1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Florin 2 00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:14,080 Speaker 1: Vogelbaum here. Al Capone, sometimes known as Scarface, is perhaps 3 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:18,320 Speaker 1: the most recognizable and infamous figure in American organized crime. 4 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:21,840 Speaker 1: His life as a gangster was highlighted by a series 5 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:27,680 Speaker 1: of racketeering schemes, tax fraud, violence, and bootlegging. But a 6 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:30,040 Speaker 1: lot of that was hard to stick to the so 7 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:34,920 Speaker 1: called teflon Dawn since somehow the federal government only managed 8 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:37,760 Speaker 1: to put him in prison for eleven years on charges 9 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: of income tax evasion. He served out his sentence in Atlanta, 10 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:46,920 Speaker 1: then later in Alcatraz. But there's one story about Capone 11 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,199 Speaker 1: you might not have heard. It has to do with 12 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:53,800 Speaker 1: the Chicago dairy industry and several farmers and delivery drivers' unions. 13 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: It was nineteen thirty three and Capone was already in prison. 14 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,880 Speaker 1: Fairy prices were fixed by law, but independent dairy farmers 15 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:07,640 Speaker 1: wanted more money for their milk. Representatives from the dairy 16 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:10,639 Speaker 1: trade group the Associated Milk Dealers said that the public 17 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:13,440 Speaker 1: wouldn't pay more, as so the farmers, who were union 18 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:19,000 Speaker 1: members of the Pure Milk Association walked off the job. Meanwhile, 19 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:22,760 Speaker 1: Capone and his gangster proteges needed money because it was 20 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:26,839 Speaker 1: clear that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was preparing to repeal prohibition. 21 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:30,880 Speaker 1: Once bootlegging and speakeasies became a thing of the past, 22 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:33,679 Speaker 1: it would put a dent in the Mob's major revenue sources, 23 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:39,040 Speaker 1: so they targeted the dairies for the article this episode 24 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:41,600 Speaker 1: is based on as toff Work spoke with Claire White, 25 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 1: the director of education for the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, 26 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,840 Speaker 1: who explained that there were two reasons why the dairies. First, 27 00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:53,720 Speaker 1: the dairies lacked regulation, and second, the mafia already controlled 28 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 1: other food products, including artichokes, yes really, and Wisconsin cheese. 29 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:04,480 Speaker 1: Capone's Mob bought meadow More dairies intending to bully its 30 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:07,960 Speaker 1: way into the milk business. Bottling milk and metal Moore's 31 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:11,639 Speaker 1: facilities would allow them to bypass the fixed dairy pricing 32 00:02:11,919 --> 00:02:16,720 Speaker 1: and to stop unions from distributing only local milk. A 33 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:20,720 Speaker 1: metal Moore distributed milk through stores exclusively, rather than using 34 00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:24,520 Speaker 1: drivers for home deliveries. The dairy bought milk from farmers 35 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:29,079 Speaker 1: at a flat price, an aggressively exploited store distribution. This 36 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:32,840 Speaker 1: allowed metal Moore to underprice other distributors who were bound 37 00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:37,720 Speaker 1: by contract to pay union prices to union drivers. These 38 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: mob tactics pitted the gangsters against union officials and the 39 00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:44,800 Speaker 1: dairies that were legally obligated to deliver milk directly to 40 00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:51,680 Speaker 1: consumers homes and those delivery drivers. But the mob wanted 41 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:56,240 Speaker 1: the union's help. A story in the Chicago Tribune recounts 42 00:02:56,280 --> 00:03:00,320 Speaker 1: how Capohne's political fixer, A Murray the Camel Humphreys, went 43 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:03,520 Speaker 1: to one Steve Sumner, who was the union leader of 44 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:08,320 Speaker 1: the Milk wagon Drivers Union Local seven fifty three. Humphries 45 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:11,160 Speaker 1: asked him to lay low so that metal Moore could 46 00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:15,480 Speaker 1: hire non union workers to undercut the other dairies. Then 47 00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:19,320 Speaker 1: Sumner and his union drivers could protest Meadow more, which 48 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:22,080 Speaker 1: would give metal Moore reason to raise milk prices again. 49 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:25,720 Speaker 1: All of this was in exchange for the mobs of protection. 50 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:31,120 Speaker 1: Of course, A Sumner wanted no part of it. He 51 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: declined the mob's security and said no to all of 52 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:37,960 Speaker 1: their demands, which led to the beginning of Chicago's Milk Wars. 53 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:43,640 Speaker 1: Over an eighteen month campaign of violence and intimidation, there 54 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:48,160 Speaker 1: were numerous bombings, dozens of windows smashed, damaged trucks and 55 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:54,000 Speaker 1: drivers and mendors beaten a striking dairy farmers and drivers 56 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:58,680 Speaker 1: bombed metal More just after it opened in nineteen thirty two. Undeterred, 57 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:01,280 Speaker 1: the dairy sold its milk at nine cents a court, 58 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:05,440 Speaker 1: two cents below the regular price at other distributors. Capone's 59 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:10,440 Speaker 1: mob also extorted New York pizzerias to use only Metamore cheese. 60 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: There's even anecdotal evidence that Capone is responsible forgetting the 61 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:18,760 Speaker 1: practice of printing expiration dates on milk bottles officially implemented. 62 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:23,280 Speaker 1: There's no clear proof, but Metomoor dairies did help set 63 00:04:23,279 --> 00:04:26,840 Speaker 1: the standards for Grade A milk, if only because the 64 00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:29,559 Speaker 1: dairy knew that its milk would pass the requirements while 65 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:34,560 Speaker 1: others would not. As the battles raged between the unions, 66 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:38,920 Speaker 1: the mob, home delivery drivers and retail sellers, Sumner and 67 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:42,480 Speaker 1: the Milk Wagon Drivers Union attempted to organize the companies 68 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:47,039 Speaker 1: and convert them to an employee wage system, but the 69 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:51,240 Speaker 1: Associated milk Dealers refused, and the dairy farmers continued to strike. 70 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:55,359 Speaker 1: Even those Supreme Court handed down injunctions against union picketing. 71 00:04:57,520 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 1: A fast forward to November of nineteen thirty eight, when 72 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:04,360 Speaker 1: a grand jury indicted forty three individuals with violating the 73 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,039 Speaker 1: Sherman Act for trying to fix the price of milk. 74 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 1: Fourteen corporations and forty three people were indicted in total, 75 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:18,320 Speaker 1: including Sumner and several unions, but not Copones Associates. In 76 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:21,360 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine, the antitrust case was thrown out by 77 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:24,400 Speaker 1: a district court judge, but later reinstated by the u. S. 78 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:28,240 Speaker 1: Supreme Court. However, instead of going to trial, the Department 79 00:05:28,320 --> 00:05:30,760 Speaker 1: of Justice offered the parties the option of signing a 80 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:35,880 Speaker 1: consent decree to agree to the following. The farmers organizations 81 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:39,359 Speaker 1: and unions pledged that they would not stop independent producers 82 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:44,159 Speaker 1: from marketing milk. Distributors vowed to end price fixing, and 83 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:48,239 Speaker 1: the Driver's Union promised to not hamper store sales of milk, 84 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:53,600 Speaker 1: and thus the milk Wars officially ended in nineteen forty. 85 00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:58,440 Speaker 1: By then, Sumner was already voted out of his job 86 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:02,839 Speaker 1: as leader of the Milk Wagons Union. He seemingly took 87 00:06:02,839 --> 00:06:05,839 Speaker 1: it with grace. The Chicago Tribune quoted him as saying, 88 00:06:06,279 --> 00:06:08,880 Speaker 1: the young fellows wanted to move in, so we'll have 89 00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:15,000 Speaker 1: to step out, But what about Capone and his connection 90 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:19,280 Speaker 1: to the Chicago milk wars. Most likely there wasn't much 91 00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:22,919 Speaker 1: of a direct one. Claire White noted that both Al 92 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:25,760 Speaker 1: and his brother Ralph were already in prison when it 93 00:06:25,839 --> 00:06:30,080 Speaker 1: kicked off, and unlike in Hollywood movies, they probably weren't 94 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:35,200 Speaker 1: pulling too many strings from behind bars. A Capone essentially 95 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:38,520 Speaker 1: retired from the mob after his first imprisonment in nineteen 96 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:42,400 Speaker 1: thirty one, but the Chicago crime syndicate that he created 97 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:46,000 Speaker 1: continued under the leadership of several of his mafia disciples. 98 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:50,159 Speaker 1: By the time Capone was released from Alcatraz in nineteen 99 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:54,120 Speaker 1: thirty nine, he had complications from a severe case of syphilis, 100 00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:58,840 Speaker 1: including progressive dementia and paralysis. Doctors noted that he had 101 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:02,680 Speaker 1: the cognitive processing of a twelve year old child. He 102 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:05,920 Speaker 1: never returned to Chicago and instead lived out his last 103 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:08,800 Speaker 1: years with his family at his Florida mansion, where he 104 00:07:08,839 --> 00:07:11,800 Speaker 1: died in nineteen forty seven at the age of forty eight. 105 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:20,040 Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article how Alcpohone's mobster's 106 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:24,800 Speaker 1: outmuscled Chicago milkmen on HowStuffWorks dot com, written by Schrese Cunningham. 107 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:28,320 Speaker 1: Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot 108 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:31,520 Speaker 1: Com and is produced by Tyler Klay. Four more podcasts 109 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:34,960 Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 110 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:44,480 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.