Al Capone comes to Appalachia
Did Chicago mobster Al Capone ever set foot in Johnson City, TN? During the 1920s the town was nicknamed Little Chicago. A reference acknowledging crime ties to the north? Or nothing more than an expression of local pride in the railroads, three of which ran through town? Big Chicago was known as a railroad center long before Capone came along.
Speaking of railroads, Capone bought a house in West Palm Beach, FL not long before the famous St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929, and Johnson City would have been a convenient layover town en route between Chicago and West Palm Beach in the days before regular air flight.
It is very likely that Chicago gangsters from the Capone mob came to Johnson City, Newport, Knoxville, Chattanooga and other Southern cities to make deals. One piece of circumstantial evidence that clearly puts Johnson City on this list: the town was one of the hardest hit places in the nation by a neural disorder called the "jake leg," which killed many and left others with a distinctive hitch in their stride.
Al Capone's FBI record and fingerprint samples.
The cost of whiskey was extremely high locally, running about $1.50 and up for a flask, while Jamaican ginger, medicinal alcohol and bay rum - all containing lethal denaturants that caused the jake - sold for well under $1.
Why was the cost of whiskey so high in an area of the country where moonshining flourished...
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