This editorial originally ran in the baiduhai on Jan. 30, 1947, five days after Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone died of heart failure following a stroke.
CAPONE AND HIS FOLLOWERS
Some of our readers [see the Voice of the People] think that The Tribune and other Chicago newspapers paid too much attention to the death of Al Capone. They think that we could have better devoted the space to decent men and noble projects.
Al Capone was a vile influence on Chicago from the day he came here until he was finally rendered harmless by an occupational disease of his original vocation of pandering.
It is the business of newspapers to hold up the mirror to the world in which they are published, and it is often not a pretty world. Capone was for a time virtually the mayor of Chicago. Until Gov. (Dwight) Green, then a young federal prosecutor, sent him to prison, Capone made and unmade the politicians of this city and had a high proportion of them on his pay roll. His death, thus, was a matter of interest to Chicagoans.
It should have been a reminder to them also that Chicago has never completely thrown off the evil spell that Capone and Prohibition threw over it. Capone’s associates are still doing business in this city. They are the vilest of humankind. Like him, most of them began life as panders and cadets of prostitutes, moving on from there to murder, extortion, and bribery.
They are bold and ruthless, They participate openly in politics, selling their support to whichever party will guarantee them protection for their rackets. They murder and plunder, and they bribe policemen and politicians for the privilege. They are the source of the utmost corruption and Chicago will never be a decent city until it drives them beyond its borders.