05-08-17 History 102 Micah Mullin History Project Life of Al Capone Al Capone is the most famous gangster of American hisory. He is known for his powerful criminal network during the prohibition. He was married to Mae Josephine Coughlin and had a son named Albert Francis (Sonny) Capone. Capone first became involved with smaller gangs that including the Bowery Boys and Junior Forty Thieves. Later he joined a much more powerful gang known as the Brooklyn Rippers, and then moved on to the even more powerful five point gang. During this time, he worked for and was taught by a fellow racketeer by the name of Frankie Yale. One day Capone inadvertently insulted a woman while working the door at a Brooklyn night club. This lead to her brother …show more content…
Capone worked as a bouncer in a brothel, it was at this time that he contracted syphilis. For some reason Capone never sought treatment that likely could have cured him. In 1923, he purchased a house and his name began to pop up in the papers sports pages. Jonny Torrio took over the whole Chicago operation after the boss was murdered. It is suspected that Capone was involved in his murder. Their new territory was vast, reaching all the way to Canada. The operation was the largest organized crime group in the city. Torrio was very concerned with a gang war and would try to negotiate instead of fight. The north side gang was a smaller gang that was led by Dean O Banion. The north side gang came under pressure from another gang that was allied with Torrio. O Banion discovered that despite Torrio’s talk about wanting to negotiate instead of fight, he wouldn’t lift a finger to fix the problem. Eventually Torrio had O Banion killed and those who took his place made revenge their number one …show more content…
Despite all of the crime Capone was implicated in, there was no evidence that would allow law enforcement to make a serious charge stick. They decided if they couldn’t get him on a charge such as murder, they would have to find something else. Since Capone did not report his illegally acquired earnings to the IRS they decided they could put him away for tax evasion. In prison he was able to complete his job of sewing soles onto shoes, but it was evident from the letters he sent from prison that his mentation was deteriorating. Capone was eventually moved to Alcatraz island. He was stabbed by another inmate and spent the last year of his prison sentence in the hospital. His sentence was completed on June 6th
“Renowned as America's first Public Enemy No. 1, Capone came to Chicago in 1919 at the age of twenty and within three years became one of the city's most successful gangsters” (Karamanski). In other words, Al Capone had become in a short time frame become the most dangerous man in Chicago during the 1920s and everyone’s attention was turned towards him. His gang had become the most powerful gang to have ever existed in the city and to do that Al Capone had been able to find ways to stay undetected by the police force and even the FBI(Federal Bureau of Investigation). Everytime that they came close to catching him he always had an alibi and proof to back up what it was he claimed he was doing or where ever it was that he had claimed to
Al Capone also known as Scarface was a 1920’s mob boss in the city of Chicago, Illinois. He came from a family of Italian immigrants and he was raised in New York City. Capone was part of a gang in New York until he got a invitation from Tarrio in 1920 to come to Chicago and join his mafia. But in 1925 Tarrio was almost killed in a shootout with a rival gang so he steps down from mob boss and hands the mafia to Capone. Once Al became the boss he started to sell whiskey which at the time was illegal because of Prohibition.
The most notorious gangster was Al Capone. You might ask yourself who is Al Capone? Alphonse Capone, also known as "Scarface", was born on January 17, 1899 and died January 25, 1947. He was one of the most famous American gangsters who became famous as the leader of the Chicago Outfit.
Shortly after Capone arrived in Chicago in 1919 Big Jim was assassinated and people suspected it was either Capone or Yale doing. For the reason that it would administrate Torrio to the boss. When the prohibition was introduced it brought the gang immense wealth because the market for alcohol was in enormous demand the gang started bootlegging. In the year of 1925 there was a failed assassination attempt on Torrio by a rival gang and this frightened Torrio into retirement in Italy. After Torrio retired Capone became the man in charge and he expanded their territory by brutality and viciously annihilating his opposition and bribing corrupt officials and
Al Capone went to elementary school in Brooklyn. He was a good student, but he began falling behind and had to do sixth grade over again. About that time he began to hang out at the Brooklyn docks, at age 14. One day Capone's female teacher hits him for insolence, but he struck back. Then he was expelled, and never went back.
Al Capone started off as a teenage thug, but became an intricate businessman who had immense control throughout Chicago. He was seen as a celebrity due to his constant appearance in the media. Capone was born in Brooklyn in 1899 to an Italian family. At age fourteen, he started his involvement in gangs when he was kicked out of school for hitting a teacher. As a result, he started hanging out with boys in gangs and got a reputation as a cruel enforcer.
Capone and his mentor Johnny were really gaining a reputation now and the police were trying their hardest to put them in jail but it had not worked at all for a while until eventually Johnny was convicted. After Johnny’s time in prison he decided to return to Italy and Capone took his rightful spot as the crime boss of Chicago. He was running gambling and prostitution rings and was expanding his territory by killing off rival gang leaders and taking over their gangs. By 1927, Capone’s wealth was estimated to be close to $100 million dollars and it was almost as if nobody could stop him anymore. In 1929 Capone decided to kill 7 unarmed members of a rival gang.
At his school there was a lot of violence. Soon he got expelled because he hit a female teacher. He was only age 14. Later when he got older he moved to Chicago where he met Terro who was a gang leader. When Capone joined the gang some one in the gang didn't like him so they hit Capone across the left cheek with a knife or a razor which gave him the nickname "Scare Face".
On November 14,1920, Capone’s father passed away from a heart attack. When Capone returned to New York for his father’s funeral, he ran into Johnny Torrio,his previous boss. Torrio told him that he moved his business to Chicago and wanted Capone to join. So in 1921, Capone and his family moved to Chicago to start his career as a gangster. This was after the Prohibition had begun, and the Torrio-Capone organization organized the sale and distribution of illegal alcoholic beverages (Baughman 2).
Al Capone met a guy named johnny torrio who showed him the ways of being a respectable gangster. “In 1925 Torrio retired, and Capone became crime czar of Chicago, running gambling, prostitution and bootlegging rackets and expanding his territories by the gunning down of rivals and rival gangs. ”(biography.com). Capones first big job was to get in the election in Cicero and move everything over to
After being kicked out he eventually found Johnny Torrio who would change Al Capone’s life forever. He helped Jonny run drugs to woman to anything illegal. During one of his escapades Capone met another gangster who was from the opposite side of town who cut Capone’s left cheek and left a long scar. Which eventually he got his name Scarface. Torrio Eventually moved to Chicago to run a whorehouse in 1909.
Al Capone was no exception. Since Capone’s childhood consisted of living in two gangs, he later joined another gang called “James Street Boys,” whose leader was Johnny Torrio (known mobster in this period), who later would become Al Capone’s mentor in the underworld. Torrio was also an associate of another gang called the Five Points Gang, which later promoted Capone at the age of sixteen to a full-time member and started working with aspiring mobster Frankie Yale in his Brothel-Saloon as a bartender, where he would learn and develop the knowledge of a gangster and the strategies. Before turning 21, Capone was already involved in trouble. For example, while working as a bartender, Al Capone made a misjudged compliment to a woman at the bar.
Capone was the most powerful gangster of his time, a very smart one. Capone is in many ways like Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, they both are smart and know how to not get caught in there illegal business. Jay was involved in the bootlegging business for a short time, he owned a drug store where the illegal drinks were sold by his trusted business partner Meyer Wolfshiem. Capone established himself in Chicago, he rose to notoriety. Capone wasn’t known to the public as a scary gangster but a “ Robin Hood of his time” he would regularly donate to charity and other organizations.
He was one of 8 siblings and they lived the typical life of poor Italian immigrants. According to the History.com staff “Capone was a good student […] but began falling behind and had to repeat the sixth grade. […] One day, Capone’s teacher hit him for insolence and he struck back. The principal gave him a beating, and Capone never again returned to school”. (n.pag.)
The Untouchables During 1920s-30s the prohibition era restricted the sale of alcohol, referred to as the eighteenth amendment; Volstead act. Many people approved of the bill and some were against it, but it had to be done to prevent further harm to society, and themselves. The temperance movement helped to get the prohibition law in made into a bill. The movement was organized to limit the consumption of alcohol from people who became intoxicated all the time, and to protect children and families from suffering financially. According to Archives.gov, “The Women's Christian Temperance Union pledged not only to ban alcohol and drugs, but to improve public morals.