From yawen@enter.net Tue Dec 12 02:24:24 PST 1995
Article: 15703 of alt.revisionism
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From: yawen@enter.net (Yale F. Edeiken)
Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: How Baron Lies
Date: 12 Dec 1995 04:11:21 GMT
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	When a large number of Lyin' Al's prevarications were pointed
out, he claimed that the whole matter should depend on one of the
clear lies I pointed out -- those about Al Capone's conviction in Philadelphia.
Lyin' Al -- who claims he doesn't have to check out facts -- stated that
he had looked up the information in a standard reference book and footnoted
the comments he made.  I looked up Lyin Al's posts, his "footnotes" and his
"standard" source.  The source was apparently "Capone" by John Kobler as
Lyin' Al states (footnote 88) "Kobler's book appears to the more thoroughly
researched and the least hostile of the Capone biographies . . . "  I say
"apparently" for, dispite his claims he does *not* footnote any of the following
quotes for source.  Neither does Kobler for that matter.  The book is a
good popular biography of Capone, with no references, many obvious
mistakes, and a point of view that is questionable.  But taking Kobler
at face value let's compare his words and those of Lyin' Al:

	LA: "It has become *de rigueur to portray Capone as a
bloated Machiavellian schemer surrounded by smart lawyers craftily
outfoxing the dedicated efforts of the squad of special agents trying
to track him down and bring him to justice.  Police officers, city
officials, even judges, are said to variously to have been on his
payroll.  Yet the bottom line is that when the chips were down, he
couldn't even get bail on a minor firearms rap."

	Kobler:  "The police magistrate before whom they were
arraigned shortly after midnight fixed bail at $35,000 each.  .  .  .
the two lawyers Capone had sent for Bernard l. Lemisch and
Cornelius Haggerty, Jr. accused the police of railroading their
client . . . ."  (page 259).  Kobler is mistaken on a fine point
here, Capone did not send for the lawyers but that is irrelevant.
The fact is that Capone received bail that he could meet (he was
wearing a 11.5 carat diamond ring valued at $50,000 (Kobler; page 263).
Further rather than being friendles and alone Capone was being
represented by two competent lawyers who were closely connected
to the Philadelphia mob.  Finally the police officer who arrested Capone,
Shooey Malone, an acquaintance of Capone's.  On the day prior to the
arrest Capone had telephoned an associate and aksed him to deliver a
message to Malone (Kobler, page 259)

	Score so far:  Lyin' Al: 0.  In two sentences he presented
three "facts" which are contradicted by his proported source.

	LA: "within sixteen hours of his arrest, Capone had been
tried, convicted, and sentenced to a year in gaol."

	KOBLER:  "Taken before Judge John E. Walsh in the
criminal division of the Municipal Court, he [Capone] pleaded
guilty, assuming he would draw a light sentence. . . ." (pages 261-262)

	Capone was, therefore, not "tried and convicted" he pleaded
guilty.  In fact, the plea was made against the advice of his counsel.
They told him to make bail and fight the charge; he decided otherwise.

	Score so far: Lyin' Al: 0

	LA:  "Capone became a junior partner in so-called organized
crime only in 1920."

	KOBLER: "The gang Capone joined during his mid-teens, as
did Lucky Luciano, was the Five Pointers, into which Torrio may have
introduced them both."  (page 31).

	In his haste to whitewash Capone, Lyin' Al actually overlooks the 
circumstances of the arrest.  When approached by the police Capone was
not searched he *voluntarily* told Malone that he was carrying a gun (Kobler,
page 259; a clearer description of the incident can be found in "Mr. Capone"
by Robert J. Schoenberg; 1992, where it is stated that "Capone caroled,
'Hello, Shooey!' then volunteered 'I've got a rod on me, Shooey,' and
immediately produced the snub-nosed .38 from his topcoat pocket." page
236).  There was speculation at the time that Capone had set the whole
incident up to take himself out of circulation for a short period of time
while he evaded the the killers and the law that was then hunting him.
(Schoenberg; page 238-40).  Scheonberg reports that Haggerty confirmed
this (Schoenberg; page 238).  Lemisch, the lawyer who did the actual
guilty plea has stated that when he told Capone not to plead guilty, Al
told him "Don't worry.  I know what I'm doing."  It should be noted that
Lemisch and Haggerty continued to represent Capone.

	I am sure that Lyin' Al will sneer that nobody wants to go to
jail (and, of course, Lyin' Al does have some experience with this) but
then *his* source tells us what jail was really like for Capone: "Warden
Herbert B. Smith made him more comfortable, giving him a cell to
himself, and letting him furnish it with rugs, pictures, a chest of drawers,
desk, bookshelf, lamps, and a $500.00 radio console."  He was also 
allowed visitors at any time and unlimited use of the phone in the
warden's office (Kolber, page 262).  I have also been informed that
his meals were brought in from Philadelphia's finest restaurants and
that his cronies frequently sat around playing  poker game and drinking
King's Ransom scotch in the cell next to Al's, left empty for this 
purpose (Lemisch).

	For his frenzied polemics, Lyin' Al needed evidence that
Capone was an innocent  man persecuted by the police.  He,
therefore, invented one out of whole cloth.  Of course, Lyin' Al
does notwant us to look to closely at his sources.  He lies.  He
lies consistantly.  Then he wants us all to believe him just because
Lyin' Al says so.

	Anybody who trusts Lyin' Al is ripe to believe almost anything.

	--YFE

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