Al Capone and His American Boys: Memoirs of a Mobster's Wife

13 Murphy’s Tough Skull

When I was well enough to travel we went back to Chicago, and Gus promised he would grant my oft-repeated request that I be allowed to keep house. We had been jumping from one furnished flat to another, with a sprinkling of hotel rooms thrown in between. This had been far from satisfactory to me. I wanted a secluded little place where we were not likely to be bothered and where I could entertain a few friends. We bought furniture and located in a roomy flat at 61st Court and 22nd Street in Cicero. Gus was at home much of that time and I was comparatively happy. Shortly afterwards, the papers were filled with the slaying of Tony Lombardo,whomGusdescribedasAlCapone’s“leftbower”[right-hand man]. “Somebody’s getting even with Snorky [originally the nickname for a spiffy dresser] for that Yale killing,” he said. While the underworld was making an elaborate pretense at mourning for the departed gangster, Mrs. Goetz met me downtown and we went to lunch at the Garden of Italy at 22nd and 48th Street. AcrosstheroomInoticedamandiningalone.Somethingabouthim attracted my attention. From pictures I had seen in the paper I recognized him as Al Capone. We had the waiter call him to our table. Capone had an unconcealed case of the blues, and mentioned the death of Lombardo. “If you’ll have Gus send me some dark glasses I’ll go down and have a last look at him,” he said. 13 Murphy’s Tough Skull 77 78 al capone and his american boys Mrs. Goetz laughed and said: “I guess our boys will be going back to New York now.” With that remark she disclosed to Capone that George Goetz had been talking out of school. I kicked her so hard on the shin that she wore a blue mark for days, and seeing her mistake, Mrs. Goetz clamped a hand over her mouth as if to stop the words already spoken. Capone had gone rigid in his chair. His eyelids tightened, and his eyeballs gleamed. Mrs. Goetz was panic stricken. Capone did not say a word, just stared at her a minute, then got up and walked out of the restaurant. George Goetz was given a severe panning by Capone and ordered to “keep his lip buttoned.” Ray Nugent had brought his family to Chicago during the Toledo holdup investigation, and it was at dinner at the Nugent home shortly after my meeting with Capone that I was introduced to Jimmie “Swede” Moran [also spelled Morand], who at this writing still is a hireling of the Capone syndicate. I mention him because he played an active part in subsequent events. Gus told me later Moran was a “brainless flunky who makes $50 a week.” The winter was comparatively peaceful and the boys believed the police had given up the search for the Toledo slayer. But undercover detectives had been diligently searching for the bearer of the name found on the bills in the coat George Goetz abandoned in the Nugent home in the getaway. The bills were addressed to Bryant Bolton. Mrs.BoltonhadbeenvisitingherfatherincentralIllinois,andwhen she prepared to return to Chicago a coat of hers was still at the cleaners. So she left orders that it be sent to her by express. Probably it was slips like this that earned her the nickname of “Dumb Dora.” The coat bore her aunt’s address in Chicago. It was followed by police , who apparently kept a watch on the aunt’s home, after throwing a scare into her and forcing her to aid them. Mrs. Bolton telephoned her aunt who informed her that the package had arrived, and asked specifically that Bryant Bolton be sent for it. Something about this request sounded “phony” to Mrs. Bolton who went to George Goetz with the story. Murphy’s Tough Skull 79 “It don’t pay to take chances,” Goetz told her. “We’ll send someone else.” So he sent a southern negro named Murphy, who worked at Clark’s Garage where all the boys kept their cars. Murphy no sooner left the house with the package than he was surrounded by policemen. The arrest was a complete surprise to him, for he did not know what he had let himself in for. When the police asked him who sent him for the package he said a man he didn’t know had offered him a dollar to bring...