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By 10 a. m. Lawyers Ahern & Fink had assembled eight bookmakers with shiny shoes. To them Snorkey was no smart gambler. One William Yario said Snorkey had lost some $50,000 in two years to him. Bookie Sam Gitelson thought his profits were $25,000. Bookie George Lederman took another $25,000. Bookie Milton Held got $35,000. A sharp-eyed hunchback named Oscar Gutter swore he had won $40,000 from Capone; Harry Belford, better known as "Hickory Slim, the Dice Guy," $25,000. Other bookmakers got smaller amounts. Altogether Snorkey's fondness for playing the Caponies seemed to have cost him some $200.000. Snorkey smirked, did not seem ashamed. One Bud Gentry breezed up on the stand, recalled that Prizefighters Sharkey & Stribling and Mrs. Tex Rickard had been Capone's guests in Florida, said that at the end of the 1929 racing season he had won $110.-000 from Snorkey. He could not remember any of the horses Snorkey had bet on. The defense rested.
During much of one day's testimony Snorkey had his eyes on slim Beatrice. Lillie, who sat with the reporters. He wanted to meet her, but his lawyers objected. Chirruped Actress Lillie: "Well, I wasn't billed, but if pressed I'll sing a song for you."
Argument. Assistant U. S. Attorney Jacob I. Grossman estimated the Capone income at $120,000 in 1924; $250,000 in 1925; $195,000 in 1926; $220,000 in 1927; $140,000 in 1928; $104,000 in 1929—total $1,029,000. Declared he: "When they [the defense] put those gamblers on as witnesses they admitted that we had proved our case. Why prove deductions if we have not proved income?"
Mr. Fink, still feeling hurt, thought the language of the indictment was "vague, indefinite, uncertain," felt that a great injustice had been done to Snorkey in charging him with "attempting" to evade tax payments. Snorkey, he said, had only "omitted" to do his duty. In Washington, Treasury officials punched a hole in Snorkey's only defense by pointing out that race track losses could not be deducted from his income. If he lost consistently, they explained, the money he lost must have come from other sources than the track, and therefore he must pay income on it. Lawyer Ahern deplored the "great public clamor" against Snorkey, called him a "mythical Robin Hood." Prosecutor Johnson indignantly insisted the Government was presenting the case with "high purpose."
Charge-Judge Wilkerson hitched his chair toward the jury box and leveled his bushy brows at the jurymen, to deliver his charge. Excerpt:
"Mere failure to file an income tax does not constitute 'attempt' to evade or defeat the tax. ... To convict you must find beyond reasonable doubt that there was intent to defraud and also some act done in furtherance of that intent. . . ."
Snorkey looked blissfully contented as the jury filed out. In a bright green suit ($135) and green-spotted tie he stood in the corridor and smiled. Also pleased with Judge Wilkerson's dispassionate charge were Counsel Ahern & Fink. A moment later Snorkey disappeared. It was 2.40 p. m.