Resting in peace in Arlington, on a grassy knoll overlooking our Nation's Capitol, in the many shadows of blood shed and dreams interred; during my solitary visit some ten years ago, little did I know, my great uncle saw more than the average man sees. The majesty of his life is found in his day-to-day toiling that his forty six years in service to America wrought. Learning who he was, allows me to see the nucleus of what matters-  my family, my country.©

Michael Francis Malone (1893 - 1960) was born on October 21, 1893, in Jersey City, New Jersey. Mike became the longest served and one of the greatest undercover agent in the history of United States Law Enforcement. For nearly forty years, he worked on nearly every major racketeering case in the first half of the 20th Century. His 'cast of inmates' reads as the litany of ‘criminal elites’ of that era: Al Capone, Ralph Capone, Frank Nitti, Jonny Torrio, Waxey Gordon, Dutch Schultz, Huey P. Long, 'Nucky' Johnston, Leon Gleckman; and even many of the ‘Hollywood elites’: Tom Mix, Marion Davies, Charlie Chaplin, Irving Thalberg, William Fox to name a few.

Mike Malone was born of Irish immigrants. His mother died when he was 12. His older sister, Molly Malone (my maternal grandmother), then reared the family. She nurtured him with some formal schooling, as she cared for the other 3 motherless children (ages 4, 6 and 8). However, most of his education came from the rough streets of Jersey City. By 1911, he became an electrician and was a good earner for the family.

In 1913, he entered the Army. Mike was part of the Cadet Flying Squadron. He married Irene O'Mealia in December 1918. He was honorably discharged in 1919. He then joined the Bureau of Investigation. By 1920, the story of the great work of Irey and the Intelligence Unit was spreading; so shortly thereafter, Mike opted to join the Intelligence Unit. He spent the next four decades in this Unit; and almost all in ‘undercover-ops’.

Mike and Irene had a son (James (b.1919  d.1920)) and a daughter (Mary (b.1920  d.1927)).  These tragedies took a great toll on their relationship and led to their estrangement that never healed. It fueled his inner passion and a demand for justice; and led to his 'nomadic' life of service to his Country. The tragedy left Aunt Irene in a life long depression. She became, what is best-described a ‘basket case’. Nonetheless, Aunt Irene remained very close to my grandmother.

Irey penned his Intelligence Unit's pseudonym, Pat O’Rouke (in his book “The Tax Dodgers” to protect his identity in the years following its publication); but to his peers, Mysterious Mike; and to Capone, Mike Lepito. Over the forty years, he had many other aliases. Upon his death, it took his probate attorney one and a half years to search these names in banks throughout the U.S. and the Bahamas. The lawyer apologized to my grandmother for this lengthy search and the expensive legal bill ($500.00). Religiously, he had bought a U.S. Savings Bond monthly during his career, including November 1960, 10 days before his death. His life was about America!

He was a Special Agent of the Special Intelligence Unit of the Bureau of Revenue, Treasury Department, the Legendary T-Men. The crusade to rid the world of Capone after the Supreme Court’s Manly Sullivan Decision (‘ill gotten’ gains were taxable) had accelerated when Herbert Hoover was elected President in 1928. Hoover had a personal disdain for Capone and threw the responsibility of the investigation at the feet of the Treasury Department; more specifically, Elmer Irey. Mike was paired along side the great forensic minds of Special Agents Frank Wilson and A.P. Madden. By Christmas 1928, the team had no other goal than to catch Public Enemy Number One.

Irey and Wilson knew that such a case would require information that could only be obtained from an informant embedded in the gang. They would need a man who also was unshakeable. Their eyes turned to only one agent who had distinguished himself by exposing corrupt Prohibition Agents in the IU’s early days. Mike Malone!  Malone became their ‘go-to' undercover man. Malone infiltrated and lived with Capone for nearly 18 months.

Malone had ‘hit a home run’ every time. Irey chose him again due to his connections to the criminal underworld that he had developed throughout his career. He was no 'run-of-the-mill' agent. Before Capone, he visited Philadelphia to meet with a longtime cohort, Max 'Boo Boo' Hoff, another gangster whom Mike knew would give him the 'low down' about the underbelly of gangster life. Hoff brought his friend under his wing and exposed him to the deeper inner workings of the underworld. Hoff was much like Capone; but Capone was the government’s fish. Irey and the top brass were willing to dance with one devil to bring down another. 

Malone looked more ‘a Wop than most Wops’ (part of Capone’s parting words to Malone); even sinister with deep set eyes with black ‘half-moons’ beneath; not a bit of pale Irish skin. No one would guess his sister was Molly Malone! He spoke Italian, Gaelic, Yiddish, Greek and Hoboken‘esse’. Malone was also a master of disguises; a very intriguing storyteller; and particularly adept at pallor tricks. Early in his career, he masqueraded as a garbage man, a construction worker and a shoe-shiner. He was even jailed at times to foster other ‘A.K.A.s’. He would blend into his environment until he was just another nobody on the street. Before the era of wire-tapping and audio surveillance, Malone was able to sneak in and sneak out without the subjects of his snooping being any the wiser. In his world of criminality, a mastery of disguises entails substantial expense. A group of wealthy Chicago businessmen, ’The Secret Six’, helped fund the fight against Capone. They donated thousands of dollars to have the finest silk suits, monogrammed shirts, fedoras and silk underwear made. They even made sure the laundry markings were ML (a.k.a.- Mike Lepito), not MM. Malone worked hand in hand with Wilson and Madden to bring the Capone case to conclusion in October 1931.

Five months later, Malone, along with Irey, Madden and Wilson were assigned the Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping. Over the course of the next several years, their diligence and vigilance came to fruition, their APOLLO moment, solving and convicting the Lindbergh Baby Kidnapper.

In 1937, Irey sent Mike to the Bahamas, essentially as the first off-shore money laundering investigation.

Before his death in 1960, Malone accrued a resume heavy with high profile cases and accreditations from the country’s most powerful men.  Malone’s career spanned the heyday of mobsters, gangsters and an era of rough cities with underbelly dealings by some of the nation’s most notorious criminals. I have finally uncovered the true story of ‘Mysterious Mike’ nearly sixty years since his passing. Over the last several years, I have meticulously scoured through thousands of pages of primary source original Treasury Department documents and personal notes and correspondence that have not seen the light of day since that era. These, finally, give just credit to the most unsung, Special Agent, Michael Francis Malone. Malone’s legacy is unknown; his heroism and bravery unsung; and his unfathomable stories as an undercover agent untold… UNTIL NOW!

                                                    History Passes  ---  His Light Remains

(Courtesy of the Dolan Family)