On This Day: Al Capone begins 11-year jail sentence for tax evasion

MAY 4, 1932: America’s most infamous gangster Al Capone was sensationally jailed for tax evasion on this day in 1932.

The Chicago mob boss, who ran a murderous Prohibition-era alcohol bootlegging syndicate, was handed an 11-year sentence after his bid to pay off a jury was foiled.

His sole conviction came after a decade of successfully avoiding jail by bribing police and being regarded by many as a “modern-day Robin Hood”.

But his fortunes changed while in Alcatraz, where he became one of the first inmates of the notorious island prison fortress after being transferred there in August 1934.  

His power was weakened by his isolation and the 1933 repeal of the Constitutional Amendment prohibiting alcohol, which killed his profitable bootlegging business.

Other inmates, during rare moments where Capone was allowed to mix with them, were also unimpressed by his attempts to rise above the prison order.

Once, another prisoner told him to get to the back of the line when he tried to push into a queue for a haircut.

And, when Capone asked if he knew who he was, Texas bank robber James Lucas is said to have grabbed a pair of the barber's scissors and, holding them to the former gangster’s neck, answered: “Yeah, I know who you are, greaseball.

“And if you don't get back to the end of that f***ing line, I'm gonna know who you were.”

But on the outside, Capone and his escapades would continue to intrigue a fascinated public.

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A British Pathé newsreel filmed one of the gangster’s armoured cars in Southend, Essex during a tour of Britain shortly after his conviction.

An American guide explains the “outstanding features” of the 1928 Cadillac Model 341A Town Sedan include bullet-proof windows and doors.

He also demonstrated the illegal police siren the mob boss had fitted to the car, which was relatively unheard of and capable of 110mph.

Capone, who started off as a petty criminal, made his big break when Prohibition came into force in January 1920.

The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which had largely been backed by rural America, banned the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors”.

But, with millions willing to flout Prohibition, especially in big cities, it was impossible to enforce the law and organised crime flourished.

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Within five years, there were ten thousand illegal drinking dens known as speakeasies in Chicago alone and control of this illicit trade was highly lucrative.

The city, due to its railways and Lake Michigan location, was also a vital transport hub for smuggling both Canadian and local bootleg booze to the rest of America.

So it also attracted gangsters from all over the country.

Capone, who was recruited by fellow Johnny Torio, initially controlled this trade in the suburb of Cicero.

But in 1925, with gang war raging, Capone was handed control of Torrio’s Chicago Outfit after his former boss was injured in an attack and returned to Italy.

Over the years, Capones’ thugs increasingly dominated the bootlegging business in the city and he grew increasingly rich.

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He bought sprawling estates across America, hired entire train carriages when he travelled and rented two floors of the opulent Lexington Hotel as his headquarters.

Yet he gave a generous portion of his organisation’s $100million-a-year earnings to charity in a bid to maintain public support.

He spent millions more on buying off Chicago’s police force.

But he lost a lot of goodwill when his thugs, disguised as police officers, killed five members of a rival gang and two others in the St Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929.

The FBI sent one of their best agents, Eliot Ness, to bring Capone down.

He recruited a loyal team of 11 other agents, who due to their fearlessness and integrity, became known as an untouchable.

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They struggled to find enough evidence to convict Capone for breaching Prohibition laws and so instead prosecuted him for tax evasion.

Capone very nearly escaped this charge too until one of the Untouchables realised the gangster had bribed and intimidated jurors and had the jury replaced.