Direct examination by Jacob Grossman:
Grossman: Were you cashier at the Subway, a gambling house at 4738 West 22nd Street, Cicero, in 1927?
Reis: Yes.
Grossman: Who managed it?
Reis: Pete Penovich.
Grossman: Did you ever see the defendant Alphonse Capone there?
Reis: No.
Grossman: Did you operate anywhere else during that year?
Reis: Yes, we operated the Ship, early in the year and again in September.
Grossman: Did you see the defendant there?
Reis: Yes, sir.
Grossman: What was he doing?
Reis: He was in the telegraph operator's office talking to Jack Guzik.
Grossman: Did you see him in the place you operated known the Radio?
Reis: Yes, I was asking bets at the counter. Capone came by and said, “Hello, Ries.” I said, “Hello, Al.”
Grossman: What did you do with the profits of the places you operated?
Reis: I purchased checks with them and turned them over to Bobby Barton.
Grossman: What were the total profits during 1927?
Reis: I don't remember exactly--around $150,000.
Grossman: Who was the manager of the Ship?”
Reis: Jimmy Mone until we moved into the Subway. Then Ralph Brown--Ralph Capone--came in and introduced Pete Penovic. “He's taking charge,” said Ralph.
Grossman: Any change in personnel then?
Reis: Pete told four men they were through.
Grossman: When with reference to those changes did you see the defendant?
Reis: About two days before the changes.
Grossman: Grossman: I show you a cashier's Check from the Pinkett State Bank, Cicero. Tell us about that check.
Reis: [After reading check] I bought it with cash representing profits from the house and turned it over to Bobby Barton.
Grossman: I show you here 43 cashier's checks. Tell us about them.
Reis: They represented profits above the bank roll of $10,000 we always kept and above all expenses which we paid out. I bought the checks and gave them to Bobby Barton....
Grossman: Did Guzik say anything to you about turning them over?
[Defense attorney Fink objects.]
Court: There is evidence tending to show that this man Guzik was characterized by the defendant as his financial secretary.
Reis: Guzik said not to give any money to anybody besides himself and the man he would send for it, not even to Al or Pete. Penovich.
[Grossman offered the 43 checks in evidence. Mr. Ahern objected.]
Court: ....There has been evidence tending to show that the defendant purposely maintained no bank account and kept no record of his transactions, so that no information might leak out concerning his income. The defendant has built a stone wall around himself, and the Government must rely on a chain of circumstances.
Ahern: It is at most a presumption and a very a weak one. This “Hello, Al, Hello, Reis,” stuff. Why, all these newspaper boys call me Mike, yet I doubt if I could call a single one-of them by his name. And this saying that Guzik was his financial secretary. That is just another way for the defendant to tell them it was none of their business. He might as well have said social secretary.
The Court: The testimony is that he said financial secretary. Your objection is overruled.
[Grossman read the checks into the record. They were endorsed by J. C. Dunbar (an alias of Fred Reis) and deposited to the credit of the Laramie Kennel Club in the First National Bank of Cicero. The checks totaled $177,500 for 1927 and $24,800 for 1928.]