Searching for Scarface
Did Al Capone use O'Neill's Golden Hotel as a hideout? Did a local attorney fear retribution from the nation's most powerful gangster? And what was the secret that lawman “Two-Gun” Hart was hiding?
By Sheryl Schmeckpeper
If you say the name Al Capone to three people in O'Neill, you're likely to hear three different stories that twist, turn and intertwine – just like the mysterious underground tunnels that supposedly snake their way under the streets of this Sandhills town.
Evidence of tunnels still exists in the basement of O'Neill's Golden Hotel. One of the walls has an opening large enough for a man to stand in. After a few steps, the opening narrows and divides into what appears to be two tunnels that lead in different directions.
But why are they there? And where do they go? And are they somehow connected to America 's most famous gangster?
Al Capone lived larger than life and paid the price – eight years in federal prison and death caused by a sexually-transmitted disease. He amassed a fortune through illegal activities and had no qualms about ordering a man's murder. Yet he funded soup kitchens for the poor and lobbied for milk bottle dating to ensure children's health. Some saw him as a modern-day Robin Hood; others as a gangster-millionaire who thumbed his nose at law.
Capone was the fourth son of Gabriele and Teresina Capone, who immigrated to America from Italy at the turn of the 20th century. They brought with them two-year-old Vincenzo, and had eight more children, including Alphonse, after settling in New York . Vincenzo left the family when he was just 16; another brother joined Al “in the business,” and several more had minor scrapes with the law.
Al Capone quit school when he was 14, joined a street gang, married at 19, and supposedly committed two homicides before being sent to Chicago , where he eventually gained control of the city's underworld.
By 1928, Capone had the means to live anywhere in the world. He bought a retreat on Palm Island , Fla. , adding it to the list of homes and hideouts he owned around the country. Others were located in French Lick, Ind.; Dubuque, Iowa; Hot Springs, Ark.; Johnson City, Tenn.; and Lansing, Mich.
It was from his home in Florida that he supposedly orchestrated the infamous 1929 “St. Valentine's Day Massacre.” Although no one was ever prosecuted for the killings, the crime has always been linked to Capone, who was intent on getting rid of his rival, Bugs Moran. Seven of Moran's men were murdered that day, but Bugs managed to escape.
Still, even with competition from Moran, it's reported that between 1924 and 1930, Capone earned $100 million from illegal gambling, prostitution and alcohol.
In those days, the Golden Hotel shone like a jewel on the Nebraska prairie. The three-story, brick hotel was built by T.V. Golden, an O'Neill entrepreneur and businessman who recognized the need for a hotel fitting of the times.
When the hotel was built in 1912, times were good. Ranchers prospered, businesses flourished, cattle buyers and salesmen arrived on the railroad, sold their wares, bought their cattle, and headed west. Golden offered to build a $20,000 hotel if the community club could raise $5,000. In three weeks, the club raised more than $6,000, and ground for the 46-room hotel was broken on April 22, 1912.
The hotel was like none other in the state, say newspaper articles from the time. Rooms were equipped with private telephones, hot and cold running water, electricity, and some had private baths. The structure itself was built with 18-inch reinforced concrete to withstand the prairie fires that still swept the Sandhills from time to time.
The centerpiece of the hotel was – and still is – the marble staircase with a cast iron railing that leads to the second floor. The floor in the lobby is covered with hand-made ceramic tile.
Today, stepping across the threshold of the Golden Hotel, one can almost visualize women in flapper dresses lounging in the lobby while gents in double-breasted suits and felt hats hustle up and down the steps. The blare of a television is one of the few reminders that almost 100 years have passed since the hotel opened its doors.
Supposedly, Al Capone and his fellow mobsters came to O'Neill on the train, stayed at the hotel and used the tunnels to move around town and hide from law enforcement. But why would Capone come to O'Neill? What was the appeal? The unofficial story, some say, is that he brought money from Chicago and laundered it through businesses in the area.
(The complete story appears in the November/December 2006 issue of Nebraska Life Magazine.)