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BOSTON (Associated Press) — Did notorious gangster Al Capone have a soft spot? An intimate letter he penned from prison suggests the ruthless racketeer could handle tenderness almost as skillfully as his Tommy Gun.
The three-page letter — which is being auctioned off next week — is addressed to Capone’s son, Albert “Sonny” Capone. The mobster signed it, “Love & Kisses, Your Dear Dad Alphonse Capone #85,” which was his number at the Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay.
“Junior keep up the way you are doing, and don’t let nothing get you down. When you get the blues, Sonny, put on one of the records with songs I wrote you about,” Capone wrote.
Later, he added: “Well heart of mine, sure hope things come our way for next year, then I’ll be there in your arms.”
“It’s an exceedingly rare personal letter showing the softer side of the notorious gangster,” said Robert Livingston, executive vice president of Boston-based RR Auction, which is handling Monday’s auction at a hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and expects it to fetch around $50,000.
“You’d think that figures like this would be despised, but instead, they’re kind of deified in the consciousness of the American public,” he said.
