Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

Get Capone

The Secret Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster

Audiobook
0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: Available soon
0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: Available soon
Acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Jonathan Eig blows the lid off the Al Capone story. Based on never-before-seen government documents and newly discovered letters written by Al Capone himself, Get Capone presents America's greatest gangster as you've never seen him before. In addition to IRS files, Eig got hold of the personal papers of the U.S. attorney in Chicago who prosecuted Capone. He even found family members who would share stories about their notorious relative.


The author, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, brings his uncompromising standards for research and his superb knack for storytelling to one of the most thrilling stories in American history. This eye-opening biography reveals that Capone was the target of one of the most intense criminal investigations in American history—with orders coming directly from the White House. Capone flaunted his criminal success so openly that President Hoover insisted the gangster be stopped. And, despite his many misdeeds, Capone may have been the victim of a rigged trial.


Get Capone also offers a bold new theory to explain the Valentine's Day Massacre and sheds new light on Capone's connection—or lack thereof—to the crime.
  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 22, 2010
      “Not since the hunt for John Wilkes Booth... had so many sources been brought to bear in an attempt to jail one man,” writes former Chicago
      magazine editor Eig (Opening Day
      ). But Al Capone eluded them all—even J. Edgar Hoover. In a page-turning account, Eig details the chase for the elusive Capone, dissecting both the man and his myth. Born in Brooklyn in 1899, Alphonse Capone came to a booming, bustling, corrupt, and very thirsty Chicago in 1920, just as Prohibition began. Rising swiftly through the underworld ranks, Capone soon headed a crime syndicate he dubbed “the outfit,” which dealt in bootleg alcohol, racketeering, drugs, and prostitution. Eig traces the largely unsuccessful efforts by various law enforcement agencies to bring him down. He focuses on U.S. Attorney George E.Q. Johnson, who finally saw Capone convicted in 1931 for tax evasion and conspiring to violate Prohibition laws, leading to an 11-year prison sentence. Using previously unreleased IRS files, Johnson's papers, even notes he discovered for a ghostwritten Capone autobiography, Eig presents a multifaceted portrait of a shrewd man who built a criminal empire worth millions. 16 pages of b&w photos.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Loading
Check out what's being checked out right now Wisconsin's Digital Library is a project of the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium (WPLC), with funding from Wisconsin Public Libraries and Public Library Systems. Additional support is provided by Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds awarded to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services