They say there’s a grain of goodness in every villain. It may never show on the surface. But it seems it did in one particularly notorious case. It appears we can thank Al Capone for Expiry Dates on Milk. It’s certainly an odd legacy for a gangster!
Who’d uh thunk it?
But it appears to be true. Dierdre Capone (pictured, left) paints a unexpected picture of her infamous uncle. And tells a twisty tale of gangland life in the Roaring 20s.
For all it was worth
Dierdre relates – as history records – that rival gangs in virtually every big city in the US fought continually for control of the bootleg booze business. At one point, her Uncle Alfonse, the biggest Boss of all in Chicago, managed to dominate the sector. So, he went looking for some other lucrative business he could take over. And out of left field came… Milk! You might not have known – I certainly never suspected it – that the mark-up on Milk was higher than the profit margin on alcohol at the time. Milk also had the advantage that it was legal, and everyone from infants to the aged could drink it.
Al was determined to milk the dairy sector for all it was worth.
A latter-day Robin Hood
Capone was as beloved by the poor in his time as Robin Hood was said to be in his. Capone endeared himself to the masses by opening a string of soup kitchens during the early depression, and even arranged what we today would call ‘photo ops’, showing up to serve folks personally.
And running the dairy industry in greater Chicago as he did, it was appropriate for him to at least appear to champion the institution of ‘the family’. But that’s not how he came to crusade for Expiry dates on milk.
It was personal
Dierdre Capone reveals that her uncle was deeply concerned after a close relative became seriously ill after drinking milk that had ‘gone off’. He discovered that there ware very few regulations governing the storage and handling of milk at that time. And he came up with the idea of labeling milk bottles with an date after which their contents might no longer be safe to drink.
So it was right in character for Capone to lobby the Chicago City Council to mandate the stamping of a ‘sell by’ date on milk bottles. To protect the children, he said.
Truth or myth?
Dierdre says she got the story of her uncle’s effort to institute sell by dates for milk from the best source possible. Her dad, Ralph, was Al’s older brother. Ralph told her that Al used to rant and rave about how the booze business was full of ‘idiots’ and gun-happy goons. He also saw the end of prohibition coming, and wanted to segue to another, safer line of business.
My take
You can hardly open a book or watch a movie about the Prohibition Era without running into the name or face of Al Capone. He’s as poignant a symbol of his times as anyone, or anything you could point to. And after all the print and media content I’ve taken in about Capone over my many decades, Dierdre Capone still had something new for me.
She wrote a tell-all about her uncle, his missing $100 million fortune, and his life and times.
Whether it’s true or not, Dierdre Capone’s tale of her uncle Al’s switch from booze to a ‘milk diet’ is an enthralling story. Maybe not as colourful, action-filled or sensational as the popular portrait of the ‘gangster’s gangster’. But it proves the old adage that every clod has a silver lining…
~ Maggie J.