Al Capone charities and was viewed by many as "modern-day Robin Hood". However, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, in which seven gang rivals were murdered in broad daylight, damaged Chicago's and Capone's image, leading influential citizens to demand government action and newspapers to dub Capone "Public Enemy No. 1". The federal authorities became intent on jailing Capone and prosecuted him in 1931 for tax evasion. During a highly publicized case, the judge admitted as evidence Capone's admissions of his income and unpaid taxes during prior (and ultimately abortive) negotiations to pay the government taxes he owed. He was convicted and sentenced to
Pre-Code crime films be rejected by local censors. Justus D. Barnes, was "Bronco Billy Anderson", leader of an outlaw gang, from the silent film, "The Great Train Robbery" (1903), the first, "Western", ever filmed. The Western was a subgenre, of crime films. Scenes where criminals aimed guns at the camera, were considered inappropriate by many state censor boards, in the pre-Code and Code era, and were removed from public viewing. In the early 1930s, several real life criminals became celebrities. Two in particular captured the American imagination: Al Capone and John Dillinger. Gangsters like Capone had transformed the perception of entire towns. Capone