Hello sheldon-ga:
As to the first quote attributed to Al Capone:
"If he comes at you with a fist, you come at him with a bat. If he comes
at you with a bat, you come at him with a knife. If he comes at you
with a knife, you come at him with a gun.'"
In the August 3, 2003 issue of Men's Wear Daily, military affairs
columnist Resa LaRu Kirkland quotes dialogue from the 1987 Brian
DePalma film "The Untouchables":
http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/l/larukirkland/03/larukirkland080303.htm
"NESS (played by Kevin Costner): I want to get Capone; I don?t know how to get him.
MALONE (played by Sean Connery): You wanna get Capone? Here?s how you
get him?he pulls a knife, you pull a gun?he sends one of yours to the
hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That?s the Chicago way,
and that?s how you get Capone! Now do you want to do that?.are you
ready to do that?"
The same dialogue exchange is quoted at Station Five's Movie Quotes:
http://www.stationfive.com/Quotes.php?alpha=UZ&movie=Untouchables_The
On November 9, 2003, NY Times Op-Ed writer Maureen Dowd referenced
that same scene from "The Untouchables" containing the quote about
"the Chicago way." That column is archived at Common Dreams:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1109-10.htm
So, there's no question that the dialogue from the film is almost
identical to the quote Frontpage columnist David Horowitz attributed
to Capone.
But did Hollywood appropriate that quote from Capone? Or is
"Untouchables" screenplay writer David Mamet wholly responsible for
that memorable passage?
It appears the latter is the case.
For help, I turned to the amazing Web site "World of Quotes":
http://www.worldofquotes.com/index.php
and went to their page on Al Capone quotes:
http://www.worldofquotes.com/author/Al-Capone/1/index.html
Neither of the quotes you cited appears there.
Every attempt I made to verify the first quote lead me to a reference
to "The Untouchables," or to Horowitz's column; not to a quote
attributed directly to Capone.
From what I can gather, Capone never said anything quote like the
dialogue from the film. It appears Horowitz "mis-remembered" (to coin
a phrase) and mistakenly attributed that quote to Capone when, in
fact, it was a bit of dialogue *regarding* Capone.
Now, as to the second quote: "You can get farther with a kind word and
a gun than you can with just a kind word."
There's ample evidence that Capone did indeed say that:
http://histoportal.com/capone.html
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Al_Capone/
http://www.amusingquotes.com/h/c/Al_Capone_1.htm
http://quotes.telemanage.ca/quotes.nsf/QuotesByCatPerson?ReadForm&RestrictToCategory=Al+Capone
(Note the slight change in phrasing: "You can do more with a kind word
and a gun than with just a kind word.")
http://www.the-lollipop.net/wordsofwisdom/al_capone.html
(Another variation of the phrase: "You can go a long way with a smile.
You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun."
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alcapone125145.html
http://www.thinkexist.com/English/Author/x/Author_2236_1.htm
Sidebar: it seems Capone was the Yogi Berra of organized crime ("I
don't even know what street Canada is on") and its finest satirist
("Vote early and vote often").
So, it appears the Mr. Horowitz erred in "quoting" Capone and was
remembering dialogue -- dialogue written by David Mamet about Capone
-- from the movie "The Untouchables."
But it also appears Capone was, in fact, the author of the second
quote. While I can't find the original source for when Capone said it
or to whom, it's clear that time and fate have decreed that Capone
uttered that phrase! Other Capone quotes (see the above links) prove
that Capone certainly had the requisite wit to produce that turn of
phrase, and my conclusion is: he did actually say it.
Search Strings:
"Al Capone quotes"
"Capone fist bat knife gun"
"Mamet Capone"
"Capone 'Chicago Way'"
"Mamet Capone 'Chicago Way'"
"The Chicago Way"
" 'Capone' AND 'Chicago Way' "
I hope my research is of help to you. Please post a "Request For
Clarification" if you need help navigating any of the above links, or if you
need me to clarify any of the information I've given you, prior to rating my
answer.
Regards,
nancylynn-ga |
Clarification of Answer by
nancylynn-ga
on
31 Dec 2003 07:53 PST
Hello again Sheldon-ga:
Organized crime expert Allan May of AmericanMafia.com:
http://americanmafia.com
(Mr. May has written extensively about the mafia and his new book is "Mob
Stories");
and Capone historian Mario Gomes of the Al Capone Museum:
http://www.alcaponemuseum.com/
have come to my rescue.
They confirmed that Capone never said anything like that first quote, "If he
comes at you with a fist, you come at him with a bat . . ."
Mr. May informed me that, regarding the first quote, "I agree with your
assessment of the first quote 100%. It was the imagination of a
screenwriter. While the "Untouchables" was an entertaining flick, they got
nothing right beyond the spelling of the names Ness, Nitti and Capone."
Mr. Gomes agrees: "The 'bat thing' is merely fiction from Mamet from The
Untouchables movie."
As to the second quote: the jury will likely remain out on that forever.
Mr. Gomes believes Capone originally said, "You can get much farther with a
smile, a kind word and a gun, than you can with a smile and a kind word."
However, Mr. May cites the now out-of-print 1990 book "The Quotable Al
Capone," written by Mark Levell and William J. Helmer. Mr. May notes
that "Helmer is one of the most respected historians when it comes to
Chicago and the participants of the Mid-West Crime Wave."
Mr. May very kindly quoted to me that section of "The Quotable Al Capone":
"On page three, the first page of text after the acknowledgements, the
authors open up with the quote ["kind word & gun"] in bold letters at
the top of the page, ending it with Alphonse Capone's signature.
This is followed by these two paragraphs:
'Al Capone said that. At least some people say that Al Capone said that.
It's attributed to him in some 'famous quotation' books. But no source is
ever given, and it's just remotely possible that some low-life yellow
journalist, at some time or another, decided that Al Capone, if he didn't
say that, could have. Or should have.
'The authors of this volume would never include such a probably spurious
quotation in this collection -- at least not without cooking up a good
excuse for doing so. Our excuse is that it serves as a good example of the
kind of probably spurious quotation we have *not* included.'
The authors go on to say that the quotes they use are all taken from
'interviews, newspaper stories, books and magazine articles' and are all
listed in the book's sources section."
This is a book you might well be interested in reading. Sadly, I can't I
find it at Amazon.com or on Barnes & Noble.com, but it may pop up on their
out-of-print services; you can sign on for an alert at those sites, should a
copy of the book become available. Or you may be able to find it at a
second-hand bookstore.
As a bonus: Mr. Gomes also told me that the "Vote early and vote often"
quip often attributed to Capone actually "originated from a Chicago
politician and was used by many Chicagoans. I have no proof in all my
records of newspapers and magazines (of the day) of Al actually uttering this
saying."
(Darn. I'd found myself wishing Capone had actually said that.)
I'm very indebted to Mr. Gomes and Mr. May for their help.
I also want to thank you for the chance to tackle a truly intriguing set of
questions. I'm something of a crime buff, but know little of the Chicago
gangster scene or Capone himself. This research has whetted my appetite to
learn a bit more.
Regards,
nancylynn-ga
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