A Glossop man was telling the Chronicle how a 'henchman' of gangster Al Capone stuck a gun in his ribs and told him to get out of the town.

The haulage contractor, who admitted being involved in the 'hurly burly of American gangsterism', didn't need asking twice. 

He left Chicago, ended up in Glossop where he had family links, and 75 years ago this week his story headlined in the Chronicle. 

The reporter who broke the story did not name the man, saying: "He gave it to me on condition we didn't identify him. He does not like publicity." 

Capone was born in New York in 1899 and went on to lead a campaign of terror as a gangland leader who hauled in millions of dollars through protection, extortion and other illegal rackets. 

Despite murdering many people, Capone escaped justice before being jailed for tax evasion and dying following a stroke in 1947. 

Telling the Chronicle of his brush with Capone, the man said: "He terrorised innocent people. I was in business as a haulage contractor in Chicago and owned several big trucks that brought loads into Chicago. 

"Capone and his gang would high-jack the drivers, beat them up, take the vehicle, sell the load and then dump the truck.

"My business was ruined in this way and ended with one of Capone's henchmen threatening me with a revolver and telling me to scram... I took the hint." 

Speaking of meeting Capone, whose nickname was Scarface, he went on: "I met him on several occasions, his face was soft and flabby, his eyes soft as a woman's, sometimes he would pull a gun from his pocket and play with it as you would with a cigarette. 

"But if Capone heard a door opening behind him his attitude changed completely. His eyes narrowed into slits, the muscles on his face became taut and there was a complete transfiguration." 

It was a look that many men had seen before and hadn't lived to tell the tale. Our man on the run said he had seen men gunned down and killed. So when he was told to scram, he scrammed. 

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