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Al Capone is America's best known gangster and the single greatest symbol of
the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s Prohibition
era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal activities that lent Chicago its
reputation as a lawless city. Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn,
New York. Baptized Alphonsus Capone, he grew up in a rough neighborhood and was
a member of two kid gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors.
Although he was bright, Capone quit school in the sixth grade at age fourteen.
Between scams he was a clerk in a candy store, a pinboy in a bowling alley, and
a cutter in a book bindery. He became part of the notorious Five Points gang in
Manhattan and worked in gangster Frankie Yale's Brooklyn dive, the Harvard Inn,
as a bouncer and bartender. While working at the Inn, Capone received his
infamous facial scars and the resulting nickname Scarface when he insulted a
patron and was attacked by her brother.
In 1918, Capone met an Irish girl named
Mary Mae Coughlin at a dance. On December 4, 1918, Mae gave birth to their son,
Albert Sonny Francis. Capone and Mae married that year on December 30. Capone's
first arrest was on a disorderly conduct charge while he was working for Yale.
He also murdered two men while in New York, early testimony to his willingness
to kill. In accordance with gangland etiquette, no one admitted to hearing or
seeing a thing so Capone was never tried for the murders. After Capone
hospitalized a rival gang member, Yale sent him to Chicago to wait until things
cooled off. Capone arrived in Chicago in 1919 and moved his family into a house
at 7244 South Prairie Avenue. Capone went to work for Yale's old mentor, John
Torrio. Torrio saw Capone's potential, his combination of physical strength and
intelligence, and encouraged his protˇ gˇ . Soon Capone was helping Torrio
manage his bootlegging business. By mid-1922 Capone ranked as Torrio's number
two man and eventually became a full partner in the saloons, gambling houses,and
brothels. When Torrio was shot by rival gang members and consequently decided to
leave Chicago, Capone inherited the outfit and became boss. The outfit's men
liked, trusted, and obeyed Capone, calling him The Big Fellow. He quickly proved
that he was even better at organization than syndicating and expanding the
city's vice industry between 1925 and 1930. Capone controlled speakeasies,
bookie joints, gambling houses, brothels, income of $100,000,000 a year. He even
acquired a sizable interest in the largest cleaning and dyeing plant chain in
Chicago. Although he had been doing business with Capone, the corrupt Chicago
mayor William Big Bill Hale Thompson, Jr. decided that Capone was bad for his
political image.
Thompson hired a new police chief to run Capone out of Chicago.
When Capone looked for a new place to live, he quickly discovered that he was
unpopular in much of the country. He finally bought an estate at 93 Palm Island,
Florida in 1928. Attempts on Capone's life were never successful. He had an
extensive spy network in Chicago, from newspaper boys to policemen, so that any
plots were quickly discovered. Capone, on the other hand, was skillful at
isolating and killing his enemies when they became too powerful. A typical
Capone murder consisted of men renting an apartment across the street from the
victim's residence and gunning him down when he stepped outside. The operations
were quick and complete and Capone always had an alibi. Capone's most notorious
killing was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. On February 14, 1929, four Capone
men entered a garage at 2122 N. Clark Street. The building was the main liquor
headquarters of bootlegger George Bugs Moran's North Side gang. Because two of
Capone's men were dressed as police, the seven men in the garage thought it was
a police raid. As a result, they dropped their guns and put their hands against
the wall. Using two shotguns and two machine guns, the Capone men fired more
than 150 bullets into the victims. Six of the seven killed were members of
Moran's gang; the seventh was an unlucky friend. Moran, probably the real
target, was across the street when Capone's men arrived and stayed away when he
saw the police uniforms. As usual, Capone had an alibi; he was in Florida during
the massacre. Although Capone ordered dozens of deaths and even killed with his
own hands, he often treated people fairly and generously. He was equally known
for his violent temper and for his strong sense of loyalty and honor. He was the
first to open soup kitchens after the 1929 stock market crash and he ordered
merchants to give clothes and food to the needy at his expense. Capone had
headquarters in Chicago proper in the Four Deuces at 2222 S. Wabash, the
Metropole Hotel at 2300 S. Michigan Avenue, and the Lexington Hotel at 2135 S.
Michigan Avenue. He expanded into the suburbs, sometimes using terror as in
Forest View, which became known as Caponeville. Sometimes he simply bribed
public officials and the police as in Cicero. He established suburban
headquarters in Cicero's Anton Hotel at 4835 W. 22nd Street and in the Hawthorne
Hotel at 4823 22nd Street. He pretended to be an antique dealer and a doctor to
front his headquarters. Because of gangland's traditional refusal to prosecute,
Capone was never tried for most of his crimes. He was arrested in 1926 for
killing three people, but spent only one night in jail because there was
insufficient evidence to connect him with the murders. When Capone finally
served his first prison time in May of 1929, it was simply for carrying a gun.
In 1930, at the peak of his power, Capone headed Chicago's new list of the
twenty-eight worst criminals and became the city'sPublic Enemy Number One. The
popular belief in the 1920s and 30s was that illegal gambling earnings were not
taxable income. However, the 1927 Sullivan ruling claimed that illegal profits
were in fact taxable. The government wanted to indict Capone for income tax
evasion, Capone never filed an income tax return, owned nothing in his own name,
and never made a declaration of assets or income. He did all his business
through front men so that he was anonymous when it came to income. Frank Wilson
from the IRS's Special Intelligence Unit was assigned to focus on Capone. Wilson
accidentally found a cash receipts ledger that not only showed the but also
contained Capone's name; it was a record of Capone's income. Later Capone's own
tax lawyer Lawrence P. Mattingly admitted in a letter to the letter, and the
coercion of witnesses were the main evidence used to convict Capone. In 1931,
Capone was indicted for income tax evasion for the years 1925-29. He was also
charged with the misdemeanor of failing to file tax returns for the years 1928
and 1929. The government charged that Capone owed $215,080.48 in taxes from his
gambling profits. A third indictment was added, charging Capone with conspiracy
to violate 1922-31. Capone pleaded guilty to all three charges in the belief
that he would be able to plea bargain. However, the judge who presided over the
case, Judge James H. Wilkerson, would not make any deals. Capone changed his
pleas to not guilty. Unable to bargain, he tried to bribe the jury but Wilkerson
changed the jury panel at the last minute. The jury found Capone not guilty on
eighteen of the twenty-three counts. Judge Wilkerson sentenced him to a total of
ten years in federal prison and one year in the county jail. In addition, Capone
had to serve an earlier six-month contempt of court sentence for failing to
appear in court. The fines were a cumulative $50,000 and Capone had to pay the
prosecution costs of $7,692.29.
In May 1932, Capone was sent to Atlanta, the
toughest of the federal prisons, to begin his eleven-year sentence. Even in
prison Capone took control, obtaining special privileges from the authorities
such as furnishing his cell with a mirror, typewriter, rugs, and a set of the
Encyclopedia Britannica. Because word spread that Capone had taken over in
Atlanta, he was sent to Alcatraz. There were no other outfit members in
Alcatraz, and security was so tight that he had no knowledge of the outside
world. He was unable to control anyone or anything and could not buy influence
or friends. In an attempt to earn time off for good behavior, Capone became the
ideal prisoner and refused to participate in prisoner rebellions or strikes.
While at Alcatraz, he exhibited signs of syphilitic dementia. Capone spent the
rest of his felony sentence in the hospital. On January 6, 1939, his prison term
expired and he was transferred to Terminal Island, a Federal Correctional
Institution in California, to serve his one-year misdemeanor sentence. He was
finally released on November 16, 1939, but still had to pay fines and court
costs of $37,617.51. After his release, Capone spent a short time in the
hospital. He returned to his home in Palm Island where the rest of his life was
relaxed and quiet. His mind and body continued to deteriorate so that he could
no longer run the outfit. On January 21, 1947, he had an apoplectic stoke that
was probably unrelated to his syphilis. He regained consciousness and began to
improve until pneumonia set in on January 24. He died the next day from cardiac
arrest. Capone was first buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago's far South
Side between the graves of his father, Gabriele, and brother, Frank, but in
March of 1950 the remains of all three were moved Cemetery on the far West Side.
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