15 FEBRUARY 1997, Page 23

Degrees of crime

Sir: Michael Harrington is right (`The big- hearted killer', 1 February) to underplay Al Capon's gangsterism in Chicago in the 1920s. He might have prayed in aid a quo- tation from Thunman Arnold's famous book, The Folklore of Capitalism. Arnold said that the stability of Chicago society was a great deal more under threat from Instill (the financier) than Capone. The lesson to be learned is that we should devote more of our public monies towards bringing major gangsters to justice, rather than worry too much about the Krays and the Richardsons of our society.

Louis Blom-Cooper

2 Ripplevale Grove, London N1