There's More to New Jersey than the Sopranos

33 On the Boardwalk with Al Capone

On the Boardwalk with Al Capone 149 In Mexico, where a few days earlier people had been joyously waiting for the triumphant return of the brave aviator, there was weeping in the streets when news of the crash broke. “With all my heart I lament the tragedy of Captain Emilio Carranza,” President Calles said. Much attention was given to Carranza’s young, pregnant widow, Maria Louisa. They had been married four months. Carranza was buried as a national hero and was the subject of a Mexican folk song, “Ballad of the Murder of Emilio Carranza.” There was oratory in both nations about how the tragedy had brought the United States and Mexico closer together. New Jerseyans took some pride in their role. The Mexican ambassador came to Chatsworth to present a check for $500 to John Carr and $250 to Detective Carabine. New Jersey papers pointed out that none of the local people had taken souvenirs from the wreckage. Later a monument was erected on the site, paid for by contributions from Mexican schoolchildren. Every July, on the anniversary of the crash, a memorial service takes place there, with representatives from the Mexican government and the U.S. armed forces. The Mexican and American national anthems are sung. Not long ago, the Carranza site was included in a guidebook to “fun,” “loony,” and “oddball” tourist spots around the nation, which demonstrates that what was an international tragedy in 1928 is only a curiosity to people decades later. 33 On the Boardwalk with Al Capone Everybody goes to Atlantic City for a convention: teachers, plumbers, salespeople, and (until the departure of the Miss America pageant) beauty queens. So why not gangsters? Back in 1929, America’s leading bootleggers, hit men, and racketeers gathered in the 150 There’s More to New Jersey . . . city of saltwater taffy to do what conventioneers love to do: talk shop, cut a few deals, and have a good time. The crime lords came from the nation’s major cities. Al Capone himself was there along with other luminaries of the Chicago underworld like Frank Nitty and Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik. From New York came a large delegation that included Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Dutch Schultz, Joe Adonis, Albert Anastasia, Meyer Lansky, and Louis Lepke. Among the others in attendance were Charles “King” Solomon of Boston, Abe Bernstein of Detroit, Johnny Lazia of Kansas City, and Waxey Gordon of Philadelphia. New Jersey was represented by Abner “Longie” Zwillman and the host, Enoch “Nucky” Johnson of Atlantic City. The problem the mobsters faced was that competition was getting out of hand. Rival gangs were muscling in on one another’s territory. Only a few months before, seven Chicago gangsters had been gunned down in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre by the Capone gang. So for the first time, gangsters from all the ethnic groups met to talk things over. It is not clear whose idea it was: some historians of crime think it was Frank Costello; others say Johnny Torrio or Lansky or Luciano, or even Capone. Most likely it was one of those ideas whose time had come. Atlantic City was a convenient location for other reasons besides sea breezes: the host, Johnson, controlled both crime and politics in Atlantic County. The gathering was not particularly secret. Newspapers carried stories about it. This was the era of Prohibition, when Americans cheerfully broke the law by drinking, and the gangsters who furnished the bootleg liquor were celebrities like prizefighters and movie stars. The Atlantic City police said they would arrest Capone on sight, but since at the moment he was not wanted on any charge, Scarface Al (known as Snorky to his uneasy friends) strolled around town unmolested. One account of the event says that meetings were held in a conference room at the President Hotel; another says the meetings were shifted from hotel to hotel. Luciano said years later that Johnson had originally booked the conference in an exclusive upper-crust hotel, giving the gangsters Anglo-Saxon aliases when he made the room reserva- On the Boardwalk with Al Capone 151 tions. Luciano said that when the gangsters with the phony names arrived, the hotel manager threw them out, and that Nucky had to hastily move the meeting to the President. Luciano also said that to discuss important negotiations in private, the mobsters would be wheeled in rolling chairs to a secluded beach at...