Background
Capone was born in Brooklyn in New York City to Italian immigrants. His father was a barber.
Al Capone
Capone was born in Brooklyn in New York City to Italian immigrants. His father was a barber.
Capone attended school through the sixth grade, at which point he beat up his teacher one day and was himself beaten by the school's principal afterward. Like many other American children at the time, Capone was taught that the main purpose of life was to acquire wealth and that the United States was the land of opportunity.
Facing a life of low paying jobs, Al Capone joined the street gang led by Johny Torrio and Lucky Luciano.
Late in December 1918, Capone killed a man in an argument. Rather than face the charges, he called his old friend Torrio, who was now in Chicago. Capone moved to Chicago on the invitation of Torrio.
He carried his rough style of dealing with people to Chicago. As the bartender at Torrio's club, he broke the bones the arms, legs, and even skulls of those he evicted from the establishment.
However, Torrio did not bring Capone to Chicago to beat up drunkards. As Torrio's right hand man, he received the job killing off "Big Jim" Colosimo, who ran Chicago's underground. After the passage of prohibition in 1920, Torrio was constantly harrasing the boss to establish underground drinking esablishments. Tired of hearing "NO" from Colosimo, Torrio had him killed by Capone on May 11, 1920. Torrio became boss of Chicago, and Capone became the manager of alcohol for the city.
Al Capone became head of the Chicago mafia after Torrio was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt and stepped down from the head spot in 1925. Throughout his reign he ran the streets of Chicago with his mob. When his mob with at its prime, Capone had city aldermen, mayors, legislators, governors, congressmen, and over half the Chicago police force on his payroll.
In 1929 he made his biggest blunder by ordering the shooting of Bugs Moran, part of another Chicago underground faction, on February 14. In what is known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Capone's men killed a group seven people, but Moran was not in the group. The even, however, changed the public mind about pursuing organized crime.
By now, the IRS had been gathering tax evasion information on Capone for some time through a hired agent, Eddie O'Hare. O'Hare ran Capone's dog and race tracks and told the IRS where they could find Capone's financial records. On November 24, Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in Federal prison, fined $50,000, charged $7692 for court costs, and $215,000 in back taxes for tax evasion.
He was released in 1939, after serving seven years and paying all of his back taxes. His mental and physical condition had severely deteriorated and he entered Baltimore hospital for brain treatment immediately after his release. He died of a stroke and pneumonia on January 25, 1947, having killed Eddie O'Hare before he died.
Al Capone attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. His seven-year reign as crime boss ended when he was 33.
Quotations: "I make money by supplying a public demand. If I break the law, my customers … some of the best people in Chicago, are as guilty as me."
Al Capone was considered a Five Points Gang member who became a bouncer in organized crime premises such as brothels.
Capone was married to Mae Josephine Coughlin. She was Irish Catholic and earlier that month had given birth to their son Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone. Capone was under the age of 21, and his parents had to consent in writing to the marriage.
Irish Catholic
