian-American culture in Chicago, Illinois
The Untouchables
Organized crime in Chicago, Illinois
History of Chicago, Illinois
Gangs in Chicago, Illinois








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Al Capone
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This article is about the gangster. For other uses, see Al Capone (disambiguation).
"Capone" redirects here. For other uses, see Capone (disambiguation).
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Al Capone
Al Capone-around 1935.jpg
Capone circa 1935
Al Capone Signature.svg

Born
Alphonse Gabriel Capone
January 17, 1899
Brooklyn, New York
Died
January 25, 1947 (aged 48)
Palm Island, Florida

Resting place
 Mount Carmel Cemetery[1]
Occupation
Gangster, bootlegger, criminal, racketeer, boss of Chicago Outfit
Religion
Roman Catholic

Criminal charge
 Tax evasion

Criminal penalty
 11-year sentence in Alcatraz
Spouse(s)
Mae Capone
Children
Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone (1918–2004)

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone (/æl kəˈpoʊn/; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) was a Chicago gangster who attained national fame during the Prohibition era. His seven year reign as crime boss ended when he was 33 years old.
Born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City to Italian immigrants, Capone was a Five Points Gang member who became a bouncer in organised crime premises such as brothels. In his early twenties, he moved to Chicago becoming bodyguard and trusted factotum for Johnny Torrio, head of a criminal syndicate illegally supplying alcohol, and politically protected through the Unione Siciliane. A conflict with the West Side gang was instrumental in Capone's rise and fall, Torrio had been precipitated into retirement after West Side gunmen almost killed him, thereby bringing about Capone's succession. He expanded the bootlegging business through increasingly violent means, but his mutually profitable relationships with mayor William Hale Thompson and the city's police, meant Capone seemed safe from law enforcement. Apparently revelling in the attention, such as the cheers when he appeared at ball games, Capone made donations to various charities and was viewed by many to be a "modern-day Robin Hood". However, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre of West Siders damaged Chicago's image, leading influential citizens to demand action from central government.
The federal authorities became intent on jailing Capone and prosecuted him for tax evasion in 1931. The case was highly politicised and both prosecutors and judge later received preferment. During prior and ultimately abortive negotiations to pay the government any back tax he owed, Capone had made admissions of his income; the judge deemed these statements could be used as evidence at the trial, and also refused to let Capone plead guilty for a lighter sentence. The effect of such decisions by the judge was added to by the incompetence of Capone's defence attorneys. Capone was convicted and sentenced to a then record breaking 11 years in federal prison. Replacing his old defence team with lawyers expert in tax law, his appeal grounds were strengthened by a Supreme court ruling, but Capone again found his status as a symbol of criminality meant that judges decided in his disfavor. Already showing signs of syphilitic dementia by early in his sentence, he became increasingly debilitated before being released after 8 years. On January 25, 1947, he died from cardiac arrest after suffering a stroke. Capone's conviction had negligible effect on the prevalence of organised crime in Chicago.


Contents  [hide]
1 Early life
2 Career 2.1 Marriage and family
2.2 Chicago
2.3 Boss
2.4 Political alliances
2.5 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
2.6 Trials
2.7 Imprisonment
3 Later years and death
4 Chicago aftermath
5 In popular culture 5.1 Literature
5.2 Film and television
5.3 Music
5.4 Sports
6 See also
7 References
8 Further reading
9 External links

Early life



 Al Capone's son Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone with Al Capone's mother, Teresa
Alphonse (or Alfonse, which one is unknown) Gabriel Capone was born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York on January 17, 1899.[2] His parents, Gabriele Capone (December 12, 1864 – November 14, 1920) and Teresina Raiola (December 28, 1867 – November 29, 1952), were immigrants from Italy. His father was a barber from Castellammare di Stabia, a town about 16 mi (26 km) south of Naples, and his mother was a seamstress and the daughter of Angelo Raiola from Angri, a town in the Province of Salerno.[3]
Gabriele and Teresa had nine children: Alphonse "Scarface Al" Capone, James Capone (who later changed his name to Richard Hart and became, ironically, a Prohibition agent in Homer, Nebraska), Raffaele Capone (also known as Ralph "Bottles" Capone, who took charge of his brother's beverage industry), Salvatore "Frank" Capone, John Capone, Albert Capone, Matthew Capone, Rose Capone, and Mafalda Capone (who married John J. Maritote). His two brothers, Ralph Capone and Frank Capone worked with him in his empire. Frank did so until his death on April 1, 1924 and Ralph ran the bottling companies (both legal and illegal) early on, and was also the front man for the Chicago Outfit for some time until he was imprisoned for tax evasion in 1932. The Capone family immigrated to the United States, first immigrating from Italy to Fiume, Austria-Hungary (now Rijeka, Croatia) in 1893, traveling on a ship to the U.S. and finally settled at 95 Navy Street,[2] in the Navy Yard section of downtown Brooklyn. Gabriele Capone worked at a nearby barber shop at 29 Park Avenue.[2] When Al was 11, the Capone family moved to 38 Garfield Place[2] in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Capone showed promise as a student, but had trouble with the rules at his strict parochial Catholic school. He dropped out of school at the age of 14, after being expelled for hitting a female teacher in the face.[4] He worked at odd jobs around Brooklyn, including a candy store and a bowling alley.[5] During this time, Capone was influenced by gangster Johnny Torrio, whom he came to regard as a mentor.[6]
Career
After his initial stint with small-time gangs that included the Junior Forty Thieves and the Bowery Boys, Capone joined the Brooklyn Rippers and then the powerful Five Points Gang based in Lower Manhattan. During this time, he was employed and mentored by fellow racketeer Frankie Yale, a bartender in a Coney Island dance hall and saloon called the Harvard Inn. After he inadvertently insulted a woman while working the door at a Brooklyn night club, Capone was slashed by her brother, Frank Gallucio. The wounds led to the nickname that Capone loathed: "Scarface".[7] Yale insisted that Capone apologize to Gallucio, and later Capone hired him as a bodyguard.[8][9] When photographed, Capone hid the scarred left side of his face saying the injuries were war wounds.[8][10] Capone was called "Snorky", a term for a sharp dresser, by his closest friends.[11]
Marriage and family
On December 30, 1918, at age 19, Capone married Mae Josephine Coughlin, who was Irish Catholic and who, earlier that month, had given birth to their first son, Albert Francis ("Sonny") Capone. As Capone was under the age of 21, his parents had to consent to the marriage in writing.[12]
Chicago
At about twenty years of age, Capone left New York for Chicago at the invitation of Johnny Torrio, who been imported by bootlegger James "Big Jim" Colosimo as an enforcer. Capone began in Chicago as bouncer in a brothel, contracting syphilis, which timely use of Salvarsan probably could have cured; he apparently never sought treatment.[13] In 1923, he purchased a small house at 7244 South Prairie Avenue in the Park Manor neighborhood on the city's south side for US$5,500.[14] In the early years of the decade, Capone's name began appearing in newspaper sports pages, where he was described as a boxing promoter.[15] Chicago's location on Lake Michigan gave access to a vast inland territory, and it was well-served by railroads. Torrio took over the crime empire of "Big Jim" Colosimo after his murder, which Capone was suspected of.[4][16][17]
With Capone as his right-hand man, Torrio headed an essentially Italian organized crime group that was the biggest in the city. Wary of being drawn into gang wars, he tried to proceed by negotiating agreements between rival crime groups over territory. The smaller, mixed ethnicity, North Side Gang of Dean O'Banion came under pressure from the Genna brothers, who were allied to Torrio. O'Banion found that for all Torrio's pretensions to be a settler of disputes, he was unhelpful with the encroachment of the Gennas into the North Side.[18] In a fateful step, Torrio had, or acquiesced to the Gennas having, the relatively business-minded O'Banion killed at his flower shop in October 1924. This placed Hymie Weiss at the head of the gang, backed by Vincent Drucci and Bugs Moran. Under Weiss, who had been a close friend of O'Banion, the North Siders treated revenge on his killers as a priority.[19][20][21]
Boss



 Unemployed men outside a soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone, 1931
In January 1925 Capone was ambushed, leaving him shaken but unhurt. Twelve days later, Torrio was returning from a shopping trip when he was shot several times. After recovering Torrio effectively resigned and handed over to Capone, who at 26 years old became the new boss of an organisation that took in illegal breweries and a transportation network that reached to Canada, with political and law-enforcement protection, In turn he was able to use more violence to increase revenue; refusal to purchase often resulted in the premises being blown up, as many as a hundred people were killed in liquor bombings during the twenties. Rivals saw Capone as responsible for the proliferation of brothels in the city.[21][22][23][24]
Capone indulged in custom suits, cigars, gourmet food and drink (his preferred liquor was Templeton Rye from Iowa[25]) and female companionship. He was particularly known for his flamboyant and costly jewelry. His favorite responses were "I am just a businessman, giving the people what they want", and "All I do is satisfy a public demand". Capone had become a national celebrity and talking point.[7]
After using bribery and widespread intimidation to take over during elections for the town council, Capone based himself in Cicero, this made it difficult for the North Siders to target him.[7][26] Capone's driver was found tortured and murdered, there was then an attempt on Weiss's life in the Chicago Loop. On September 20, 1926, the North Side gang used a ploy outside the Capone headquarters the Hawthorne Inn, aimed at drawing him to the windows. Gunmen in several cars then opened fire with Thompson submachine guns and shotguns at the windows of first floor restaurant, where Capone was often found. He was unhurt, but called for a truce; the negotiations fell through. Three weeks later Weiss was killed outside the former O'Banion flower shop North Side headquarters. In January 1927, the Hawthorne's restaurant owner, a friend of Capone, was kidnapped and killed by Moran and Drucci.[27][28]
Capone became increasingly security-minded and desirous of getting away from Chicago.[28][29] As a precaution, he and his entourage would often show up suddenly at one of Chicago's train depots and buy up an entire Pullman sleeper car on night trains to places such as Cleveland, Omaha, Kansas City, Little Rock or Hot Springs, where they would spend a week in luxury hotel suites under assumed names. In 1928, Capone bought a 14-room retreat on Palm Island, Florida, close to Miami Beach.[7]
Political alliances
The protagonists of Chicago's politics, and even newspaper circulation 'wars', had long been associated with questionable methods, but the need for bootleggers to have protection in city hall introduced a far more serious level of violence and graft. Capone is generally seen as having had an appreciable effect in bringing about the victories of Republican William Hale Thompson especially in the 1927 mayoral campaign when Thompson campaigned for a wide open town, at one time hinting that he'd reopen illegal saloons.[30] Such a proclamation helped Thompson's campaign gain the support of Capone and Thompson's campaign allegedly accepted a contribution of $250,000 from the gangster. In the 1927 mayoral race, Thompson beat William Emmett Dever by a relatively slim margin.[31][32] Thompson's powerful Cook County machine had drawn on the often-parochial Italian community, but this was in tension with his highly successful courting of African Americans.[33][34][35]
Capone continued to back Thompson and on the polling day of April 10, 1928 in the so-called Pineapple Primary, voting booths in the wards where Thompson's opponents were thought to have support were targeted by Capone's bomber, James Belcastro, causing the deaths of at least 15 people. Belcastro also was accused of the murder of lawyer Octavius Granady, an African American who dared to challenged Thompson's candidate for the African American vote, and was chased through the streets on polling day by cars of gunmen before being shot dead. Belcastro's co-charged included four policemen; all charges were dropped after key witnesses recanted their statements. An indication of the attitude of local law enforcement to Capone's organisation came in 1931 when Belcastro was wounded in a shooting; police suggested to skeptical journalists that Belcastro was an independent operator.[36][37][38][39][40] The 1929 Saint Valentine's Day massacre led to public disquiet about Thompson's alliance with Capone; a factor in Anton J. Cermak winning the mayoral election on April 6, 1931.[41]
Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
Main article: Saint Valentine's Day Massacre



 The St. Valentine's Day Massacre damaged Capone's image in the public mind
Capone was widely assumed to have been responsible for ordering the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in an attempt to kill the head of the much-attenuated 'North Side' gang, Bugs Moran. Moran was the last survivor of the main north side gunmen, his succession had come because his similarly aggressive predecessors Vincent Drucci and Hymie Weiss had been killed in the violence that followed the murder of original leader, Dean O'Banion.[7][42][43]
To monitor their targets' habits and movements, Capone's men rented an apartment across from the trucking warehouse that served as a Moran headquarters. On the morning of Thursday February 14, 1929, Capone's lookouts signaled gunmen disguised as police to start a "raid". The faux police lined the seven victims along a wall without a struggle then signaled for accomplices with machine guns. The seven victims were machine-gunned and shot-gunned.[citation needed] Photos of the massacre victims shocked the public and damaged Capone's reputation. Within days Capone received a summons to testify before a Chicago grand jury on violations of federal Prohibition law, but he claimed to be too unwell to attend at that time.[44]
Trials
 Wikisource has original text related to this article:
IRS investigation of Al Capone




 Al Capone's cell at the Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia
In March 27, 1929, as he left a Chicago courtroom after testifying to a grand jury investigating violations of federal prohibition laws, Capone was arrested by FBI agents on charges of having committed contempt of court by feigning illness to avoid an earlier appearance.[45] In May 1929, Capone was sentenced to a prison term in Philadelphia, having been convicted within 16 hours of an arrest for carrying a gun during a trip there. A week after he was released, in March 1930, Capone was listed as the number one 'Public Enemy' on the unofficial Chicago Crime Commission's widely publicized list.
In April 1930, Capone was arrested on vagrancy charges when visiting his Miami Beach property, the governor having ordered sheriffs to run him out of the state. For having claimed Miami police had refused him food and water and threatened to arrest his family, Capone was charged with perjury, but acquitted after a three day trial in July.[46] In September a Chicago judge issued a warrant for Capone on charges of vagrancy, and then used the publicity to run against Thompson in the Republican primary.[47][48] In Feb 1931 Capone was tried on the contempt of court charge. In court Judge James Herbert Wilkerson intervened to reinforce questioning of Capone's doctor by the prosecutor (with whom Wilkerson later went into private practice). Wilkerson sentenced Capone to six months, but while on appeal of the contempt conviction he remained free.[49][50]
Legally, Capone's profits from criminal activity did not have to be entered on a tax return until 1927, when the Supreme court ruled that illegally earned income had to be declared, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. remarking that the previously existing loophole was stretching the Fifth amendment too far.[51] The IRS special investigation unit chose Frank J. Wilson to investigate Capone, the focus was on his spending. The key to Capone's conviction on tax charges was proving his income, and the most valuable evidence in that regard originated in his offer to pay tax. Ralph, his brother and a gangster in his own right, was tried for tax evasion in 1930. After being convicted in a two week trial over which Wilkerson presided, Ralph spent the next three years in prison.[52] Capone ordered his lawyer to regularize his tax position. Crucially, during the ultimately abortive negotiations that followed, his lawyer stated the income Capone was willing to pay tax on for various years, for instance admitting income of $100,000 for 1928 and 1929. Hence without any investigation the government had been given a letter from a lawyer acting for Capone conceding his large taxable income for certain years. In 1931 Capone was indicted for income tax evasion, as well as and various violations of the Volstead Act (Prohibition) at the Chicago Federal Building in the courtroom of Judge James Herbert Wilkerson.[53] U. S. Attorney George E. Q. Johnson agreed to a deal that that he hoped might result in the judge giving Capone a couple of years, but Judge Wilkerson (who had been aware of the deal all along) refused to allow Capone to plead guilty for a reduced sentence. On the second day of the trial Judge Wilkerson overruled objections that a lawyer could not confess for his client. Saying anyone making a statement to the government did so at his own risk, Wilkerson deemed the 1930 letter to federal authorities from a lawyer acting for Capone could be admitted into evidence.[54][55][56]
Much was later made of other evidence such as witnesses and ledgers but these strongly implied rather than stated Capone's control. The ledgers were inadmissible on statute of limitations grounds, but Capone's lawyers incompetently failed to make the necessary timely objection; they also ran a basically irrelevant defence of gambling losses.[57] Judge Wilkerson allowed Capone's spending to be presented at very great length. Although there was no doubt that Capone spent vast sums, legally speaking the case against him centered on the size of his income. Capone was convicted and in November 1931 was sentenced to eleven years in federal prison, fined $50,000 plus $7,692 for court costs, and in addition was held liable for $215,000 plus interest due on his back taxes. The contempt of court sentence was served concurrently.[58][59][60][61] New lawyers hired to represent Capone were Washington-based tax experts. They filed a writ of habeas corpus based on a Supreme court ruling that tax evasion was not fraud, which apparently meant Capone had been convicted on charges relating to years that were actually outside the time limit for prosecution. However, a judge creatively interpreted the law so that the time Capone had spent in Miami was subtracted from the age of the offences, thereby denying the appeal of both Capone's conviction and sentence.[62][63]



 Al Capone at Alcatraz
Imprisonment
In May 1932, aged 33, Capone was sent to Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary. Upon his arrival at Atlanta, the 250 lb Capone was officially diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhea. He was also suffering from withdrawal symptoms from cocaine addiction, use of which had perforated his septum. Capone was competent at his prison job of stitching soles on shoes for eight hours a day, but his letters were barely coherent.[64] He was seen as a weak personality and so out of his depth dealing with bullying fellow inmates that his cellmate, seasoned convict, Red Rudinsky, feared Capone would have a breakdown. Rudinsky, formerly a small time criminal associated with the Capone gang, found himself becoming a protector for Capone.[64] The conspicuous protection of Rudinsky and other friendly prisoners, as well as accusations from less friendly inmates, fueled suspicion that Capone was receiving special treatment in Atlanta. While no solid evidence ever emerged, it formed part of the rationale for moving Capone to the recently opened Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary[64][65]



 Cell 181 in Alcatraz where Al Capone was imprisoned
At Alcatraz, Capone's decline became increasingly evident as neurosyphilis progressively eroded his mental faculties.[7][66][67][68][68] He spent the last year of his sentence in the prison hospital, confused and disoriented.[69] Capone completed his term in Alcatraz on January 6, 1939, and was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island in California, to serve out his sentence for contempt of court.[70] He was paroled on November 16, 1939.[71]
Later years and death
After Capone was released from prison, he was referred to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for the treatment of paresis (caused by late-stage syphilis). Hopkins refused to admit him solely based on his reputation, but Union Memorial Hospital took him in. Grateful for the compassionate care he received, Capone donated two Japanese weeping cherry trees to Union Memorial Hospital in 1939. After a few weeks inpatient and a few weeks outpatient, a very sickly Capone left Baltimore on March 20, 1940 for Palm Island, Florida.[72][73][74]



 Capone's death certificate
In 1946, his physician and a Baltimore psychiatrist performed examinations and concluded Capone had the mental capability of a 12-year-old child.[75] Capone spent the last years of his life at his mansion in Palm Island, Florida.[76] On January 21, 1947, Capone had a stroke. He regained consciousness and started to improve but contracted pneumonia. He suffered a fatal cardiac arrest the next day. On January 25, 1947, Al Capone died in his home, surrounded by his family,[77] and wаs buried аt Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.
Chicago aftermath
Although the main effect of Capone's conviction was he ceased to be boss immediately on his imprisonment, those involved in the jailing of Capone portrayed it as having dealt a fatal blow to the city's organized crime syndicate. But, far from being smashed the Chicago Outfit continued, without being troubled by the Chicago police. Once prohibition was repealed organised crime in the city, already chary of attention after the example of Capone's notoriety having brought him down, found it had a concomitantly lower profile, to the extent that there is a lack of consensus among writers about who was actually in control and who was a figurehead 'front boss'.[41] Prostitution, labour union racketeering and gambling became moneymakers for organised crime in the city without them incurring serious investigation. In the late 50's, FBI agents discovered an organisation led by Capone's former lieutenants reigning supreme over the Chicago underworld.[78]
In popular culture
One of the most notorious American gangsters of the 20th century, Capone has been the subject of numerous articles, books, and films. Capone's personality and character have been used in fiction as a model for crime lords and criminal masterminds ever since his death. The stereotypical image of a mobster wearing a blue pinstriped suit and tilted fedora is based on photos of Capone. His accent, mannerisms, facial construction, physical stature, and parodies of his name have been used for numerous gangsters in comics, movies, music, and literature.
Literature
Capone is featured in a segment of Mario Puzo's The Godfather as an ally of a New York mob boss in which he sends, at the mob boss' request, two "button men" to kill Don Vito Corleone; arriving in New York, the two men are intercepted by and brutally killed by Luca Brasi, after which Don Corleone sends a message to Capone warning him to not interfere again and Capone apparently capitulates.[79]
Capone is featured in the Kinky Friedman novel, The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover (1997).[citation needed]
Capone is an antagonist in Hergé's fictional Tintin in America and is referenced in Tintin in the Congo. He is the only real-life character depicted in the The Adventures of Tintin series.
A reincarnated Capone is a major character in science fiction author Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy.
Capone's niece, Deirdre Marie Capone, wrote a book titled Uncle Al Capone: The Untold Story from Inside His Family.[80]
Al Capone is a central character in the fantasy novel Cosa Nosferatu, which imagines Capone and Eliot Ness entangled with Randolph Carter and other elements of H.P. Lovecraft mythos.
Al Capone is the central character of Armitage Trail's novel Scarface (1929),[81] which was the basis for the 1932 film of the same name.
Film and television
Capone has been portrayed on screen by:
Rod Steiger in Al Capone (1959).[82]
Neville Brand in the TV series The Untouchables and again in the movie The George Raft Story (1961).[82]
José Calvo in Due mafiosi contro Al Capone (1966).[82]
Jason Robards in The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967).[82]
Ben Gazzara in Capone (1975).[82]
Robert De Niro in The Untouchables (1987).[82]
Ray Sharkey in The Revenge of Al Capone (1989)
Eric Roberts in The Lost Capone (1990)
Bernie Gigliotti in The Babe (1992), in a brief scene in a Chicago nightclub during which Capone and his mentor, Johnny Torrio, played by Guy Barile, meet the film's main character, Babe Ruth, portrayed by John Goodman.
William Forsythe in The Untouchables (1993–1994)
William Devane as Al Capone in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (13 November 1994)[citation needed]
F. Murray Abraham in Dillinger and Capone (1995).
Anthony LaPaglia in Road to Perdition (2002), in a deleted scene.[83]
Julian Littman in Al's Lads (2002)
Jon Bernthal in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009).[84]
Stephen Graham in Boardwalk Empire (2010)
Actors playing characters based on Capone include:
Wallace Beery as Louis 'Louie' Scorpio in The Secret Six (1931).[82]
Ricardo Cortez as Goldie Gorio in Bad Company (1931).[82]
Paul Lukas as Big Fellow Maskal in City Streets (1931).[82]
Edward Arnold as Duke Morgan in Okay, America! (1932).[82]
Jean Hersholt as Samuel 'Sam' Belmonte in The Beast of the City (1932).[82]
Paul Muni as Antonio 'Tony' Camonte in Scarface (1932).
C. Henry Gordon as Nick Diamond in Gabriel Over the White House (1933).[82]
John Litel as 'Gat' Brady in Alcatraz Island (1937).[82]
Barry Sullivan as Shubunka in The Gangster (1947).[82]
Ralph Volkie as Big Fellow in The Undercover Man (1949).[82]
Edmond O'Brien as Fran McCarg in Pete Kelly's Blues (1955).[82]
B.S. Pully as Big Jule, an intimidating, gun-toting mobster from "East Cicero, Illinois" in Guys and Dolls (film) (1955), reprising the role that Pully had originated in the earlier Broadway musical. [85]
Lee J. Cobb as Rico Angelo in Party Girl (1958).[82]
George Raft as Spats Colombo and Nehemiah Persoff as Little Bonaparte in Some Like It Hot (1959).[82]
Frank Ronzio as Litmus in Escape from Alcatraz (1979) introduces himself to newcomer Charlie Butts as "Al Capone". The movie is set in 1962, 15 years after Capone's death.
In Rocky II (1979), during the press conference scene announcing the upcoming title fight re-match between champion Apollo Creed and underdog Rocky Balboa, Rocky's friend Paulie Pennino mutters that Rocky will "punch his lungs out," and Apollo, seeing a dressed-up Paulie sitting there with a Capone-style fedora hat pulled low over his face and holding a big cigar, wisecracks "who's that? Al Capone?"
Cameron Mitchell as Boss Rojeck in My Favorite Year (1982)
Al Pacino as Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy (1990).[82]
Music
Prince Buster, Jamaican ska and rocksteady musician, had his first hit in the UK with the single "Al Capone" in 1967.[86]
The Specials, a UK ska revival group, reworked Prince Buster's track into their first single, "Gangsters",[87] which featured the line "Don't call me Scarface!"



 Graffiti of Al Capone made by Partizan fans in Belgrade, Serbia.Al Capone is referenced heavily in Prodigy's track "Al Capone Zone", produced by The Alchemist and featuring Keak Da Sneak.[88]
"Al Capone" is a song by Michael Jackson. It was recorded during the Bad era (circa 1987) but wasn't included on the album. The song was released however in September 2012 in celebration of the Bad 25th anniversary.
The British rock group Paper Lace sings about how "a man named Al Capone, tried to make that town (i.e., Chicago) his own, and he called his gang to war, with the forces of the law" in their 1974 hit The Night Chicago Died.
Sports
Fans of Serbian football club Partizan are using Al Capone's character as a mascot for one of their subgroups called "Alcatraz", named after a prison in which Al Capone served his sentence. Also, in honour of Capone, a graffiti representation of him exists in the center of Belgrade.
Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight Nikita Krylov is nicknamed "Al Capone". Coincidentally, he had his first UFC win in Chicago.[89]
See also
List of Depression-era outlaws
Scarface (1983 film)
The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults
Timeline of organized crime
References
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38.Jump up ^ The Evening Independent - Jan 12, 1931, AP, Career of Chicago bomb king halted by bullets
39.Jump up ^ The Afro American - Oct 12, 1929, Chicargo (ANP)Police Named In Granady Killing,
40.Jump up ^ The Outfit: The Role Of Chicago's Underworld In The Shaping Of Modern America By Gus Russo
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Further reading
Capone, Deirdre Marie; Uncle Al Capone – The Untold Story from Inside His Family. Recap Publishing LLC, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9828451-0-3
Hoffman Dennis E. Scarface Al and the Crime Crusaders: Chicago's Private War Against Capone. Southern Illinois University Press; 1st edition (November 24, 1993) ISBN 978-0-8093-1925-1
Kobler, John. Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81285-1
MacDonald, Alan. Dead Famous – Al Capone and his Gang Scholastic.
Pasley, Fred D. Al Capone: The Biography of a Self-Made Man. Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Co., 2004. ISBN 1-4179-0878-5
Schoenberg, Robert J. Mr. Capone. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. ISBN 0-688-12838-6
Helmer, William J. Al Capone and His American Boys: Memoirs of a Mobster's Wife. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-253-35606-2
External links
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Al Capone
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Al Capone.
Al Capone: The Original Gangster – slideshow by Life magazine
Mario Gomes' site on everything related to Al Capone
South Beach Magazine The Un-Welcomed Visitor: Al Capone in Miami. (with photos)
FBI files on Al Capone
Little Chicago: Capone in Johnson City, Tennessee
Al Capone at the Crime Library
Works by or about Al Capone in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
Preceded by
Johnny Torrio Chicago Outfit Boss
 1925–1932 Succeeded by
Frank Nitti


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 VIAF: 69720987 ·
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Categories: Al Capone
1899 births
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Frank Nitti
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For other uses, see Nitty (disambiguation).


 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2012)

Francesco Raffaele Nitto
Frank Nitti 2013-10-18 19-17.jpg
Born
January 27, 1886[1]
Angri, province of Salerno, Campania, Italy[1]
Died
March 19, 1943 (aged 57) - Suicide
North Riverside, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation
Organized crime

Criminal charge
 Tax evasion

Criminal penalty
 18-month sentence

Criminal status
 Deceased
Spouse(s)
Rosa (Rose) Levitt Nitto, 1918-1928 (div.)
 Anna Ronga Nitto, 1928-1940 (her death)
 Annette Caravetta Nitto, 1942-1943 (his death)[1]

Francesco Raffaele Nitto (January 27, 1886 – March 19, 1943), also known as Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti, was an Italian American gangster. One of Al Capone's top henchmen, Nitti was in charge of all strong-arm and 'muscle' operations. Nitti was later the front-man for the Chicago Outfit, the organized crime syndicate headed by Capone.


Contents  [hide]
1 Early life and Prohibition
2 The Outfit under Nitti
3 Further marriages
4 Death
5 In popular culture
6 See also
7 References
8 Further reading
9 External links

Early life and Prohibition[edit]
Nitti was born in the small town of Angri, province of Salerno, Campania, Italy.[1] He was the second child of Luigi and Rosina (Fezza) Nitto[1] and a first cousin of Al Capone.[2] His father died in 1888, when Frank was two years old, and within a year his mother married Francesco Dolendo. Although two children were born to the couple, neither survived — leaving Francesco and his older sister, Giovannina, the only children. Francesco Dolendo emigrated to the United States in July 1890, and the rest of the family followed in June 1893 when Nitti was 7. The family settled at 113 Navy Street, Brooklyn, New York City. Little Francesco attended public school and worked odd jobs after school to support the family. His 15-year-old sister married a 24-year-old man and his mother gave birth to his half-brother Raphael in 1894, and another child, Gennaro, in 1896. He quit school after the seventh grade, and worked as a pinsetter, factory worker, and barber. Al Capone's family lived nearby, and Nitti was friends with Capone's older brothers and their criminal gang (the Navy Street Boys).[1]
A worsening relationship with Dolendo provoked him to leave home when he was 14 in 1900 to work in various local factories. Around 1910, at the age of 24, he left Brooklyn. The next several years of his life are poorly documented, and little can be ascertained. He may have worked in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn around 1911. He probably moved to Chicago around 1913, working as a barber and making the acquaintance of gangsters Alex Louis Greenberg and Dean O'Banion. He married Chicagoan Rosa (Rose) Levitt in Dallas, Texas, on October 18, 1917.[1] The couple's movements after their marriage remain uncertain. He is known to have become a partner in the Galveston crime syndicate run by "Johnny" Jack Nounes.[3] He is reported to have stolen a large sum of money from Nounes and fellow mobster Dutch Voight, after which Nitti fled to Chicago. By 1918, Nitti had settled there at 914 South Halsted Street. Nitti quickly renewed his contacts with Greenberg and O'Banion, becoming a jewel thief, liquor smuggler, and fence. Through his liquor smuggling activities, Nitti came to the attention of Chicago crime boss Johnny "Papa Johnny" Torrio and Torrio's newly arrived soldier, Al Capone.[1]
Under Torrio's successor Al Capone, Nitti's reputation soared. Nitti ran Capone's liquor smuggling and distribution operation, importing whisky from Canada and selling it through a network of speakeasies around Chicago. Nitti was one of Capone's top lieutenants, trusted for his leadership skills and business acumen. Capone thought so highly of Nitti that when he went to prison in 1929, he named Nitti as a member of a triumvirate that ran the mob in his place. Nitti was head of operations, with Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik as head of administration and Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo as head of enforcement. Despite his nickname ("The Enforcer"), Nitti used Mafia soldiers and others to commit violence rather than do it himself. In earlier days, Nitti had been one of Capone's trusted personal bodyguards, but as he rose in the organization, Nitti's business instinct dictated that he must personally avoid the "dirty work"—that was what the hitmen were paid for.[citation needed]
Frank and Rose Nitti divorced in 1928, and shortly thereafter he married Anna Ronga Nitti, daughter of a mob doctor and former neighbor of the Nittis in the 1920s.[1] The couple adopted a son, Joe.[4]
The Outfit under Nitti[edit]
In 1931, both 45 year-old Frank Nitti and 32 year-old Al Capone were convicted of tax evasion and sent to prison; however, Nitti received an 18-month sentence, while Capone was sent away for 11 years. Nitti was not a troublesome prisoner, but found the year-and-a-half confinement in a cell difficult because of the closed-in space. When Nitti was released in 1932, the media hailed him as the new boss of the Capone Gang.[5]
In truth, however, Nitti was only a front man. According to crime historians, "it was ludicrous" to expect that people such as Tony Accardo, Jake Guzik, Murray "The Camel" Humphreys, or Paul "The Waiter" Ricca would have taken orders from Nitti. By all accounts, Ricca had the real power by at least 1932 and was clearly the de facto boss by 1939, even though he was technically Nitti's underboss. When Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Meyer Lansky organized the National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s, they considered Nitti a human cypher. Lansky and Luciano dealt with Ricca, not Nitti, as the boss of the Chicago Outfit.[5]
With Nitti as the front man, the Chicago Outfit branched out from prostitution and gambling into other areas, including control of labor unions (which led to the extortion of many businesses). On December 19, 1932, a team of Chicago police, headed by Detective Sergeants Harry Lang and Harry Miller, raided Nitti's office in Room 554, at 221 N. LaSalle Street in Chicago. Lang shot Nitti three times in the back and neck. He then shot himself (a minor flesh wound) to make the shooting look like self-defense, claiming that Nitti had shot him first. Court testimony later insisted that the murder attempt was personally ordered by newly elected Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who supposedly wanted to eliminate the Chicago Outfit in favor of gangsters who answered to him.[5] Nitti survived the shooting and, in February 1933, was acquitted of attempted murder. During that same trial, Miller testified that Lang received $15,000 to kill Nitti. Another uniformed officer who was present at the shooting testified that Nitti was shot while unarmed. Harry Lang and Harry Miller were both fired from the police force and each fined US$100 for simple assault.[citation needed] Two months later, Cermak was shot and killed by Giuseppe Zangara, a Calabrian immigrant. At the time, Cermak was talking to President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Most historians believe, corroborated by Zangara's own comments and a note left behind at his room, that he intended to kill Roosevelt but missed and hit Cermak instead.
Further marriages[edit]
Anna Nitto died on Nov. 19, 1940 in Mercy Hospital, Chicago, from an unspecified internal ailment.[6] Nitti married Annette (Toni) Caravetta on May 14, 1942; she was widowed almost a year later when he committed suicide.
Death[edit]
In 1943, many top members of the Chicago Outfit were indicted for extorting the Hollywood film industry. Among those prosecuted were Nitti, Phil D'Andrea, Louis "Little New York" Campagna, Nick Circella, Charles "Cherry Nose" Gioe, Ralph Pierce, Ricca, and John "Handsome Johnny" Roselli. The Outfit was accused of trying to extort money from some of the largest movie studios, including Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, RKO Pictures, and 20th Century Fox. The studios had cooperated with The Outfit to avoid union trouble (unrest itself stirred up by the mob). At a meeting of Outfit leaders at Nitti's home, Ricca blamed Nitti for the indictments. Ricca said that since this had been Nitti's scheme and that of the FBI informant (Willie Bioff) one of Nitti's trusted associates, Nitti should go to prison. A severe claustrophobe as a result of his first prison term, Nitti dreaded the idea of another prison confinement. It was also rumored that he was suffering from terminal cancer at this time. For these or possibly other reasons, he ultimately decided to take his own life.[7]
The day before his scheduled grand jury appearance, Nitti had breakfast with his wife in their home at 712 Selborne Road in Riverside, Illinois. When his wife left for church, Nitti told her he planned to take a walk, then began to drink heavily. He then loaded a .32 caliber revolver, put it in his coat pocket, and walked five blocks to a local railroad yard. Conductor William F. Seebauer and switchmen L.M. Barnett and E.H. Moran were riding in the caboose, backing their train slowly southward over an ungated Cermak Road. The workers spotted an unaware Nitti walking on the track away from them and shouted a warning. Nitti walked off the tracks staggering towards the fence. Two shots rang out. The workers thought Nitti was shooting at them, then realized he was trying to shoot himself in the head. The first shot fired by Nitti's unsteady hand missed and passed through his fedora. The second bullet slammed into his right jaw and exited through the top of his head, taking a lock of his hair with it and leaving the tuft protruding from the hole in the crown of the fedora. The final, fatal, bullet entered behind Nitti's right ear and lodged in the top of his skull. Police Chief Allen Rose of North Riverside rushed to the scene with a sergeant and several beat patrolmen, and recognized Nitti immediately. An autopsy by Dr. William McNalley, coroner's toxicologist, showed that Nitti's Blood Alcohol Level was 0.23. A coroner's jury ruled the following day that Nitti "committed suicide while temporarily insane and in a despondent frame of mind."[8]
Frank Nitti died on March 19, 1943, at the age of 57.[9] Nitti is buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. Speculation has persisted regarding the interment of a suicide in a Catholic cemetery. Nitti's grave can be found left of the main Roosevelt Road entrance, about fifty feet from the gate. It is marked "Nitto". To the right of the gate is the family plot containing the grave of Al Capone, marked by a six-foot white monument stone. And straight up from the gate can be found the graves of Dion O'Banion and Hymie Weiss, both North Side Gang leaders ordered killed by Capone.[citation needed]
In popular culture[edit]
Frank Nitti has been portrayed numerous times in television and motion pictures:
by Bruce Gordon in many episodes of the original ABC television series The Untouchables, based on Eliot Ness' memoirs, which ran from 1959 to 1963.
by Harold J. Stone in the 1967 Roger Corman film The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
by Sylvester Stallone in the 1975 film Capone.
by Billy Drago, playing a fictionalised version of Nitti in the 1987 film, The Untouchables. In the film, Nitti is thrown off a Chicago courthouse roof by Ness (Kevin Costner), an event which never happened in real life.
by Anthony LaPaglia in the 1988 biopic Nitti: The Enforcer
by Paul Regina in the 1993 TV show The Untouchables.
by Stanley Tucci in the 2002 film Road to Perdition.
by Bill Camp in the 2009 film Public Enemies.
by Will Sasso in the 2013 Comedy Central series Drunk History
Ice hockey goaltender Antero Niittymäki has used an image of Nitti on his helmet due to the similarity of their names.[10]
See also[edit]
Free State of Galveston
History of vice in Texas
Organized crime
Organized crime in Chicago
Sicilian American
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Eghigian, Mars. After Capone: The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti. Naperville, Ill.: Cumberland House Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-58182-454-8
2.Jump up ^ Binder, John J (2003). The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-2326-7.
3.Jump up ^ Cartwright, Gary (1998). Galveston: a history of the island. New York: Macmillan. p. 210. ISBN 0-87565-190-9.
4.Jump up ^ Ewing, Steve and Lundstrom, John B. Fateful Rendezvous: The Life of Butch O'Hare. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2004. ISBN 1-59114-249-0
5.^ Jump up to: a b c Sifakis, Carl (1987). The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York City: Facts on File. ISBN 0816018561.
6.Jump up ^ Mrs. Anna Nitto, Frank Nitti's wife, dies at 38, Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 20, 1940, p. 14
7.Jump up ^ Mannion, James. 101 Things You Didn't Know About the Mafia. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-59337-267-5.
8.Jump up ^ Koziol, Ronald; Baumann, Edward (June 29, 1987). "How Frank Nitti Met His Fate". Chicago Tribune.
9.Jump up ^ "Gang Leader Nitti Kills Himself In Chicago After Indictment Here." New York Times. March 20, 1943.
10.Jump up ^ Panaccio, Tim. "NHL to Weigh Punishment for Thrashers' Boulton." Philadelphia Inquirer. October 23, 2005.
Further reading[edit]
Binder, John J. The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7385-2326-7
Humble, Ronald D. Frank Nitti: The True Story of Chicago's Notorious Enforcer. Barricade Books, 2007. ISBN 978-1-56980-342-4
Eghigian Jr., Mars (2005). After Capone: The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank The Enforcer" Nitti. Cumberland House Publishing. ISBN 978-1581824544.
External links[edit]
Crime Magazine: The First Shooting of Frank Nitti by Allan May
Seize The Night: Frank Nitti
Federal Bureau of Investigation - Freedom of Information Act: Frank Nitti
Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti at Find A Grave


Authority control
WorldCat ·
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 LCCN: n2005000765
 


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Al Capone Chicago Outfit Boss
 1932-1943 Succeeded by
Paul Ricca


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Bureau of Prohibition
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Question book-new.svg
 This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)



 Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol, c.1921.
The Bureau of Prohibition (or Prohibition Unit) was the federal law enforcement agency formed to enforce the National Prohibition Act of 1919, commonly known as the Volstead Act, which backed up the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution regarding the prohibition of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. When it was first established in 1920, it was a unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. On April 1, 1927, it became an independent entity within the Department of the Treasury, changing its name from the Prohibition Unit to the Bureau of Prohibition.


Contents  [hide]
1 Mission
2 Famous Agents 2.1 The Untouchables
3 Public perception 3.1 Corruption
4 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
5 In popular culture
6 See also
7 References

Mission[edit]
The Bureau of Prohibition’s main function was to mostly stop the selling and consumption of alcohol. Agents would be tasked with taking down illegal bootlegging rings and became notorious in cities like New York City and Chicago for raiding many popular nightclubs. Agents were often paid low wages and the Bureau was notorious for allowing many uncertified people to become agents. However, doing so strengthened the bureau, as they were able to hire agents in greater numbers. In 1929, the Jones Law was passed. The Jones Law increased violations previously set in the Volstead Act. First time offenders were now expected to serve a maximum of five years and a $10,000 fine as opposed to the previous 6 months and $1,000 fine in the Volstead Act. In the public opinion, this strengthened animosity towards prohibition agents as many of them, such as Major Maurice Campbell, Prohibition administrator of New York City, were already hated for their unfair raiding of popular clubs usually inhabited by New York City’s elite.
Famous Agents[edit]
Its investigators were called Prohibition Agents, or more colloquially prohis /ˈproʊhiː/. Its most famous agent was Eliot Ness. Some of the other famous lawmen who carried a Prohi's badge at one time or another in their career include former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, full-blooded Cherokee Tom Threepersons, John A. "Lone Wolf" Millan (one of the original Fairfax County VA police officers) and Chicagoan Pat Roche. The two-agent team of Isidor "Izzy" Einstein and Moe Smith, working out of the New York City office, compiled the best arrest record in the history of the agency. Izzy and Moe, as they would later be called, had 4,932 arrests while confiscating over 5,000,000 bottles of alcohol. The duo would disguise themselves as street vendors, fishermen and many others as well as having the ability to speak multiple languages.
The Untouchables[edit]
The Untouchables were by far the most famous group of prohibition agents due to the fact that they were tasked with taking down famous gangster Al Capone. They earned their famous nickname due to the fact that they were seen as fearless agents who were not as easily corrupted as other prohibition agents were. Through their efforts Capone was indicted on 5000 separate violations of Prohibition laws, though it was decided, ultimately, not to bring these charges to trial, but rather to concentrate of income tax violations. Nevertheless, the Untouchables gained national acclaim, particularly their leader, Eliot Ness.
Public perception[edit]
In the public opinion, the Bureau agents were not perceived as positive people. Bureau agents were supposedly notorious for killing innocent bystanders that were caught in the middle of gunfights between them and bootleggers. Also, the public did not like the fact that Bureau agents were able to wire tap phones. Many cases have been reported of citizens lashing out at agents such as a woman scratching an agent in his face after pointing his gun at her. With the passing of the Jones Act, tensions rose even further as Prohibition agents were now able to launch a full scale war on illegal speakeasies. This, in conjunction with local polices, ended up raising the tensions of citizens in cities such as Chicago and New York due to the numerous bootleggers inhabiting those cities.
Corruption[edit]
Even though Prohibition agents were tasked with stopping the consumption of alcohol, many were viewed as easily corrupted. During the early stages of Prohibition, it was alleged that some agents accepted bribes in exchange for turning a blind eye to bootlegged liquor, mainly as a result of relatively low wages. It was also rumored that many agents imbibed the very alcohol which they were charged with confiscating.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms[edit]
On July 1, 1930, the Prohibition Bureau was transferred from the Treasury Department to the Department of Justice. Early in 1933, as part of the Franklin D. Roosevelt-sponsored Omnibus Crime Bill, the Prohibition Bureau was briefly absorbed into the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), or Division of Investigation as the agency was then called. At this point it became the Alcohol Beverage Unit. Though part of the FBI on paper, J. Edgar Hoover, who wanted to avoid liquor enforcement and the taint of corruption that was attached to it, continued to operate it as a separate, autonomous agency in practice.
Following the repeal of Prohibition in December 1933, the Alcohol Beverage Unit was removed from the FBI and the Justice Department, and returned to Treasury, where, coming full circle, it became the Alcohol Tax Unit of the IRS, ultimately evolving into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF).Today, the ATF mostly deal with illegal firearms and illegal drugs.
In the wake of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush signed into law the Homeland Security Act of 2002. In addition to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the law shifted the ATF from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of Justice. The agency's name was changed to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives but it is still referred to as the ATF.
The task of collecting federal tax revenue derived from the production of tobacco and alcohol products and the regulatory function related to protecting the public in issues related to the production of alcohol, previously handled by the ATF and the IRS, was transferred to the newly established Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), which remained within the Treasury Department. These changes took effect January 24, 2003.
In popular culture[edit]
The Bureau of Prohibition is featured prominently in the HBO period crime series Boardwalk Empire, particularly through the character of Agent Nelson Van Alden. Eliot Ness’s book, The Untouchables, went on to become a best-seller and was adapted into a movie and television series. Izzy and Moe, a TV-movie starring Jackie Gleason and Art Carney, was loosely based on the real life Isador Einstein and Moe Smith.
See also[edit]

Portal icon United States portal
Portal icon Law enforcement/Law enforcement topics portal
Federal law enforcement in the United States
William Harvey Thompson
Prohibition
References[edit]
"Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives." ATF. N.p., 29 Dec. 2008. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. <http://www.atf.gov/press/releases/2008/12/122908-historical-badges-tell-story.html>.
Burns, Ken, and Lynn Novick. "Prohibition." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/unintended-consequences/>.
Hanson, David J. "Bureau of Prohibition." Alcohol Problems and Solutions. N.p., n.d. Web. <www.potsdam.edu>.
Lerner, Michael A. Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2007. Print.
"Prohibition." Prohibition. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. <http://mailer.fsu.edu/~jmrichar/amh1000/fa02/prohibition.htm>.
 


Categories: Defunct agencies of the United States government
Prohibition in the United States
United States Department of the Treasury
Defunct federal law enforcement agencies of the United States





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Internal Revenue Service
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For the Indian Tax Body, see Indian Revenue Service. For the Ghanaian institution, see Internal Revenue Service (Ghana).
"IRS" redirects here. For other uses, see IRS (disambiguation).
Internal Revenue Service
IRS
IRS.svg
Agency overview

Formed
July 1, 1862[1] (though the name originates from 1918)
Jurisdiction
Federal government of the United States
Headquarters
1111 Constitution Ave., NW,[2] Washington, D.C.
Employees
89,500 (2014)
Annual budget
~11.2 billion
Agency executive
Commissioner, John Koskinen
Parent agency
Department of the Treasury
Website
www.irs.gov

Taxation in the United States
Great Seal of the United States (obverse).svg

Federal taxation[hide]
Alternative minimum tax ·
 Capital gains tax ·
 Corporate tax ·
 Estate tax ·
 Excise tax ·
 Payroll tax ·
 Revenue ·
 Gift tax ·
 Income tax ·
 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ·
 Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ·
 IRS tax forms ·
 History ·
 Constitutional authority ·
 Taxpayer standing ·
 Court ·
 Protest ·
 Evasion
 

State and local taxation[hide]
Land value tax ·
 Property tax ·
 Sales tax ·
 State income tax ·
 State tax levels ·
 Use tax
 

Federal tax reform[show]












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Internal Revenue Service Building on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C..


 IRS Building in Washington D.C.


 IRS location sign on Constitution Avenue, NW
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The government agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The IRS is responsible for collecting taxes and the interpretation and enforcement of the Internal Revenue Code.
The first income tax was assessed in 1862 to raise funds for the American Civil War, with a rate of 3%. Today the IRS collects over $2.4 trillion each tax year from around 234 million tax returns.


Contents  [hide]
1 History 1.1 American Civil War (1861–65)
1.2 Post Civil War, Reconstruction, and popular tax reform (1866–1900)
1.3 The IRS reinvents itself (1913–1970)
1.4 Presidential tax returns (1973)
1.5 Modernization and the Internet (1970–present)
1.6 History of the IRS name
2 Current organization 2.1 Commissioner
2.2 Taxpayer Advocates
2.3 Programs
3 Tax collection statistics 3.1 Outsourcing collection and tax-assistance
4 Administrative functions
5 Abuses of power
6 See also
7 Notes
8 Further reading
9 External links

History[edit]
American Civil War (1861–65)[edit]



George S. Boutwell was the first Commissioner of Internal Revenue under President Abraham Lincoln.
In July 1862, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln and Congress created the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue and enacted a temporary income tax to pay war expenses (see Revenue Act of 1862). The position of Commissioner exists today as the head of the Internal Revenue Service.
The Revenue Act of 1862 was passed as an emergency and temporary war-time tax. It copied a relatively new British system of income taxation, instead of trade and property taxation. The first income tax was passed in 1862:
The initial rate was 3% on income over $800, which exempted most wage-earners.
In 1862 the rate was 3% on income between $600 and $10,000, and 5% on income over $10,000.
In 1864 the rate was 5% on income between $600 and $5,000; 7.5% on income $5,000–10,000; and 10% on income $10,000 and above.
By the end of the war, 10% of Union households had paid some form of income tax, and the Union raised 21% of its war revenue through income taxes.[3]
Post Civil War, Reconstruction, and popular tax reform (1866–1900)[edit]
After the Civil War, Reconstruction, railroads, and transforming the North and South war machines towards peacetime required public funding. However, in 1872, seven years after the war, lawmakers allowed the temporary Civil War income tax to expire.
Income taxes evolved, but in 1894 the Supreme Court declared the Income Tax of 1894 unconstitutional in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.. The federal government scrambled to raise money.[4]
In 1906, with the election of President Theodore Roosevelt, and later his successor William Howard Taft, the United States saw a populist movement for tax reform. This movement culminated during then candidate Woodrow Wilson's election of 1912 and in February, 1913, the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution:
“ The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. ”
This granted Congress the specific power to impose an income tax without regard to apportionment among the states by population. By February 1913, 36 states had ratified the change to the Constitution. It was further ratified by six more states by March. Of the 48 states at the time, 42 ratified it. Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Utah rejected the amendment; Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida did not take up the issue.[5]
A copy of the very first IRS 1040 form, dated 1913, can be found at the IRS website[6] showing that only those with incomes of $3,000 (adjusted for inflation, the equivalent of $68,612 in 2011) or more were instructed to file.
The IRS reinvents itself (1913–1970)[edit]



 People filing tax forms in 1920.
In the first year after ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment, no taxes were collected—instead, taxpayers simply completed the form and the IRS checked it for accuracy. The IRS's workload jumped by ten-fold, triggering a massive restructuring. Professional tax collectors began to replace a system of "patronage" appointments. The IRS doubled its staff, but was still processing 1917 returns in 1919.[7]
Presidential tax returns (1973)[edit]
From the 1950s through the 1970s, the IRS began using technology such as microfilm to keep and organize records. Access to this information proved controversial, when President Richard Nixon's tax returns were leaked to the public. His tax advisor, Edward L. Morgan, became the fourth law-enforcement official to be charged with a crime during Watergate.[8]
John Requard. Jr., accused of leaking the documents, collected delinquent taxes in the slums of Washington. In his words:

We went after people for nickels and dimes, many of them poor and in many cases illiterate people who didn't know how to deal with a government agency.
He admits he saw the returns, but denies he leaked them. When asked if he would have leaked the documents, he said: "I probably would have said, 'Yes, I'm in.'"[9]
Reporter Jack White of The Providence Journal, won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting about Nixon's tax returns. Nixon, with a salary of $200,000, paid $792.81 in federal income tax in 1970 and $878.03 in 1971, with deductions of $571,000 for donating "vice-presidential papers".[10] This was one of the reasons for his famous statement: "Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got."
So controversial was this leak, that most later US Presidents released their tax returns (though sometimes only partially). These returns can be found online at the Tax History Project.[11]
Modernization and the Internet (1970–present)[edit]
After the introduction of microfilm, massive computerization efforts occurred from the 1960s onward.[citation needed] In 1995, the IRS began to use the public Internet for electronic filing. Since the introduction of e-filing, self-paced online tax services have flourished, augmenting the work of tax accountants, who were sometimes replaced.
In 2003, the IRS struck a deal with tax software vendors: The IRS would not develop online filing software and, in return, software vendors would provide free e-filing to most Americans.[12] In 2009, 70% of filers qualified for free electronic filing of federal returns.[13]
As a result of the United States federal government shutdown of 2013, the IRS will delay processing returns and issuing refunds for one week in January 2014.[14]
According to an inspector general's report, released in November 2013, identity theft in the United States is blamed for US$4 billion worth of fraudulent 2012 tax refunds by the IRS. Fraudulent claims were made with the use of stolen taxpayer identification and Social Security numbers, with returns sent to addresses both in the US and internationally. Following the release of the findings, the IRS stated that it resolved most of the identity theft cases of 2013 within 120 days, while the average time to resolve cases from the 2011/2012 tax period was 312 days.[15]
The budget of the IRS has been reduced from $12 billion to $11.2 billion in 2014. Commissioner John Koskinen said the agency needs more in order to tackle tax collection, fraud and Obamacare.[16]
History of the IRS name[edit]



 IRS and Department of the Treasury seal on lecturn
As early as the year 1918, the Bureau of Internal Revenue began using the name "Internal Revenue Service" on at least one tax form.[17] In 1953, the name change to the "Internal Revenue Service" was formalized in Treasury Decision 6038.[18]
Current organization[edit]
The 1980s saw a reorganization of the IRS. A bipartisan commission was created with several mandates, among them to increase customer service and improve collections.[19] Congress later enacted the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998.[20]
As a result of that Act, the IRS now functions under four major operating divisions: Large Business and International division (LB&I), the Small Business/Self-Employed (SB/SE) division, the Wage and Investment (W&I) division, and Tax Exempt & Government Entities (TE/GE) division. Effective October 1, 2010, the name of the Large and Mid-Size Business division changed to the Large Business & International (LB&I) division.[21] The IRS also includes a criminal law enforcement division (IRS Criminal Investigation Division). While there is some evidence that customer service has improved, lost tax revenues in 2001 were over $323 billion.[22]
The IRS has its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and does most of its computer programming in Maryland. It currently operates ten service centers around the country (in Andover, MA; Holtsville, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Atlanta, GA; Memphis, TN; Austin, TX; Cincinnati, OH; Fresno, CA; Kansas City, MO; and Ogden, UT), at which returns sent by mail are received. These centers do the actual tax processing; different types of returns are processed at the various centers (with some centers processing individual returns and others processing business returns). The IRS also operates three computer centers around the country (in Detroit, Michigan; Martinsburg, West Virginia; and Memphis, Tennessee).[23]
Commissioner[edit]
Main article: Commissioner of Internal Revenue
There have been 47 previous commissioners of Internal Revenue and 26 acting commissioners since the agency was created in 1862.[24]
Senior official at the Office of Management and Budget Daniel Werfel was announced as the acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue.[25] Werfel, who attended law school at the University of North Carolina and attained a Master’s Degree from Duke University, prepared the government for a potential shutdown in 2011 by determining which services that would remain in existence.[26][27]
No IRS commissioner has served more than five years and one month since Guy Helvering, who served 10 years until 1943.[28] The most recent commissioner to serve the longest term was Doug Shulman, who was appointed by President George W. Bush and served for five years.[28]
Taxpayer Advocates[edit]
The Office of the Taxpayer Advocate, also called the Taxpayer Advocate Service, is an independent office within the IRS responsible for assisting taxpayers in resolving their problems with the IRS, as well as identifying systemic problems that exist within the IRS. The current United States Taxpayer Advocate, also known as the National Taxpayer Advocate, is Nina E. Olson.[29]
Programs[edit]
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) are volunteer programs that the IRS runs to train volunteers and provide tax assistance and counseling to taxpayers.[30] Volunteers can study e-course material, take tests, and practice using tax-preparation software. Link & Learn Taxes (searchable by keyword on irs website), is the free e-learning portion of VITA/TCE program for training volunteers.
Tax collection statistics[edit]
Summary of Collections before Refunds by Type of Return, Fiscal Year 2010[31]

Type of Return
Number of Returns
Gross Collections
to the nearest million US$
Individual Income Tax 141,166,805 1,163,688
Employment Taxes 29,787,494 824,188
Corporate Income Tax 2,355,803 277,937
Excise Taxes 836,793 47,190
Estate Tax 28,780 16,931
Gift Tax 286,522 47,190
Total 174,405,682 2,332,754



 New York City field office for the IRS.
Summary of Collections before Refunds by Type of Return, Fiscal Year 2007[32]

Type of Return
Number of Returns
Gross Collections
to the nearest million US$
Individual Income Tax 138,893,908 1,366,241
Employment Taxes 30,740,592 849,733
Corporate Income Tax 2,507,728 395,536
Excise Taxes 989,165 53,050
Estate Tax 55,924 24,558
Gift Tax 286,522 2,420
Total 173,351,839 2,691,538
For fiscal year 2009, the U.S. Congress appropriated spending of approximately $12.624 billion of "discretionary budget authority" to operate the Department of the Treasury, of which $11.522 billion was allocated to the IRS. The projected estimate of the budget for the IRS for fiscal year 2011 was $12.633 billion.[33] By contrast, during Fiscal Year (FY) 2006, the IRS collected more than $2.2 trillion in tax (net of refunds), about 44 percent of which was attributable to the individual income tax. This is partially due to the nature of the individual income tax category, containing taxes collected from working class, small business, self-employed, and capital gains. The top 5% of income earners pay 38.284% of the federal tax collected.[34][35]
As of 2007, the agency estimates that the United States Treasury is owed $354 billion more than the amount the IRS collects.[36]
In 2011, 234 million tax returns were filed allowing the IRS to collect $2.4 trillion out of which $384 billion were attributed to mistake or fraud.[37]
Outsourcing collection and tax-assistance[edit]
In September 2006, the IRS started to outsource the collection of taxpayers debts to private debt collection agencies. Opponents to this change note that the IRS will be handing over personal information to these debt collection agencies, who are being paid between 29% and 39% of the amount collected. Opponents are also worried about the agencies' being paid on percent collected, because it will encourage the collectors to use pressure tactics to collect the maximum amount. IRS spokesman Terry Lemons responds to these critics saying the new system "is a sound, balanced program that respects taxpayers' rights and taxpayer privacy." Other state and local agencies also use private collection agencies.[38]
In March 2009, the IRS announced that it would no longer outsource the collection of taxpayers debts to private debt collection agencies. The IRS decided not to renew contracts to private debt collection agencies, and began a hiring program at its call sites and processing centers across the country to bring on more personnel to process collections internally from taxpayers.[39] As of October 2009, the IRS has ceased using private debt collection agencies.
In September 2009, after undercover exposé videos of questionable activities by staff of one of the IRS's volunteer tax-assistance organizations were made public, the IRS removed ACORN from its volunteer tax-assistance program.[40]
Administrative functions[edit]
The IRS publishes tax forms which taxpayers are required to choose from and use for calculating and reporting their federal tax obligations. The IRS also publishes a number of forms for its own internal operations, such as Forms 3471 and 4228 (which are used during the initial processing of income tax returns).
In addition to collection of revenue and pursuing tax cheaters, the IRS issues administrative rulings such as revenue rulings and private letter rulings. In addition, the Service publishes the Internal Revenue Bulletin containing the various IRS pronouncements.[41] The controlling authority of regulations and revenue rulings allows taxpayers to rely on them. A private letter ruling is good for the taxpayer to whom it is issued, and gives some explanation of the Service's position on a particular tax issue.[42] Additionally, a private letter ruling reasonably relied upon by a taxpayer allows for the waiver of penalties for underpayment of tax.
As is the case with all administrative pronouncements, taxpayers sometimes litigate the validity of the pronouncements, and courts sometimes determine a particular rule to be invalid where the agency has exceeded its grant of authority. The IRS also issues formal pronouncements called Revenue Procedures, that among other things tell taxpayers how to correct prior tax errors. The IRS's own internal operations manual is the Internal Revenue Manual, which describes the clerical procedures for processing and auditing tax returns in excruciating detail. For example, the Internal Revenue Manual contains a special procedure for processing the tax returns of the President and Vice President of the United States.[42]
More formal rulemaking to give the Service's interpretation of a statute, or when the statute itself directs that the Secretary of the Treasury shall provide, IRS undergoes the formal regulation process with a Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) published in the Federal Register announcing the proposed regulation, the date of the in-person hearing, and the process for interested parties to have their views heard either in person at the hearing in Washington, D.C., or by mail. Following the statutory period provided in the Administrative Procedure Act the Service decides on the final regulations "as is," or as reflecting changes, or sometimes withdraws the proposed regulations. Generally, taxpayers may rely on proposed regulations until final regulations become effective. For example, human resource professionals are relying on the October 4, 2005 Proposed Regulations[43] (citation 70 F.R. 57930-57984)[44] for the Section 409A on deferred compensation (the so-called Enron rules on deferred compensation to add teeth to the old rules) because regulations have not been finalized.
Abuses of power[edit]
See also: Political profiling at the Internal Revenue Service



 Activists at IRS facility in Mountainside, New Jersey on May 21, 2013, protesting IRS targeting of partisan groups.
The IRS has on more than one occasion been accused of abusive behavior.[45][46][47][48] Testimony was given before a Senate subcommittee that focused on cases of overly aggressive IRS collection tactics in considering a need for legislation to give taxpayers greater protection in disputes with the agency.
Congress passed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights III on July 22, 1998, which shifted the burden of proof from the taxpayer to the IRS in certain limited situations. The IRS retains the legal authority to enforce liens and seize assets without obtaining judgment in court.[49]
Michael Minns was the defense lawyer in a case against the IRS on behalf of James and Pamela Moran, after an initial indictment in what Minns asserts was an IRS smear campaign that virtually canvassed the taxpayers' own hometown and surrounding area.[50] The original indictment was associated with the Morans' involvement with a tax shelter provider, Anderson's Ark & Associates. The Morans were eventually acquitted in the case.[51]
Minns also had previously asserted that the behavior of two IRS attorneys at law, Kenneth McWade and William A. Sims, constituted legal misconduct and recommended them for disbarment. Following an investigation, the law licenses of the IRS attorneys were duly suspended for a two-year period after a federal court ruling found that the two had indeed defrauded the courts in connection with 1,300 tax shelter cases. In 2003, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that the IRS lawyers had corruptly agreed with certain taxpayers that no tax collection actions would be taken against them—in return for testimony against other taxpayers. The court also asked why the IRS had not punished the two.[52]
In 2013, the IRS became embroiled in a political scandal in which it was discovered that the agency subjected conservative or conservative-sounding groups filing for tax-exempt status to extra scrutiny.[53]
See also[edit]


Great Seal of the United States (obverse).svgGovernment of the United States portal
 

Tax evasion in the United States
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue (Created by an act of Congress, July 1, 1862)". US Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
2.Jump up ^ Internal Revenue Service. "The Agency, its Mission and Statutory Authority". IRS. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
3.Jump up ^ "1861-1865: The Civil War". Tax.org. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
4.Jump up ^ "1866-1900: Reconstruction to the Spanish-American War". Tax.org. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
5.Jump up ^ "Notes on the Amendments - The U.S. Constitution Online". USConstitution.net. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
6.Jump up ^ "The first 1040 with instructions" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-11-08.
7.Jump up ^ "1901-1932: The Income Tax Arrives". Tax.org. 1906-04-14. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
8.Jump up ^ "Investigations: Fraud in Nixon's Taxes". Time. November 18, 1974. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
9.Jump up ^ "How an IRS leak changed history altered history - Page 3 - Baltimore Sun". Articles.baltimoresun.com. 2003-12-21. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
10.Jump up ^ "How an IRS leak changed historyaltered history - Baltimore Sun". Articles.baltimoresun.com. 2003-12-21. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
11.Jump up ^ Tax History Project - Presidential Tax Returns. Taxhistory.org. Retrieved on 2013-08-10.
12.Jump up ^ "Free File: Do Your Federal Taxes for Free". Irs.gov. 2013-01-29. Retrieved 2013-02-04.
13.Jump up ^ "As e-filing turns 20, IRS trying to win over remaining third of taxpayers from paper returns". cleveland.com. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
14.Jump up ^ USA Today, front page, October 23, 2013, "Millions face tax refund delays"
15.Jump up ^ "IRS refunded $4 billion to identity thieves last year, inspector general's report says". CBS News. 7 November 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
16.Jump up ^ http://www.politico.com/morningtax/0114/morningtax12709.html
17.Jump up ^ Form 1040, Individual Income Tax Return for year 1918, as republished in historical documents section of Publication 1796 (Rev. February 2007), Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Department of the Treasury. Form 1040s for years 1918, 1919, and 1920 bore the name "Internal Revenue Service". For the 1921 tax year, the name was dropped, then was re-added for the 1929 tax year.
18.Jump up ^ 1953-2 C.B. 657 (August 21, 1953), filed with Division of the Federal Register on August 26, 1967, 18 Fed. Reg. 5120. Compare Treas. Department Order 150-29 (July 9, 1953).
19.Jump up ^ "Official web site of the National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service". House.gov. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
20.Jump up ^ Pub. L. No. 105-206, 112 Stat. 685 (July 22, 1998).
21.Jump up ^ IR-2010-88, Aug. 4, 2010, "IRS Realigns and Renames Large Business Division, Enhances Focus on International Tax Administration," Internal Revenue Service, at IRS.gov.
22.Jump up ^ U.S. Department of the Treasury, Press Release, September 26, 2006
23.Jump up ^ "GAO-11-308 Information Security: IRS Needs to Enhance Internal Control over Financial Reporting and Taxpayer Data" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-11-08.
24.Jump up ^ "The Commissioner's Section". IRS.gov.
25.Jump up ^ President Obama Appoints Daniel Werfel as Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue, May 16, 2013
26.Jump up ^ President Obama Appoints Daniel Werfel as Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue, May 16, 2013
27.Jump up ^ Zachary A. Goldfarb; Aaron Blake (16 May 2013). "Daniel Werfel replaces Miller as acting IRS commissioner". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
28.^ Jump up to: a b "IRS Commissioner Says He Doesn’t Want Second Term". Bloomberg.
29.Jump up ^ "Profile of Nina Olson". Brynmawr.edu. 2003-11-16. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
30.Jump up ^ "Link & Learn Taxes, linking volunteers to quality e-learning". Irs.gov. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
31.Jump up ^ "Tax Stats at a Glance". IRS.gov. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
32.Jump up ^ "Tax Stats at a Glance". Irs.gov. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
33.Jump up ^ See Table, p. 115, Budget of the U.S. Government: Fiscal Year 2011, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President of the United States (U.S. Gov't Printing Office, Washington, 2010), at Whitehouse.gov.
34.Jump up ^ 'SOI Tax Stats - Individual Income Tax Rates and Tax Shares'. Yearly statistics at www.irs.gov.
35.Jump up ^ 'New IRS Data Reveals That the Rich Really Do Pay Tax - Lots of It' by John Gaver. Press Release, Actionamerica.org, 9 October 2007.
36.Jump up ^ IRS Commissioner Assailed on 'Tax Gap' by Jack Speer. Morning Edition, National Public Radio, 21 March 2006.
37.Jump up ^ USA today page 1B/2B published April 12, 2012 "complex tax code raises problems for taxpayers and IRS"
38.Jump up ^ D. Caterinicchia, IRS moves ahead on debt-collection plan[dead link]
39.Jump up ^ "IRS Conducts Extensive Review, Decides Not to Renew Private Debt Collection Contracts".
40.Jump up ^ Wheaton, Sarah (23 September 2008). "Acorn Sues Over Video as I.R.S. Severs Ties". The New York Times.
41.Jump up ^ "Internal Revenue Bulletin: 2012-23". Internal Revenue Service. 4 June 2012. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
42.^ Jump up to: a b Internal Revenue Manual Section 3.28.3.
43.Jump up ^ A257.g.akamaitech.net
44.Jump up ^ Federal Register (Volume 70, Number 191), October 4, 2005
45.Jump up ^ "Prepared Statement Of Witness Before The Senate Finance Committee Oversight Hearing On The Internal Revenue Service". Archived from the original on 2007-07-29. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
46.Jump up ^ Davis, Robert Edwin. "Statement before the Senate Committee on Finance". Archived from the original on 2007-02-09. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
47.Jump up ^ Schriebman, Robert. "Prepared Statement of Robert S. Schrieman Before the Senate Finance Committee". Archived from the original on 2007-10-18. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
48.Jump up ^ Davis, Shelley L. (1997-09-23). "Prepared Statement of Shelley L. Davis Before the Senate Finance Committee Oversight Hearing On The Internal Revenue Service". Archived from the original on 2007-05-05. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
49.Jump up ^ See 26 U.S.C. § 6331. For case law on section 6331, see Brian v. Gugin, 853 F. Supp. 358, 94-1 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) paragr. 50,278 (D. Idaho 1994), aff’d, 95-1 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) paragr. 50,067 (9th Cir. 1995).
50.Jump up ^ Katharhynn Heidelberg, "Attorney: IRS should apologize", Montrose Daily Press (Montrose, Colorado), December 28, 2007, at Montrose Daily Press
51.Jump up ^ Katharhynn Heidelberg, "Morans Acquitted on All Counts", Montrose Daily Press (Montrose, Colorado), December 21, 2007, at Montrose Daily Press
52.Jump up ^ David Cay Johnston, August 21, 2004, "2 Ex-IRS Lawyers' Licenses Suspended for Misconduct", The New York Times, at The New York Times
53.Jump up ^ "IRS officials in Washington were involved in targeting of conservative groups". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
Further reading[edit]
Davis, Shelley L.; Matalin, Mary (1997). Unbridled Power: Inside the Secret Culture of the IRS. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-88730-829-5.
Johnston, David Cay (2003). Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich—and Cheat Everybody Else. New York: Portfolio. ISBN 1-59184-019-8.
Rossotti, Charles O. (2005). Many Unhappy Returns: One Man's Quest To Turn Around The Most Unpopular Organization In America. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 1-59139-441-4.
Roth, William V., Jr.; Nixon, William H. (1999). The Power to Destroy. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 0-87113-748-8.
External links[edit]
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Frank J. Wilson
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For other people named Frank Wilson, see Frank Wilson (disambiguation).
Frank J. Wilson (May 19, 1886 – June 22, 1970) was the Chief of the United States Secret Service and a former agent of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Internal Revenue, later known as the Internal Revenue Service, most notably in the 1931 prosecution of Chicago mobster Al Capone and federal representative in the Lindbergh kidnapping case.


Contents  [hide]
1 Capone investigation
2 Later career
3 Further reading
4 References
5 External links

Capone investigation[edit]
Upon joining the United States Treasury Department's Intelligence Unit in 1920, the former accountant Wilson would earn a reputation throughout Prohibition as a thorough, if not obsessive, investigator of tax returns and income.
In 1928, Wilson was assigned by the chief of the Enforcement Branch of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Elmer L. Irey, to investigate mobster Al Capone in a later federal prosecution for tax evasion. Although earlier investigations regarding racketeering charges had been successfully defended by Capone, Irey believed Capone could be prosecuted under a 1927 ruling by the Supreme Court which declared that any income from criminal activities must be subjected to income taxes.
However, as Capone did not file tax returns, own property, endorse checks, maintain bank accounts or give receipts, his income could not be accounted for. As calculating Capone's net worth and expenditures were crucial to federal prosecutors, Wilson arranged to have Capone's organization, known as the "Chicago Outfit," to be infiltrated by federal agents to gather information on Capone's dealings in bootlegging, illegal gambling, and other vices.
Wilson himself moved into Chicago's Sheridan Plaza Hotel with his wife under the guise of a tourist. Wilson's wife was uninformed of the details of his assignment; instead she had been told that Wilson was investigating the finances of one "Curly Brown." Wilson would spend the next three years gathering information on Capone's financial dealings including tracking down mob accountants and bookkeepers.
Becoming aware of Wilson's investigation, a nervous Capone ordered five gunmen to murder Wilson. Federal authorities were informed of the contract and, after urgings from former mentor Johnny Torrio, Capone reluctantly canceled the hit. As a result of Wilson's investigation, which revealed millions of dollars in unreported income, Capone was eventually sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment.
Later career[edit]
During the Lindbergh baby kidnapping in 1932, Wilson's insistence that the serial numbers on the gold certificates in ransom money be recorded would lead to the 1934 arrest of Bruno Richard Hauptmann who was later convicted and executed for the kidnapping[citation needed]. The method of recording serial numbers, and later "marked bills," would be commonly used to prosecute criminals.
In 1936, Wilson was named chief of the Secret Service and, resisting attempts by J. Edgar Hoover to transfer the Secret Service to the Justice Department under the jurisdiction of the FBI during the early 1940s, he had nearly eliminated the production and distribution of counterfeit money through a nationwide education program by the end of his retirement in 1947. During his administration, he also initiated practices in presidential security which have since become standard procedure.
An article he wrote, Undercover Man: He Trapped Capone, was the basis for the 1949 film The Undercover Man.
He later died at the Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC on June 22, 1970, at the age of 83.
In the Brian De Palma 1987 film The Untouchables, the character Oscar Wallace (played by Charles Martin Smith) is loosely based upon Wilson.
Further reading[edit]
Melanson, Philip H. and Peter F. Stevens. The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-7867-1251-1
Roth, Mitchel P. Historical Dictionary of Law Enforcement. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30560-9
Spiering, Frank. The Man Who Got Capone. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1976.
Wilson, Frank J. and Beth Day. Special Agent: A Quarter-Century with the Treasury Department and the Secret Service. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965.
References[edit]
Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
Phillips, Charles and Alan Axelrod. Cops, Crooks, and Criminologists: An International Biographical Dictionary of Law Enforcement Updated Edition. New York: Checkmark Books, 2000. ISBN 0-8160-3016-2
Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
External links[edit]
Frank Wilson papers at the University of Wyoming - American Heritage Center


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Elmer Lincoln Irey
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Elmer Lincoln Irey (1888 – July 19, 1948) was a United States Treasury Department official and director of the Internal Revenue Service's lead investigative unit during the federal tax evasion prosecution of Chicago mobster Al Capone.
Appointed Chief of the Treasury Department's Internal Revenue Service Enforcement Branch in 1919, Irey would form one of the most successful investigative teams in the history of American law enforcement with agent Frank J. Wilson leading the hundred-man unit of "T-men" in a three-year investigation against Capone's criminal organization the "Chicago Outfit". Despite attempted jury tampering and death threats against Wilson, Irey's investigation succeeded in the conviction of Capone for tax evasion in 1931.
During the Lindbergh kidnapping, Irey supported Wilson in his request to have the serial numbers recorded of the ransom money delivered to the kidnappers and would lead to the arrest of one of the suspects Bruno Richard Hauptmann in 1934. Irey's "T-men" unit would continue to prosecute over 15,000 people for tax evasion (with a 90% conviction rate), including Louisiana Gov. Huey Long and Chicago businessman Moses Annenberg, over the course of 27 years.
Named chief coordinator of all the Treasury Department's law enforcement agencies in 1937, Irey would oversee the operations of the U.S. Secret Service, the IRS Intelligence Unit, U.S. Customs, the Bureau of Narcotics, the Alcohol Tax Unit (predecessor to ATF), and the U.S. Coast Guard, until his retirement in 1941.
He wrote his autobiography, "Tax Dodgers" in 1942. He relates stories of how President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) used the IRS to attack his political enemies. One was Andrew Mellon, who was Secretary of the Treasury during previous Republican administrations. Mellon was found innocent of all charges.
IRS agents under Irey began investigating Louisiana Governor and later Senator Huey Long during Hoover administration but suspended the investigation following the election of Franklin Roosevelt. After several months awaiting guidance from the new administration, Irey received a go-ahead to restart the investigation from Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. In his biography, Irey related the personal interest and direct intervention of FDR in the investigation of Long, another of his political enemies who was considering running for President against Roosevelt in 1936. Several of Long's cronies were convicted, but Long was murdered in 1935 just weeks before U.S. Attorney Dan Moody planned to present evidence against him to a federal grand jury.
Another memoir of the IRS being used as a political weapon was written by Elmer Lynn Williams, which described the attack on William Malone, a Republican who ran for governor of Illinois.
One of the episodes of the long-running radio series "The FBI In Peace And War" featured Mr. Irey commenting on a story called "The Traveling Man" based on a real FBI and Secret Service case in 1952.
Further reading[edit]
Spiering, Frank. The Man Who Got Capone. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1976.
Irey, Elmer. The Tax Dodgers: The Inside Story of the T-Men's War with America's Political and Underworld Hoodlums, 1949.
Burnham, David. A Law Unto Itself: The IRS and the Abuse of Power, Vintage Books, 1989.
Williams, Elmer Lynn. They Got Their Man: A Story of Income Tax Persecution, Cuneo Press, 1941
Contemporary Cultural Reference[edit]
The main computer system of the Serious Organised Crime Agency is named Elmer, in his honour.
References[edit]
Phillips, Charles and Alan Axelrod. Cops, Crooks, and Criminologists: An International Biographical Dictionary of Law Enforcement, Updated Edition. New York: Checkmark Books, 2000. ISBN 0-8160-3016-2


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 Michael King ·
 William Gardner ·
 Others: Jim Seeley ·
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 Volstead Act
 

Investigation



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Chicago Outfit ·
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 Authors: Eliot Ness ·
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Media
The Untouchables (1959 TV series) (episode list) ·
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Eliot Ness
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Eliot Ness
Eliotness.jpg
Bureau of Prohibition
Cleveland Division of Police

April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957 (aged 54)

Place of birth
Chicago, Illinois
Rank
Chief Investigator of the Prohibition Bureau for Chicago in 1934
 Director for Public Safety for Cleveland, Ohio
Eliot Paul Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent, famous for his efforts to enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois, and the leader of a legendary team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables.[1]


Contents  [hide]
1 Early life
2 Career 2.1 1927–1931
2.2 1931–1957
3 Personal life
4 Legacy
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

Early life[edit]
Eliot Ness was born April 19, 1903 in Chicago, Illinois. He was the youngest of five siblings born to Norwegian immigrants, Peter and Emma Ness. Ness attended Christian Fenger High School in Chicago. He was educated at the University of Chicago, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, graduating in 1925 with a degree in economics. He began his career as an investigator for the Retail Credit Company of Atlanta. He was assigned to the Chicago territory, where he conducted background investigations for the purpose of credit information. He returned to the University to take a course in criminology, eventually earning a Master's Degree in the field.[2][3]
Career[edit]
1927–1931[edit]
In 1926, Ness' brother-in-law, Alexander Jamie, an agent of the Bureau of Investigation (which later became the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935), influenced Ness to enter law enforcement. He joined the U.S. Treasury Department in 1927, working with the 300-strong Bureau of Prohibition, in Chicago.[4]
Following the election of President Herbert Hoover, U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon was specifically charged with bringing down gangster Al Capone. The federal government pursued his illegal activities in two areas: income tax evasion and violations of prohibition. Ness was chosen to head the operations under the National Prohibition Act (informally known as the Volstead Act), targeting the illegal breweries and supply routes of Capone.
With Chicago's corrupted law-enforcement agents endemic, Ness went through the records of all Prohibition agents to create a reliable team, initially of 50, later reduced to 15 and finally to just 9 men called, "The Untouchables". Raids against illegal stills and breweries began immediately; within six months Ness claimed to have seized breweries worth over one million dollars. The main source of information for the raids was an extensive wire-tapping operation. An attempt by Capone to bribe Ness's agents was seized on by Ness for publicity, leading to the media nickname, "The Untouchables." There were a number of assassination attempts on Ness, and one of his close friends was killed.
The efforts of Ness and his team brought major damage to Capone's operations. Ness's efforts eventually led the IRS to prosecute Capone for income tax evasion, which led to Capone's downfall.[5] In a number of federal grand jury cases in 1931, Capone was charged with 22 counts of tax evasion and also 5,000 violations of the Volstead Act.[6] On October 17, 1931, Capone was convicted on five of the tax evasion charges, after the Volstead Act violations were dropped. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, and following a failed appeal, he began his sentence in 1932.[7][8]
1931–1957[edit]



 Marker at Lake View Cemetery
Ness was promoted to Chief Investigator of the Prohibition Bureau for Chicago and in 1934 for Ohio. Following the end of Prohibition in 1933, he was assigned as an alcohol tax agent in the "Moonshine Mountains" of southern Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee; and, in 1934, he was transferred to Cleveland, Ohio. In December 1935, Cleveland mayor Harold Burton hired him as the city's Safety Director, which put him in charge of both the police and fire departments. He headed a campaign to clean out police corruption and to modernize the fire department.[1][9]



 Billboard for Eliot Ness's 1947 campaign for mayor, seen in 1973
In 1938, Ness's personal life was completely transformed while his career began to have some ups and downs. He concentrated heavily on his work, which may have contributed to the divorce that year from his first wife Edna (Staley). He declared war on the mob, and his primary targets included "Big" Angelo Lonardo, "Little" Angelo Scirrca, Moe Dalitz, John Angerola, George Angersola, and Charles Pollizi. Ness was also Safety Director at the time of several grisly murders that occurred in the Cleveland area from 1935 to 1938. Unfortunately, his otherwise remarkably successful career in Cleveland withered gradually. Cleveland critics targeted his divorce, his high-profile social drinking, and his conduct in a car accident, but he continued with the next Mayor, Frank Lausche.[10]
Ness remarried in 1939, to illustrator Evaline Michelow. The Nesses moved to Washington, D.C. in 1942 where he worked for the federal government, directing the battle against prostitution in communities surrounding military bases, where venereal disease was a serious problem. Later he made a number of forays into the corporate world, all of which failed from his lack of business acumen. In 1944, he left to become chairman of the Diebold Corporation, a security safe company based in Ohio.[11]
After his second divorce and third marriage, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Cleveland in 1947,[9][12] after which he was expelled from Diebold in 1951.[11] In the aftermath, Ness began drinking more heavily and spending his free time in bars telling (often exaggerated) stories of his law enforcement career. He also spent himself into debt. Ness was forced into taking various odd jobs to earn a living, including as an electronics parts wholesaler, a clerk in a bookstore, and selling frozen hamburger patties to restaurants. By 1953, he came to work for an upstart company called Guaranty Paper Corporation, which specialized in watermarking legal and official documents to prevent counterfeiting. Ness was offered a job because of his expertise in law enforcement. The company soon moved from Cleveland to the quiet rural town of Coudersport, Pennsylvania, where operating costs were lower. He made a decent income from GPC and moved with his wife and adopted son into a modest rental house. Once again, he enjoyed going to local bars and regaling amazed audiences with his tales of crime fighting.
He collapsed and died at his home in Coudersport, Pennsylvania of a massive heart attack on May 16, 1957, at the age of 54. Collaborating with Oscar Fraley in his last years, he co-wrote the book The Untouchables, which was published a month after his death.[13] This book, among others about the Untouchables by Oscar Fraley, was heavily spiced with fiction including fictional characters and events to make the books more appealing to a general audience. The 21-page manuscript that Ness himself wrote for the book was a more trustworthy source and only included the real events that Ness experienced during his career. His manuscript is housed in the archives of the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio.[12] The Western Reserve Historical Society houses additional Ness papers, including a scrapbook (1928-1936), copies of newspaper clippings (1935-1950), a typewritten manuscript detailing Ness' career in Chicago, and miscellaneous papers, including a report on the Fidelity Check Corporation and Guaranty Paper, of which Ness was president.[14]
Personal life[edit]
Ness was married to Edna Staley (1900–1988) from 1929 to 1938, illustrator Evaline Ness (1911–1986) from 1939 to 1945, and artist Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1906–1977) from 1946 until his death in 1957. He also had an adopted son Robert (1946–1976). Ness's ashes were scattered in one of the small ponds on the grounds of Lake View Cemetery, in Cleveland. Vigil, Vicki Blum (2007). Cemeteries of Northeast Ohio: Stones, Symbols & Stories. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers. ISBN 978-1-59851-025-6
Legacy[edit]
Television programs and feature films have been made based on the life of Eliot Ness, and the legend surrounding his work in Chicago. The two best-known of these include the 1950s/1960s TV series titled The Untouchables, which starred Robert Stack as Ness and which Walter Winchell narrated, and Brian De Palma's film of the same title, The Untouchables, which starred Kevin Costner as Ness and also featured Sean Connery and Robert De Niro. These two fictionalized portrayals, more than actual history, have inspired numerous novels, a second, short-lived TV series, comic books, and references in animated cartoons and rap lyrics.
On January 10, 2014, Illinois' US Senators proposed naming the headquarters of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Washington, DC after Ness.[15] If approved, it would be called the Eliot Ness ATF Building. However, Chicago Aldermen Ed Burke (14th Ward) and James Balcer (11th Ward) opposed the resolution in an article in the Chicago Tribune. In a news release, Burke said, “Eliot Ness had a checkered career after leaving the federal government. I simply do not think his image matches the actual reality of his legacy.”[16]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Richards, George E. (2011). "The Last Boy Scout: Eliot Ness' Tenure as Cleveland, Ohio's Public Safety Director". International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 1 (12): 14–21. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
2.Jump up ^ Eliot Ness: The Real Story (Paul W. Heimel, author. Knox Books)
3.Jump up ^ Eliot Ness(Ohio Historical Society)
4.Jump up ^ Biography of Eliot Ness (Essortment)
5.Jump up ^ Okrent, Daniel (2010). Last Call : The rise and fall of prohibition. New York: Scribner. pp. 136 &345. ISBN 978-0-7432-7704-4.
6.Jump up ^ Searching for Eliot Ness (Fedora Chronicles)
7.Jump up ^ Eliot Ness Biography (Who2, LLC)
8.Jump up ^ Eliot Ness 1902-1957 The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.gov web site
9.^ Jump up to: a b Bardsley, Marilyn (2013). "Eliot Ness: The Man Behind the Myth". trutv.com. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
10.Jump up ^ "Eliot Ness". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. 21 July 1997. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
11.^ Jump up to: a b "A Man of Steel Leads a Company of Iron". Diebold, Inc. 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
12.^ Jump up to: a b McFarland, Marilyn; Stone, Mark Wade (January 2012). "Eliot Ness". Cleveland Police Museum/Cleveland Police Historical Society. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
13.Jump up ^ Whatever happened to Eliot Ness after the trial of Al Capone? (Ask Yahoo!)
14.Jump up ^ "Finding aid for the Eliot Ness Papers". OhioLINK. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
15.Jump up ^ Skiba, Katherine. "'Untouchable' idea -- building named for Eliot Ness". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
16.Jump up ^ Tribune staff report. "Pair of aldermen oppose effort to rename ATF HQ after Eliot Ness". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
Further reading[edit]
Ness, Eliot; Fraley, Oscar (1957). The Untouchables. Julian Messner.
Heimel, Paul W. (1996). Eliot Ness: The Real Story. Knox Books. ISBN 978-0965582407.
Rasmussen, William T. (2006). Corroborating Evidence. Sunstone Press. ISBN 0-86534-536-8.
Badal, James Jessen (2001). In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland's Torso Murders. The Kent State University Press. ISBN 0-87338-689-2.
Perry, Douglas (2014). Eliot Ness: The Rise and Fall of an American Hero. Viking Penguin. ISBN 978-0-670-02588-6.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eliot Ness.
Dusty Roads of an FBI era, about Eliot Ness And The FBI
Free Information Society, Biography of Eliot Ness
another Biography of Eliot Ness
FBI file on Eliot Ness
Eliot Ness at Find a Grave


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Oscar Fraley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Oscar Fraley (August 2, 1914 – January 6, 1994) was the co-author, with Eliot Ness, of the famous American memoir The Untouchables.[1] Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Fraley grew up across the Delaware River in Woodbury, New Jersey.[1][2]
He worked for United Press International as a sports reporter from 1940–1965 but still managed to write during his free time. Over the course of his lifetime, Fraley penned 31 books, including Hoffa, The Real Story (Stein and Day, 1975).[1] In 1956 he was introduced to Ness while working as a reporter for UPI. It was this encounter that served as the inspiration for The Untouchables.[1] By 1957, Fraley had written most of the proofs for the manuscript of the book. Ness read these proofs shortly before his own death that same year.
The Untouchables went on to sell 1.5 million copies and served as the basis for the television series and movie of the same name.[1]
Oscar Fraley died on Thursday, January 6, 1994 in Fort Lauderdale’s in Broward General Hospital. The cause was heart failure after surgery for a strangulated hernia.[1]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f The New York Times online: Oscar Fraley, 79, ‘Untouchables’ author obituary. Published January 9, 1994. Accessed April 14, 2008.
2.Jump up ^ IMDB - Oscar Fraley filmography. Accessed April 14, 2008.
External links[edit]
Oscar Fraley books at Amazon.com


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[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
The Untouchables


Members
Eliot Ness ·
 Martin J. Lahart ·
 Samuel M. Seager ·
 Bernard V. Cloonan ·
 Lyle Chapman ·
 Thomas Friel ·
 Joseph Leeson ·
 Paul W. Robsky ·
 Michael King ·
 William Gardner ·
 Others: Jim Seeley ·
 Albert H. Wolff ·
 Unofficial (ie, non-agent): Frank Basile
 

Context
Prohibition ·
 Volstead Act
 

Investigation



Targets

Chicago Outfit ·
 Al Capone ·
 Also: Frank Nitti
 


Law enforcement

Bureau of Prohibition ·
 Treasury's Bureau of Internal Revenue ·
 Frank J. Wilson ·
 Elmer Lincoln Irey
 


Book
The Untouchables (1957 book) ·
 Authors: Eliot Ness ·
 Oscar Fraley
 

Media
The Untouchables (1959 TV series) (episode list) ·
 The Untouchables (film) (1987) ·
 The Untouchables (video game) (1989) ·
 The Untouchables (1993 TV series) (episode list)
 




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