Page:Summary Report of Al Capone for the Bureau of Internal Revenue.djvu/57

SI-7085-F members of his organization, agents of labor unions and other friends in order to have them promptly start to work to bribe or to bring influence to bear on the proposed jury men in favor of Al Capone. Undoubtedly they would have succeeded through these efforts in planting one or more friends on the jury if they had not been out-smarted. Their activities were at once reported to Federal Judge James H. Wilkerson who was to try the case and on the first day of the trial the entire panel of one hundred was withdrawn by the Judge from this case, a new venire being used. This surprise move by the government did not stop the efforts of the defense as a special committee of the gang immediately started to gather information regarding the connections of the men selected as jury men from the new venire. During the course of the trial attempts were made to have members of the family of the jurors convey messages to influence them in favor of the defendant and Capone bragged to his followers that he would not be convicted because he had the jury. Their efforts were unsuccessful as the court ordered the jury locked up until the trial was completed and details of deputy marshals and special agents were placed on duty to prevent interference by the organization with the orderly and fair trial of the case. It is not at this time alleged that the attorneys representing the defense took any part in the attempts of the organization to reach the jury.

On October 17, 1931, the defendant was found guilty of evasion of income taxes for the years 1925, 1926 and 1927 and for failure to file income tax returns for the years 1928 and 1929. On October 24th Federal Judge Wilkerson sentenced him to five years in the Federal Penitentiary on each of the three felony counts, two of which are to run concurrently and he was sentenced to one year in the Cook County Jail on each of the two misdemeanor counts, the jail sentence to run concurrently. This sentence requires the defendant to serve the ten years sentence in the Federal Penitentiary first and when released from the penitentiary he will be taken to the Cook County Jail to serve the jail sentence. He was also fined $50,000.00 being $10,000.00 on each of the five counts and in addition to that amount he was fined the costs of the prosecution. The defendant was remanded to the custody of the United States Marshal without bail and was confined in the Cook County Jail awaiting the outcome of an appeal. The time served by him in the Cook County Jail awaiting the outcome of his appeal did not apply on either the penitentiary or the jail sentence. On February 27, 1932, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the 7th District unanimously sustained the conviction. An appeal was then taken to the United States Supreme Court without success. On May 1st, 1932, he entered the Federal Penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia. - 56 -