It is a fact that Capone opened soup kitchens during Depression years, but regardless of his sources of income, that was money out of his own pocket as a gesture of humanity, not a cynical budget item from a foreign government (Iran pays for the Hezbollah “generosity” in Lebanon out of one pocket, while undermining the legitimate government of Lebanon out of another pocket).

And whatever level of ferocity Capone exhibited in dealing with rival gangsters or former loyalists gone astray, (as exemplified by one figure following the St. Valentine’s Day massacre, “Nobody kills like Capone”), the liquor stills were not set up in school yards or churches, and the machine guns were not hidden beneath Sunday go-to-meeting cloaks.

American gangsters, then or now, recognize and accept that they are operating outside the law, but willingly gamble on either not getting caught, or on being able to pay enough to lawyers or corrupt officials to avoid the penalties.

Some of them will probably do whatever it takes to cover their own backsides in a given circumstance, but throwing innocent bystanders under a bus is not SOP.