Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime
Hoover's reply of 15 January 1964 to a Memphis writer stating where Al Capone died, from the FBI Vault, Part 21
Open the full imageGIF, 1000 × 1271 px, 0.2 MB

Hoover reply stating that Capone died on 25 January 1947 at Palm Island, Miami (15 January 1964)

A Bureau form reply to a Memphis writer gives Capone's tax sentence of 24 October 1931, a release from Terminal Island dated 19 January 1939, and his death on 25 January 1947 at Palm Island, Miami. A file note gives the sources for the death.

Date
1964-01-15
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. The correspondent's letter is described, not reproduced.

Part 21 of the FBI Vault’s Capone file, scans 37 and 38. Scan 37 is a letter of January 10, 1964 from a writer in Memphis, Tennessee, whose name is redacted, about a friendly dispute over where Capone died. Scan 38 is the reply, an airmail letter of January 15, 1964 signed “John Edgar Hoover, Director” and filed as 62-39128-174.

The reply reads: “With regard to your inquiry, Al Capone was sentenced on October 24, 1931, for violation of the Federal income tax laws. He was released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island, California, on January 19, 1939, and died on January 25, 1947, at Palm Island, Miami, Florida.” It refers the writer to Don Whitehead’s “The FBI Story”. A note typed below the signature on the file copy states: “The information concerning Al Capone’s death was contained in his identification record and from the Miami Beach, Florida, Police Department death notice.” The text was read from the page image stored here.

The same sentence on the sentence, release and death recurs in the Bureau’s form replies of 1962 to 1971 in Parts 21 and 22. The release date it gives conflicts with the Bureau’s contemporaneous records of November 1939 in Parts 18 and 19, which place the release at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, on 16 November 1939. This page records what the reply states. It is a later Bureau summary that cites two underlying records, not a death certificate.

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.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.itemClyde Tolson's reply to James A. Farley about Capone's car and President Roosevelt (25 July 1968)FBI Associate Director Clyde Tolson tells James A. Farley that the FBI has no information on whether President Franklin D. Roosevelt used Al Capone's car, since Capone's tax conviction was outside its jurisdiction, and suggests the Secret Service.itemFBI reply on the 'Capone Gang' with a list of alleged members furnished in 1936 (26 August 1983)The FBI's Office of Congressional and Public Affairs answers a Pennsylvania legislative research analyst with summaries, photographs and a list of alleged members of the 'Capone gang' 'per information furnished in 1936', noting that the gang's activities were mostly outside federal jurisdiction.