Study In Rumor

For four days last week Alphonse ("Scarface") Capone, No. 1 Gangster of the U. S., disappeared following his secret release from Pennsylvania's Graterford Prison (TIME, March 24). Behind he left an enormous news vacuum into which rushed loose-tongued Rumor. Where was Al Capone?

In Baltimore was printed a report that he had sailed for Florida on the Merchants & Miners liner Dorchester. The New York Sun said he had been smuggled in a pie wagon to West New York. N. J. Florida's Governor Doyle Carlton heard he was en route to Florida, ordered all state sheriffs to arrest him on sight. Dry agents raided the Capone estate at Palm Island, off Miami, arrested six men but not its absent owner. In Chicago Detective Chief John Stege announced Capone was flying to his Prairie Avenue home.

Rumor kept the country acutely Capone-conscious. Upright citizens vigorously protested the attention the U. S. Press was giving this disreputable Under-worldling. The Press, however, continued to swing its spotlight around in search of Capone, contending that he was news- worthy, that it was in the public interest to find and keep an eye on him.

Then, without warning, Capone walked into Chicago police headquarters. One hand was bandaged; he said he had burned it taking a roast of beef from an oven. Blandly he asked if he was "wanted" Chief Stege told him emphatically he was NOT wanted in Chicago, ordered him to get out, threatened him with arrest on sight "like any common hoodlum.'' Capone, distressed, insisted he had legal rights "like any other citizen." At the Hotel Lexington he opened "business headquarters." At 3 a.m. a reporter for the London Daily Express called him on the transoceanic telephone for an interview but central could not supply Capone's private number. To newsmen Capone carefully explained that his name is pronounced in two syllables (Capone).

Preparatory to his Florida visit, Capone's lawyer obtained from U. S. District Judge Halsted L. Ritter at Miami an order restraining Florida sheriffs from arresting their client on sight, as ordered by Governor Carlton.

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