Alcatraz warden's notebook page for Alphonse Capone, No. 85

The catalog title is “CAPONE, ALPHONSE GABRIEL "SCARFACE" - Alcatraz Number 85 - Warden’s Notebook.” The page is a Bureau of Prisons form, printed at the foot as USP-AC Form 175, with an identification photograph pasted at the upper right: Capone in prison clothing, holding a card numbered 85. The photograph itself carries no date. The series scope note says Capone’s original notebook page (85-AZ) was missing and that microfilm printouts were interfiled, so this digitized page may be such a printout.

The typed entries, as printed: Name “Alphonse Capone,” No. 85, received Aug. 22, 1934, from Atlanta, age 35, date of birth 1/17/99. Offense “Violating Income Tax Laws.” Date of sentence Oct. 24, 1931; sentence “10 years & $37,617.51 F.& C.”; sentence began May 4, 1932; minimum expiration Jan. 19, 1939; maximum expiration May 3, 1942; parole date “(Denied) Sept. 3, 1935”; good conduct credits 1200 days; district sentenced “N/Ill., Chicago.” The “Reason for Transfer” box reads in part: “Subject is now serving sentence of 10 years for Violation of Income Tax Law. He is a notorious criminal, being a gang leader and racketeer. He has been suspected of clandestine correspondence, while confined at USP Atlanta, and of trying to have money transferred into the institution clandestinely. Transfer is recommended with Close Supervision.” The FBI history page gives the sentence as eleven years; this page prints 10.

The form also carries a rule-violation report from Atlanta dated 10-31-33 (insolence on a window-washing detail; “Reprimanded and Warned”), a red detainer note on a Cook County Jail commitment, a criminal history running from a 1919 arrest in New York City to the 1931 contempt sentence at Chicago, and a medical and social summary. One criminal-history line reads “5-17-29—Received at Eastern State Penitentiary, Phila, Pa. Chg: concealed weapon; Discharged by exp. 3-17-30.” The medical entries are not repeated here.

The red header reads “TRANSFERRED TO FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION, Terminal Island, JANUARY 6, 1939.” Other federal records give other dates. The National Archives catalog description of this item, and of the case file NAID 117695842, gives “Date Transferred to: 01/04/1939.” FBI form replies of the 1960s, such as Hoover’s letter of 15 January 1964, say he “was released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island, California, on January 19, 1939”; January 19, 1939 is the minimum expiration date on this page. An FBI San Francisco letter of 17 January 1939 shows he had left Alcatraz for Terminal Island by then. The FBI history page gives his final release as November 16, 1939. This archive records each date with its source and does not choose among them.