When Al Capone took over the reins of Chicago's criminal enterprise, he was barely 30 years old. Though his life of crime stretched all the way back to New York, his reign as mob boss was remarkably short compared to someone like Anthony "Big Tuna/Joe Batters" Accardo. Scarface made two fatal mistakes.
The first mistake was laying down with a diseased prostitute and earning a dose of clap that would eventually kill him. The second mistake was not giving Uncle Sam a cut of the vast fortune Capone and his crew earned from organized crime. When the government couldn't touch him for murder, blackmail, extortion, bootlegging, assault, or any of the many crimes Capone committed or sanctioned, they found a ledger book that sealed Capone's fate as an income tax cheat. Where Elliott Ness, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Chicago police failed, the IRS triumphed. Al Capone was 33-years old when he began his 10-year prison sentence for income tax evasion. He was 5' 10-1/2" and 255 pounds, and grey eyes, with double scars across his left cheek. Meyer Lansky famously said: "Always overpay your taxes. That way you always get a refund." Take the lessons with you: Avoid prostitutes, and always pay your taxes. |
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