to demonstrate, rather accurately, that a number of newsmen on other papers were "on the take" from the underworld. Still, there was little doubt that the Tribune needed an arrest to cool things off. A special investigative committee was formed headed up by Charles E Rathbun, a Tribune lawyer, and Patrick T. Roche, chief investigator for the State's Attorney's office, with the Tribune agreeing to cover all expenses beyond what the county could afford. Working with the group was a Tribune reporter, John Boettiger, who other newspapers would complain had the job of seeing to it that McCormick and the Tribune were cast in the best possible light.
About a half year after the Lingle murder the Rathbun-Roche-Boettiger group was instrumental in capturing and charging one Leo Vincent Brothers, alias Leo Bader, with the crimeВ· Brothers, 31, was from St. Louis, where he was wanted for robbery, arson, bombing and murder. Of 14 witnesses who had seen the murderer leaving the scene, seven identified Brothers while seven did not. The Tribune nevertheless congratulated the investigative team and itself. A number of opposition newspapers were not as convinced on the solution and intimated that Brothers was a frame-up victim, either innocent or one who allowed himself to take the fall for money.
There were negotiations between Capone and a representative for the Rathbun-Roche-Boettiger team. Details of a released conversation revealed:
Capone: "Well, I didn't kill Jake Lingle, did I?"
Unidentified representative: "We don't know who killed him."
Capone: "Why didn't you ask me? Maybe I can find out for you."
It is almost certain Capone did know who killed Lingle. In a conversation overheard by Mike Malone, a federal agent who had infiltrated the Capone ranks, Big Al told his top aide, Greasy Thumb Guzik, he did not intend to deliver the real murderer.
Then Brothers was arrested. He was convicted, but the jury found the evidence against him less than overwhelming. He was found guilty on charges that brought him only a 14-year sentence. Brothers was elated. He announced: "I can do that standing on my head."
The trade publication Editor and Publisher ran a story, stating:
The verdict ... brought a torrent of denunciation upon Chicago courts in newspaper comments from other cities.
The very fact that Brothers received the minimum sentence has given critics a basis for charges which have persisted since the announcement of the arrest. The utter certainty of officials that Brothers was the man who killed Lingle and the fact that not one witness testified he saw Lingle slain, presents at least a groundwork for the ugly rumors that have been circulated.
... it is held unreasonable that a jury, finding a man guilty of the cold-blooded murder of Lingle, could impose the minimum sentence on the evidence presented.
It is a question in the mind of the police at large as to the guilt of Brothers.
The Tribune has, from the first, maintained that Brothers is the man. This persistence, in the face of an unwillingness on the part of either the newspaper or officials to strip the case bare, show a motive, reveal gang connections, and thus prove to the world that Brothers had a reason for killing Lingle and did so, bas engendered a belief among newspapermen that Brothers is the man who killed Lingle, but it cannot be legitimately proved without entailing a scandal which would prove so devastating as to render the game not worth the candle.
... Those dissatisfied with the verdict are of the opinion that from a point of general good, Brothers belongs in jail but they hold that there is still the question left unanswered, "Who killed 'Jake' Lingle, and why?"
Publisher McCormick countered with a fiery protest to the dispatch which had been written by a member of the opposing Chicago Daily News, and Editor and Publisher issued a retraction and apology. Nevertheless, the view that Brothers was not the key figure in the murder—and that perhaps he demonstrated the ease with which the mob could get stand-ins for their crimes—remained probably the majority view outside the editorial offices of the Tribune.
Of course, the newspaper warfare on the Lingle case had to be judged within the confines of unbridled competition, probably unmatched in any other American city. The relationship of many gangsters, both in and out of the Capone organization, with various newspapers was undisputed; the newspapers were involved in a distribution war that decided which papers were sold at what corners and newsstands. The war was waged through the good offices of the baseball bat, brass knuckles, knives and guns.
According to a popular account, Capone came to McCormick's aid by preventing a strike by newspaper deliverers, and McCormick was quoted as telling the gang leader: "You know, you are famous, like Babe Ruth. We can't help printing things about you, but I will see that the Tribune gives you a square deal."
McCormick gave a much different version of events. "I arrived late at a publishers' meeting. Capone walked
