Al Capone, America’s most prominent Mafia figure in the 1920’s, also known as “Scarface” for a scar running down his left cheek. Capone didn’t hide in the shadows like most figures in such a shady occupation. He didn’t shy away from the camera, more like he welcomed it, and aimed to be seen by the public as a respectable businessman and a pillar of the community. Surprisingly, Capone wasn’t from a distinctly poor community, his father earned a living as a barber. Capone was introduced to the gang life by a friend and from there it all went downhill and into the life of a gangster.
Al Capone wasn’t from a well to do family but he wasn’t, by any means, poor. His father was one of the thousands of Italian immigrants that came to the US, he was thirty years of age, educated, from the Naples and earned a living as a Barber. Capone’s mother was pregnant with him at the time and was taking care of his two brothers, two year old Vincenzo and infant Raffaele. Alphonese Capone was born on January 17, 1899. His family moved to an ethnically mixed neighborhood which equipped Capone with the means to run a criminal empire. Capone attended a Catholic school and suffered from a poor education and violence. At around this time he met his friend Johnny Torrio.
Torrio was a gangster who taught Capone the importance of maintaining a respectable front and on how to run a racketeering business. Torrio introduced Capone to the gang life where he joined Torrio’s gang, the James Street Boys gang, which later came to be known as the 5 Points gang. Capone, like most gangsters got in brawls and during a bar-fight he gets a cut across his left cheek from a razor or a blade and received the name Scarface for the scar that was left behind.
Torrio, in 1909...
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...out $32,488 in 1924. They charged Capone with 22 counts of tax evasion for $200,000. They discussed that if Capone pleaded guilty they would lighten the sentence to 2-5 years in prison. This agreement leaked out to the public and they were outraged. Capone knew he couldn’t escape with a light sentence. After nine hours and a jury change Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison with a $50,000 in fees and a court cost of $30,000. Bail was denied.
In August 1939 Capone was moved from Atlanta to Alcatraz in San Francisco. Capone’s health took a turn for the worst when he caught Tetiary Syphilis and became disoriented and confused. He was released after six and a half years on god behavior where he returned to Palm Island estate. His wife Mae took care of him until the end. Capone died on January 25, 1947 when he suffered from a cardiac arrest. He was 48 when he died.
It was at Alcatraz where he became good friends with Clarence Carnes. He was sent to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary three years later and the next year he was sent to Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. He was finally released in 1965 after being in prison for a total of nine years.... ... middle of paper ...
Al Capone’s family came with a wave of other Italian immigrants that migrated to the United States in the 1800’s. Most immigrants in that time were living in poverty and in very urban areas. Capone’s family lived in the heart of Brooklyn, but his father was a successful barber which allowed them a slightly better lifestyle than most. Al Capone was the fourth of nine children and grew up with a very tight-knit Italian family who were trying to succeed in their new country”. Capone attended public school in the city and had a natural brightness by keeping a “B average” despite playing hooky on many occasions. The sixth grade showcased Capone’s short temper when he hit a female teacher who was lecturing him. This incident reveals the beginning of who Al Capone would come to be. After being suspended for his violence, he never officially furthered his education. He began his life of crime by joining the kid gangs that existed all over Brooklyn. These “gangs” were nothing more than children being hoodlums and participating in petty crimes, although they would be the ...
Alphonse Gabriel Capone was the most notorious bootlegger in American History. He was born on January 17, 1899 and died of a heart attack on January 25, 1947. Capone grew up in Brooklyn and became a member of the Five Points Gang. During a street fight he had received a scar on his face that gave him the nickname “Scarface”. Capone quickly moves up the ranks in the mafia world, often noticed for his toughness, in 1919 he grabbed the attention of mobster John Torrio of Chicago. Capone was promoted to bodyguard of the mob boss James Colosimo. When Capone moved to Chicago, bootlegging was just starting to blow up. These bootleggers pounced on the opportunity to completely control the business of making, importing, and distributing alcohol and all alcohol products. Alcohol wasn't the only flourishing industry for the the mob, they also did trade in
Soon Enough, Capone was in trouble in again. He had killed a man in an argument and was on the run. After calling his old friend Torrio, he was invited to come to Chicago
...s. Was Capone fully to blame for the violence that plagued his life? Or was he adapting to the times in which he lived? Maybe he was a man who believed in self-defense in a cruel time where he was just as likely to be killed by an opposing bootlegger. In several interviews, he spoke of peace. He asked for peace from other men that challenged him. Some might even call him generous. Whatever Al Capone was, there was one type of person that he believed to be truely evil. In the words of Capone, "There's one thing worse than a crook, I think...and that's a crooked man in a big political job. A man who pretends he is enforcing the law and is really making dough by breaking it. Even a self-respecting hoodlum hasn't any use for that kind of fella..he buys them like he'd buy any other article necessary to his trade. But he hates them in his heart," (Blumenthal 102).
...ion for the years 1925-1929 and for failing to file tax returns for the years 1928 and 1929. The Department of Justice also charged him with conspiracy to violate Prohibition laws from 1922-1931.# Although Capone had his lawyers offer to settle his tax claims for four million dollars, the Treasury Department was not willing to make any deals. Found guilty on several accounts, Capone was sentenced to eleven years in federal prison. After his release, Capone’s health deteriorated rapidly and he was forced to withdraw from the outfit. In 1947, at the age of forty-eight Al Capone died of health complications.#
Organized crime has developed a stigma regarding its power and influence, especially during its hay day in the 1930’s. The mob has always been viewed as a powerful “family-like” organization. In Scarface, Hawkes brings the mafia into a seemingly more realistic light. By overturning Lovo’s position of power, Tony represents the idea of “every man for himself,” within a supposed organized group. The viewer steps into a cut-throat world of power hungry men, all trying to get rich quick. In this world, Hawkes asks, how can you organize men towards any goal if they all seek personal gain?
He came up from almost nothing in a poor immigrant home of Italian decent. His mother and father were working class citizens. Capone began using the Italian heritage at a young age with a slight twist of dastardly aggressiveness. Being kicked out of school at an early age from assault of a teacher then joining a gang was the future for Capone. Torrio left all his work in the hands of Capone, and Al did not disappoint. He was successful in making money. Prohibition alcohol, gambling, prostitution, speakeasy’s, and hits were just a few tactics of his reign in Chicago during the roaring twenties. With his attitude and ability to practically decide who will win elections made him so fearful, and if you ever crossed him you were due to payment for ticking him off. Valentine’s Day and the small-thug are just two examples of the raw decisions of Capone to commit murder. There is no possible answer to the amount of killings Capone is responsible for. Al Capone was finally caught after all the chaos and killing in 1931 where he would serve in Alcatraz and in Baltimore until returning to Miami where he would dance with the devil one last time. The notorious Al Capone never died in Chicago as the Chiraq still ran wild. Al Capone is one of Americas most famous gangsters from the prohibition era and will rest knowing that he is a symbol for modern destruction of law and order
Chicago, in the moderate 1920’s the town of unlimited booze, wild parties and ruthless violence. Behind most of that action, was one man. They called him Scarface, Al Capone. The most powerful man in the underworld. Back in the 20’s Capone lorded over the empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars. For a period of time, he virtually ruled all of Chicago. His power came from his mix of generosity and brutality. He was willing to pay off anyone who helped and kill anyone who wouldn’t.
His wife Mae stuck by his side until his death on January 23, 1947. Al Capone died of
In 1918, Capone met an Irish girl named Mae Coughlin at a dance. On December 4, 1918, Mae gave birth to their son, Albert Francis. Al and Mae married that same year on December 30th. Capone's first arrest was on a disorderly conduct charge after Capone hospitalized a rival gang member. Frankie Yale sent him to Chicago until things cooled off. Capone arrived in Chicago in 1919 and moved his wife and son, and several members of his immediate family into a house at 7244 South Prairie Avenue.
His nickname is particularly infamous as well, as he is described in his online as “a child from an Italian immigrant family… also known as "Scarface," [who] rose to infamy as the leader of the Chicago mafia during the Prohibition era” (Biography.com Editors). A mafia boss with a scar received in a youthful scrap, Al “Scarface” Capone gained much of his initial momentum with the help of his friend and mentor, Johnny Torrio, who gave him his start and elevated him to the head of the operation when he retired (History.com Staff “Al”). Al Capone became incredibly rich through shady means, and is reported as having earned “$60 million annually selling illegal liquor” (History.com Staff “Al”). $60 million dollars is an incredible salary, and it was what Capone earned from alcohol sales alone. Despite this, for a long period of his career, he managed to go without arrest. In order to sell alcohol illegally, a market had to exist for it; a large market if he was going to earn tens of millions each year. The Prohibition wasn’t liked by many and because of this, Capone’s popularity grew enough that he was able to appeal himself as a vigilante for the hardworking men of Chicago (History.com Staff “Al”). He is quoted as having said, “All I ever did was sell beer and whiskey to our best people. All I did was to supply a demand that was pretty popular” and apparently, some of those “best people” were also those involved in the judicial system (Biography.com Editors). Though he was successful for a good number of years, it was inevitable that his career would take a downturn just as Torrio’s did after an attempt on his life, and it was his involvement with assault and murder that would put the nails in his coffin (History.com Staff
Al Capone Legacy Al “Scarface” Capone was a successful entrepreneur who saw an opportunity and pounced on it. Capone made his fortune through both legal and illegal business practices. WIth these strategies they live on and we see them today still and with them many laws and reforms had been created because of Capone. Capone had a very challenging and different childhood with eight siblings, he was born January 17th, 1899 in Brooklyn, New York. He had struggled in school, not because of the work as he was a fairly good student but he saw rules as something to break and not something to follow.
Capone spent the last years of his life at his mansion in Palm Island, Florida. On January 21, 1947, Capone had a stroke. He started to eventually come around and started to improve, but contracted pneumonia. He suffered a cardiac arrest on January 22. On January 25, Capone died in his home, but he was with his family at the time so he would go out surrounded by the people he loved. He wаs originally buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago. In 1950 Capone's remains, along with those of his father and brother Salvatore, were moved to Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. (Wikipedia staff “Al Capone”,
His actual prison sentence was three years, yet he served only twenty-two months in the federal prison at Lompoc, California, which was known to have a “country-club” atmosphere. Another four months was spent at a Brooklyn halfway house.