Letter from Special Agent Frank J. Wilson to Chief Irey (27 March 1931)

Status letter from Special Agent Frank J. Wilson at Chicago to the Chief of the Intelligence Unit reporting that 'the Capone investigation is going steadily ahead.'

Date: 1931-03-27
Kind: case-file
Source: Internal Revenue Service, FOIA historical documents (file 3)
Retrieved: 2026-10-11
Rights: A record of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Treasury Department, released by the Internal Revenue Service under the Freedom of Information Act. A United States government work, public domain in the United States under 17 U.S.C. § 105.

A four-page letter from Special Agent Frank J. Wilson, Chicago, March 27, 1931, to “Mr. Irey,” Chief of the Intelligence Unit, Bureau of Internal Revenue. It opens: “The Capone investigation is going steadily ahead.” Wilson signs the last page.

He reports an affidavit by the Reverend H. C. Hoover and statements by others, among them Chester Bragg, tying Al Capone to ownership of a gambling establishment whose book records, he writes, showed a net profit of $574,000 over twenty-four months. He encloses a report by David A. Morgan, an investigator for the West Suburban Ministers and Citizens Association, about a raid of May 16, 1925. The letter closes with requests for office space, filing cabinets and a stenographer for the agents.

Names were read from the page image; the PDF’s text layer garbles them. The page images are the record.

itemIRS: Historical Documents relating to Alphonse (Al) Capone, ChicagoThe Internal Revenue Service's Freedom of Information Act page publishing five documents from the Intelligence Unit's investigation of Alphonse Capone, released because he never filed a tax return.itemSpecial Agent Frank J. Wilson's summary report on Alphonse Capone, SI-7085-F (21 December 1933)Sixty-page report by Special Agent Frank J. Wilson to the Chief of the Intelligence Unit on case SI-7085-F, the evasion of income taxes by Alphonse Capone for 1924–1929, from referral to sentence.itemLetter from Special Agent Frank J. Wilson to the Chief, Intelligence Unit (8 April 1931)One-page report from Special Agent Frank J. Wilson on the agents' new Chicago office and a conference with the First Assistant U.S. Attorney about a possible conspiracy indictment.

itemIndictment in Case Number 22852 (March 1931)The first income-tax indictment against Alphonse Capone, returned by a federal grand jury at Chicago in the March Term 1931. Its one count concerns tax for 1924. The jury acquitted him on it.