When is a Criminal?

Last week before the bar of justice in Chicago stood Jack Guzik, notorious gangster, payoff man for Alphonse ("Scarface Al") Capone. The charge was "vagrancy," a legal excuse conceived by Judge John H. Lyle who issued warrants for 26 "vagrant" Chicago thugs and thereby received national publicity (TIME, Oct. 13). The State set out to show that "Vagrant" Guzik had no visible livelihood.

The defense was simple. Mr. Guzik, it argued, was not a "vagrant." He was a gambler. Do not Vice President Curtis and Governor Emmerson both attend race meetings? May it not be presumed that they make wagers at the race tracks? Did not Gambler Guzik own a fine home not a block away from State's Attorney Swanson's? Why, so far from being a reprehensible "vagrant," Mr. Guzik was a "credit" to the community. After brief deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. "That's fine!" cried Mr. Guzik. "I knew you gentlemen would see it. I'm a businessman. I thank you."

Also in Chicago last week, in Federal court, Frank Nitti, Al Capone's cousin and reputedly the man who arranges Capone-killings, pleaded guilty to charges of evading payment of $158,823 income taxes, his share of the Capone "mob's" profits for the years 1925-27. With complete candor he explained that the money had been come by through all sorts of racketeering. He was pained and surprised that the Government taxed such incomes. Said he: "I talked with a half a dozen attorneys and they didn't know any more than I did. In 1926 the Circuit Court of Appeals held that income from illicit sources could not be taxed. The next year the Supreme Court ruled differently. I have never committed a crime of moral turpitude. I have never done anything that is condemned by society as morally wrong. I didn't pay income taxes because the laws were not clear. But if society demands a penalty from me I am glad to pay it." Had Gangster Nitti been detected bringing merchandise dutiable at $158,000 through the Customs, he would have been assessed $158,000 duty, plus $158,000 fine, plus sundry costs. As it is, he only pays the U. S. his back taxes plus a $10,000 fine (about 2% per annum on the tax money which he has enjoyed for three years). He will also serve 18 months in jail (where he will be temporarily safe from sudden death). Already convicted on similar tax charges are Jack Guzik and Ralph Capone, Al's brother (TIME, May 5). They will probably appeal their cases. Chicago understood that Gangster Nitti was accepting this "rap," instead of fleeing the country as he easily might have done, at the express wish of Alphonse Capone, who felt that public opinion needed a little assuaging. For Scarface Al himself should have put in an appearance in Federal court last week to face tax evasion charges. But he was nowhere to be found. Judge Lyle, speaking before the Chicago Safety Council, shouted: "We will send Capone to the chair if it is possible to do so!* Capone has become almost a mythical being, but he isn't a myth--he's a reptile. He deserves to die. He has no right to live." Gathering of corset-makers that night hailed Judge Lyle as "our next mayor." New Move. Four agencies were at work in the nation's two largest cities last week to abate the pestilence of gangdom. In Manhattan the police department announced it would weed out criminal aliens from the daily lineup, turn them over to the Federal agency for deportation. As part of the Department of Labor's effort, Tony ("Mops") Volpe was seized on a deportation warrant in Chicago. Courts stuck to their method of jailing criminals on income tax evasion charges. In Albany, N. Y., papers of incorporation were filed for, the Anti-Gang League of America. Purpose: to urge the nation's law-abiding citizenry to war on crime. Rallying cry: "It's on the spot for you!"

* The charges Judge Lyle apparently had in mind were old ones: the murder of Big Jim Colosimo (1920), who brought young Capone and Johnny Torrio to Chicago as his bodyguards; the killing of Joseph Howard, petty hijacker, in 1922.

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