JURORS GASP

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1932, Page 3

JURORS GASP

CAPONE'S BUYING

MAGNIFICENT WARDROBE

, SUEPRISING PRICES

The jury in the Alphonso Capone trial for income tax evasion—rural gentle-' men of simple and Tather careless habits I of dress—pursed its lips in the Federal Court as it learned from salesmen witnesses for the Government what the well-dressea gangster wears, his tastes in home decoration, and his preference in diamonds "and motor-cars, says the "New York Times." Silk shirts at 30 dollars each, silk underwear at 14 dollars a set, suits at 135 dollars apiece, diamond belt buckles at "275 dollars each (bought by the dozen), ties at 5 dollars (by the dozen) were a few samples of Mr. Capone Js taste in haberdashery, and suitable garrjnents for_ street wear. His cars cost him 12,000 dollars apiece, his glassware and silver came high, and he was finicky about interior decorations for his home, picking the colours and fabrics himself. Grave, sometimes lost in day dreams, Capone listened to the public revelations of his expenditures as if he were disinterested; but when one of the salesmen began to describe the texture of the glove-siJk underwear he blushed aIL over his fat face and added an embarrassed smirk to the chorus of laughter evoked by the description. A rough estim'nte of the expenses of Mr. and Mrs. Capone 'on the proxy shopping tour through which the jury was guided would' be between 80,000 dollars and 90,000 dollars. It covers only a part of what was spent during the period under consideration in the trial, but the Government, adding it to the record of expenditures for real estate and other properties, gleaned from other witnesses, felt it has enough to prove that Capone was a man with a, big income. ■ ,Joan Rieves, bookkeeper for a. .Chicago furniture house, was the first Witness against Capone. She stood on the witness stand,.reading from the company records under the greenshaded, lamp on the bench* to refresh Jier memory as to Capone purchases. Capone, his elbow on-4he counsel table, his1 head resting on a hairy fist, had a far-away look in his jet-black eyes. "China bowls, elephants, lamps, more latnps, rockers, fernery, chaise longuc," she droned off. The jurymen nodded. Jacob. I. Grossman, assistant Federal attorney, took over the records and began to read them to the jury. "Chairs, more chairs,, armchairs, rockers, more lamps (there must have been scores of them in the Capono home), more bronze elephants" Capone^ad^elected most of the stuff hitnsclf, had paid the deposit with three 500-dollar^chequcs drawn on the Equitable .Trust Company by Jack Guzik, his financial secretary. Two days later Capone paid the balance with separate .cheques, one for 1500 dollars, two for 2000 dollars each.. In cross-examining the witness, Albert Fink, a counsel for Capone, re-1 ferred' v to^the'defendant as "Al." He had" don 6it on other occasions, and so had Mr. "Grossman, but this time the Court, stopped it. "When' counsel speaks of Al, I assume he means the defendant?" Judge Wilkerson's voice was a bit chilly and • hi? ej'cbrows shot up. _- . ' , ■ - .Mr. Fink ..-hastened to - assure ~ the -Co'urt-.' that no.affront was intended. "•" ' ' '.THE DEFEND ANT. •' _ "I think," said the Judge, "that I •would prefer to have-the defendant referred to'as -the defendant";; andonly. •once the-'rest.of the day -did Mr. Fink "iftrgetr himself. ' , Guy C. Buxton, automobile salesman, .testified he first saw Mr. and Mrs. CJapcme in his place of business in 1924. ••He sold a 12,500-dollar "special built" ■cabriolet, which was to be used by,.Mrs.' Capone. Later the car was exchanged ■ for a! new model and Mrs. Capono's chauffeur' came for it, bringing 3500 dollars in cash to make up the difference "between the price of the used car arid/the.new one -.C.'M.'Arl, of the shirt,department,of the city's biggest department store," repfaced Mr. Buxton on the stand. He identified Mr. Capone. He had sold him shirts. JSfo, not out of stock— custom made. ''How much did you get for the shirts, Mr. Arl?" asked Grossman, "From 18 to 27 dollars apiece." Somewhere in. the deep Court room, back where the blinds were drawn and the shadow was deeper, somebody gave a low whistle of surprise. The gentlemen of the jury cocked their ears, almost wabbled them. They had been stirred out .of their lethargy. Judge Wilkerson was ruffling the pages of a ■ heavy law volume. He did not even - look up. Mr. Arl read oft" an order he got on 18th May, 1927. "Four shirts, 22.50 dollars each; one for 23.50 dollars; three for 27.50 dollars each; one for 30 dollars; three at 12 dollars each; cightoen, collars at 2 dollars each; six collars at 1 dollar each; twenty-four monograms" for the sleeve at 17 dollars." .A.low inurmui worked its way around the chamber. 'Two jurors'"who park 'their false teoth outside let their upper lips drop a little lower on their chius in astonishment. ••• • Mr.' Arl recited- • .abhor • -purchases, .batches of shirts at 22 dollars each or "i dollars each, more 2-dollar collars, more monograms, all bought by Capone. Sometimes ho had some of his followers with h'm. He picked their shirting too, and paid for it, teaching the boys what well-dressed racketeers Bhould wear. As Arl testified Capone shifted a mint in his heavy jaws and stared off into space. A look of baby-like innocence was spread over his countenance. Earl Corbett, another salesman in the shirt department of the same store, noted from his order book that on 14th , November, 1927, he got 213.D0 dollars ■worth of orders from. Mr. Capone; sold him twenty-eight ties at 4 dollars and 5 dollars each and twenty-eight handkerchiefs at 2.75 dollars each. N ~ Paul H. Mincer, rug salesman for a Chicago furniture house, took up the thread of Capone expenditures and did a bit-of weaving, but djdn't seem to enjoy it. His voice was slightly cracked and quavery. EXPENSIVE BUGS. Tes, he admitted Mr. Capone had come in and bought rugs—Chinese rugs. ' One order ran up to about 1400 or 1500 dollars. Some went to the Capone home in Prairie avenue, some to the Capone headquarters at the Lexington Hotel. Mr. Capone paid in currency. F. W. Wehrhan, another rug salesman, told how he sold Mr. Capone some rugs in November, 1927, for "about 3000 or 4000 dollars," and some bronze elephantß, and some book ends. The name on the sales slip, he testified, was "Al Brown," ope of the Capone aliases. And he told about chairs. "Canaiy-coloured chairs." the witneas droned as he scanned the sales slip; "canary-coloured tables, green chest, green cabinet." Capone seems to hay« a weakness for canary and green. One of his suits was pea green. It was too much for the rural gentlemen in the box. They look like men who would have no use for Chinese rugs and wouldn't feel right in canary *hassf&ad_gie«i wckex*. One^g£-them

spanned his forehead with a tired hand, as if dazed by it all.

Johanna Sullivan, a nice lady in a peach costume and green hat, told of' the purchase by Mr. Capone, for cash, i of a new seven-passenger sedan. Then came C. A. Roy, of Palm Beach, interior decorator. Through his testimony the jury got a peep into the bedroom in the Capone wintor home on Palm Island, near Miami. He told how Capone picked,the drapes and gavo his ideas on what to use for tho bedspreads and for upholstering. With the end of Ko^y's testimony, the morning session ended and the spectators went into the windy streets with an impression of Al Capone, the home man; Capone, the Beau Brummell. REAL ESTATE. The new slant on the seigneur of Chicago's underworld went deeper at the afternoon session. Capone camo into Court wearing a tan topcoat with a rich brown velvet collar. When Russell Garnett, Miami real estate man, took the stand,.. breezy figure in & light suit, white shoes, and flaming tie, he flashed him a grin of recognition. Mr. Garnett told how ho. took Mr. Capono,around Palm Beach in November, 1927, and finally got him a six months' lease on an Indian Creek property for 2500 dollars. That was before Capono bought the Palm Island bungalow. Mr. Nathan Shapiro, - wholesale jeweller, testified that he sold Mr. Capone a chest of silver for 400 dollars in December, 1928, then another for 400 dollars, and some glasswaro for 800 dollars. The glassware items were read into the record, and there was a list of silver champagne buckets and silver trays'. Oscar Do Fco, partly bald, near-sight-ed, and i-ather short, was the next witness. He is a tailor in a large department store. Yes, he knew Mr. Capone; had measured him for suits. He couldn't recall how many, suits he had made for tho defendant, more than twenty, and they cost 135 dollars each, Ira Gay, of the clothing department in the same store, figured that Mr. Capone's suits and topcoats cost him about 2635 dollars in 1927 and about 1080 dollars for part of 1929. They were all paid for in currency, not cheques. Sam Steinberg, jeweller, brought a gasp from tho rural gentleman when he told of Mr. Capone's, purchase, around Christmas time in 1927, of "all tho beaded bags I had in the place, about twenty of them,", and of "thirty diamond belt buckles 'at 275 dollars each." A sample buckle, handed to the jury for inspection, kicked fire and colour where the overhead lights teased it One juror pat on his glasses for a better look at the bauble. UNDERWEAR. . Then came the rnderwear salesman, Mr. Oles. Gasps and laughs greeted his description of the 'silky undcrthinss purchased by big. Al Capone. "Well," Baid-Mr. Oles, "he bought some suits of underwear .at 12 dollars each, athletic style, jou know. And another man in the department sold him nine undershirts and nine shorts at a dollars a garment. He paid it all in cash." "Were these undergarments specially m«x? Mr' Kllk wanted to know. tt **°>' 81r>" sai<* t»"3 underwear man iney were not specially made/ but they were of the finest Italian glove silk, ready made." "Glove silk? What's that?" It is knit silk," Mr. Oles informed the lawyer. "It is similar to the ladies' silk knit gloves. It's reajly just a nice suit of underwear." " ?n otal attempt to show all in the room "25* "ojra" -laughing, with them, but the half-mch sear that scams his left cheek, from temple to the mouth cornor, stood out as he blushed. , "The price o f that underwear -has SM'SiKE' ntw\ the witness