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Al Capone

 
Who2 Profiles:

Al Capone, Gangster

  • Born: 17 January 1899
  • Birthplace: New York, New York
  • Died: 25 January 1947 (heart failure)
  • Best Known As: American gangster known as "Scarface"

Name at birth: Alphonsus Capone

Alphonse "Al" Capone was one of the most famous U.S. gangsters during the 1930s, a Chicago-based boss involved in illegal gambling, bootlegging (illegal alcohol) and prostitution. Capone got his start in New York, working as a thug and bouncer (where he got the three scars that spawned his nickname, "Scarface"). He moved to Chicago in 1919 and quickly moved up in the ranks of Johnny Torrio's gang. Capone was known for his smarts and brutality, and by 1925 he was in charge of one of Chicago's biggest criminal gangs. It was Capone's men who gunned down seven rivals in 1929 in what was called the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre." Arrested many times over the years, Capone was famously pursued by federal agent Eliot Ness and ended up finally going to jail for income tax evasion in 1931. After serving eight years in federal prisons, Capone was released on good behavior (and because he'd been suffering from syphilis-related ailments). Capone retired to his estate in Florida and died in 1947 of heart failure.

Capone has been portrayed in the movies by by Rod Steiger (Al Capone, 1959), Neville Brand (TV's The Untouchables, 1959-63), Robert DeNiro (The Untouchables, 1987) and William Forsythe (TV's The Untouchables, 1993).

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

Alphonse Capone

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(born Jan. 17, 1899, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S. — died Jan. 25, 1947, Palm Island, Fla.) U.S. gangster. Quitting school after the sixth grade, he joined the James Street Boys gang, led by Johnny Torrio. In a youthful fight in a brothel-saloon he was slashed across the left cheek, prompting the later nickname "Scarface." In 1919 he joined Torrio in Chicago to help run prostitution there. When Torrio retired (1925), Capone became the city's crime czar, running gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging rackets. He expanded his territory by killing his rivals, most famously in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, in which members of the Bugs Moran gang were machine-gunned in a garage on Feb. 14, 1929. In 1931 Capone was convicted for income-tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison; eventually he served time in the new Alcatraz prison (see Alcatraz Island). Granted an early release from prison in 1939, in part because he suffered from an advanced stage of syphilis, he died a powerless recluse at his Florida estate.

For more information on Alphonse Capone, visit Britannica.com.

Al "Scarface" Capone (1899-1947) was a notorious American gangster of the prohibition era. His career illustrated the power and influence of organized crime in the United States.

Al Capone, whose real name was Alphonso Caponi, was born to Italian immigrant parents on Jan. 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York. Like other young Americans from minority backgrounds, Capone was taught that the main purpose of life was to acquire wealth and that the United States was a land of opportunity. But he also discovered that his family background made it impossible to succeed in school and his ethnicity and working-class status resulted in discrimination, both in the business world and socially. Embittered by the gap between the American dream and his own reality, Capone began to engage in illegal activities as a means of achieving success in what he saw as an unjust society.

Capone was a natural leader. He possessed a shrewd business sense, gained the loyalty of those working for him by showing his appreciation for a job well done, and inspired confidence through his sound judgments, diplomacy, and "the diamond-hard nerves of a gambler." He left school at 14, married at 15, and spent the next ten years with the street gangs of his Brooklyn neighborhood. During a barroom brawl, he received a razor cut on his cheek, which gained him the nickname "Scarface."

Finds Success in Chicago

In 1919, the same year the U.S. government ratified the Eighteenth Amendment prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages, Capone fled Brooklyn for Chicago to avoid a murder charge. In Chicago he joined the notorious Five Points Gang and quickly moved up its ranks to become the right-hand man of boss Johnny Torrio. After Torrio fled the country, Capone found himself in control of part of the bootleg operation in the city that had sprung up after prohibition. Chicago had voted 6 to 1 against passage of the prohibition amendment, and its citizenry - rich and poor, officials included - felt that liquor deprivation had been unfairly imposed. Capone took advantage of the popular willingness to break the law, and openly plied his trade. As he would tell reporter Damon Runyan, "I make money by supplying a public demand. If I break the law, my customers … some of the best people in Chicago, are as guilty as me."

Capone protected his business interests by waging war on rival gangs. During the legendary St. Valentine's Day massacre in 1929, seven members of a rival gang led by George "Bugsy" Moran were gunned down in a Chicago garage. Other business strategies included bribing public officials, providing a ready market for the illegal homebrewed liquor produced by poor Italian ghetto residents, and becoming a supply source for the "respectable" customers of city speakeasies. Interacting in Chicago society in the manner of a well-to-do businessman rather than a shady racketeer, Capone gained a fabulously profitable bootleg monopoly, as well as the admiration of a large segment of the community, including members of the police and city government. Between 1927 and 1931 he was viewed by many as the de facto ruler of Chicago.

Seen as Common Thug outside Chicago

However, the rest of the country and certain elements in the Windy City regarded Capone as a menace. In the late 1920s President Herbert Hoover ordered his Secretary of the Treasury to find a way to jail Capone, who up until now had managed to evade being implicated in any illegal act. Perhaps more significantly than the efforts of the U.S. Treasury department, Capone's power had by now begun to wane due to both the coming of the Great Depression and the anticipated repeal of prohibition. Bootlegging was becoming less profitable.

After detailed investigations, U.S. Treasury agents were able to arrest Capone for failure to file an income tax return. Forced to defend himself while being tried for vagrancy in Chicago, Capone contradicted some previous testimony regarding his taxes, and he was successfully prosecuted for tax fraud by the federal government. In October 1931 Capone was sentenced to ten years' hard labor, which he served in a penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, and on Alcatraz. Because of syphilis Capone's mind and health deteriorated, and his power within the nation's organized crime syndicates ended. Released on parole in 1939, he led a reclusive life at his Florida estate, where he died in 1947.

Further Reading

John Kobler, Capone (1971), is the most thorough study of Capone's life. See also Fred D. Pasley, Al Capone: The Biography of a Self-Made Man (1930). For information on his life after imprisonment see James A. Johnston, Alcatraz Island Prison, and the Men Who Live There (1949). An excellent contemporary description of Capone's career and perhaps still the best analysis of the era is John Landesco, Organized Crime in Chicago, pt. 3 of the Illinois Crime Survey (1929). A reliable historical account is John H. Lyle, The Dry and Lawless Years (1960). Excellent for a sociological perspective is Kenneth Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era (1961).

Answer of the Day:

Al Capone

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Gangster Al Capone
Mobster Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion on this date in 1931. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Having gotten his start in crime in New York, Capone moved to Chicago in 1919 and by 1925 ruled Chicago's most ruthless underworld gang. He was suspected of controlling most of the gambling, alcohol and prostitution in Chicago, and it was his gang that was responsible for the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Eliot Ness and other FBI Untouchables, who had long pursued Capone, were, with the help of the IRS, finally able to bring Capone to some justice for evading paying his income tax.

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From our Archives: Today's Highlights, October 17, 2005

Columbia Encyclopedia:

Al Capone

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Capone, Al (Alfonso or Alphonse Capone) (kəpōn'), 1899-1947, American gangster, b. Naples, Italy. Brought up in New York City, he became connected with organized crime and was the subject of murder investigations. In 1920 he moved to Chicago and became a lieutenant to John Torrio, a notorious gang leader. They established numerous speakeasies in Chicago in the Prohibition era. After eliminating his opponents, "Scarface" Capone took over control from Torrio. He was implicated in brutal murders and received tribute from businessmen and politicians. His crime syndicate-which terrorized Chicago in the 1920s and controlled gambling and prostitution there-was estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Internal Revenue to have taken in $105 million in 1927 alone. After many efforts to bring him to justice, Capone was finally indicted (1931) by a federal grand jury for evasion of income tax payments and was sentenced to an 11-year prison term. In 1939, physically and mentally shattered by syphilis, Capone was released.

Bibliography

See biographies by F. D. Pasley (1930, repr. 1971), J. Kobler (1971), R. J. Schoenberg (1992), and L. Bergreen (1994); K. Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era (1970); J. Eig, Get Capone (2010).

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

Al Capone was a gangster leader who controlled much of Chicago from 1920 to 1931. Chicago in the 1920s was a city of vice, corruption, and gangland killings, and synonymous with the evildoings of this era is the name of Al Capone.

Capone was born January 17, 1899, in Naples, Italy. His family emigrated from Naples, Italy, to New York and Capone was raised in the Brooklyn slums. During his early years in New York he made strong gangland contacts and in 1920, he became a member of the John Torrio gang. Torrio, originally from New York, relocated his operation to Chicago, with Capone at his side.

The passage of the Volstead Act in 1919 (41 Stat. 305), which prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of liquor, ushered in an era of big business for gangsters. Capone and Torrio were no exception; they operated and organized speakeasies, secret nightclubs that sold the banned liquor. Capone began to gain more power and by the time Torrio retired in 1925, Capone's control had extended to gambling, brothels, and politics. He was responsible for the gangland murders of his rivals and for forcibly controlling election results in certain precincts of Chicago; through these maneuvers, he increased his power and received protection and political favors.

Capone was at the peak of his power in 1931, when he was arrested — ironically — for income tax evasion. The Internal Revenue Service succeeded where other authorities had failed: uncovering concrete evidence against Capone for tax evasion. It investigated Capone's earnings and discovered that — despite his huge income, which was judged to be approximately $105 million in 1927 — Capone had never filed an income tax return. In October 1931 Capone was tried in a federal court and found guilty. He was required to pay a penalty of $50,000 and to serve eleven years in jail.

An appeal was pursued and Capone spent his first days of captivity in Chicago's Cook County Jail. There he was still awarded the privileges of an underworld king. Warden David Moneypenny allowed him to visit with his gangland associates, including Salvatore "Lucky" Luciano. Capone had requested and was given an isolated place — the death chamber of the Cook County Jail — to meet and conduct business with fellow mobsters.

The appeal was denied, and Capone was sent to a federal jail in Atlanta, Georgia. There he performed the duties of a shoemaker until 1934, at which time he was transferred to Alcatraz in California.

At Alcatraz Capone was not treated with the respect and fear to which he was accustomed. He spent his days as a laundry worker and was harassed by inmates who took pleasure in persecuting the once powerful mob king. Capone's mental capacities dwindled due to an untreated attack of syphilis and in 1939 he was released to the care of his wife and brother. He died January 25, 1947, in Miami Beach, Florida.

(kuh-pohn)

A leader of organized crime in Chicago in the late 1920s, involved in gambling, the illegal sale of alcohol, and prostitution. He was sent to prison in the 1930s for income tax evasion.

Quotes By:

Al Capone

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Quotes:

"I don't even know what street Canada is on."

"This American system of ours. call it Americanism, call it capitalism, call it what you like, gives to each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it."

"You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone."

"My rackets are run on strictly American lines and they're going to stay that way."

Al Capone

Al Capone Signature.svg
Official mugshot
Born January 17, 1899(1899-01-17)
Brooklyn, New York, United States
Died January 25, 1947(1947-01-25) (aged 48)
Palm Island, Florida, United States
Charge(s) Tax evasion
Penalty 11 year sentence in Alcatraz
Status Deceased
Occupation Gangster, bootlegger, criminal, racketeer, boss of Chicago Outfit
Spouse Mae Capone
Children Albert Francis Capone

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) was an Italian-American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early 1920s to 1931.

Born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City to Italian immigrants, Capone became involved with gang activity at a young age after being expelled from school at age 14.[1] In his early twenties, he moved to Chicago to take advantage of a new opportunity to make money smuggling illegal alcoholic beverages into the city during Prohibition. He also engaged in various other criminal activities, including bribery of government figures and prostitution. Despite his illegitimate occupation, Capone became a highly visible public figure. He made donations to various charitable endeavors using the money he made from his activities, and was viewed by many to be a "modern-day Robin Hood".[2]

Capone was publicly criticized for his supposed involvement in the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, when seven rival gang members were executed.[3] Capone was convicted on federal charges of tax evasion, and sentenced to federal prison. His incarceration included a term at the then-new Alcatraz federal prison. In the final years of Capone's life, he suffered mental and physical deterioration due to late-stage neurosyphilis, which he had contracted in his youth. On January 25, 1947, he died from cardiac arrest after suffering a stroke.

Contents

Early life

Capone's mother, Teresina

Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York on January 17, 1899.[4] His parents, Gabriele (December 12, 1864 – November 14, 1920) and Teresina Capone (December 28, 1867 – November 29, 1952), were immigrants from Italy. His father, Gabriele, was a barber from Castellammare di Stabia, a town about 16 mi (26 km) south of Naples, and his mother, Teresina, was a seamstress and the daughter of Angelo Raiola from Angri, a town in the Province of Salerno.[5]

Gabriele and Teresina had nine children: Alphonse "Scarface Al" Capone, James Capone (also known as Richard Two-Gun Hart), Raffaele Capone (also known as Ralph "Bottles" Capone, who took charge of his brother's beverage industry), Salvatore "Frank" Capone, John Capone, Albert Capone, Matthew Capone, Rose Capone, and Mafalda Capone (who married John J. Maritote). The Capone family immigrated to the United States in 1893 and settled at 95 Navy Street,[4] in the Navy Yard section of downtown Brooklyn. Gabriele Capone worked at a nearby barber shop at 29 Park Avenue.[4] When Al was 11, the Capone family moved to 38 Garfield Place[4] in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Capone showed promise as a student, but had trouble with the rules at his strict parochial Catholic school. He dropped out of school at the age of 14, after being expelled for hitting a female teacher in the face.[1] He worked at odd jobs around Brooklyn, including a candy store and a bowling alley.[6] During this time, Capone was influenced by gangster Johnny Torrio, whom he came to regard as a mentor.[7]

Career

After his initial stint with small-time gangs that included the Junior Forty Thieves and the Bowery Boys, Capone joined the Brooklyn Rippers and then the powerful Five Points Gang based in Lower Manhattan. During this time, he was employed and mentored by fellow racketeer Frankie Yale, a bartender in a Coney Island dance hall and saloon called the Harvard Inn. Capone received the scars that gave him the nickname "Scarface" in a fight.[3] After he inadvertently insulted a woman while working the door at a Brooklyn night club, Capone was attacked by her brother Frank Gallucio; his face was slashed three times on the left side. Yale insisted that Capone apologize to Gallucio, and later Capone hired him as a bodyguard.[8][9] When photographed, Capone hid the scarred left side of his face. He said the injuries were war wounds.[8][10] Capone was called "Snorky" by his closest friends.[11]

Marriage and family

On December 30, 1918, Capone married Mae Josephine Coughlin, who was Irish Catholic and who, earlier that month, had given birth to their first son, Albert Francis ("Sonny") Capone. As Capone was under the age of 21, his parents had to consent to the marriage in writing.[citation needed]

Chicago career

Capone departed New York for Chicago without his new wife and son, who joined him later. In 1923, he purchased a small house at 7244 South Prairie Avenue in the Park Manor neighborhood on the city's south side for USD $5,500.[12]

Capone was recruited for Chicago by Johnny Torrio, his Five Points Gang mentor. Torrio had gone there to resolve some family problems his cousin's husband was having with the Black Hand. Torrio killed the members of the Black Hand who had given his cousin's husband problems. He saw many business opportunities in Chicago, especially bootlegging following the onset of prohibition. Chicago's location on Lake Michigan gave access to a vast inland territory, and it was well-served by railroads. Torrio took over the crime empire of James "Big Jim" Colosimo after he was murdered. Yale was a suspect but legal proceedings against him were dropped due to a lack of evidence.[13] Capone was suspected in the murders of Colosimo and two other men. He was seeking a safe haven and a better job to provide for his new family.[14]

The 1924 town council elections in Cicero became known as one of the most crooked elections in the Chicago area's long history of rigged elections, with voters threatened by thugs at polling stations. Capone's mayoral candidate won by a huge margin and weeks later announced that he would run Capone out of town. Capone met with his puppet-mayor and knocked him down the town hall steps.[citation needed]

For Capone, the election victory was marred by the death of his younger brother Frank at the hands of the police. Capone cried at his brother's funeral and ordered the closure of all the speakeasies in Cicero for a day as a mark of respect.

Much of Capone's family settled in Cicero as well. In 1930, Capone's sister Mafalda married John J. Maritote at St. Mary of Czestochowa, a massive Neogothic edifice towering over Cicero Avenue in the Polish Cathedral style.[15]

Capone's power grows in Cicero

The Torrio-Capone organization, as well as the Sicilian-American Genna crime family, competed with the North Side Gang of Dean O'Banion. In May 1924, O'Banion discovered that their Sieben Brewery was going to be raided by federal agents and sold his share to Torrio. After the raid, both O'Banion and Torrio were arrested.[16] Torrio's people murdered O'Banion in revenge on October 10, 1924, provoking a gang war.[17][18]

In 1925, Torrio was severely injured in an attack by the North Side Gang; he turned over his business to Capone and returned to Italy. During the Prohibition Era, Capone controlled large portions of the Chicago underworld, which provided The Outfit with an estimated US $100 million per year in revenue.[19] This wealth was generated through numerous illegal vice enterprises, such as gambling and prostitution; the highest revenue was generated by the sale of liquor.[3]

His transportation network moved smuggled liquor from the rum-runners of the East Coast, The Purple Gang in Detroit, who brought liquor in from Canada, with help from Belle River native Blaise Diesbourg, also known as "King Canada," and local production which came from Midwestern moonshine operations and illegal breweries. With the revenues gained by his bootlegging operation, Capone increased his grip on the political and law-enforcement establishments in Chicago. He made his headquarters at Chicago's Lexington Hotel; after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, it was nicknamed "Capone's Castle".

According to one source, while Al Capone was in charge of the Chicago Outfit it has been reported that some members of organization would take the train from Chicago to Wabash County, Illinois and stay at a remote hotel called the Grand Rapids Hotel on the Wabash River next to the Grand Rapids Dam. The hotel was only in existence for nine years but many residents of the area remember seeing men who claimed to be from the Chicago Outfit at the Grand Rapids Hotel. Suspiciously, the Grand Rapids Hotel was burned down by a man with one leg who dropped a blowtorch. It is not currently known if the men who travelled to the Grand Rapids Hotel were smuggling liquor in violation of prohibition or merely vacationing.[20]

The organized corruption included the bribing of Chicago Mayor William "Big Bill" Hale Thompson, and Capone's gang operated largely free from legal intrusion. He operated casinos and speakeasies throughout the city. With his wealth, he indulged in custom suits, cigars, gourmet food and drink (his preferred liquor was Templeton Rye from Iowa[21]), jewelry, and female companionship. He garnered media attention, to which his favorite responses were "I am just a businessman, giving the people what they want," and "All I do is satisfy a public demand."[3] Capone had become a celebrity.

Unemployed men outside a soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone, 1931

His rivals retaliated for the violence of Capone's enforcement of control. North Side gangsters Hymie Weiss and Bugs Moran wanted to bring him down. More than once, Capone's car was riddled with bullets. On September 20, 1926, the North Side gang shot into Capone's entourage as he was eating lunch in the Hawthorne Hotel restaurant. A motorcade of ten vehicles, using Thompson submachine guns and shotguns riddled the outside of the Hotel and the restaurant on the first floor of the building. Capone's bodyguard, Frankie Rio, threw him to the ground at the first sound of gunfire. Several bystanders were hurt from flying glass and bullet fragments in the raid. Capone paid for the medical care of a young boy and his mother who would have lost her eyesight otherwise. This event prompted Capone to call for a truce, but negotiations fell through. The attacks were believed to have been made at Moran's direction and left Capone shaken.[citation needed]

Capone had his Cadillac fitted with bullet-proof glass, run-flat tires and a police siren. In 1932, Treasury agents working on prohibition issues seized the car; it was later used as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's limousine.[22]

Capone placed armed bodyguards around the clock at his headquarters at the Lexington Hotel, at 22nd Street (later renamed Cermak Road) and Michigan Avenue. For his trips away from Chicago, Capone was reputed to have had several other retreats and hideouts located in:[citation needed]

Former New York gang member Owney "The Killer" Madden retired to Hot Springs and invited his former colleagues to visit him there; this was also the place that Lucky Luciano was first arrested. As a further precaution, Capone and his entourage would often show up suddenly at one of Chicago's train depots and buy up an entire Pullman sleeper car on night trains to places such as Cleveland, Omaha, Kansas City, Little Rock or Hot Springs, where they would spend a week in luxury hotel suites under assumed names. In 1928, Capone bought a 14-room retreat on Palm Island, Florida close to Miami Beach.[3]

Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre eliminated some of Capone's enemies, but outraged the general public

It is believed that Capone ordered the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on Chicago's North Side. Details of the killing of the seven victims[3] in a garage at 2122 North Clark Street (then the SMC Cartage Co.) and the extent of Capone's involvement are widely disputed. No one was ever brought to trial for the crime. The massacre was thought to be the Outfit's effort to strike back at Bugs Moran's North Side gang. They had been increasingly bold in hijacking the Outfit's booze trucks, assassinating two presidents of the Outfit-controlled Unione Siciliana, and made three assassination attempts on Jack McGurn, a top enforcer of Capone.[citation needed]

To monitor their targets' habits and movements, Capone’s men rented an apartment across from the trucking warehouse that served as a Moran headquarters. On the morning of Thursday February 14, 1929, Capone’s lookouts signaled gunmen disguised as police to start a 'raid'. The faux police lined the seven victims along a wall without a struggle then signaled for accomplices with machine guns. The seven victims were machine-gunned and shot-gunned.[citation needed] Photos of the massacre victims shocked the public and damaged Capone's reputation. Federal law enforcement worked to investigate his activities.[3]

Conviction and imprisonment

Al Capone's cell at the Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA

In 1929, the Bureau of Prohibition agent Eliot Ness began an investigation of Capone and his business, attempting to get a conviction for Prohibition violations. Frank J. Wilson investigated Capone's income tax violations, which the government decided was more likely material for a conviction. In 1931 Capone was indicted for income tax evasion and various violations of the Volstead Act (Prohibition) at the Chicago Federal Building in the courtroom of Judge James Herbert Wilkerson[23]. His attorneys made a plea deal, but the presiding judge warned he might not follow the sentencing recommendation from the prosecution. Capone withdrew his plea of guilty.

His attempt to bribe and intimidate the potential jurors was discovered by Ness's men, The Untouchables . The venire (jury pool) was switched with one from another case, and Capone was stymied. Following a long trial, on October 17 the jury returned a mixed verdict, finding Capone guilty of five counts of tax evasion and failing to file tax returns[24][25] (the Volstead Act violations were dropped). The judge sentenced him to 11 years imprisonment, at the time the longest tax evasion sentence ever given, along with heavy fines, and liens were filed against his various properties.[26] His appeals of both the conviction and the sentence were denied.[27]

In May 1932, Capone was sent to Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary, but he was able to obtain special privileges. Later, for a short period of time, he was transferred to the Lincoln Heights Jail. He was transferred to Alcatraz on August 11, 1934, which was newly established as a prison on an island off San Francisco.[28] The warden kept tight security and cut off Capone's contact with colleagues. His isolation and the repeal of Prohibition in December 1933, which reduced a major source of revenue, diminished his power.[citation needed]

Al Capone at Alcatraz

During his early months at Alcatraz, Capone made an enemy by showing his disregard for the prison social order when he cut in line while prisoners were waiting for a haircut. James Lucas, a Texas bank robber serving 30 years, reportedly confronted the former syndicate leader and told him to get back at the end of the line. When Capone asked if he knew who he was, Lucas reportedly grabbed a pair of the barber's scissors and, holding them to Capone's neck, answered "Yeah, I know who you are, greaseball. And if you don't get back to the end of that fucking line, I'm gonna know who you were."[29]

Capone was admitted into the prison hospital with a minor wound and released a few days later.[2] In addition, his health declined as the syphilis which he had contracted as a youth progressed. He spent the last year of his sentence in the prison hospital, confused and disoriented.[30] Capone completed his term in Alcatraz on January 6, 1939, and was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island in California, to serve the one-year contempt of court term he was originally sentenced to serve in Chicago's Cook County jail.[31] He was paroled on November 16, 1939, and, after having spent a short time in a hospital, returned to his home in Palm Island, Florida.[32]

Later years

Capone's control and interests within organized crime diminished rapidly after his imprisonment, and he was no longer able to run the Outfit after his release. He had lost weight, and his physical and mental health had deteriorated under the effects of neurosyphilis. He had become incapable of resuming his gang activity. In 1946, his physician and a Baltimore psychiatrist performed examinations and concluded that Capone then had the mental capability of a 12-year-old child.[33] He often raved about Communists, foreigners, and Bugs Moran, whom he was convinced was plotting to kill him from his Ohio prison cell.

On January 21, 1947, Capone had a stroke. He regained consciousness and started to improve but contracted pneumonia. He suffered a fatal cardiac arrest the next day. On January 25, 1947 Al Capone died in his home in Palm Island, Florida, surrounded by his family.[34]

In popular culture

One of the most notorious American gangsters of the 20th century, Capone has been the subject of numerous articles, books, and films. Capone's personality and character have been used in fiction as a model for crime lords and criminal masterminds ever since his death. The stereotypical image of a mobster wearing a blue pinstriped suit and tilted fedora is based on photos of Capone. His accent, mannerisms, facial construction, physical stature, and parodies of his name have been used for numerous gangsters in comics, movies, music, and literature.

Literature

Film and television

Capone has been portrayed on screen by:

Actors playing characters based on Capone include:

Music

  • Prince Buster, Jamaican ska and rocksteady musician, had his first hit in the UK with the single "Al Capone" in 1967.[41]
  • The Specials, a UK ska revival group, reworked Prince Buster's track into their first single, "Gangsters",[42] which featured the line "Don't call me Scarface!"
Graffiti of Al Capone made by Partizan fans in Belgrade, Serbia.
  • Paper Lace, "The Night Chicago Died" is a song by the British group Paper Lace, written by Peter Callander and Mitch Murray. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week in 1974. It is about a fictional shoot-out in Chicago between Al Capone's Gang and the Chicago Police.Quote from the song "When a man named Al Capone Tried to make that town his own And he called his gang to war With the forces of the law" [43]
  • Al Capone is referenced heavily in Prodigy's track "Al Capone Zone", produced by The Alchemist and featuring Keak Da Sneak.[44]
  • Al Capone transcribed a love song called Madonna Mia while in prison. In May 2009, his rendition of the song was recorded for the first time in history.[citation needed]
  • He is referenced in a homonymous song by Brazilian singer Raul Seixas.
  • His name also appears in the (not so well known) song Stone Cold Crazy by Queen.
  • Megadeth's song "Public Enemy No. 1" is about Capone.

Sport

  • Fans of Serbian football club Partizan are using Al Capone's character as a mascot for one of their subgroups called "Alcatraz", named after a prison in which Al Capone served his sentence. Also, as an honour to Al Capone, a graffiti representation of him exists in the center of Belgrade.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Notorious Crime Files: Al Capone". The Biography Channel. Biography.com. http://www.biography.com/notorious/crimefiles.do?catId=259452&action=view&profileId=262834. Retrieved 2010-11-12. 
  2. ^ a b "Al Capone at Alcatraz". Ocean View Publishing. 1992. http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/cap1.htm. 
  3. ^ a b c d e f g The Five Families. MacMillan. http://books.google.com/books?id=5nAt6N8iQnYC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0. Retrieved 2008-06-22. 
  4. ^ a b c d Schoenberg, Robert L. (1992). Mr. Capone. New York, New York: William Morrow and Company. pp. 18–19. ISBN 0-688-12838-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=U7VAcMdddNkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=al+capone&ei=DFt6SuewMZ-UygSR7MXCDA#v=onepage&q=born&f=false. 
  5. ^ Kobler, John (1971). Capone. Da Capo Press. p. 23. ISBN 0-306-80499-9. 
  6. ^ Kobler, 27.
  7. ^ Kobler, 26.
  8. ^ a b Kobler, 36.
  9. ^ Bardsley, Marilyn. "Scarface". Al Capone. Crime Library. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/capone/scarface_4.html. Retrieved 2008-03-29. 
  10. ^ Kobler, 15.
  11. ^ "Mobsters and Gangsters from Al Capone to Tony Soprano", Life (2002).
  12. ^ Hood, Joel (2009-04-02). "Capone home on the market - Chicago Tribune Archives". Chicagotribune.com. http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-talk-caponeapr02,0,5381253.story. Retrieved 2010-03-12. 
  13. ^ Bardsley, Marilyn. "Chicago". Al Capone. Crime Library. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/capone/chicago_5.html. Retrieved 2008-04-03. 
  14. ^ Kobler, 37.
  15. ^ Added by bob armour. "Al Capone moves his gang's headquarters to Cicero, Illinois". Timelines.com. http://timelines.com/1923/al-capone-moves-his-gangs-headquarters-to-cicero-illinois. Retrieved 2010-03-12. 
  16. ^ Bergreen, Laurence (1994). Capone: The Man and the Era. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks. pp. 131–132. ISBN 978-0-684-82447-5. 
  17. ^ Bergreen, pp 134-135
  18. ^ Bergreen, p 138
  19. ^ "Purchasing Power of Money in the United States from 1774 to 2008." Online calculator appears on the right side of website. http://www.measuringworth.com/ppowerus/index.php
  20. ^ Nolan, John Matthew "2,543 Days: A history of the Hotel at the Grand Rapids Dam on the Wabash River"
  21. ^ Walker, Jason (2009-07-07). "Templeton Rye of Templeton, Iowa". Heavy Table. http://heavytable.com/templeton-rye-of-templeton-iowa/. Retrieved 2010-12-04. 
  22. ^ By Mike M. Ahlers and Eric Marrapodi CNN (2009-01-06). "Obama's wheels: Secret Service to unveil new presidential limo - CNN.com". Edition.cnn.com. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/06/driving.obama/index.html#cnnSTCOther1. Retrieved 2010-03-12. 
  23. ^ "Visitors to the Court-Historic Trials". US District Court-Northern District of Illinois. http://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/home/CourtHouseVisitors.aspx. Retrieved 2011-02-10. 
  24. ^ Linder, Douglas O.. "Selected Documents: Jury Verdict Form (October 17, 1931)". Al Capone Trial. University of Missouri–Kansas City. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/capone/caponeverdict.html. Retrieved 2011-10-16. 
  25. ^ Bergreen, p. 484
  26. ^ Bergreen, pp. 486-487
  27. ^ Capone v. United States, 56 F.2d 927 (1931), cert. denied, 286 U.S. 553, 76 L.Ed. 1288, 52 S.Ct. 503; (1932); United States v. Capone, 93 F.2d 840 (1937), cert. denied, 303 U.S. 651, 82 L.Ed. 1112, 58 S.Ct. 750 (1938).
  28. ^ "First Prisoners Arrive at Alcatraz Prison (Likely Including Al Capone)". Timelines.com. 1934-08-11. http://timelines.com/1934/8/11/first-prisoners-arrive-at-alcatraz-prison-likely-including-al-capone. Retrieved 2011-01-27. 
  29. ^ Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
  30. ^ Al Capone: Chicago's Most Infamous Mob Boss - The Crime library.
  31. ^ J. Campbell Bruce, "Escape from Alcatraz", Random House Digital, Inc. (2005), p 32.
  32. ^ John J. Binder, "The Chicago Outfit", Arcadia Publishing (2003), p 41-42.
  33. ^ Federal Bureau of Investigation. "Famous Cases and Criminals - Al Capone". www.fbi.gov. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/al-capone. Retrieved 2010-11-09. 
  34. ^ "Capone Dead At 48; Dry Era Gang Chief". Associated Press. Nytimes.com. 2009-04-02. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0117.html. Retrieved 2010-03-12. 
  35. ^ Puzo, Mario (1969). The Godfather. pp. 214–217. ISBN 0-7493-2468-6. 
  36. ^ www.NYCGangland.com
  37. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Al-Capone-Untold-Inside/dp/0982845103/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327756747&sr=1-1
  38. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Newman, Kim (1997). Hardy, Phil. ed. The BFI companion to crime. Cassell. pp. 72–73. ISBN 0-304-33215-1. OCLC 247004388. http://books.google.co.za/books?id=agfHUakbj5kC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=%22Barry+Sullivan%22+capone&source=bl&ots=EzxDcfye59&sig=EolUsBQjSaoIZnUBQffBerN1E9c&hl=en&ei=bd6rSpaYOYnbjQfJpv3cBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=%22Barry%20Sullivan%22%20capone&f=false. Retrieved 2009-09-12. 
  39. ^ "Video Beat: 'Perdition' exudes a hellish beauty". Seattle Post-Inteligencer. 2003-03-01. http://www.seattlepi.com/movies/110543_vid01.shtml. Retrieved 2009-09-12. 
  40. ^ Loewenstein, Lael (2009-05-20). "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117940315.html?categoryid=31&cs=1. Retrieved 2009-09-12. 
  41. ^ "Prince Buster, Al Capone". ChartStats.com. http://www.chartstats.com/release.php?release=4375. Retrieved July 22, 2011. 
  42. ^ "Gangsters by The Specials". SongFacts.com. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=5253. Retrieved July 22, 2011. 
  43. ^ "The Night Chicago Died". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Chicago_Died. Retrieved January 12, 2012. 
  44. ^ "Al Capone Zone | Alchemist Song". New.music.yahoo.com. http://new.music.yahoo.com/alchemist/tracks/al-capone-zone--207389271. Retrieved 2011-01-27. 

Further reading

  • Capone, Deirdre Marie; Uncle Al Capone - The Untold Story from Inside His Family. Recap Publishing LLC ISBN 978-0982845103
  • Kobler, John. Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81285-1
  • Pasley, Fred D. Al Capone: The Biography of a Self-Made Man. Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Co., 2004. ISBN 1-4179-0878-5
  • Schoenberg, Robert J. Mr. Capone. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. ISBN 0-688-12838-6
  • MacDonald, Alan. Dead Famous – Al Capone and his Gang Scholastic.
  • Hoffman Dennis E. Scarface Al and the Crime Crusaders: Chicago's Private War Against Capone Southern Illinois University Press; 1st edition (November 24, 1993) ISBN 978-0-8093-1925-1

External links

Preceded by
Johnny Torrio
Chicago Outfit Boss
1925–1932
Succeeded by
Frank Nitti



 
 
Related topics:
Cicero (town, United States)
Al Ruscio (Actor, Drama/Comedy)
Alcatraz (1988 History Film)

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