Al Capone was one of the most heavily guarded men in Chicago. Surrounded by armed bodyguards and marked for death by rival gangsters, the notorious crime boss took elaborate precautions against assassination.
Yet in September 1928, the bullet that sent Capone to the hospital reportedly came from his own gun.
After finishing a round of golf near Burnham, Illinois, Capone was stepping into a car when the .45-caliber revolver he carried accidentally discharged. The bullet tore through his right leg, passed dangerously close to his abdomen and groin, and lodged in his left leg.
Capone was secretly admitted to an Indiana hospital under a false name, but the group of grim-faced gunmen guarding his room soon revealed that the mysterious patient was no ordinary golfer.
Al Capone Shoots Himself Accidentally in Both Legs
CHICAGO. — Scarface Al Capone, ruler of Chicago’s gangland, has been shot, but not by the gangland which months ago decreed his death.
The gang lord, whose every move is guarded by no less than 12 of the most watchful gunmen ever assembled, shot himself, accidentally, according to reports.
Capone spent five days in a hospital in Hammond, Indiana, but while reporters were besieging the front entrance today, he made his exit through a rear entrance and was returned to his hotel in Chicago.
The gang leader was wounded in both legs and in the groin.
Had Been Golfing
According to the story, Capone shot himself last Saturday morning after he and Johnny Patton, familiarly known as the “Boy Mayor of Burnham,” had completed a round of golf on the Burnham golf course.
It seems Capone had varied from his usual habit of going about unarmed, and had carried a .45 caliber revolver on his round of golf.
Reports say the gun was discharged accidentally as Capone stepped into Patton’s car.
The bullet plowed up through the flesh of the right leg, narrowly missed the abdomen and then imbedded itself in the left leg.
Patton rushed his friend to Saint Margaret’s Hospital, which is on the east side of a street known as State Line Street, the Indiana-Illinois boundary.
Capone was registered under the name of “Mr. Greary.” A Hammond practitioner was called into consultation and no one was the wiser until the presence of 15 dour-faced individuals about Capone’s room aroused certain suspicion.
As usual, Capone’s ever attending bodyguard was installed, and occupied five rooms about the wounded gangster.
Among the guards who paced the corridor outside Capone’s room were Tony “Little New York” Campagna, one of the Genaro brothers, and four others known in gangster circles as La Cava, Felko, Perry, and Marcas.
As near as can be learned, the gangster chieftain is not in a serious condition, and will recover.
Source: The Washington Daily News. Washington, D.C. September 21, 1928.
