Al " Scarface " Caponeis perhaps the most recognisable and infamous name in organize crime . His living as a mobster was highlighted by a series of racketeering schemes , tax role player , violence and bootlegging .
Capone was suspected of being behind theSt . Valentine ’s Day Massacrein which seven rival gang members were killed by gun for hire dress as police officer . However , no definitive connection to Capone and the Feb. 14 , 1929 , ambush was ever turn up .
It seems a lot was hard to bond to this " Teflon Don " since , somehow , the federal government only managed to put him in prison house for 11 year on mission ofincome tax evasion . He do out his time in Federal prisons in Atlanta , then later in the notorious federal prisonAlcatraz .
The Milkman Cometh
But there ’s one history about Capone you might not have learn . It has to do with the Chicago dairy farm industry and several unions , including the Pure Milk Association and the Milk Wagon Drivers ' Union Local 753 .
It was 1933 and Capone was already in jail . dairy farm cost were fixed , but independent dairy Fannie Merritt Farmer wanted more money for their Milk River . Reps from the dairy craft group the Associated Milk Dealers said the public would n’t pay more , so the farmers , who were conglutination member of the Pure Milk Association , walk off the job .
Meanwhile , Capone and his gangster protégés needed money because it was clear President Franklin D. Roosevelt was preparing to repealProhibition . Once bootlegging and speakeasies became a thing of the past , it would put a nick in the mob ’s major revenue sources . So , they target the dairies .
Claire White , director of Department of Education for theMob Museumin Las Vegas , says there were two reason why . First , the dairies lacked regularisation . And secondly , the Mafia already controlled other food products , include artichokes(yes , really ) , andWisconsin cheesevia criminal offence boss Joseph Bonanno .
The Mob vs. the Unions
Capone ’s mob corrupt Meadowmoor Dairies , intending to bully its way into themilkbusiness . bottle milk in Meadowmoor ’s facilities would allow them to bypass the fixed dairy farm pricing , and to stop unions from distribute only local milk .
Meadowmoor deal out milkthrough stores exclusively rather than using driver for habitation livery . The dairy farm grease one’s palms milk from farmers at a two-dimensional Mary Leontyne Price and aggressively exploited stock distribution .
This allow Meadowmoor to underprice other allocator who were bound by contract bridge to pay union monetary value to uniting drivers . These mob - like manoeuvre pitted the mobster against coupling official and those dairies that had to deliver milk to home ( and those delivery drivers ) .
But the crime syndicate wanted the sum ’s help . A fib in theChicago Tribunerecounts how Capone ’s political methadone , Murray " The Camel " Humphreys , give out to Steve Sumner , the marriage drawing card of the Milk Wagon Drivers ' Union Local 753 , inquire him to " lie low-toned " so Meadowmoor could hire non - Federal workers to undersell the other dairies . Then , Sumner and his union driver could resist Meadowmoor , which would give Meadowmoor grounds to raise milk prices again . All of this was in interchange for the mob ’s protection , of course .
William Graham Sumner wanted no part of it . He declined the mob ’s security and said no to all their demand , which led to the beginning of Chicago ’s milk wars .
As one would expect , violence and intimidationwas the order of magnitude of business . Over an 18 - calendar month full stop , there were numerous bombings , dozens of windows smashed , damaged trucks , and drivers and vendors beaten .
Striking dairy farmers and driversbombed Meadowmoorjust after it opened in 1932 . Undeterred , the dairy sold its Milk River at 9 cents a quart — 2 cents below the unconstipated price at other distributors . Capone ’s mob alsoextorted New York pizzeriasto use only Meadowmoor cheese .
As the battle tease between theunions , the mob , home milk delivery drivers and retail sellers , Sumner and the Milk Wagon Drivers ' Union assay to mastermind the companies and convert them to an employee salary arrangement . But the Associated Milk Dealers defy and the dairy farmers continue to move , even though the Supreme Court pass down injunctionsagainst sexual union picketing .
A Landmark Antitrust Settlement
tight ahead to November 1938 when a grand jury indicted 43 individuals with violate theSherman Actfor trying to fix the terms of milk . Fourteen corporation and 43 citizenry were indicted , including William Graham Sumner and several unions : the Milk Wagon Drivers ' Union ; the Associated Milk Dealers ; the Pure Milk Association ; and the Milk Dealers ' Bottle Exchange . But not Capone ’s associates .
Eventually , in 1939 , the antitrust casing was throw out by a district royal court judge but subsequently reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court .
However , instead of proceed to visitation , theDepartment of Justice offeredthe parties the option of signing a consent decree to hold to the following :
And thus , the milk wars officially ended in 1940 .
Capone Wasn’t Crying Over Spilled Milk
By now , Sumner was already voted out of his job as leader of the Milk Wagon Drivers ' Union . He seemingly take it with free grace by saying , " The young fellows want to move in , so we ’ll have to ill-use out , " as reportedby the Chicago Tribune . William Graham Sumner died in 1946 .
So , what about Capone and his unmediated connexion to the Chicago milk war ? Most likely , there is n’t much . white-hot mention that both Al and his comrade Ralph were in jail when it kicked off . And unlike Hollywood movies , it ’s unbelievable they were pulling too many string from behind bars .
Capone essentially " withdraw " from the mob after his imprisonment in 1931 , but the Chicago crime syndicate he create continued under the leadership of several adherent like Mafia bossesPaul RiccaandTony Accardo .
By the time Capone was release from Alcatraz in 1939,he had paresisfrom a severe case of syphilis that feign his mental and physical wellness . doctor take note that he had the cognitive process of a 12 - year - former child . He never returned to Chicago and rather hold out out his last year with his family at his Florida mansion , where he died in 1947 . He was only 48 .
