Direct
examination by Jacob Grossman:
Grossman: Were you
cashier at the Subway, a gambling house at 4738 West 22nd Street, Cicero,
in 1927?
Reis: Yes.
Grossman: Who
managed
it?
Reis: Pete
Penovich.
Grossman:
Did you ever see the defendant Alphonse Capone
there?
Reis:
No.
Grossman: Did you
operate anywhere else during that year?
Reis: Yes, we
operated the Ship, early in the
year and again in September.
Grossman: Did you
see
the defendant there?
Reis: Yes, sir.
Grossman: What was
he
doing?
Reis: He was in
the telegraph operator's office talking to Jack Guzik.
Grossman: Did you
see
him in the place you operated known the Radio?
Reis: Yes, I was
asking bets at the
counter. Capone came by and said, “Hello, Ries.” I said, “Hello, Al.”
Grossman: What did
you do with the profits of the places you operated?
Reis: I
purchased checks with
them and turned them over to Bobby Barton.
Grossman: What were
the total profits during 1927?
Reis: I don't
remember exactly--around $150,000.
Grossman: Who was
the
manager of the Ship?”
Reis: Jimmy Mone
until we moved into the Subway. Then Ralph
Brown--Ralph Capone--came in and introduced Pete Penovic. “He's taking
charge,”
said Ralph.
Grossman: Any change
in personnel then?
Reis: Pete told
four men they were through.
Grossman: When with
reference to those changes did you see the defendant?
Reis: About two
days before
the changes.
Grossman: Grossman: I show you
a cashier's Check from the Pinkett State Bank, Cicero. Tell us about
that
check.
Reis: [After
reading check] I bought
it with cash representing profits from the house and turned
it over to Bobby Barton.
Grossman: I show you
here 43 cashier's checks. Tell us about them.
Reis: They
represented profits above
the bank roll of $10,000 we always kept and above all expenses which we
paid
out. I bought the checks and gave them to Bobby Barton....
Grossman: Did Guzik
say anything to you about turning them over?
[Defense
attorney Fink objects.]
Court: There is evidence tending to show that this man
Guzik was characterized by the defendant as his financial secretary.
Reis: Guzik said
not to give any money to anybody besides himself and
the man he would send for it, not even to Al or Pete. Penovich.
[Grossman
offered the 43 checks in evidence. Mr. Ahern objected.]
Court:
....There has been evidence tending to show that the defendant
purposely
maintained no bank account and kept no record of his transactions, so
that no
information might leak out concerning his income. The defendant has
built a
stone wall around himself, and the Government
must rely on a chain of circumstances.
Ahern:
It is at most a presumption and a very a weak one. This “Hello, Al,
Hello,
Reis,” stuff. Why, all these newspaper boys call me Mike, yet I doubt
if I
could call a single one-of them by his name. And this saying that Guzik
was his
financial secretary. That is just another way for the defendant to tell
them it
was none of their business. He might as well have said social secretary.
The Court:
The testimony is that he said financial secretary. Your objection
is overruled.
[Grossman
read the checks into the record. They were endorsed by J. C. Dunbar (an
alias of Fred Reis) and deposited to the credit of the Laramie Kennel
Club
in the First National Bank of Cicero.
The checks totaled $177,500 for 1927 and $24,800 for 1928.]
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