#prohibtion

Al Capone and the Baseball Bat scene from “The Untouchables”,

One of the most iconic scenes from the classic 1987 film The Untouchables was the scene where Al Capone, played by Robert De Niro, invites all of his bosses to a special banquet.  In the midst of giving a speech, Capone produces a baseball bat and beats one of his henchmen to death in front of everyone. While The Untouchables is not a very historically accurate movie (see History Buff’s review of the film here) this scene is somewhat rooted in history, or at least in Prohibition Era gangster lore.

John Scalise and Albert Ansalmi were two gangsters who worked for Al Capone and were notorious for being among Capone’s most feared hitmen. Among their doings was the assassination of Dean O’Bannion in 1924, the attempted assassination of Bugs Moran in 1925, and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929. According to mob lore, in May of 1929 Scalise, Ansalmi, and another mobster named Joseph “Hop Toad” Giunta began plotting to betray Capone to a rival mobster, Joe Aiello. Capone’s bodyguard Frankie Rio uncovered the plan, and Capone and Rio staged a mock argument in front of the men to expose them. Capone slapped Rio and Rio ran from the room. Later Scalise, Ansalmi, and Giunta confronted Rio, offering to let him in on their plan.

A few days later Capone held a grand banquet for his capos and other important figures in his criminal empire. At the climax of the banquet, Scalise, Ansalmi, and Giunta were grabbed and tied to chairs, at which point Capone personally beat the mobsters to near death with a baseball bat. They were then finished off with pistols. Their bodies were dumped on the side of a road near Hammond, Indiana, where they were recovered on May 8th, 1929. 

Will Donald Trump Reduce or Repeal Drug Prohibition? Read the above article from oniions and comment below!

“‘Button Your Tunic,’ Says P.M. To Soldier,” Toronto Star. April 3, 1919. Page 05. --- Latter of Foreign Birth, But Interpreter Explains Source of Magisterial Displeasure. --- A returned man of foreign birth wore his khaki overcoat unbuttoned when he pleaded guilty before Magistrate Kingsford to a charge of drunkeness.

But his Worship’s military eye had detected something of a greater importance than even an admission of guilty. When Mr. Kingsford had seen was the unbuttoned coat.

‘Button your tunic, sir,’ repeated the interpreter.

It wasn’t a tunic, but the soldier ‘stickled’ less than Mr. Kingsford, and the veteran buttoned his overcoat.

‘Now, sir, what do you plead?’ Mr. Kingsford demanded, his stern mien somewhat softened.

A most obliging man was the man in the dock, even if he couldn’t speak English.

‘Guilty,’ he said to Interpreter Markowitz.

‘Guilty,’ echoed the linguist to Mr. Kingsford.

‘Case Withdrawn.’ The liberated one walked out to freedom, but never again would he appear before Mr. Kingsford, once a citizen-soldier, with even a single button unbuttoned. 

Full of Hope and Hops. Full of hope, foreigners and others go to Montreal. Full of hops, carried in valise or grip, they come back again. Then, at the Union Station, plainclothesmen pounce on the hopeful hopsters. Officers Waterhouse and MacMahon treated the once sanguine Stephen Chriss in this self-same heartless way. Chriss had ten bottles of booze in a suit case.

He was going through to Guelph or Galt, he said, and had left his coach with charity in his heart and the lush in his hand - all for a soldier.

‘Going to Galt or Guelph, eh!’ ejaculated Col. Deninson. ‘If there’s a conviction here, Galt or Guelph will lose something.’

‘If he has money,’ qualified Mr. Corley.

‘Chriss had money, and he paid his fine of $200.

Just as Col. Denison had feared, Galt or Guelph were minus this revenue.

A Nice Point Raised Dr. Edmund P. Kelly was charged with drunkenness and B.O.T.A. He had a big bottle. Obtaining this at a Government’s cendor’s, he had taken it to his House, and then out. He was treating himself for tuberculosis. The box into which Kelly, so a policeman said, how thrown the bottle was in a relative’s backyard.

Kelly’s lawyer argued that the law permitted a doctor to carry whiskey. ‘Your client made a mistake,’ said Col. Denison to Kelly’s counsel. ‘Will you accept a fine in this case, Mr. Corley?’ Mr. Corley declined to accept the responsibility, and he opposed the blanket theory that a physician might have whiskey with him away from his office, whatever his condition might be.

‘I should have more sympathy if there were less drunkenness,’ observed the Crown Attorney.

Mr. Corley wanted a conviction for B.O.T.A. He could not assent to any such a precedent as the defence desired. Kelly was remanded for a week.

Max Helpern, whose car killed a man at a street car intersection, was committed on a manslaughter charge on evidence taken at the inquest.

‘No bail.’

‘Vengeance Is Mine.’ John Turner was committed on a charge of having attempted to murder Benjamin Pringle.

Turner was stabbed in the stomach.

According to Active Detective Elliott, Turner gave voice to ‘Vengeance Is Mine,’ after his arrest, and declared that, if he hadn’t killed Pringle he would do it next time.

This ad for homebrewing seemed like the perfect document for International Beer Day.

If someone wanted to get around prohibition laws—and many did—he or she could find several legal ways to do it. There were exceptions for medicinal and religious use. There was also a craze for home brewing and wine making—both legal under the Volstead Act.

This ad accompanied a letter to the Justice Department describing how the worried sender believed home brewing would become common once prohibition went into effect.