"The Immigrant" with Jeremy Renner and Joaquin Phoenix (2014)

When Ewa Cybulska; played by Marion Cotillard; arrives in America with her sister Magda ; played by Angela Sarafyan; she expects to be greeted by her family and become acquainted with her new homeland. Instead, her sister is denied entry due to tuberculosis and she is set to be deported because her relatives never showed up. This is the beginning if an ethereal film which takes you on Ewa’s journey in the America of the 1920’s and Prohibition.

Joaquin Phoenix plays Bruno Weiss, who first meets Ewa at Ellis Island. He spots her in the line of persons to be interred before deportation and offers to help her out. He slips the guard a bribe to let him take her back to Manhattan with her on the boat.

Ewa’s first days are marked by getting to know the other women who seem to all know Bruno. With her limited English Ewa is hard pressed to find out what these girls do and how they all know Bruno, who presents himself as a promoter of some sort. In reality he runs a string of prostitutes and intends to make Ewa one of them.

Bruno’s cousin Orlando; played by Jeremy Renner; is a magician at the nightclub which features “shows” performed by Bruno’s girls. When Bruno puts her onstage for the first time she is savaged by the audience with verbal abuse and erotic suggestions. As a devout Catholic she withdraws within herself to fend off the fear and confusion she feels; not to mention the betrayal by Bruno.

As Bruno draws Ewa more deeply into his world of degradation we see the effect it has upon him. He begins to love her without knowing how to express it. In reality; although she is the one being degraded, Bruno is the one who suffers for it. The irony is that he basically suffers the consequences of his own decisions. While she has her religion to fall back upon; he has nothing.

Meantime, Ewa forms a bond of sorts with Orlando which allows her to transcend the terrible things happening to her as she awaits a chance to get her sister out of quarantine and begin her life without Bruno.

This is a much nuanced film, with beautiful cinematography. It is a bit slow paced; perhaps deliberately so; to let the viewer feel the uncertainty of the events being experienced by Ewa. Real life is like that; things which are unfamiliar seem to drag by until you get used to the routine. The film is directed by James Gray from a script he co-write with Ric Menello .

"Eliot Ness" by Douglas Perry (2014)

Everyone is familiar with the story of the St. Valentine Day Massacre of 1929 in Chicago, as well as Eliot Ness; the iconic leader of the “Untouchables.” And even if you are too young to have watched the TV show “The Untouchables” with Robert Stack you are probably familiar with the movie of the same name, starring Kevin Costner and Sean Connery. But that story is just a small slice of who Eliot Ness was.

 Though he is chiefly remembered for bringing Al Capone to justice in Chicago, his story didn’t end there. He did a whole lot more in the 1930’s when Ohio was still in the grips of the bootleggers even after Prohibition had been repealed. In addition there was a huge illegal gambling syndicate run by the organized crime gangs, which bought violence and degradation to the city on a scale with the 1920’s in Chicago.

The author has done a superb job in bringing the story of the Eliot Ness;  as well as the story of Prohibition and the gangs who ran the bootlegging and the speakeasies; to life. But since we all know most of the Chicago story I will be concentrating more on the Cleveland part of the story. But first there are some misconceptions to clear up.

Eliot Ness’ time in Chicago was at the tail end of the roaring twenties; he actually took command of the Untouchables about a year after the St. Valentine Day Massacre in 1929. He was not a teetotaler by any means; and even delivered confiscated cases of booze to his old fraternity house. He was a good dancer and a constant flirt who enjoyed the attention of women. He was married twice. In short; he was an average sort of guy.

In Chicago he became the legend we know him as; he battled the biggest gangster and bought him down through a series of daring raids and economic cunning. But the troubles he would face in Cleveland were far more entrenched with the Police Department and the Mayor’s office both on the take. It’s hard to dislodge corruption when the very leaders you report to are part of the problem.

In Cleveland Ness honed his social skills; battling crime with psychology rather than battering rams. Working with Boy’s Town he was able to turn over several unused police barracks which were made into homes and schools for the boys. He also pressured the older gangs to saty away from the kids or risk the consequences.

Forming a squad of obscure police officers from the suburbs, and recruiting new police cadets, Ness formed a squad known not as the Untouchables; as was the case in Chicago; but rather the “Unknowable’s”; as they were virtually unknown to the criminals or their fellow officers who were on the take. This put them in a unique position for gathering information on the gangs operating the bootlegging and numbers rackets.

Most people think that illegal whiskey went out with Prohibition; but it didn’t. Not just a backwoods, mountain type of thing; the mob made millions off of moonshine whiskey in the decades after Repeal. Some moon shining still goes on today, but not to the extent that it did then.

This is a book which will fill you in on the real Eliot Ness and what he was really like. The author obviously spent considerable time unearthing just about every article written about Ness and culled the memoirs of the people who were involved with him on both sides of the law.  A new look into an old subject can be very enlightening. And so it goes with this book.

Shotgun Shacks - Relics of a Bygone Era

Driving home from Lincolnton one day I passed a group of shacks along the side of the road. They are at the intersection of  Routes 150/27 on the north side of the road. Intrigued, I turned around and headed back to take some pictures and a closer look. I got so much more for my trouble, it was worth the time.

The shacks date back to the earlier part of the 20th century, probably about 1920 or so. They were rented by the day, night or hour to people passing through. That was the story I got from the bank that sits adjacent to the shacks.

I was directed to the owner, who lives across the road on 150. She is an elderly woman and I really didn't want to bother her, valuing my own privacy as I do. So I asked two guys standing outside the Realtor Office, which is next door, about the shacks. They directed me to the Lincolnton Historical Society and gave me a contact there along with a number to call. And I just may do that. But the story they told was so good, I'm afraid that the truth might spoil it for me.

The area was known as Goodyville back then. It sits next to the town of Boger and has been swallowed up by Lincolnton over the years. It was commonly knowledge that these shacks were mainly used for drinking "white" liquor and also prostitution during the years of Prohibition.

That was all I needed to hear. My mind raced with sepia toned images of hot, sultry summer nights and ladies dressed in flapper type outfits with rolled stockings, drinking white liquor from glass jars. Maybe there was music -a radio, or perhaps a piano...

The mind is the most fertile of places. Images come and go as you drive by and stories plant themselves in your head. They take on a life of their own that nothing, not even the true story, can change.

I'll probably make that call to the Historical Society, but I'll always hold onto this little slice of life that I got driving down the road. Sometimes the truth just don't cut it.

"Smuggler Nation" by Peter Andreas (2013)

Americans have always had a strange and fascinating relationship with smuggling. From the molasses used for the making of rum, all the way to the present day and the smuggling of illicit drugs; and people; we have changed precious little over the centuries. And in this all-encompassing new book by author Peter Andreas, the reader gets a look at not only the smuggling itself; but the geo-political forces which drive it, making it possible for the drug trade to thrive even as we throw every available resource at the problem.

The author has cleverly divided the book into 5 sections; beginning with “The Colonial Era” and culminating with “The Modern Age.” While much of those two chapters were familiar to me, it was the other 3 which really put the “hook” into this book. During the Colonial Era, the average American did all within his power to avoid paying taxes on anything possible. Molasses was the chief ingredient in the making of rum, and so it was one of the first items to be smuggled to the colonies in order to avoid paying the tax imposed by the British. This is what Samuel Adams, along with many other merchants, did.

The American Revolution sort of set the template for the course of the next 2 centuries as the British threw up their blockade and we immediately began to “run” it. The main political problem which caused the blockade was twofold; first, we were in open rebellion to the Crown; second, the English and French were at war, with both sides attempting to supply their armies from America. There was also another component involved, as the blockade running served the purpose of diverting the other sides’ naval resources in their fight against one another. Of course, this put the newly founded United States in a precarious position, but trade was all important to the new nation.

The French, who were fighting with the British in the Napoleonic Wars, grew increasingly irritated with our new nation over the duplicity of our so-called “neutrality”.  The United States was supplying both sides; resulting in the brief “Quasi War” in 1798. It was also about this time when the British began to board our ships in search of contraband, as well as English citizens who had illegally emigrated to the former colonies. To do so, at the time, was against the law. This led to the War of 1812. And even in that war there was the smuggling of arms and ammunition to be dealt with.

After the War of 1812 came a period of relative posterity for America as she grew from a former colony into a respected nation. But slavery was now the issue. After the importation of new slaves was put in force, smugglers turned to the islands of Jamaica and Cuba to buy slaves illegally, who would then be transported to New Orleans, which had become the center of the illegal slave trade. As a matter of fact, New Orleans, along with the pirate brothers Jean and Pierre Lafitte, had been instrumental in winning that war. It was the first, but not the last time, that our government would turn to criminals for help in a time of war. The War of 1812 also made a millionaire of John Jacob Astor, who was engaged in the smuggling of furs through Canada. Clearly, smuggling was not only a way to make a fortune, but was also an entryway into high society.

During the Gilded Age, that era from the 1870’s through the gay Nineties, some of the most unusual smuggling took place. With “hoopskirts” being the style of dress for most women of fashion, it became commonplace for them to smuggle anything that would fit beneath their skirts. Many women came home from trips abroad with boxes of cigars suspended beneath their skirts. With no female Customs Agents to search them, it was a winning proposition. Yards and yards of silk could be wound around a woman’s body and hidden beneath her fashionable dress. The list of items smuggled in this fashion is endless.

With the end of the Gilded Era came the end of the 19^th Century and many of the taboos that had defined it. The two most prevalent ones were sex and drugs. Prostitution, along with the first forms of birth control, were both banned. So, they both became extremely desirable to obtain. The trafficking in condoms was a big surprise to me. I never thought of it as something illegal, or even out of reach. But, in the later years of the 19^th Century, and on through the First World War, these little devices were not only smuggled, but were also made by bootleggers.

Before latex rubber had been perfected, animal skins were the most prevalent type of condom. When the importation of them was stopped, smugglers simply turned to buying animal skins, and made them here at home. Fortunes were made. And, when the First World War broke out and the United States entered it, the government once again turned to illicit sources to provide the necessary amount of condoms to “protect” our troops while overseas.

Pornography was also a staple of the smuggler in the 19^th Century. With the advent of photography had come the ability to reproduce sexual images, which were in great demand. When the problem got too prevalent, the government made up a campaign concerning “White Slavery”, as a way to scare people away pornography. Meantime, they were getting ready to pounce on liquor as the ultimate evil with an experiment called “Prohibition.” The only thing accomplished with that experiment was a mirror image of the violence and wide spread glamorization that would mark the War on Drugs some 60 years later.

When World War Two rolled around, the United Sates once again turned to the organized criminals and smugglers to help take down the Italian dictator Mussolini. Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano were involved in that effort, and rewarded with being allowed to become the largest distributors of heroin in the United States. It was the Corsican run, Marseilles based, “French Connection”, which operated for over 20 years, supplying the entire eastern coast of the United Sates with their poisonous product.

Vietnam brought new problems to the table, and by the time the United States declared an all-out “war” on drugs in 1980, many people felt the war had already been lost. And to a large extent that is true. With the passage of NAFTA in the 1980’s the distribution of drugs became even more complex and difficult to stem. And when we backed the Afghan rebels against the Soviets in the 1970’s, we really dropped the ball. We never seem to learn that working with the bad guys will always result in a bad return.

With this very thoroughly researched and well written book, Mr. Andreas has once again delivered a powerful insight into the subject of which he writes.

Prohibition Ends - Looking Back to See Forward

They say the only thing new is the history that you don’t know. Well, here’s a bit of history which will serve to jog the memories of even the most die-hard defenders of this country’s draconian and useless War on Drugs. Within the first minute of this video, then Governor of New York; Al Smith; sums it up dramatically when he states  his hopes,  that in the future generations, “no such matter as this is ever again made the subject of federal constitutional law.” That’s a pretty strong statement, and begs the question of how did we let it happen again with reference to marijuana?

Most Americans think that the Volstead Act ended on New Year’s Eve of 1933 going on ‘34.  But the repeal of the 18^th Amendment by the 21^st, was actually signed by President Roosevelt on March 22, 1933 with a stated date of December 5, 1933 for the repeal to actually take effect. People were looking forward to a very legal Happy New Year for the first time in more than a decade.

But what happened to marijuana? Up until the Food and Drug Act of 1933; which came along just as alcohol was coming back; marijuana was legal. It was the staple of musicians everywhere, and had been openly smoked for years during the 1920’s. But, just as the Volstead Act came to a close, the new Prohibition began. And replacing the gangsters of old; with their drive by shootings and gambling casinos; we were ushered into a new age of Prohibition on marijuana.

There were no more drive by shootings; that didn’t happen until the cocaine and heroin epidemic hit the country in the late 20^th Century. Those two drugs were the original target of the Food and Drug Act. They are narcotics; that is, they produce narcoleptic effects in the user. Marijuana works in a totally different way on the mind and body, and should never have been included in the Food and Drug Act in the first place. So, why was it?

The answer to that can also be found in the first minute of this film as they speak of the half a million jobs which will be created by the repeal of the Volstead Act. Nobody wanted to put a dent into creating any jobs in the alcohol industry. We were in the midst of a Great Depression, and every job counted. The incorrect perception of marijuana smokers sitting around idly; without buying any liquor; was a threat to the plan to put America back to work.

Fast forward almost 80 years later and what do we see? We see the same history repeating itself over again. The War on Drugs clearly does not work. The country needs jobs. All of the same ingredients which went into repealing the 18^th Amendment are in place once more. With so many states taking up the issue of legalization, it is my hope that 2013 will show some progress towards removing marijuana from the list of controlled substances nation-wide. Aside from the jobs which will be created from the smoking of marijuana, think of all of the other uses for the by-products of the plant. They range from plastics and epoxies, to clothing and even bio-fuels. And the taxes alone would amount to a tidy sum that could be ear-marked to reduce our staggering $16 trillion debt. Think of it – puffing patriotically on the 4^th of July to save America. Ah, pipe dreams…..

"Boardwalk Empire" with Steve Buscemi (2012)

On the eve of Prohibition becoming the law of the land, Atlantic City County Treasurer Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, played by Steve Buscemi, is about to make a lot of money. He already controls everything else in town, from prostitution to gambling, so why not get in on Prohibition from the very start?  With his brother as a State Trooper and the rest of the Boardwalk beholden to him for all manner of “favors” he has done them in the past, you would think that “Nucky’s” life would be one free from trouble. But trouble seems to stalk him, turning some of his most cherished dreams into a living nightmare of deceit and confusion as he struggles with fellow politicians, as well as criminal rivals, such as Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and Arnold Rothstein.

Set in the hotels along the famed Boardwalk of Atlantic City, this series takes you inside the brothels and jazz joints that then flourished under Prohibition. There is also the story of “Nucky’s” past, and his childhood with a drunken firefighter for a father. That past plays a large role in who he is, and just what motivates him emotionally. Surrounded by a cast of characters which will leave your head spinning, and beautiful sets; where every detail is correct for the era; this series is textured and well written.

A relentlessly driven Federal Agent, along with a destitute young woman; who quickly becomes “Nucky’s” lover, as well as his conscience; make the story compelling. It begs the question of what drives people to do what they do, and how hey justify it. Written by Terence Winter and Produced by Martin Scorsese, this is a series which will have you looking forward to each episode.

"Young Al Capone" by William and John Balsamo

Al Capone, long portrayed as the King of Chicago, grew up in Brooklyn, New York. It was there that he made his beginning in the local crime syndicates. At the time, there were two "mobs", one Irish, known as the White Hand; and a second, up and coming "mob" of Italians, known as the "Black Hand." These two groups would battle for control of the 60 odd piers in the Borough of Brooklyn in the days before Prohibition came in. When the Volstead Act came, the piers would become less of an attraction than booze.

The authors, William and John Balsamo, have a wealth of information on the subject of both Al Capone, as well as the beginnings of Organized Crime in Brooklyn. Their father's brother was Batista Balsamo. He was born in Sicily in 1868, and although he is pictured here as a "low key gangster extraordinaire",(those are the author's words) he is considered by some to have been the first "Godfather" of Brooklyn.

Salvatore and Domenico Balsamo, Batista's sons, were the author's Grand Uncle and Father, respectively. So, these guys have some pretty good stories to relate.

August 1917 was a month so hot, that I still remember my Uncle Irving telling me about sleeping in Coney Island and sometimes on Brighton Beach. The trip was 5 cents, and the relief was priceless. 278 people and 272 horses perished that month. In my old neighborhood, people slept along Ocean Parkway, some on the benches, others on the ground. In this muggy and steamy month, and year, Al Capone would receive both the nickname, and the scars behind the ubiquitous moniker "Scarface."

It happened at the Harvard Inn on Surf Avenue in Coney Island. Al Capone walked into the club, which was owned by his boss, Frank Torrio, and noticed a group sitting near the rear doors. This caused extra work for the waitress, as well as arouse the suspicions of Capone. The only reason he could think of for their being seated so close to the entrance was that they either expected, or would be responsible for, some sort of violence. It didn't take long to happen.

Capone, always on the look out for a woman, lost no time in offending the sister of one Frank Gallucio, who jumped on Capone, trying to cut his throat. Instead, he created a legend. Scarface.

The incident caused a "sit down" to be held between the two men. "Lucky" Luciano and Frankie Yale, the first of the two "modern" mobsters, and the bosses of both parties involved, mitigated the dispute. Luciano "lent" $1,500 to Gallucio for him to pay "damages" to Capone. It was also a way of putting Gallucio in his "pocket", as the man now owed him a large sum of money. This was fortunate for Gallucio, as it guaranteed that the "bosses" would find him a lucrative position so that he could pay them back.

The author's take the reader on a very deliberate, step by step journey in the career of one of the most notorious gangsters ever known. With his bulging eye and withering stare, he was quite formidable. At least until the IRS got a hold of him.

The book follows Capone's rise from the streets of Brooklyn, to his "exile", and new home in Chicago. In Brooklyn, before Prohibition, there were three primary ways of making money in the "mob." They were gambling, loan sharking in support of the gambling, and prostitution. Al Capone was involved in each of these vices as he climbed the ladder, rung by rung, to his eventual success.

The authors follow Capone as he makes the transition from Brooklyn to Chicago. A situation occurred in which it was best than Capone leave Brooklyn for awhile, and he needed to go far. So, he "removed" himself to Chicago. And once there, the rest is, as they say, history. But this book, which chronicles Capone's early years, his roots and beginnings in Brooklyn, is a story often overlooked. You will be amazed at the mentality that drove the hoodlum of the early 20th century, and then be doubly amazed when you realize that this same mentality drives the gang wars of today!

In the words of Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr, "The more things change, the more they remain the same." This book is proof of that assertion.

"Angels With Dirty Faces" with James Cagney, Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart

This is one of the all time great gangster films. The incredible screen chemistry of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien (two very close friends in real life) along with the rough edged performance of Humphrey Bogart, make this film worth watching time and again. And there is always something new to be noticed with each viewing.

Briefly, the story concerns 2 young boys in the slums of New York during the 1920's. They go to church together, even sing in the choir. But outside of church they are caught up in the petty thefts that are necessary to survive. When Rocky Sullivan (played by Cagney) and the future Father Connolly (played by O'Brien) are caught breaking into a freight car to steal a load of fountain pens, Rocky goes to Juvenile Hall, while the future priest manages to escape. This single event sets the stage for both of their futures.

Rocky goes to reform school, where he gets a real "education" in the ways of crime. His pal goes on to become a Priest, serving in the parish where they both grew up. Rocky, has, by this time, embarked upon a life of crime that has him in and out of prison. He becomes a "name" in the daily papers. The neighborhood kids, where Rocky and Father Connolly grew up, see him as the guy who "made it big." This makes Father Connolly's job, trying to teach the kids moral values, that much harder to accomplish.

When Rocky returns to the neighborhood to live, he repeatedly offers the greeting "Whaddaya hear, whaddaya say?" to Father Connolly. In real life Cagney picked this phrase up from a bookie who hung around 1st Avenue when he was growing up.

The kids, Leo Gorcey and the rest of the "Bowery Boys", aka "The Dead End Kids", now give up on the church, turning instead to the pool room for their education. Their new found freind, Rocky, has stolen Father Connolly's "flock." Father Connolly asks Rocky to stop inspiring the boys, and finally lets him know that freindship is no longer a barrier in his quest to clean up the crime and corruption that plagues the city. Rocky agrees, thinking that "nothing will ever come of it."

Knowing that Father Connolly has been trying to build a gym for the boys, Rocky donates $10,000 anonymously to the fund, only to have Father Connolly return it as being unworthy. Interestingly, this $10,000 represents one tenth of the $100,000 which Rocky has extorted from Bogart. In other words, he was tithing 10% of his take to the church.

When the crime commission, at the direction of his pal Father Connolly, indicts Rocky, a contract is issued on the life of Father Connolly. But loyalty between friends runs deep, and Cagney cancels the contract in a very permanent way. Wanted now for murder, he is a fugitive caught in a web of his own design.

The warehouse scene, where Rocky is finally apprehended, is a movie legend of sorts. When the police are firing those Thompson machine guns at the window where "Rocky" is standing, the bullets are real. You can actually see the shattered glass shards on Cagney's hat and shoulders. According to Cagney, the shots were so close that this was the last time he would consent to live fire sequences in any of his films.

Rocky is captured, tried and sentenced to death in the electric chair. This leads to one of the all time greatest of movie endings. Father Connolly comes to see Rocky just before the execution, asking him to fake cowardice on the way to the chair. Only in this way can he make the boys understand the false bravado of criminals and that crime never really pays. Cagney is incredulous at this request and refuses his old friend, stating, "You're asking me to give up the last thing I got left!"

When the Warden comes with the guards to escort Rocky to the death chamber, Father Connolly walks alongside of him and pleads one last time for Rocky to "turn yellow." Rocky still refuses and stoically enters the last room he will ever see in this world. This is the payoff scene. Silhouetted against the wall, the viewer sees Rocky grasping at the radiator, the legs of the guards, in short, at anything that he can, while screaming "Please, I don't want to die!" Sobbing and struggling he is strapped into the electric chair. The switch is closed and the lights dim. Rocky is dead.

Father Connolly returns to the neighborhood, where he finds the boys in the cellar which they use as a clubhouse. They are reading the newspaper account of Rocky's death and refuse to believe that he died "yellow." Father Connolly, although doubting that Rocky had really turned "yellow" at the last minute, tells the boys it's true. He then asks them to come with him to the church and "say a prayer for a boy that couldn't run as fast as I could." The movie closes leaving the viewer to decide whether Rocky was faking his cowardice as a favor for Father Connolly, or if he really did turn "yellow."

This film was nominated for 3 Oscars and garnered Cagney the New York Film Critics Award as Best Actor for 1938. Seventy two years after the fact, this film remains relevant and inspiring. The clothes are different, and the cars are old, but the social problems outlined in the film are still with us. And that's what makes this film so worth watching.

"Get Capone" by Jonathan Eig

This is, simply put, the best true life crime saga since last year's "L.A. Noir." That book dealt with the crime syndicate and it's history in Los Angeles. It was known there as "the Combination." This one deals with the rise of Al Capone from his early years in Brooklyn to his heyday and eventual downfall in Chicago.

The book is painstakingly researched and covers not only the activities of Capone and his henchmen, including the notorious "St. Valentine's Day Massacre," but goes on to connect the dots of the criminal enterprise that was Chicago during the "roaring twenties." Every cop, alderman, delegate, the mayor himself and anyone in between was on the payroll of "the mob."

Surprisingly, Capones "mob" was composed of many nationalities; from Jewish to Irish to Italian, all the ethnic groups were represented. Sometimes they had disagreements over turf, and these disagreements usually took the form of what is today known as the "drive by shooting." The Thompson machine gun made it's criminal debut in the early 1920's after having been perfected too late for inclusion in the First World War.

But the real intersting part of this book deals with the Federal Governments efforts to curtail the criminal activity that grew out of the Nineteenth Amendment. When the Volstead Act was put into place to combat the flagrant violations stemming from that Amendment, the government still had no "teeth" with which to enforce the law. With Treasury Agents making less than a good bribe could bring them, there was little incentive to enforce the law and risk your life in doing so. Some new and better way to control the gangsters was clearly needed. Enter Income Tax Violations.

The common perception holds that Capone's was the first prosecution of a mobster for tax evasion. This is not quite true. But first, as I always say, a little background on Income Taxes in general. Initially begun during the Civil War under President Lincoln as a way to finance the Union Army, the rate was set at 3% of annual income above $600. This included any income from "property, rents,interest, dividends,salaries or from any profession, trade, employment or vocation carried on in the United States or elsewhere, or from any source whatever." There was no distinction made for illegal income. As far as Uncle Sam was concerned, if it came in, you owed them 3 percent.

The law was very unpopular and was overturned in 1872, re-instated in 1894, and ruled Unconstitutional in 1895. In 1913 Wyoming ratified the 16th Amendment creating the 3/4 majority necesssary to make it law. An additional 1% was levied on those who made more than $3,000 per year and an additional 6% surtax was added to incomes higher than $500,000. Death or fraud were the only 2 ways to avoid the tax, causing Will Rogers to remark in the 1920's that "The Income Tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf."

At first, in an effort to collect these taxes, 6 Post Offices Inspectors were tasked with this responsibility. Now came the tricky part. What was income? Were criminals responsible to report income gained illegally? Would this not fall under the protections of the 5th Amendment? Wasn't it up to the government to prove that you were cheating? All valid questions at the time, when there was no settled law relating to the issue.

In 1921 the first challenge to the law by a criminal took place in the trial of a bootlegger named Manley Sullivan. He would take his case all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing that disclosure of his illegal activities for tax purposes violated his 5th Amendment Rights. The Court decided against him and he was forced to pay back taxes on all his income. This was the opening of the door that would eventually bring Capone down.

Beginning with Al Capone's brother Ralph "Bottles" Capone, the Special Intelligence Unit in Chicago began to pester "Bottles" so much that he finally filed a return listing his income of $20,000 per year as a "gambler." When played out over a 4 year period he owed $11,000 in back taxes and the government began to seize some of his assets. This was the beginning of the close watch on Al Capone's finances that would finally bring to a close his career as a criminal.

The book is quite extensive, delving into Herbert Hoover's role in starting a war on organized criminals and the establishment of Federal Agents tasked with the responsibility to catch them.

A fascinating book that looks into the formation of the FBI as a crime fighting organization, as well as the utilization and enforcement of tax law, to break the hold of one of America's most notorious gangsters over an entire city and part of a nation.