Record

Finding aid

1929/1932

National Archives Catalog

Records Relating to the Prosecution of Alphonse Capone (U.S. Attorney, Chicago)

The U.S. Attorney's file at Chicago on the 1931 income-tax prosecution of Alphonse Capone: correspondence with Washington, notes, reports and drafts. Seven items are digitized.

Date
1929/1932
Kind
finding-aid
Retrieved
2026-10-11
NAID
6427838
Rights
A record of the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Department of Justice, held by the National Archives at Chicago in Record Group 118. A United States government work, public domain in the United States under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The National Archives catalog lists access and use as unrestricted.

This is the file unit, not a single document. It belongs to Record Group 118, Records of U.S. Attorneys, in the series “Records Relating to Legal Precedents” (NAID 6423676). The creator is the Department of Justice, Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern Judicial District of Illinois, and the file is held by the National Archives at Chicago.

The catalog describes it as the U.S. Attorney’s file on the government’s income-tax prosecution of Alphonse Capone, led by U.S. Attorney George E. Q. Johnson and heard by Judge James H. Wilkerson. It lists correspondence with Johnson’s superiors in Washington, wire taps, docket sheets, contempt-of-court reports, pre-trial and trial notes, and drafts of the closing argument, with some material on Ralph J. “Bottles” Capone.

Seven items are described and digitized individually, and each has its own page here. Photographs and clippings in the wider file are not reproduced. The description follows the National Archives catalog entry.

itemLetter from George E. Q. Johnson to G. A. Youngquist (6 May 1931)Carbon of a 'Personal & Confidential' letter from U.S. Attorney George E. Q. Johnson to Assistant Attorney General G. A. Youngquist asking to move their meeting earlier.itemLetter from Attorney General William D. Mitchell to George E. Q. Johnson (24 July 1931)The Attorney General approves the Chicago U.S. Attorney's proposal to recommend a sentence of two and one-half years if Capone pleaded guilty to the income-tax counts.itemGeorge E. Q. Johnson's handwritten notes (8 October 1931)Handwritten notes dated 8 October 1931 that the catalog says U.S. Attorney George E. Q. Johnson made during the Capone income-tax prosecution.itemNotes for Argument in Capone Case (October 1931)Typed notes for the government's argument in the Capone income-tax trial, October 1931, which the catalog attributes to George E. Q. Johnson.itemSummary of Indictments in United States v. Alphonse Capone (1931)Typed memorandum to 'Mr. Johnson' summarizing Capone's two income-tax indictments, No. 22852 (one count, 1924) and No. 23232 (twenty-two counts, 1925–1929).itemTelegram to U.S. Attorney Johnson about Capone in the Cook County Jail (2 December 1931)Western Union telegram of 2 December 1931 to George E. Q. Johnson reporting that Al Capone was running his liquor business from the county jail, and asking for an investigation.itemContempt of court investigation of the Cook County Jail superintendents (December 1931)Records of a December 1931 contempt-of-court investigation of Cook County Jail superintendent David T. Moneypenny and assistant superintendent George Gibson, filed in the U.S. Attorney's Capone prosecution file.itemThe United States of America v. Alphonse Capone: criminal case file, Nos. 22852 and 23232National Archives file unit for the 1931 federal income-tax prosecution of Alphonse Capone in the U.S. District Court at Chicago, case numbers 22852 and 23232. The catalog lists 226 item-level descriptions under it.