Posted on 11/14/2010 7:00:01 AM PST by KeyLargo
Auction revives Capone's take on how to run U.S.
He said with a Mussolini in charge, U.S. could conquer world
November 13, 2010 BY SUN-TIMES STAFF
An auction of an autograph by Al Capone, signed on stationery from his Chicago headquarters, has revived a rare magazine interview the gangster gave in which he reflects on American life and his role in it.
The autograph was given to Peter Marisca, who was the driver of Liberty Magazine journalist Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., on stationery from the Lexington Hotel at 22nd and Michigan.
The scrawl, being auctioned by R.R. Auction in Amherst, N.H., comes with a 12-page carbon copy of the Liberty Magazine article.
The interview for the story, titled "How Al Capone Would Run This Country," took place a few months before Capone was convicted of tax evasion in 1931 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
As presented by Vanderbilt, Capone, then 32, is fearful that "America is on the verge of its greatest social upheaval" because "Bolshevism is knocking at our gates."
The gangster frets over high unemployment: "If machines are going to take jobs away from the worker, then he will need to find something else to do. ... We must not allow him to fall into the maelstrom. We must keep him away from red literature, red ruses. We must see that his mind remains healthy."
Capone laments that "people respect nothing nowadays. ... Once we put virtue, honor, truth and the law on a pedestal." Prohibition, he suggests, has undermined respect for the law and is responsible for "a lot of our ills" because it is "leading to more lawbreakers."
Historians say Capone ordered dozens of murders as a Chicago mob boss, but Capone complains in the interview that "the news gang are forever riding me" and that it "seems as if I'm responsible for every crime that takes place in this country."
He says bankers -- "who take people's hard-earned cash for stock they know is worthless" -- and crooked politicians are bigger criminals than he is. And graft, says Capone, is "undermining the country."
Capone calls for a stronger national leader: "With an American Mussolini [the United States] can conquer the world," he opines.
Every time I see that dopey Geraldo spewing on Fox, I am reminded of that infamous day at the secret vaults ;-)
He talked the talk - he just didn’t walk the walk.
Even so, Al Capone had too much respect for the US Constitution and the American people - to not run for public office. Today, he could easily be ‘frauded’ in as Mayor of Chicago.
Even he, as a “businessman”, saw the dangers we are facing again today. I don’t agree with his solution, an American Mussolini — but the Democrat voters in the last election certainly did.
Here’s the interview from 1931: http://www.libertymagazine.com/icons_vanderbilt.htm
The site warns against reproducing their material.
[He says bankers — “who take people’s hard-earned cash for stock they know is worthless” — and crooked politicians are bigger criminals than he is. ]
I’d agree with that, it is the exact same situation we have here with Harry Reid. Who by the way has winked at the Mafia.
Scarface was a success in his chosen line of work. He got some things right in this interview. I agree with Capone, a fascist leader in the USA could rule the world. We need real leadership and Obama just doesn’t have it in his genes to make the hard choices. Sad really—sad for our nation.
We Elected a Fascist leader, Franklin Roosevelt!
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