Letters From Alcatraz - Michael Esslinger [79]
(By Deputy Warden C. J. Shuttleworth, Chairman)
Lucas, you are called before this Board on instructions of the Warden to try you for an assault on Tuesday morning of this week, June 23, 1936, about 9:30 A.M. on the body of #85-Az, Capone, with a dangerous weapon inflicting several injuries on his body with a part of a pair of scissors, is that correct?
A. (no audible response)
Q. What excuse have you got to offer for this attack?
A. Well, when I was working there, I was minding my own business, getting along and he got a bunch of crazy ideas in his head and messed around—
Q. What do you mean crazy ideas?
A. He went to you and told you that I was going to bump him off and some other stuff and I had no such idea in my head, nothing like that, it was not in my mind.
Q. You state that he went to me about it. Did you see him go to me?
A. No, but I—
Q. Did anyone see him go to me with any such stories or hear him?
A. Well, I couldn’t prove that. I don’t want to try to prove that, but I know it is so.
Q. How did you come in possession of these scissors?
A. Just lay there and I went and got them.
Q. Just lay where?
A. In the Barber Shop.
Q. Where about in the Barber Shop?
A. On the stand where they always stay.
Q. Did you break them apart or take the screws out of them?
A. Unscrewed them.
Q. Why did you unscrew them instead of using the entire scissors?
A. One half is better than all of it.
Q. One half is better—
A. Sharper.
Q. Then what did you do after you unscrewed them?
A. What did I do?
Q. Yes, how did you know that Capone was in the Clothing Room?
A. Well, I just knew he was in there, looked and seen him.
Q. Looked and saw what?
A. Went on in, knew that he was in there.
Q. Knew that he was in the Clothing Room. Did you warn him at all before you made the attack on him or just come in without any warning?
A. What do you mean by that?
Q. Speak to him?
A. No.
Q. You didn’t warn him. What was your intention to do to him?
A. How? What do you mean?
Q. Well, did you just intend to go in there as a threat or what did you go in there for with them?
A. Well, I don’t know.
Q. What was you first idea when you got the scissors?
A. Well—
Q. Was it to go in there and kill him if you could, was that what your intention was or just to go in there and have a fight?
A. Well, to just show him no to stool on me and let me well enough alone.
Q. Did you know that when you did this, Lucas, that you might have killed him, that you could have killed him with this?
A. No, I did not think.... not with them.
Q. Did you hold the scissors in your hands, these bare scissors, or did you wrap a handkerchief around them to act as a holder?
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