It was the 1940s and “Public Enemy No. 1” Al Capone had been behind bars a decade for income tax evasion when Albert Appel started work at the Internal Revenue Service investigating the mobster’s gang.
Mr. Appel, 87, who would become a celebrated name among the tight-lipped IRS special agents of Chicago, died Tuesday, March 5, in Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, after a heart attack.
Born and raised in Chicago, Mr. Appel attended Northwestern University for a time, but because it was the Depression and times were difficult, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was the beginning of more than four decades of government work.
He traveled the United States building roads and fighting fires, then went to work at a desk in the newly formed U.S. Social Security Administration.
During World War II he was stationed in Chicago, where he served on a U.S. Army security team monitoring industrial plants.
After the war, Mr. Appel moved to the IRS as a tax collector.
He soon moved into the Intelligence Division of the IRS in Chicago, becoming one of 70 criminal investigators assigned to root out tax dodgers, extorters, illegal gamblers, money launderers, drug traffickers and racketeers. The office later was named the Criminal Investigation Division.
The work required a great deal of research and attention to detail, and Mr. Appel was perfect for the job.
“He had good investigative abilities,” said Aubrey Berman, a former special agent, adding, “He was tenacious and accurate. He was like a bulldog.”
Mr. Appel was loyal to his job and the work at hand. “He absolutely played by the rules,” said his son Larry.
Former colleagues recalled with amusement how seriously Mr. Appel sometimes took his job. “He didn’t like any leaks in a case … he’d share information on a need-to-know basis,” said Bob Fuesel, a former IRS special agent, who remembered Mr. Appel typing his own reports instead of using the steno pool.
But Mr. Appel was quiet by nature, so the fact that he didn’t even talk to his family about his work didn’t seem unusual, said his son.
What they did know was that he enjoyed his job. “And he was good at it,” said his son.
So good, in fact, that it was Mr. Appel’s dogged investigative work that helped uncover the goings-on of Capone’s cronies, including Murray “The Camel” Humphreys.
And while Mr. Appel’s name doesn’t pop up in research about notorious gangsters, those who worked closely with him credit him with bringing about a number of convictions. “There were no loose ends. … When he made a case, the case stuck,” said his son.
Mr. Appel always remained quiet about the investigations he worked, celebrated or not. Instead, he reminisced about the CCC and his Army days.
“He was always grateful how the CCC helped his family when they needed it,” said his son, and as a result, “he felt working for the government was a way to give back to his country.”
Other survivors include his wife, Phyllis; another son, Dr. Burton; and a brother, Bernard.
Services have been held.
