Al Capone
Moose Jaw has created a tourism industry out of the legendary Chicago gangster’s connection to that city.
Many other southern Saskatchewan towns also have Capone tales to tell. Rumour has it Big Al visited Yorkton and may have stayed at the Balmoral Hotel and used a farm in nearby Rhein for storage of his illicit product.
He is also said to be connected to the murder of Paul Madoff, a brother-in-law to the Bronfman brothers, who operated their Seagram distillery in Yorkton in those days.
It makes sense.
Actual proof is a little harder to come by, though.
Looking for proof and folklore is what Regina filmmaker Kelly Riess was doing in Yorkton last week with a film crew. They will return again in mid-January to follow up.
The footage they take here may wind up in a documentary she is making for CBC television called “Finding Al.”
So far, she is not a believer, but she may be coming around.
“At first, I was skeptical, but the more I hear the more I think it might be true,” she said.
She’s heard some good stories and ones she wasn’t expecting. For example, she said, there was a farmer near Weyburn, who allegedly stored liquor for the bootlegger. Several of his relatives told Riess about wild “machine gun parties” they would have out on the farm.
One person told the crew that her great aunt had dated Capone.
It has also given the filmmakers a new perspective on their home province.
“Saskatchewan was still really the wild west in the 1920s,” Riess said.
Riess has worked on documentaries that have aired worldwide on such networks as A&E Biography and History Television.
She is also the author of the bestselling Saskatchewan Book of Everything and the children’s picture book I Love Saskatchewan.
The film is scheduled to air on CBC in the summer of 2015. After that, Riess said she will likely enter it into the Yorkton Film Festival for 2016.
To contact Riess with information about Al Capone readers can email [email protected] or visit findingaldocumentary.com.
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