Al Capone

Alphonsus Capone, also known as "Scarface", is regarded as being one of the most infamous gangsters in the 1920's. Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Gabriel Capone, and mother, Theresa Capone had moved the family to New York from Italy(Bergreen, 1996, pg 5). The neighborhood Al grew up in was filled with gangs and was extremely violent. Capone was a member of a couple of junior gangs at the young age of 11, where he learned skills with knives and guns. Most of the gang's activities included gambling, pilfering, vandalism, sneaking a smoke or alcohol, secret ritual, smut sessions, fighting rival gangs. He soon became leader of the Forty Thieves Juniors, which is the younger version of the notorious adult Five Points gang("Made in America", Ch. 4). School had not been a big problem for Capone, in which he maintained a B average up to the 6th grade. It was then, around the age of 14, where he lost his temper with a teacher and hit her causing him to be kicked out of school. Between Capone's gang activities, he was a clerk in a candy store, a pinboy in a bowling alley, and a cutter in a book bindery("Al Capone).

Around the age of 16, Capone was introduced to the senior Five Points gang by his first mentor, Frankie Yale, a friend of Johnny Torrio, who would soon become Al's biggest role model. Frankie gave Capone a job at the Harvard Inn, in which he owned as a bouncer and bartender. The inn consisted of prostitution, gambling, extortion, and protection rackets(Stockdale, 1998, pg. 9). Capone's first arrest was on a disorderly conduct charge while he was working for Yale. He also murdered two men during this time in Manhattan, which foreshadowed his willingness to kill. Gang members were not aloud to admit to hearing or seeing a thing, so Capone was never tried for the murders. It was also there at the Harvard Inn, where a good looking lady entered with another man. Capone made a remark about the lady's nice body and the man who overheard Capone was her brother, Frank Gullucio. Gullucia attacked Capone, cutting his face three times with a knife. Capone was not injured severely, but the nickname "Scarface," would stick with him for the rest of his life(Kobler, 1971, pg. 16) The two later apologized to one another, and everything was fine. At the age of nineteen, Capone met a pretty Irish girl named Mae Coughlin. Their first son, Albert, was born right before they were married in December 1918. Now that Capone was a married father, he quite his job at Frankie's inn and became a bookkeeper. He was doing well, staying out of crime, when his father died, which brought out his old ways(Stockdale, 1998, pg.14). Capone was at a bar one night drinking and got into a fight almost killing a man. The man was a member a rival gang and Frankie Yale heard that they would be seeking revenge on Capone. He decided it would be best for Capone to move out to Chicago where Johnny Torrio would take him in. Capone made the move to Chicago in 1919. Capone did not mind, because he was very close with Johnny before he moved to Chicago a couple years back. Chicago was a great town to build a criminal empire because it was a very rowdy and loud, bloody, and heavy drinking town. Anyone with enough money could come in and buy it. It would not take long for the town to become politically corrupted.

Big Jim Colosimo, who was the owner of the Chicago's number one nightclub, Colosimo Cafй, worked with Johnny Torrio in making one of the nation's biggest empires. Torrio was strictly business with no interest in drinking, smoking, swearing, but he was the big reason the business was a huge success. By the time Capone arrived, Colosimo and Torrio were rich enough to do absolutely nothing for a long time. The law was never a problem for the gangsters because they would just use great amount of money to keep the law on their side. They would bribe cops, mayors, attorneys, or who ever else it took to keep them from behind bars. By late 1919, the advance of the Anti-Saloon League, a powerful temperance organization, prompted thirty-six out of the forty-eight states to pass prohibition laws, giving a majority that would make the prohibition of liquor federal law the next year(Stockdale, 1998, pg. 12). When the law became official, warehouses had already been stacked with barrels of liquor, and breweries were set up as part of Capone and Torrio's plan. However, Big Jim was now more interested in his wife and other things, and Torrio viewed him as a bump in the road. Torrio ordered Capone to come up with a plan to eliminate Big Jim. The plan was a success as Big Jim was shot and killed in his cafй by Frankie Yale, Capone's old boss. Now Torrio was able to control the multimillion dollar business that he built for Big Jim along with Capone as his right-hand man. The boost of business due to Prohibition, Capone and Torrio brought out more and more whorehouses, gambling joints, and underground breweries. Capone was soon promoted to manager of The Four Deuces, which was a speakeasy, gambling joint, and whorehouse all in one. There he became associated with Jack Guzik, who become a friend for life. Capone was doing great financially, and had purchased a nice home in a respected neighborhood for his wife and son, along with his mother who he brought in from New York("Made in America", Ch. 8). Capone was gaining wisdom rapidly and was becoming more of a self-controlled person, but he still lost his temper occasionally over minor incidents. An example occurred while he was driving some friends around town and crashed into a parked taxi. He stormed out of the car with rage and put a shotgun to the innocent cab driver's head, threatening to kill him. The police soon arrived and put him in jail, but the charges were dropped("Made in America" Ch. 9).

Rival gangs were becoming more of a problem for Torrio and Capone. There many attempts to take the two leaders down, but they both had great protection. Dion O'Banion, a gangster and a florist, led a gang in which Capone kept a close eye on. O'Banion was soon murdered by 3 men in his own flower shop, which was great news for Torrio and Capone in the business standpoint, but made them fear their lives everywhere they went. Torrio was so concerned that he left Chicago for a while to cool down, leaving the business strictly to Capone. George Moran and Hymie Wess were two men that constantly set out to kill Capone. The two totaled about 12 murder attempts but failed each time. About a month after Wess-Moran last attempt to kill Capone, Torrio came back to Chicago. He was greeted with