Al Capone and the transformation of the IRS

Throughline

NPR

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 16.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Gangsters, banksters, and politicians. Today on the show, how the hunt for Al Capone helped turn the IRS into one of the U.S. government's most powerful tools — and most effective weapons. This episode originally published in May of 2025.

Guests:
Joe Thorndike, historian for Tax Analysts and author of Their Fair Share: Taxing the Rich in the Age of FDR.

Paul Camacho, retired special agent for the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and member of the board of directors at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

Jason Scott Smith, historian at The University of New Mexico and author of two books about FDR and the New Deal.

Lawrence Reed, president emeritus of The Foundation for Economic Education.

To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	February 14, 1929, Valentine's Day. Around 10 in the morning, a Cadillac pulls up to a garage on the
0:26.2	north side of Chicago. Four guys jump out of the car. Two are dressed in police uniforms. Inside the
0:34.0	garage, they find seven men, six of whom are members of a gang led by George Bugs Moran,
0:40.5	who runs things on the north side.
0:43.1	Cops come around all the time looking for a bribe,
0:46.3	just the cost of doing business.
0:48.8	Moran's men do as they're told,
0:51.2	hand over their guns, line up against the wall.
0:55.0	But then, suddenly, Thompson machine guns appear from under the coats of the cops, and they start firing.
1:05.0	Seventy rounds later, Moran's men lie slumped on the ground in a pool of their own blood.
1:12.3	The shooters get back in the Cadillac and drive away.
1:16.1	It turns out they weren't cops, and when the actual police arrive on the scene, they find
1:21.6	one man barely still alive.
1:24.5	When asked who had him shot, he replies,
1:27.3	No one shot me. Three hours later, he dies. And the question remains. Who was responsible for this?
1:43.0	Newspapers around the country seize on this story, calling it the Valentine's Day Massacre. The leader in Chicago St. Valentine's Day Massacre, turned by police, the most dangerous man alive was sought over the nation today. No arrests were made, but when George Moran is asked about it, he doesn't hesitate.
2:03.8	He says, only Capone kills like that.
2:06.9	Alphonse Al Capone, his main rival in Chicago, also known as Scarface.
2:16.7	There were other kingpins are just as large, but Al Capone, man, he was like the poster
2:22.1	child.
2:23.9	Capone had moved to Chicago at the start of Prohibition in 1920.
2:28.6	Suddenly, they take an industry that is big and lucrative, the alcohol industry in the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.