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essay on street gangs in america
essay on street gangs in america
The history of juvenile gangs
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Al Capone, probably the most notorious and well known gangster in history, was born in 1887 in Naples, Italy. His father, Gabriel Caponi, immigrated to Brooklyn from the slums of Naples in 1910. After he came here he changed his last name too Capone too blend in more. Al Capone’s gang activities started out when he was young. He was in the Five Points Gang, who were known for their violence. The gang’s tradition was to scar their victims with a knife cut from the outside corners of their eyes to their ears.
At the time, Johnny Torrio was a major mob boss and his uncle, Jim Colosimo (AKA "Big Jim"), hired Capone as a bouncer. Al Capone was a large man, did his job well, and soon he came to recognition in Torrio’s gang. During his stint as a bouncer, Capone one time made a disrespectful comment to Frank Galluccio’s (a member of the Brooklynite gang) sister. Galluccio pulled out his pocket knife and went for Al’s face. When it was over, Capone had 3 big scars on his face. This earned him the nick name Scar Face. He hated the name, and whoever said it to his face would not live to regret it. After his recovery, he forgave Galluccio and because of this gesture he was hired as a body guard for Torrio at $100 a week. Capone eventually told the public that his scars were old war wounds received in France.
Al Capone married Mae Coughlin in 1918 and together they had a son, Albert Francis, and chose Johnny Torrio as his Godfather. Torrio gave his godson $5000 a year. Shortly after, facing possible murder charges, they fled to Chicago.
When Colosimo died, Capone became the right hand man of Torrio’s gang. Together, Capone and Torrio expanded the gang’s territories by taking out the their leaders. On one occasion there were Sicilians in the Sicilian Mafia and Al for a dinner in their "honor." After they had finished their lavish meal and drank as much wine as there hearts desired, he killed the unsuspecting visitors. They also tightened there political control over the city. Capone boasted "I own the police." He actually did own the police. This was most prominent during the November elections of 1929 when a lawyer by the name of Frank Lowsch persuaded Capone to have the elections be fair. He asked to have the police arrest any gangsters or hoodlums , and they did. There was not one incident of interventio...
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... lavish meal and drank as much wine as there hearts desired, the smile that had been on Capone’s face disappeared and now silence fell over the table and the unsuspecting guests looked up nervously at Capone. Then Capone said "You thought that I didn’t know, huh? Well there is one offense that I never forgive that is disloyalty." Even though Capone was ruthless, he still carried out the old custom of hospitality before execution. With saying that, his bodyguards leaped on the men and started to strangle them. Al came out with a base ball bat in hand. He beat all of them to death and, to make sure they were dead, they also shot them in the back of the head.
Something else that surprised me was the competition between the gangs, who could give the most flowers and give the most lavish funerals to the men they killed from the opposite side of town. Al Capone was a very ruthless killer but he still had style, a certain classy air about him.
We all know of Al Capone as a gangster but in his time he actually gave to a lot of charities and organizations. Some people thought of him as hero. To the upper class people he was an outlaw but, to the poor people, he was Santa Clause.
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 ...
The New York Times writes, “Al Capone was found guilty here tonight on five of the twenty-three counts contained in the two indictments brought against him by the Federal Government for income tax evasion from 1924 to 1929,” (1). Capone was later sentenced to the Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary in May of 1932. Upon his arrival at Atlanta, Capone was officially diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhea. He was also suffering from withdrawal symptoms from his cocaine addiction. Capone was then sent to the newly opened Alcatraz prison, located off of San Francisco Bay, on January 6, 1939. Capone was released on parole later that year and spent his last years retired from crime at his mansion in Palm Island Florida. Capone suffered from a stroke on January 21, 1947. Following his stroke, the big boss of Chicago died in his home on January 25, 1947. Chicago’s king had retired
Alphonso Caponi was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York. Capone was born into a large family, one of seven kids. Capone was your average kid back then. Capone attended grade school till sixth grade, at that point he had beaten
town. This is where he would meet his wife, Mae and gangster Johnny Torrio. Al was
Considered the most notorious gangster in history, Alphonse Capone, otherwise known as Scarface Al, was born in New York, 1899, in a small apartment in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Having many run-ins with the police growing up, he was always around the local street gang led my Johnny Torrio. After beating one of his sixth grade teachers, he quit school, and quickly learned the way of the streets, joining the Torrio gang, call the James Street Gang. James Street also included Lucky Luciano, one of Capone’s best friends, who would later also become a notorious gangster (Internet 1, 1).
...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).
In 1918, Capone met a girl named Mary Coughlin who gave birth to their son Albert "Sonny" Francis. Coughlin and Capone married later that year.
Al Capone finally got a taste of leadership after a few years of partnership with Torrio. Torrio left Capone in control of their areas to take his sick mother back to Italy. Capone was at the top of a Chicago suburb known as Cicero. At the ag...
January 17, 1899 Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born to Gabriele and Teresina Capone (about.com). Capone was the fourth of nine children born in to the family. Capone’s mother and father emigrated from Naples, Italy and settled in Brooklyn, New York. Capone’s father was a barber, and his mother stayed home with the children (about.com). Capone was in two gangs as a child, Five Point Gang, and Brooklyn Dive (chicagohs.org). In sixth grade, Capone dropped out of school; some say it is because he beat up his teacher. Others say he dropped out to help earn money for his family. After dropping out of school, for whatever reason, Capone had quite a few different jobs. He was a candy store clerk, a pin boy at a bowling alley, a cutter at a book bindery, and a bouncer bartender at the Harvard Inn. While working at the Harvard Inn, Capone got into a fight with Frank Gallucio after Capone said a comment to Gallucio’s sister (about.com). During the fight Gallucio pulled out a knife and slashed Capones face. The cut left a scar leaving Capone with the nickname, Scarface.
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.
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
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.
Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 17,1899. He was the fourth of seven sons and two daughters. His parents, Gabriel and Theresa, were one of thousands of Italians who arrived in New York in 1894 for a better living. The early Capone was slashed with a knife across his left cheek by a young hoodlum in a restaurant , For harassing a woman, prompting the later nickname ‘’Scarface.’’Then Capone met a gangster named Johnny Torrio, who taught Capone how to build a corporate empire. Torrio moved from New York to Chicago in 1909 to help run a giant brothel business. In 1919 Capone joined Torrio’s James Street Boys gang in Chicago, Where he had become an Influential Lieutenant in the Colosimo mob. In 1925, Al Capone became boss when Torrio was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt, surrendered control and retired to Brooklyn. As Prohibition began, New bootlegging operations opened up and drew in immense wealth. Capone started running gambling, prostitution, and gunning down rival gangs. Capone kidnapped opponents, election workers and threatened voters with violence. Later he eventually won office in Cairo but then his brother frank had been killed in a shootout with the Police of Chicago. Capone left for Miami with his wife and children and bought Palm Island estate,...
Early years for Al Capone were where his fall to crime started. Al Capone was born on January 17th 1899 in Brooklyn New York he was born into a poor immigrant household with his father and mother and 8 siblings. His parents worked at a bakery and his siblings seemed to be on the right track. But when Al Capone was enrolled in 6th grade he was sent to the principal's office for hitting a teacher. And shortly after smacked the principal and left from his school
His wife Mae stuck by his side until his death on January 23, 1947. Al Capone died of