Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime
Office of the Director record of a telephone call on 16 November 1939 reporting Capone's release at Lewisburg, from the FBI Vault, Part 19
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FBI record of a call reporting Capone's release at Lewisburg (16 November 1939)

A telephone-call record in the Director's office: a United Press reporter says the Justice Department has just announced that Capone was released that morning at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, to his relatives.

Date
1939-11-16
Kind
case-file
Source
FBI Records: The Vault
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Rights
A record of the Federal Bureau of Investigation released under FOIA. A work of the United States government, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. Newspaper text reproduced inside the file is described, not reproduced.

Part 19 of the FBI Vault’s Capone file, scan 7. A printed “Office of Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Record of Telephone Call or Visitor” form dated November 16, 1939, time 9:18 a.m., naming the caller as “Allen Dibble, U-P, tele.” It is stamped 62-39128-104.

The details read: “Was advised that Mr. Hoover was in the Building but not in the office. Mr. Dibble stated that the Department had just announced that Al Capone had been released this morning at Lewisburg, Pa., to his relatives. Mr. Dibble stated that apparently Capone had been flown in from California over night.” The text was read from the page image stored here.

Later in the same part (scans 43 to 51, serial 62-39128-123) the Bureau filed an Editor & Publisher clipping of November 25, 1939, which, as the research index summarizes it, says Capone was received at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary about 5 a.m. on November 16 and left by a rear gate; it is described here, not reproduced. The FBI’s form replies of the 1960s (Parts 21 and 22) give a different release, from Terminal Island on January 19, 1939. The contemporaneous record in this part places the release at Lewisburg on 16 November 1939.

itemFBI Vault file on Alphonse CaponeThe FBI Vault's release of the Bureau file on Alphonse Gabriel Capone, in 36 parts, with the Bureau's own summary of the investigation.itemLos Angeles letter of 26 October 1939 on an agent's interview of Capone at Terminal IslandThe FBI's Los Angeles Special Agent in Charge reports an hour-long interview of Capone at Terminal Island on 25 October 1939. The agent wrote that Capone was in high spirits but kept losing the thread, which he took as a sign that Capone's mind did not function normally.itemChicago letter on possible consequences of Capone's release (6 December 1939)Asked to watch for any attempt on the lives of Al or Ralph Capone, the FBI's Chicago office relays a reporter's view that the syndicate had moved from gunmen to 'muscle' methods and that no concerted comeback was likely without Capone's own leadership.itemTamm memorandum on Drew Pearson's inquiry about Capone's anticipated death (25 January 1947)Edward A. Tamm tells Hoover that columnist Drew Pearson telephoned for 'color' about the anticipated death of Al Capone, and that he gave Pearson the Bureau's write-up of the 1929–31 contempt case.