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Al Capone Rags to Riches Al Capone is by far the most famous gangster in America. Capone is a Hollywood icon for crime and violence. How did the son of a working class immigrant become the most powerful gangster ever lived? He didn’t just start out on top. No, Capone had to work his way up the ranks. This is how one average man went to rags, to riches. Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 17, 18 99 (Gales). He was the fourth child out of nine children. His parents were emigrated from Naples, Italy. Capone started out bad. As a child he dropped school in 6th grade after getting in a fight with his teacher.
He started in minor gangs like the James Street Gang and gradually worked his way up to the Five Points Gang. He was close friends with the leader, Johnny Torrio (Gales). Torrio was Al Capone mentor. He learned many cunning and intelligent ways of making money from him (Baughman). Even as a teen he worked as a gunman. He also worked as a bouncer where he got his famous nickname, Scarface. He made inappropriate comments to a female client (Baughman). The client’s brother attacked Capone with a knife leaving three permanent scars on his face. Capone wasn’t all that bad. He had legal jobs and even a family.
He had a job as a paper cutter but that didn’t last. Capone met Mary Coughlin in his neighborhood as a teen. She worked as a sales representative in a department store (Baughman). He married Mary Coughlin in December 13, 1918 just after Mary gave birth to his son on December 4, 1918. Their son was baptized as Albert Francis Capone (Baughman). Capone’s son was mostly known as “Sonny”. Sonny began having hearing problems which was caused by his congenital syphilis. The syphilis was contracted from his father (Baughman). Al Capone was assumed to of gotten Syphilis from prostitutes in his teenage years.
Sonny was Capone’s first and only son he had. Al Capone and his family moved to Baltimore where he worked as a book keeper. He worked as a book keeper for two years before quitting his job. He seemed to escape his old juvenile childhood, but it seems it found a way back to him in the future. On November 14, 19 20 Capone’s father died (Baughman). Capone returned home in New York for his father’s funeral. While in New York he is reunited with Torrio his previous employer. Torrio persuades Capone to move to Chicago to start his career as a gangster. In 1921 Capone eventually moved to Chicago bringing his family and his mother.
He worked for Torrio’s uncle, Colosimo, with his prostitution business. This is around the time of the prohibition era when bootlegging was highly profitable. Capone worked as bagman, the ones who collect payments and bagman (Gales). Capone was paid well for his job. Everything was good until the assassination of Colosimo. Torrio took control of the business and expanded on bootlegging which led to multi-million dollar operations (Gales). Capone was Torrio’s top lieutenant (Gales). The gang waged war with Chicago’s north side gang, O’Banion’s gang. A Street called Madison Street was the borderline between them and O’Banion’s gang.
On November 8, 1924 Capone’s men visited O’Bannon’s flower shop and shot him dead. In retaliation Torrio was ambushed by O’Banion’s gang. He was shot many times and with a gun pointed at his head a stroke of luck struck him and the gun jammed. O’Banion’s gang fled leaving Torrio luckily alive but severely wounded. After recovering his near death experience, he announced he was leaving the Chicago rackets to Al Capone. Capone finally worked his way to the top. Capone was only 26 years old at this time. With Capone being in charge it came with reaping rewards, but also deadly consequences.
Many gang rivals had attempted to assassinate Capone. One assassin attempted to poison his soup but failed. One of Capone’s most famous near death experience was in the Hawthorne Inn. On September 20, 1926 O’Banion’s gang drove to the hotel and opened fired on the Hawthorne Inn and other surrounding stores (Gales). Capone would have died if it wasn’t for his body guard, Frank Rio, to throw him down to safety. Many of Capone’s rivals disappeared after this. Some were shot down by Capone’s gunmen and some were killed by cops. Without anyone else George Moran became the leader of the O’Banion gang.
Capone made many intelligent plans and actions on leading the business. His plan was to get rid of the competition by killing every rival at a time. Capone was suspected to be behind 200 killings in the decade (Gales). He had Frank Nitti, August Pisano, and Louis Morganno carry out his assassinations. Capone was known for his ruthlessness. He highly disliked traitors and betrayal. Capone prepared a banquet inviting his three gunmen, Joseph Glunta, Albert Anselmi, and John Scalise. He previously discovered his gunmen’s plan to betray him so he clubbed all three of them to death in front of his other entire dinner guest.
Capone also had working relationship with many powerful politicians. He also had a working relationship with Mayor William Thompson also known as Big Bill. Capone controlled who was going to win or lose elections to keep his allies in power and his enemies out. He had his men vote or threatens others to vote. Some voters were beaten or even killed. Having politicians was a great advantage on Capone’s gang (Gale). One of Capone’s most famous actions was the Bloody St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. On February 14, 19 29 Capone planned to kill Morans at his regular gathering in a garage in North Clark Street.
Capone had planned to have gang members of the Purple Gang in Detroit to disguise themselves as police and have a routine raid on the garage. Capone got a hold of police cars and police uniforms from cash payoffs (Gales). He had Purple Gang do this because O’Banion’s gang already knew Capone’s gunmen. On 10:30 A. M. the gunmen went to the garage. When walking in they saw O’Banion’s dangerous gunmen, Pete Gusenburg and Frank Gusenburg. The also saw Adam Heyer, Albert Kashellek, John May, and Reinhart Schwimmer who were minor gang members. They also saw Albert Weinshank who highly resembled Moran.
The disguised men walked in and lined the gang members to face the wall. Then Fred Burke entered the garage and they all open fired on the O’Banion gang members. They escaped the scene in the police car and none of the men was prosecuted. Al Capone had an alibi that he was in Florida at the time. This incident had reached the white house having Herbert Hoover authorize a crackdown on Capone in 1929. In 1928 a team called the Untouchables formed to stop Capone. It was Elliot Ness and nine other members he chose who would not stop from threats or bribery.
These were highly educated men who specialized in weapons and wiretapping. The untouchables conducted several raids on Capone’s hideouts (Baughman). The Untouchables damaged Capone’s organization but couldn’t link Capone to the several deaths he was accused for. The Untouchables did find one thing though. They found that Capone never filed income tax returns. The money he made illegally was still taxable (Gale). On June 5, 1931 Capone was indicted for failing to pay over 200,000 dollars in taxes during 1924 to 1929 (Baughman). Capone was charged an 80,000 dollar fine and was sent to prison for eleven years.
He was sent to Illinois Cook County jail where he secretly still ran his business. He stayed there for 2 years until he was sent to Alcatraz also known as “The Rock”. Capone was released from prison on November 16, 1939. By this time his connections and business crumbled. From his untreated syphilis it formed into the third dire stage of syphilis. On January 25, 1947 Capone died of syphilis in his home on Palm Island, Florida. He died at the age 48 (Baughman). Al Capone is the most legendary gangster that ever lived, from growing up in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn to practically owning Chicago.
He started out as a bouncer. Then became a multimillion dollar gang leader and ended by going to jail and dying. Al Capone is a true gangster. Citation Page (Baughman 1) Al Capone. ” American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 27 Jan. 2011. Document URL http://ic. galegroup. com/ic/suic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow? displayGroupName=Reference&prodId=SUIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CK1602000311&mode=view&userGroupName=spri90645&jsid=b807ea913c410da9237d5ea9507ef057 (Baughman 2)