Al Capone Biography

Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Gabriele Capone was a barber from Castellammare di Stabia, a village south of Naples, Italy. And his mother, Teresina Raiola (maiden name), was a seamstress at a town in the province of Salerno. The Capones had immigrated to the United States in 1894, and lived in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. Gabriele and Teresina had seven sons and two daughters including: Vincenzo Capone, Raffaele Capone, Salvatore Capone, Erminio Capone, Umberto Capone, Matthew Capone, Rose Capone, Mafalda Capone, and of coarse, Al Capone (born Alfonso Capone).

Capone's life of crime began early. As a teenager, he joined two gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors, and engaged in small crimes. He quit school in the sixth grade at the age of 14, after he fought with a teacher. Im sure that once Capone gave up school and joined gangs, he knew that he wanted to become a gangster. For preparations for the future, Capone would do some of the dirty work for the small gangs he was in.

After joining the infamous Five Point Gang, headed by Frankie Yale, he began working as a bartender and bouncer at Yale's establishment, The Seedy Harvard Inn. At this Inn, a guy, Frank Gallucio, and his sister came in; not knowing that the girl was Gallucio's sister, Capone made a "bold" move on her. Gallucio got mad, pulled out a switchblade and deeply slashed Capone's right cheek. The slash left a big scar, which eventually earned him the nickname "Scarface."

Capone was still working for Yale and is thought to have committed at least two murders before he was sent to Chicago in 1919. Yale ordered Capone to Chicago after he was involved in a fight with a rival gang. Yale's purpose was for Capone to "cool off" there. The move started one of the most infamous crime careers in modern American history.

The Capone family moved to a small house in Chicago. Cicero, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, became Al Capone's first headquarters. At the beginning, Capone took up grunt work with Giovanni "Johnny" Torrio, but Torrio immediately recognized Capone's talents and by 1922 Capone was Torrio's second in command, responsible for much of the alcohol and prostitution rackets in the city of Chicago. He later took over for Torrio.

In 1923, Chicago's city government began to put pressure on the gangster elements inside the city limits. To put its headquarters outside of city jurisdiction and create a safe zone for its operations, the Capone organization muscled its way into Cicero, Illinois. This led to one of Capone's greatest triumphs, the takeover of Cicero's town government in 1924. The 1924 town council elections in Cicero became known as one of the most