Al Capone begins serving sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta.

[Asid]

In Atlanta, Georgia, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion.
May 4, 1932



Legally, Capone's profits from criminal activity did not have to be entered on a tax return until 1927, when the Supreme Court ruled that illegally earned income had to be declared; Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. remarked that the previously existing loophole was stretching the Fifth Amendment too far. The IRS special investigation unit chose Frank J. Wilson to investigate Capone, with the focus being on his spending. The key to Capone's conviction on tax charges was proving his income, and the most valuable evidence in that regard originated in his offer to pay tax. Ralph, his brother and a gangster in his own right, was tried for tax evasion in 1930. After being convicted in a two-week trial over which Wilkerson presided, Ralph spent the next three years in prison. Capone ordered his lawyer to regularize his tax position. Crucially, during the ultimately abortive negotiations that followed, his lawyer stated the income Capone was willing to pay tax on for various years, for instance admitting income of $100,000 for 1928 and 1929. Hence, without any investigation, the government had been given a letter from a lawyer acting for Capone conceding his large taxable income for certain years. In 1931, Capone was charged with income tax evasion, as well as with various violations of the Volstead Act (Prohibition) at the Chicago Federal Building in the courtroom of Judge James Herbert Wilkerson. Much was later made of other evidence, such as witnesses and ledgers, but these strongly implied rather than stated Capone's control. The ledgers were inadmissible on statute of limitations grounds, but Capone's lawyers incompetently failed to make the necessary timely objection; they also ran a basically irrelevant defense of gambling losses. Judge Wilkerson allowed Capone's spending to be presented at very great length. Although there was no doubt that Capone spent vast sums, legally speaking, the case against him centered on the size of his income. Capone was convicted and, in November 1931, was sentenced to eleven years in federal prison, fined $50,000 plus $7,692 for court costs, and, in addition, was held liable for $215,000 plus interest due on his back taxes. The contempt of court sentence was served concurrently. New lawyers hired to represent Capone were Washington-based tax experts. They filed a writ of habeas corpus based on a Supreme court ruling that tax evasion was not fraud, which apparently meant Capone had been convicted on charges relating to years that were actually outside the time limit for prosecution. However, a judge creatively interpreted the law so that the time Capone had spent in Miami was subtracted from the age of the offenses, thereby denying the appeal of both Capone's conviction and sentence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone