SMUGGLING TIMELINE

“I don’t even know what street Canada is on,” American mobster Al Capone famously told police, claiming that he had never visited, nor knew anything about, the country to the north. But the gangster who bootlegged liquor was spotted in Moose Jaw, Sask., from time to time escaping the perils of a life of crime in Chicago.

In the 1920s, Moose Jaw was a safe haven for Capone, who reportedly used the city’s underground tunnels to travel between hotels and restaurants unnoticed.

Dr. Hugh Young, a physician in Moose Jaw, says he was summoned late one night, blindfolded and led through a series of tunnels to Capone’s hotel room. The gangster, he says, had an abscess on his tonsil and asked Dr. Young to remove it without anesthetic.

Stories of Capone’s presence have circulated for years, but no hard documented proof has come to light, save for eye-witness accounts from Dr. Young, a local paperboy and others.

However, the American gangster did have business in Moose Jaw. During American prohibition the town was a pivotal place for booze deliveries to the U.S. And Capone is known to have organized large shipments of liquor from distilleries across the Canada-U.S. border via rail cars and boats.

-Jessica Bell

(Photo: United States Department of Justice)