Al Capone gun mix-up embarrasses the IRS

Mistakes are made. Corrections follow.

But a front-page correction in The Wall Street Journal is unusual.

The correction disguised as a feature involved the Internal Revenue Service’s mix-up about a gun — actually two guns — owned by the dearly departed mobster Al Capone.

What started as a way to tout the spirit of cooperation between the IRS and the Mob Museum in Las Vegas ended up as an embarrassment to the IRS.

At 5 p.m. Sept. 26, the IRS delivered the gun to museum officials. A news conference was set for the very next day.

Richard Weber, chief of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, was going to be in Las Vegas for a conference, so he handed the gun over during a lightly attended news conference.

The Smith &Wesson .38-caliber revolver’s colorful history was shared. It was also a reminder that Capone was taken down, not by the FBI, but by the IRS for tax evasion.

The lack of research time meant the museum took the IRS’ word. So did The Wall Street Journal, which did a front-page story on the loan Sept. 28.

Gun enthusiasts noticed that the drawing of the gun didn’t match the description in the story. They realized the Smith &Wesson military and police model had a hammer and the gun pictured didn’t. That’s because it was an Iver Johnson Safety Hammerless.

They contacted the IRS and the museum to point out the discrepancies, and the IRS realized it had delivered the wrong gun.

Oops.

To make it easier to follow, let’s refer to the guns as the Miami gun (a Smith &Wesson .38) and the Chicago gun (an Iver Johnson handgun).

Both had pearl grips.

“They’d given us information about the Miami gun and actually gave us the Chicago gun,” said Geoff Schumacher, the museum’s content director.

To make amends, the IRS found the Smith &Wesson stashed in a vault, the right gun, and sent it to the Mob Museum.

For now, the Smith &Wesson .38 is on display under glass at the Mob Museum — alone. It will be there for the next 17 months.

“We’re very happy with the Miami gun, and it has a great story attached to it,” Schumacher said.

When they have the time, the museum and the IRS will research the Iver Johnson’s backstory to ensure it’s not a myth, but a fact. There are no immediate plans to display it despite a Forbes magazine story saying both are now on display. No correction attached.

The story not yet confirmed is that the Chicago gun, the Iver Johnson, was given to Capone in the late 1920s by Capone’s brother. Capone’s bodyguard carried the gun during Capone’s 1931 tax trial, and it was seized by agents.

It was displayed in the Treasury and IRS offices for years.

As Schumacher explained it, Capone was under such scrutiny in Chicago, he moved to Miami in 1928. He befriended Parker Henderson Jr. and asked for help getting guns — six revolvers and six shotguns. Henderson delivered.

Miami police seized a .38 Smith &Wesson from Capone during an arrest.

A police captain confiscated Capone’s .38 and gave the gun to James Campbell, a tour bus operator.

“He wanted to park his tour bus in prime locations and had paid off the police captain to let him do that,” Schumacher said.

Campbell moved to Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, became a landlord and rented to Warren Hogancamp, who did odd jobs. Campbell gave the gun to Hogancamp and told him the story.

“Hogancamp moves to Kentucky in 1965, and in 2003, he sells the gun to Billy Clayton, who is running an illegal gambling house in Mayfield, Kentucky. The IRS raids it in 2004 and seizes the gun,” Schumacher said.

The IRS decided to lend the gun it had on display, the Iver Johnson, thinking it was the Smith &Wesson seized in 2004 in Kentucky.

The Wall Street Journal ran a new feature Oct. 17 in the same spot as the original feature with the headline “IRS Gun Audit Finds It Failed to Shoot Straight: Agency exhibits Al Capone’s pistol but packs the wrong piece.” Online it’s described as a correction.

“The gun is getting attention from visitors,” Schumacher said. “I can’t say people are coming here just to see the gun, but people are checking it out and taking pictures and are impressed we have it on display,”

I wouldn’t have known one gun from the other and would have accepted whatever I was told. I wouldn’t have known that the Smith &Wesson had an external hammer.

This is another example of newspaper readers finding mistakes. Setting the record straight is the right thing to do.

Please let there be no mistakes in this column.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column runs Thursdays. Leave messages for her at 702-383-0275 or email jmorrison@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @janeannmorrison