A. Well, I wrapped a handkerchief around them.
Q. Wrapped a handkerchief— your handkerchief?
A. Mine.
Q. Have you anything to say in your defense?
A. Well he threatened to kill me.
Q. When?
A. Lots of people around knew—
Q. When?
A. Several occasions. He tried to get guys to kill me. He tried to offer-
Q. Name one.
A. I would rather not name them now.
Q. That type of evidence is immaterial if you cannot name—
A. I can name him all right. Well, I am not—
Q. What?
A. I don’t want... He offered money to get me.
Q. He offered money to get you?
A. But I refuse to name who at the present time for several reasons, and he threatened my life up there. You might have heard that (turning to Junior Custodial Officer Sanders) when I was going up there to the hospital
Q. That was after the facts.
A. That was Tuesday, but before this
Q. Afterwards many things might be said after you had executed this unprovoked attack upon him.
A. He offered money to get me done for or he would do it and the other fellow would take the rap.
Q. Who did he offer that?
A. I would rather not say now, at the present time.
Q. That is insufficient evidence. Mr. Sanders what do you know about this case, what did you see on your end of it?
A. (By Junior Custodial Officer Thomas J. Sanders)
Why, the first I knew is that I saw this man attacking Capone and they were tangled up and fighting and I jumped over and told this man to surrender the weapon, which he did without any resistance to me. I turned the weapon over to you.
Q. What was it?
A. (J.C.O. Sanders) One piece of scissors.
Q. One half of a scissors?
A. (J.C.O. Sanders) One half of scissors.
Q. Did you find the other half of the scissors?
A. (J.C.O. Sanders) No... Oh, yes, the other half, I found it.
Q. Where did you find it?
A. (J.C.O. Sanders) In the Barber Shop on the stand.
Q. Did you find the screw?
A. (J.C.O. Sanders) Yes, sir.
Q. Where was it?
A. (J.C.O. Sanders) It was laying with the other part of the scissors.
Q. Where was it?
A. (J.C.O. Sanders) In the Barber Shop.
Q. This inmate has 3600 days good time, earned or to be earned under a sentence of thirty-years. I recommend that he forfeit the entire 3600 days. What is your recommendation (to Doctor Hess)?
Q. (By Dr. Hess) If you don’t mind, I would like to ask him some questions. Where are you working, Lucas?
A. In the Laundry.
Q. (Dr. Hess) What were you doing down there?
A. Supposed to get a haircut.
Q. Down to get a haircut?
A. Yes, to get a haircut.
Q. (Dr. Hess) Are you sure that you did this because of some threat that Capone made to you or in conjunction with some grievances of others?
A. Well, he knows (indicating Deputy) what Capone said about me to him and not only to...
Q. Where there any words passed before you struck him?
A. No.
Q. None whatever? How long after you went down stairs to get a hair cut before you struck him?
A. Oh, I would say twenty minutes, I don’t know just the exact time.
Q. What did you use to loosen the scissors with?
A. They were loose, just a set screw.
Q. I see. Suppose there is any change of anyone unloosening those scissors purposely.
A. Nobody knew anything about it.
Q. What barber’s scissors did you take, do you know?
A. I looked them both over. I don’t know what one.
Q. Why did you look them both over?
A. Just looking them over to see which one was the best.
Q. (By Deputy Shuttleworth to Lieutenant Miller). Anything to ask him?
A. Lieutenant Miller). No.
Q. (By Deputy Shuttleworth to Dr. Hess). What is your recommendation?
A. (By Dr. Hess) I would rather defer my opinion until I can talk to Capone.
Q. (By Deputy Shuttleworth to Lieutenant Miller). Your recommendation?
A. I recommend he lose all his good time.
Q. (By Deputy Shuttleworth to J.C.O. Sanders). That is all, put him away.
A. Dr. Hess requested that #85 be brought before the Board for the purpose of asking him some questions which might aid in finding the cause of the attack. Capone was brought before the board and asked a few questions, which satisfied the Doctor and he “recommended the loss of all his good time.”
* * *
By late 1937, Capone started to withdraw further and further from prison society, spending the majority of his time withdrawn and secluded in his cell. As his health deteriorated, he would pass on visits to the recreation yard and instead spend time with close associates in the basement shower and band room areas where he worked providing janitorial services. He was witnessed on occasion talking to himself and acting bizarre, and on February 5, 1938 it became apparent that Al was seriously ill.
Documents relating to Capone’s treatment for syphilis while he was an inmate at Alcatraz.
During Capone’s tenure at Alcatraz, his family visited as often as permissible by prison regulations. His inmate case file shows his family’s commitment to travel across the country year round.
A press photographer snapped this photo of Al Capone’s wife (Mae Capone) off boarding from the prison launch during her visit in March of 1938.
Al Capone's wife, Mae, tries to avoid photographers after a visit to see her racketeer husband in December, 1937. The original caption read: Morgan Hill, California: Mrs. Capone Glares At Cameraman. Mrs. Mae Capone, wife of Al Capone, former Chicago racket leader, glares at the cameramen who "stole" this picture while she and her driver, believed to be Ralph Capone, brother of Al, stopped at a gasoline station here after a 100 mile chase from San Francisco by cameramen and reporters. The chase started when they left San Francisco after visiting Capone on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. The photo was taken at a gasoline station on the Monterey Highway in Morgan Hill, California.
Associate Warden E.J. Miller described the episode:
When we opened cells for mess this morning at breakfast time, Capone #AZ-85 came out of his with his blue clothes on. On being sent back to his cell to put on his coveralls, he returned, put them on and got in line and came in and drank some coffee.
After the meal was over and men went back to cells, Capone started up on the upper gallery instead of going to his own cell. Officers sent him back to his own cell and being locked in, he proceeded to get sick and threw up what he had eaten for breakfast and then appeared to be all right.