Page:Summary Report of Al Capone for the Bureau of Internal Revenue.djvu/55

SI-7085-F over to Roche. Roche then declined to have anything further to do with Capone. John Boettiger of the Chicago Tribune staff, an investigator familiar with all the facts and circumstances concerning the murder of Lingle and the subsequent investigations by the States Attorney's Office and by the Chicago Tribune, published the following statement in that paper regarding Capone's guilty knowledge concerning the identity of the murderer:

"The best guess is that Capone did know, and this guess is borne out by evidence to be disclosed later. There is no doubt that if Capone thought he could remove the 'heat' from himself and his gang, and bargain for a reprieve from the raids and arrests and convictions resulting from the investigators' activities, he would have done so, even at the cost of putting the Lingle murderer on a doorstep somewhere, dead."

This office has expressed no opinion as to whether the Capone organization was involved in the Lingle murder and has drawn no conclusions with reference to the motive for his murder. In the article in the Chicago Tribune, Exhibit No.167, the following statement is made regarding the motive for the murder of Lingle:

"As a matter of fact, the authorities possessed information that established a possible motive which Capone himself might have had to desire the death of Lingle. Within three days after the reporter's murder, agents of the federal department of justice came to THE TRIBUNE, inquiring whether THE TRIBUNE had any knowledge of evidence concerning the income of Capone.

"The federal investigators were at work seeking evidence upon which to base an indictment of the gang chief for income tax frauds, and sought this newspaper's aid.

"THE TRIBUNE knew of no evidence concerning sources of Capone's income. But Lingle, through the familiarity he maintained with the gangster, might have possessed knowledge of the manner in which Capone disguised and concealed the sources of his illicit profits, and of banks in which Capone maintained accounts under fictitious names.

"Lingle, dead, could not present evidence of Capone's income tax frauds." - 54 -