Who really took down Al Capone?
The term “fake news” continues to dominate today’s discussions about politics, finance and other important topics. The same is true about one of America’s greatest untold stories.
Who really took down gangster Al Capone?
From bootlegging to prostitution, and from payoffs to local police and judges, there wasn’t much that happened in Chicago in the 1920s that didn’t have Capone’s stamp of approval on it.
If you watched a lot of TV in the 1950s and ’60s like I did, then you probably believe the fable that Elliot Ness and his band of untouchables broke the back of Capone’s many illegal enterprises, but that’s not what happened.
Thanks to my good friend Dr. Marty Dolan of Laguna Beach and several knowledgeable Treasury Department insiders, the real story is just now beginning to be told. It’s one of sacrifice, honor and integrity, according to Dolan.
“At the request of President Hoover, Elmer Irey, A.P. Madden, Frank Wilson and my great uncle Mike Malone spent years documenting Capone’s nefarious business activities. Only after my uncle had lived next door to Capone’s bodyguard for 18 months, in the hotel known as ‘Camp Capone,’ did these four T-Men finally believe they had enough evidence to indict the gangster,” Dolan said.
To many, these four agents collectively became known as the Fathers of Forensic Accounting.
As reported in the November issue of the American Board of Forensic Accountants newsletter, “Dr. Dolan has been on a journey to honor Irey, Madden, Wilson, and Malone by recognizing their work and their contributions that truly helped make America great. Their efforts took down Al Capone and a number of other prominent criminal elites, raising nearly $500 million in back taxes (nearly $9 billion today) for the government by 1940. Their successes created an aura allowing President Roosevelt to fund the war chest in the campaign Taxes to Beat Axis (Hitler) shortly after Pearl Harbor.
“In addition, Dr. Dolan wants to set the historical record straight about Capone’s indictment. Ness and his men commonly receive credit for this, but it is now clear Irey, Madden, Wilson and Malone were the Real Untouchables.”
The Capone matter wasn’t the only high-profile case the four T-Men worked on together. When Charles Lindbergh’s baby boy was kidnapped in 1932, Irey, Madden, Wilson and Malone were dispatched to the scene of the crime. Lindbergh was arguably the most famous person in the world at the time, so solving the case became a priority within law enforcement everywhere.
At the time of the Lindbergh kidnapping, there were no federal laws on the books covering such a crime. To their credit, the work that Irey and his three colleagues undertook set the legal precedent for prosecuting kidnapping cases across state lines.
“The Capone and Lindbergh cases were but two of thousands that Irey, Madden, Wilson and Malone worked on as special intelligence unit agents of the Treasury Department,” Dolan reported.
“It’s fitting that their stories come out now, a little more than a year before the 100th anniversary of the unit’s creation,” he concluded.
When you consider the fact their “follow the money” principle still is meaningful today — as in tracking the whereabouts of one Osama bin Laden — 2019 would be the right time to honor the fathers of forensic accounting for their incredible work on behalf of the American public. And no, folks, this isn’t fake news.
Denny Freidenrich first moved to Laguna Beach in 1970. He can be reached on Twitter @freidomreport.
