All,
I’ve been seeing in several locations over the past couple of years that “Al Capone’s business card said that he was a used furniture dealer.” And here I thought he was a gangster!
Seriously, the trivia could be correct, but none of the sources states a source. You know, someone could have made it up.
Can anyone DOCUMENT that “Snorky” have a business card and if so, what did it say?
Cordially,
Russ
I can’t verify that Al Capone had a business card on which he called himself a furniture dealer. Nor have I ever seen a business card showing John Gotti as a plumbing supplies distributor. Still, I know that Gotti has always claimed (implausibly) that his sole source of income is his plumbing supplies business.
Mafia goons NEVER acknowledge being crooks, after all. All of them have some cover story. Capone’s cover story WAS that he made his money in the furniture business. Whether he ever bothered to have business cards made up, I can’t say.
Standards of behavior have changed in the Mob, but for a long time, Mafia rules dictated that a wiseguy had to live a lifestyle commensurate with that of the “cover” occupation he claimed. Thus, even POWERFUL mobsters, guys who controlled millions of dollars, often lived in relative squalor. If your cover story was that you were an auto parts salesman, you had to live like a middle class hardware wholesaler. You could allow yourself certain luxuries and goodies, but your wealth wasn’t supposed to be TOO showily flaunted (that could attract the attention of the IRS, which has managed to nail nuymerous mobsters for tax evasion).