Al Capone

Al Capone

Alphonse Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, he was the son of recently immigrated Italians Gabriele and Teresina Capone. His family that came to America seeking a better life was poor. He was one of 8 children . Capone’s father was a barber and his mother a seamstress. He was a good student in elementary school and then started to fall behind. He had to repeat 6th grade. Which marked the time he started to hang out at the docs and play hooky. One of Capone’s teacher hit him for insolence and he actually hit back, the principal gave him a beating and never returned to school. Al’s childhood was very average, there was no extreme hardship that differed from the usual working immigrant family’s starting out in America. No one every though he would rise up to become America’s most notorious gangster.

He moved out of his childhood home to the outskirts of Park Slope in Brooklyn. In park Slope he met his wife Mary also known as Mae Coughlin, he also meet his soon to be mob mentor Johnny Torrio. Torrio ran a gambling ring near where Capone lived. Capone ran small errands for him. Early in his adult hood Capone got legitimating employment which included him working in a munitions factory as a paper cutter. The time he did run with the different gangs in Brooklyn nothing eventful happened.  1917 Torrio got Capone a job as a bartender and a bouncer at the Harvard inn in Coney island. He was rude to women and definitely not a scholar, he said dirty things to this women as he was bartender. The brother of the women retaliated by slashing him in the face 3 times leaving scars that latter inspired his nick name “Scarface”.

Capone was 19 years old when he married Mae Coughlin, just weeks after the birth of their child, Albert Francis. His friend and former Johnny Torrio was the boy’s godfather. Capone wanted to do right by his family, in order to do this he moved to Baltimore where he took an honest job as a bookkeeper for a construction company. In the 1920's Capone’s father died of a heart attack. Torrio as him and Copone where still friends invited him to come to Chicago. Capone jumped at the opportunity, in order to make bank on the food found gold mind of prostitution and alcohol. He was so good his skills quickly moved him to promotion after promotion making him partner. Capone was not a quite criminal unlike Torrio he was driving drunk and hit a parked taxi. Luckily Torrio was able to get him off because of his government connections. Soon after he cleaned up bought a modest house for his entire family. When there business was trying to be exposed by the new mayor they pulled all there strings and influences to get there candidate elected. They also moved there operation outside of city bounds. They even went as far as to shoot voters.

Different sources of the time estimated Capone’s operations generated $100 million in revenue annually. But under estimated his support from the public. He has immense influence on the community. But soon the event known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre where he didn't kill his ended target being Moran, the rival gang leader who had previously attempted a hit on Capone. Capone and his best hit man failed to get the correct hit but instead murdered 7 of Moran's men. He became public enemy #1.

After this incident Herbert Hoover sent federal agents to capture Capone and bring him to justice, but not on the murders and other criminal activity but his tax evasion. He tried to get off of all of his charges by bullying the jury but at the last possible moment the judge changed the entire jury. Not giving Capone time to influence which then he got slapped with the maximum sentence of 11 years. Capone spent the first two years of his incarceration in a federal prison in Atlanta.
 He was caught bribing guards,  so they sent  him to island prison of Alcatraz. Isolated he could not use any of his power of influence to get any type of special treatment.

During his prison sentence he suffered the remaining of his time in poor health. 
He had contracted syphilis in his youth, and in prison suffered from neurosyphilis, which caused  dementia. He lived like this in Alcatraz for 6 1/2 years. Then latter released to a mental hospital in 1939 in Baltimore, which he lived for three. When he was on his death bed Capone lived his last days with his wife in Miami. He died of cardiac arrest on January 25, 1947. He died at the age of 48.

His ability to be such a known gangster while operating at the highest levels undetected for some many years gave him a lot of clout. He is still known because although he did horrific things he also was able to do his damage with grace through out his life. Finesse anyone or any system, his power was immense.

Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3841142/Al-Capone-s-fall-criminal-kingpin-syphilis-riddled-madman-explored.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-things-you-should-know-about-al-capone