Prohibition

1934 · réf. 5973 — 1934. St. Paul Pioneer Press. May 10 1934 issue documents the federal prosecution of St. Paul bootlegger Leon Gleckman and the government's effort to connect Minnesota's illicit liquor economy with Al Capone's Chicago organization supporting research into Prohibition enforcement organized crime tax prosecutions and regional newspaper coverage of interstate criminal networks. Published during Gleckman's federal trial for attempting to evade income taxes for 1929 through 1931 the issue places a locally prominent defendant within the wider history of federal authorities using financial records and tax law against figures whose illegal enterprises were difficult to prosecute directly. Court records confirm that Gleckman's case concerned substantial unreported income and that his first trial began in April 1934. St. Paul Pioneer Press. St. Paul Minnesota. Thursday May 10 1934. Number of pages and measurements not stated. Front page carries the headline "AL CAPONE NAMED IN GLECKMAN TRIAL" with the subheading "Government Seeks to Show St. Paulite Sold Chicago Rum Baron Alcohol." The article reports the prosecution's attempt to establish that Gleckman supplied alcohol to Capone presenting the trial as evidence of commercial ties between St. Paul and Chicago during the final phase of national Prohibition enforcement. The headline's pairing of Capone's nationally recognized name with a St. Paul defendant also shows how the local press framed Gleckman's financial prosecution through the more publicly legible language of bootlegging and organized crime. The issue appeared five months after repeal of national Prohibition while federal authorities continued prosecuting income generated during the illegal liquor trade. Gleckman was subsequently convicted on two counts of tax evasion after a second trial and the resulting appellate decision preserved extensive evidence concerning unexplained bank deposits and his claimed interest in a distillery. Left-edge binding holes; otherwise clean with no additional defects reported; overall near fine. A sharply focused contemporary account of the federal effort to reconstruct the financial and commercial connections linking St. Paul bootlegging to the better-known Chicago underworld. unknown