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Five glossy press photographs, ranging in size from 5 x 7 to 10 x 8, depicting Al Capone at pivotal moments spanning the final years of his criminal career and his later life. The group includes: Capone chatting with Atlanta newspapermen upon his arrival to begin serving his federal prison sentence (May 3, 1932); Capone seated beside attorney Michael Ahern during his landmark federal income tax-evasion trial in Chicago (October 9, 1931); Capone attending the Miami Beach wedding of his son, Albert Capone, in one of his rare post-prison public appearances (December 30, 1941); a contemporary portrait issued in the immediate aftermath of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, with a caption discussing renewed scrutiny of Capone and the slaying of Bugs Moran's men (February 18, 1929); and a photograph of Hall of Fame Chicago Cubs catcher Gabby Hartnett signing a baseball for Capone and his 12-year-old son, Sonny, during a Cubs-White Sox exhibition game on September 9, 1931, with bodyguards, including 'Machine Gun Jack' McGurn, visible in the background. Each photograph bears wire service captions, publication stamps, editorial markings, or annotations on the reverse. In overall fine condition, with light scattered marks and a faint horizontal bend to the 1929 portrait.
During a September 9, 1931, exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox in Comiskey Park, fan-favorite Gabby Hartnett chatted with fans in the first row, one of whom was Al Capone, who was in attendance with his son and a regiment of his bodyguards. Capone was 18 months removed from the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre and had been out of prison for roughly the same length of time, following a nine-month sentence on a concealed weapon charge. When the crime boss asked for a signed baseball for his son, Hartnett didn’t think twice, a decision the press was only too happy to capture and publish in newspapers across the country.
The exhibition game was organized to benefit Governor Louis Lincoln Emmerson’s unemployment fund, which evolved into the Chicago branch of the United Way. Despite the inherent philanthropy, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis was not happy with the optics of one of his signature players making nice with the notorious Capone, who returned to prison just a month later to serve an 11-year term for tax evasion. The next day, Landis dashed off a terse telegram to Hartnett. ‘You are no longer allowed to have your picture taken with Al Capone.’ The catcher acquiesced to the demand and wired back his reply: ‘OK, but if you don’t want me to have my picture taken with Al Capone, you tell him.’
