Al Capone

"Capone" redirects here. For other uses, see Capone (disambiguation).

Alphonse Capone
File:Capone Teenager.jpg
Status	Deceased
Occupation(s)	gangster, bootlegger
Spouse	Mae Josephine Coughlin
Children	Albert Francis Capone
Criminal charge	Tax Evasion
Penalty	Imprisonment from 1932 to 1939

Alphonse Gabriel Capone (January 17, 1899 - January 25, 1947), popularly known as "Scarface" Al Capone, was an American gangster who led a crime syndicate dedicated to the illegal trafficking of alcoholic beverages during the time of prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s. Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Neapolitan emigrants Gabriele and Teresina Capone, he began his career in Brooklyn before moving to Chicago and becoming the boss of the criminal organization known as the Chicago Outfit (although his business card reportedly described him as a used furniture dealer).

By the end of the 1920s, Capone had gained the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation following his being placed on the Chicago Crime Commission's "public enemies" list. Although never successfully convicted of racketeering charges, Capone's criminal career ended in 1931 when he was indicted and convicted by the federal government for income tax evasion.

Early life

Capone was born to Gabriele Capone (December 12, 1864 – November 14, 1920) and his wife Teresina Raiola (December 28, 1867 – November 29, 1952) in Brooklyn, on January 17, 1899. Gabriele was a barber from Castellammare di Stabia, a town about 15 miles (24 km) south of Naples, Italy. Teresina was a seamstress and the daughter of Angelo Raiola from Angri, a town in the province of Salerno in south-western Italy. The Capones had emigrated to the United States in 1894, and settled in the Navy Yard section of downtown Brooklyn. When Al was fourteen, the Capone family moved to 21 Garfield Place, in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The new home was where Al met Mae Josephine Coughlin, whom he married a few years later at St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church, and gangster Johnny Torrio.

Gabriele and Teresina had seven sons and two daughters:

• Vincenzo Capone (1892 – October 1, 1952).
• Raffaele Capone (January 12, 1894 – November 22, 1974).
• Salvatore Capone (January 1895 – April 1, 1924). Called "Frank". Killed by police after firing on officers.
• Alphonse Gabriel Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947).
• Erminio Capone (born 1901, date of death unknown). Called “John” or affectionately “Mimi.” He served prison terms for minor offenses such as vagrancy and illegal possession of alcohol. He changed his last name to “Martin” and reportedly was still alive in 1994.
• Umberto Capone (1906 – June 1980). Called “Albert”. He was an employee of the newspaper Cicero Tribune under the ownership of his brother Al. He changed his last name to “Raiola” in 1942.
• Matthew Capone (1908 – January 31, 1967). A tavern owner.
• Rose Capone (Born and died 1910).
• Mafalda Capone (January 28 1912 – March 25, 1988).

Early criminal career

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 petty crime.

Capone left school in the sixth grade aged 14, after being expelled for punching a teacher at Public School 133. He then worked at odd jobs around Brooklyn, including in a candy store and a bowling alley. After his initial stint with small-time gangs, Capone joined the notorious Five Points Gang, headed by Frankie Yale. It was at this time he began working as a bartender and a bouncer at Yale's establishment, the seedy Harvard Inn. It was there that Capone got his nickname "Scarface". When he was working as a waiter for a young couple, he leaned down and said to the woman, "Honey, you have a nice ass and I mean that as a compliment". Her brother, Frank Gallucio, pulled a knife on Capone and slashed him in the face three times before leaving the bar with his sister. The knife wounds left gruesome looking scars on his face, which plagued him for the rest of his life. Word of the fight eventually reached Yale, who forced Capone to apologize to Gallucio. This incident caused Yale to take Capone under his wing and eventually led to his rule over the Chicago Outfit. It is speculated that Capone forgave Frank Gallucio and even hired him as a bodyguard later in his career. However, the scar on his face stayed for life, earning him the nickname "Scarface" which he truly disliked, and once, allegedly, killed another man because he called him that.

On December 30, 1918, Capone married Mae Josephine Coughlin, an Irish woman who shortly before their marriage had given birth to his son, Albert Francis ("Sonny") Capone. The couple lived in Brooklyn before moving to Amityville, Long Island, to be close to "Rum Row."

Capone was still working for Frankie Yale and is thought to have committed at least two murders before being sent to Chicago in 1919, mainly to avoid the retribution of Bill Lovett, a violent lieutenant in the White Hand Gang, who was busy searching for Capone who had supposedly hospitalized one of his subordinates. Capone was familiar with Chicago, having been sent there previously by Yale in order to help crime boss James "Big Jim" Colosimo dispose of a troublesome group of Black Hand extortionists. Capone went to work for Colosimo's empire under Giovanni "Johnny" Torrio, another Brooklyn native.

Chicago

Torrio immediately recognized Capone's talents, and soon Capone was elevated to running the Four Deuces bar and given responsibility for much of the alcohol and prostitution rackets in the city of Chicago. With prohibition in full effect, there was a fortune to be made in bootlegging. Colosimo's reluctance to move into this area of crime led to his murder on May 11, 1920, in the foyer of his own nightclub. Frankie Yale was later arrested for the murder, but the case collapsed through lack of evidence. Torrio was now in charge and promoted Capone to be his second in command.

The Capone family moved to Chicago for good, buying a red-brick bungalow at 7244 South Prairie Avenue on the city's South Side. The house served as Al Capone's first headquarters.

Activity in Cicero, Illinois

After the 1923 election of reform mayor William Emmett Dever in Chicago, 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 crooked elections in the Chicago area's long history, with voters threatened at polling stations by thugs. Capone's mayoral candidate won by a huge margin but only weeks later announced that he would run Capone out of town. Capone met with his puppet-mayor and personally knocked him down the town hall steps, a powerful assertion of gangster power and a major victory for the Torrio-Capone alliance.

For Capone, this event was marred by the death of Capone's brother Frank at the hands of the police. As was the custom amongst gangsters Capone signalled his mourning by attending the funeral unshaven, and he cried openly at the gathering. He ordered the closure of all the speakeasies in Cicero for a day as a mark of his respect.

Much of Capone's family put down roots in Cicero as well. In 1930, Capone's sister Mafalda's marriage took place at St. Mary of Czestochowa, a massive Neogothic edifice towering over Cicero avenue in the so-called Polish Cathedral style.

Capone's wealth and power grows in Chicago

File:Capone'scastle.jpg

The Lexington Hotel, Chicago. Capone's headquarters. Known as Capone's castle. Photographed in the 1990s; it is now demolished

Severely injured in a 1925 assassination attempt by the North Side Gang, the shaken Torrio turned over his business to Capone and returned to Italy. Capone was notorious during the Prohibition era for his control of large portions of the Chicago underworld, which provided the Outfit with an estimated US$10 million per year in revenue. This wealth was generated through all manner of illegal enterprises, although the largest money-maker was the sale of liquor. Demand was met by a transportation network that moved smuggled liquor from the rum-runners of the East Coast and The Purple Gang in Detroit and local production in the form of Midwestern moonshine operations and illegal breweries. With the funds generated by his bootlegging operation, Capone's grip on the political and law enforcement establishments in Chicago grew stronger. Through this organized corruption, which included the bribing of Mayor of Chicago William "Big Bill" Hale Thompson, Capone's gang operated largely free from legal intrusion, which allowed his gang to operate brothels, casinos and speakeasies throughout Chicago. Wealth also permitted Capone to indulge in a luxurious lifestyle of custom suits, cigars, gourmet food/drink (his preferred liquor was Templeton Rye from Iowa), jewelry, and female companionship.

However, this unprecedented level of criminal success drew the attention of Capone's rivals, particularly his bitter rivalries with North Side gangsters such as Dion O’Banion, Bugs Moran and Lieutenant Earl "Hymie" Weiss. Such opposition lead to attempts to assassinate Capone throughout the 1920s. He was shot in a restaurant, and he had his car riddled with bullets more than once. These attacks prompted Capone to order the outfitting of his Cadillac with armor plating, bullet-proof glass, run-flat tires, and a police siren. However, most of the would-be assassins were incompetent, and Capone was never seriously wounded. Members of the gang that had wounded Torrio shot into the headquarters of Capone's gang, which was disguised as a doctor's office and an antique dealer's shop. Nobody was hurt in the raid (Capone's bodyguard threw him to the ground at the first sound of gunfire), although the headquarters was riddled with bullet holes. When the headquarters moved to the Lexington Hotel, Capone had it filled with his armed bodyguards around the clock. For his trips away from Chicago, Capone was reputed to have had several other retreats and hideouts located in Brookfield, Wisconsin; Saint Paul, Minnesota; Olean, New York; French Lick, as well as Terre Haute, Indiana; Dubuque, Iowa; Hot Springs, Arkansas; Johnson City, Tennessee; and Lansing, Michigan. Tunnels found under the city of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, are said to have been another hideout of Capone's.

In 1928, Capone bought a retreat on Palm Island, Florida. It was shortly after this purchase that he orchestrated the most notorious gangland killing of the century, the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on Chicago's North Side. Although details of the killing of the seven victims in a garage at 2122 North Clark Street are still in dispute and no one was ever indicted for the crime, their deaths are generally linked to Capone and his henchmen, especially Jack "Machine Gun" McGurn, who is thought to have led the operation, using Thompson submachine guns. By staging the massacre, Capone was trying to dispose of his arch-rival Bugs Moran, who controlled gang operations on the North Side of Chicago. Moran, spotting what he thought to be a police car, decided to keep walking and did not enter the garage.

Capone often tried to whitewash his image and be seen as a community leader. For example, he started a program, which was continued for decades after his death, to fight rickets by providing a daily milk ration to Chicago school children. Such efforts, however, did not change his reputation for violence and murder within the city. Also during the Great Depression, Capone opened up a few soup kitchens for the poor and homeless. Capone was a man with style, and if he ever killed someone himself, or one of his henchmen killed an important person, hundreds of dollars worth of flowers was sent to the funeral, and even Capone and some of his men went to the funeral. In one instance, one of Capone's rival gang leaders was killed by his men, and Capone sent $5,000 worth of flowers to the funeral. In one fight between Capone's men and another gang, an innocent woman was shot, not fatally, and required hospital treatment. Capone paid for all the hospital fees.

Federal income taxes and downfall

Al Capone's privileged cell in Eastern State Penitentiary, where he spent ten months in 1929-1930 for possession of a concealed weapon.

Although Capone always did his business through front men and had no accounting records in his own name (even his mansion was in his wife's name), Al Alcini started linking him to his earnings. The federal income tax laws allowed the federal government to pursue Capone on tax evasion, their best chance of finally convicting him.

Part of the reason Capone was taken to task in this way was his status as a celebrity. On the advice of his publicist, he did not hide from the media by the mid 1920s and began to make public appearances. When Charles Lindbergh performed his famous transatlantic flight in 1927, Capone was among the first to push forward and shake his hand upon his arrival in Chicago. He gained a great deal of admiration from many of the poor in Chicago for his flagrant disregard of the prohibition law that they despised. He was viewed for a time as a lovable outlaw, partially because of his extravagant generosity to strangers and often lending a hand to struggling Italian-Americans. His night club, the Cotton Club, became a hot-spot for new acts such as Charlie Parker and Bing Crosby. He was often cheered in the street, and it was only the brutal murders of the St. Valentine's Day massacre that made people view Capone, once again, as a killer and socially unacceptable.

Capone headed a list of "public enemies" corrupting the city compiled by the chairman of the Chicago Crime Commission, Frank J. Loesch, in April 1930. The list was published by newspapers nationwide, and Capone became known as "Public Enemy No. 1."

Pursuing Capone were Treasury agent Eliot Ness and his hand-picked team of incorruptible U.S. Prohibition agents, "The Untouchables," and internal revenue agent Frank Wilson of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Internal Revenue. During a routine warehouse raid, they discovered in a desk drawer what was clearly a crudely coded set of accounts. Ness then concentrated on pursuing Capone for his failure to pay tax on this substantial illegal income. This story has become a legend and the subject of books and films.

Capone was tried in a federal court in 1931. The Alcinis tried to help Capone, but he pleaded guilty to the charges on advice of his legal counsel hoping for a plea bargain. But after the judge refused his lawyer's offers, and the jury was replaced on the day of the trial to frustrate Capone's associates' efforts to bribe or intimidate the original panel, Al Capone was found guilty on five of 22 counts of tax evasion for the years 1925, 1926, and 1927, and willful failure to file tax returns for 1928 and 1929. Capone's legal team offered to pay all outstanding tax and interest and told their client to expect a severe fine. The judge sentenced him to eleven years in a federal prison and one year in the county jail, as well as an earlier six-month contempt of court sentence; he ultimately served only six and a half years because of good behavior. He also had to pay fines and court costs totalling 80,000 dollars.

Prison time

In May 1932, Capone was sent to Atlanta, a tough federal prison, but he was able to take control and obtain special privileges. He was then transferred to Alcatraz, where tight security and an uncompromising warden ensured that Capone had no contact with the outside world. Capone entered Alcatraz with his usual confidence, but his isolation from his associates, and the repeal of Prohibition, meant his empire was beginning to wither. He attempted to earn time off for good behavior by being a model prisoner and refusing to participate in prisoner rebellions. When Capone attempted to bribe guards he was sent to the hole

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."

Capone earned the contempt of many of the inmates in Alcatraz when he refused to take part in a prisoners' strike after a sick inmate, accused of malingering, was denied medical treatment and died. Continuing his work in the prison laundry, Capone was continually harassed by other prisoners and often called a "scab" or "rat." He was eventually allowed to remain in his cell until the strike was resolved.

Shortly after returning to work, an unidentified inmate threw a heavy lead sash at Capone's head, but he suffered only a deep cut on the arm after being pushed out of the way by convicted bank robber Roy Gardner.

Reassigned to mopping up the prison bathhouse, Capone was nicknamed the "wop with the mop" by inmates. He was later stabbed in the back by Lucas, who was sentenced to solitary confinement. Capone was hospitalized for a week. He suffered further harassment and unsuccessful attempts on his life throughout his prison sentence, including spiking his coffee with lye and attacking him as he was walking towards the dentist's office. He remained under protection from several inmates (possibly from payoffs by the Chicago Outfit).

Though he adjusted relatively well to his new environment, his health declined as his syphilis (contracted as a youth) progressed, and he spent the last year of his sentence in the prison hospital, confused and disoriented. 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 his one-year misdemeanor sentence. He was released on November 16 1939, spent a short time in a hospital, then returned to his home in Palm Island, Florida.

Physical decline and death

Capone's control and interests within organized crime had decreased 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 declined, most noticeably with the onset of dementia probably caused by the third stage of untreated syphilis Capone had contracted in his youth.

On January 21, 1947, Capone had an apoplectic stroke. He regained consciousness and started to improve but contracted pneumonia on January 24, and suffered a cardiac arrest the next day (possibly associated with the complications of third-stage neurosyphilis).

Alphonse Capone was originally buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, in Chicago's far South Side between the graves of his father, Gabriele, and brother, Frank. However, in March 1950, the remains of all three family members were moved to Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois, west of Chicago.

Popular culture

Capone's persona and character have been used in fiction as a model for crime-lords and criminal masterminds ever since his death. His accent, mannerisms, facial construction, sometimes his physical stature, type of dress, and often even parodies of his name are found in various cartoon series villains as well as some movies. These characters are often shown as wily and crafty, rather than contemptible, criminal characters.

Film

• One of the most notorious American gangsters of the 20th century, Capone has been the subject of numerous articles, books, and films. He has been portrayed on screen by Nicholas Kokenes, Wallace Beery, Paul Muni, Barry Sullivan, Rod Steiger, Neville Brand, Jason Robards, Ben Gazzara, Robert De Niro, William Devane, Titus Welliver, Al Pacino, Anthony LaPaglia and William Forsythe.

• Two films fictionalizing aspects of his career were called Scarface. In the original 1932 version of the movie, his name was changed to Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, played by Paul Muni and in the 1983 version, it was changed to Antonio 'Tony' Montana, played by Al Pacino. The 1983 version, however, was remade to suit the modern day. The main difference is the main character, the Cuban Tony Montana, dealing in the Florida narcotics business instead of the illegal sale of alcohol. Both the original and the remake, reference how the downfall of both Tony Montana and Al Capone was tax evasion.

Literature

• Capone played a small role in the fictionalized "Salvatore Maranzano mob war" of 1933 in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel, The Godfather. (The actual Maranzano had, in fact, been killed in 1931). Maranzano had refused Don Vito Corleone's request for a partnership and sharing of the gambling and many other rackets, which Maranzano controlled, in New York City. According to the novel, Maranzano was good friends with Capone, and had requested two of his best gunmen to come to New York from Chicago in an attempt to end the upstart early. Luca Brasi and his men met the two gunmen at the train station, ushering them into a cab, and brought them to a warehouse. Luca hacked off the limbs of one of the men with an ax, causing him to bleed to death., and the other man swallowed his towel-gag in fear, and suffocated. Corleone sent a message to Capone, telling him, a Neapolitan, to stay out of the affairs of two Sicilians, and to never to come to New York City, as it was "unhealthy for Neapolitans". The Don esteemed Capone as a "stupid, obvious cutthroat." Capone sent back word that he would not interfere.

Television

• Capone and his era were highlighted in the 1959 television film The Untouchables and its feature film and television series remakes, which have created the myth of the personal war between the crime lord and Eliot Ness.

Music

• The Paper Lace song entitled "The Night Chicago Died" imagines Capone and his army of criminals waging war against the Chicago Police force.
• Capone is the subject of the Prince Buster song Al Capone and is the namesake of Rancid's Young Al Capone. Capone also appeared on the album art for Sufjan Stevens's 2005 album Illinois.
• Comedic songwriter Wesley Willis has a song about Al Capone. It is featured on his second greatest hits album.

Comics

• Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould created the villainous crime-boss Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in 1931 as a caricature of Capone.
• Al Capone was a villain in two books from the Tintin series. His gangsters are first encountered in Tintin in the Congo. Al Capone makes a brief appearance in Tintin in America when Tintin is sent to Chicago for the purpose of ridding it of criminal syndicates. This is the only notable appearance by a real person in the Tintin series.

Video games

• A fictional likeness of Al Capone stared in the XSEED game Shadow Hearts: From The New World along with representations of Eliot Ness and his sister Edna Capone when Johnny and the others go to Chicago during the game.

Further reading

• 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

External links

• Obituary, NY Times, January 26, 1947 Capone Dead At 48; Dry Era Gang Chief
• Al Capone in the 1900-1930 Census
• Selective Service System Records — Has photograph and registration card.
• Complete FBI files on Al Capone
• Find-A-Grave Alphonse ‘Al’ Capone
• A short profile of his older brother Vincenzo
• An article on the Brothers Capone
• Al Capone at IMDb
• "Did Al Capone once hide out in Johnson City?" Kingsport Times-News. July 31, 2006.
• johnsonsdepot.com "Little Chicago" (Johnson City, Tennessee)
• Al Capone at the Crime Library