Dec. 10, 1927.
Not exactly a date that lives in infamy.
But the name of the man who signed the guest book at Mission San Juan Capistrano on that particular Saturday sure does: Al Capone.
Then – and still – Capone was America’s most notorious gangster.
He made millions off bootlegging during the Prohibition era when alcohol consumption was banned nationwide from 1920 to 1933 under the 18th Amendment. Capone emerged as Public Enemy No. 1 with the gun-slinging mayhem of feuding mobsters in Chicago.
Then came imprisonment on tax evasion at Alcatraz, a long bout with syphilis, and his death in 1947.
But in the middle of all that, the man nicknamed Scarface made a stop at the famous mission favored by the swallows.
As fascinating as the mere fact of Capone’s visit is, confirmed by that guest book in the mission’s archives, more intriguing is why he was even in the area.
Capone allegedly was scouting out the possibility of buying land. A lot of land – the gigantic Rancho Santa Margarita, made up of the combined Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores, Rancho Misión Vieja and Rancho Trabuco properties.
The land was owned at the time by the heirs of James Flood and Jerome O’Neill, who both died in 1926, and its future was uncertain.
The 200,000 or so acres of mostly cattle range stretched just above Oceanside in San Diego County into much of what is now south Orange County and included a bit of Riverside County. Its 35 miles of coastline seems like it could have been perfect for expanding Capone’s Chicago-based bootlegging operation into California.
Sounds like the stuff of urban legend, doesn’t it? That’s pretty much all the Capone speculation was up until recently, and little-known outside of a few students of local folklore, such as Orange County historian Chris Jepsen.
“Nobody took that seriously,” Jepsen, president of Orange County Historical Society, said. “The thing about Capone is every place you go in the country has some…
Read the full article here
