Letter to Hoover on a rumored Capone escape from Alcatraz, and Hoover's reply (September–October 1935)
A Knoxville correspondent, prompted by a 'Dick Tracy' newspaper cartoon, wrote that some people in his town thought Capone might be staging a prison break from Alcatraz; Hoover thanked him for his interest.
- Date
- 1935-09-28/1935-10-04
- 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 private correspondent's letter is described and quoted briefly, not reproduced.
Part 31 of the FBI Vault’s Capone file, scans 56 to 58. Scan 56 is a letter of September 28, 1935 to J. Edgar Hoover from a private correspondent whose name and address are redacted under FOIA exemptions. Scan 58 is the Director’s reply of October 4, 1935, filed as 69-180-158, addressed to the correspondent at Knoxville, Tennessee, with a copy to the Nashville office. The enclosed cartoon and the remaining pages (scans 57 and 59 to 62) are dark scans or clippings that cannot be read.
As far as the OCR of scan 56 can be read, and as the research index describes it, the writer says some people in his town believe that the person called “Cut”, a public enemy in the “Dick Tracy” newspaper cartoon, stands for Capone, and that he may be staging a prison break from Alcatraz with help from friends inside and outside the prison. He suggests the authorities there be warned, while allowing that the street rumor may have nothing in it.
Hoover’s reply, read from the page image stored here, is two sentences: “Reference is made to your communication of September 28, 1935, in which you inclosed a cartoon entitled ‘Dick Tracy’ appearing in a daily newspaper. I wish to thank you for your interest in bringing this matter to my attention.” The file records no further action.
