Memorandum of 28 February 1931 from Sanford Bates, Director of the Bureau of Prisons, to Mr. Nathan about a clipping on Capone, from the FBI Vault, Part 26 — Open the full imageGIF, 1000 × 1273 px, 0.1 MB

Bureau of Prisons Director Bates sends a clipping on Capone to the Bureau (28 February 1931)

A one-paragraph memorandum from Sanford Bates, Director of the Bureau of Prisons, passing on a newspaper clipping about Capone and asking whether a small local paper meant it as a joke.

Date: 1931-02-28
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 26 of the FBI Vault’s Capone file, scan 22. A memorandum on Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons letterhead, dated February 28, 1931, addressed “Memorandum for Mr. Nathan” of the Bureau of Investigation and signed by Sanford Bates, Director. It is stamped 69-180-56 and received on 3 March 1931.

The full text reads: “Referring to your previous memorandum I thought you might like to see the attached clipping with reference to the alleged activities of Al Capone. I can’t make out whether this is intended as a joke or whether it is really being taken seriously by this little local paper. Please return it when you are through with it.” The clipping itself is not identified on this page and is not described here.

The memorandum was written the day after Judge Wilkerson sentenced Capone for contempt, and it is the first appearance of the Bureau of Prisons in this part of the file. The text was read from the page image stored here.

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: Capone sentenced to six months for contempt (27 February 1931)The Bureau's Chicago office reports to the Director that Judge James H. Wilkerson sentenced Capone to six months in the Cook County jail for contempt of court on 27 February 1931, and that Chicago police had arrested him on a vagrancy charge two days earlier.

itemTranscript of Judge Wilkerson's finding in United States v. Capone, contempt (27 February 1931)The court reporter's transcript of Judge James H. Wilkerson's oral opinion finding Capone in contempt over the 1929 doctor's affidavit, with the sentence of six months in the Cook County jail and the colloquy on appeal and bond.

itemChicago letters on Florida witnesses in the contempt case, written during the tax trial (October 1931)Two letters from the Bureau's Chicago Special Agent in Charge, of 6 and 19 October 1931, checking whether the U.S. Attorney had used Florida witnesses the Bureau never interviewed; they were written while Capone was on trial for income-tax offenses.

itemChicago report on alleged privileges for Capone in the Cook County Jail (17 December 1931)A Bureau of Investigation report on an anonymous charge that Capone was running his business from the Cook County Jail while held for the U.S. Marshal after his tax conviction; jail officials denied it and the U.S. Attorney judged further inquiry unwarranted.