Everybody knows the most infamous tax evader of all time: Alphonse “Scarface” Capone, the Chicago gangster with  all the highly lucrative and illegal business. But did you know that some of the internal IRS correspondence from the Al Capone investigation are available online? What follows is a sample taken from a 1931 letter written by IRS agents Hodgins, Westrich, and Clagett. Note the sarcastic tone of the letter (it helps if you read it out loud and with a Chicago accent):

Al Capone, a punk hoodlum, came to Chicago from New York about 1920, as a protegé of John Torrio, who, at the time was a lieutenant of Jim Colisimo. The first heard of Capone was as a bouncer in a notoriously tough joint called the “Four Deuces”. In the course of time, Colisimo, following the path of all good gangsters, was “bumped off” and Torrio took control. True to tradition, the guns again began to blaze, but this time the person behind the gun evidently had poor eyesight, and Torrio, instead of going to the cemetery, took a vacation in the hospital.

Normally records such as these would not be available to the public, but the Capone records were released because they have such extraordinary historical significance. According to the IRS, “No other IRS records meet the unique set of circumstances that make the Capone records publicly available.”

For tax relief that doesn’t involve “bumping off” the collector, contact Montgomery & Wetenkamp.