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Al Capone
Al Capone is America s best-known gangster and the single greatest
symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the
1920s Prohibition era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal
activities that lent Chicago its reputation as a lawless city.
Al Capone s mug shot, 1931.
Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York. Baptized
"Alphonsus Capone," he grew up in a rough neighborhood and was a member
of two "kid gangs," the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors.
Although he was bright, Capone quit school in the sixth grade at age
fourteen. Between scams he was a clerk in a candy store, a pinboy in a
bowling alley, and a cutter in a bookbindery. He became part of the
notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan and worked in gangster Frankie
Yale s Brooklyn dive, the Harvard Inn, as a bouncer and bartender. While
working at the Inn, Capone received his infamous facial scars and the
resulting nickname "Scar face" when he insulted a patron and was
attacked by her brother.
In 1918, Capone met an Irish girl named Mary "Mae" Coughlin at a dance.
On December 4, 1918, Mae gave birth to their son, Albert "Sonny"
Francis. Capone and Mae married that year on December 30.
Al Capone
Capone s first arrest was on a disorderly conduct charge while he was
working for Yale. He also murdered two men while in New York, early
testimony to his willingness to kill. In accordance with gangland
etiquette, no one admitted to hearing or seeing a thing so Capone was
never tried for the murders. After Capone hospitalized a rival gang
member, Yale sent him to Chicago to wait until things cooled off. Capone
arrived in Chicago in 1919 and moved his family into a house at 7244
South Prairie Avenue.
The unpretentious Capone home at 7244 South
Prairie Avenue, far from Chicago s Loop and
Capone s business headquarters.
ðigði. Soon Capone was helping Torrid manage his bootlegging business.
By mid-1922 Capone ranked as Trio’s number two men and eventually
became a full partner in the saloons, gambling houses, and brothels.
Al Capone
When Torrid was shot by rival gang members and consequently decided to
leave Chicago, Capone inherited the "outfit" and became boss. The
outfit s men liked, trusted, and obeyed Capone, calling him "The Big
Fellow." He quickly proved that he was even better at organization than
Torrid, syndicating and expanding the cities vice industry between 1925
and 1930. Capone controlled speakeasies, bookie joints, gambling houses,
brothels, horse and race tracks, nightclubs, distilleries and breweries
at a reported income of $100,000,000 a year. He even acquired a sizable
interest in the largest cleaning and dyeing plant chain in Chicago.
Although he had been doing business with Capone, the corrupt Chicago
mayor William "Big Bill" Hale Thompson, Jr. decided that Capone was bad
for his political image. Thompson hired a new police chief to run Capone
out of Chicago. When Capone looked for a new place to live, he quickly
discovered that he was unpopular in much of the country. He finally
bought an estate at 93 Palm Island, Florida in 1928.
Political cartoon depicting Chicago s growing reputation for violence.
Al Capone
Attempts on Capone s life were never successful. He had an extensive spy
network in Chicago, from newspaper boys to policemen, so that any plots
were quickly discovered. Capone, on the other hand, was skillful at
isolating and killing his enemies when they became too powerful. A
typical Capone murder consisted of men renting an apartment across the
street from the victim s residence and gunning him down when he stepped
outside. The operations were quick and complete and Capone always had an
alibi.
The Tribune headline after the St.
Valentine s Day Massacre of 1929.
Capone s most notorious killing was the St. Valentine s Day Massacre. On
February 14, 1929, four Capone men entered a garage at 2122 N. Clark
Street. The building was the main liquor headquarters of bootlegger
George "Bugs" Moran s North Side gang. Because two of Capone s men were
dressed as police, the seven men in the garage thought it was a police
raid. As a result, they dropped their guns and put their hands against
the wall. Using two shotguns and two machine guns, the Capone men fired
more than 150 bullets into the victims. Six of the seven killed were
members of Moran s gang; the seventh was an unlucky friend. Moran,
probably the real target, was across the street when Capone s men
arrived and stayed away when he saw the police uniforms. As usual,
Capone had an alibi; he was in Florida during the massacre.
Capone masterminded the 1929 St. Valentine s Day
Massacre, which left seven men dead, but was in
Florida when it happened. All but one of the victims
were members of rival "Bugs" Moran s gang.
Although Capone ordered dozens of deaths and even killed with his own
hands, he often treated people fairly and generously. He was equally
known for his violent temper and for his strong sense of loyalty and
honor. He was the first to open soup kitchens after the 1929 stock
market crash and he ordered merchants to give clothes and food to the
needy at his expense.
A line outside Capone s "Free Lunch" restaurant, Al Capone
Capone had headquarters in Chicago proper in the Four Deuces at 2222 S.
Wabash, the Metropole Hotel at 2300 S. Michigan Avenue, and the
Lexington Hotel at 2135 S. Michigan Avenue. He expanded into the
suburbs, sometimes using terror as in Forest View, which became known as
"Caponeville." Sometimes he simply bribed public officials and the
police as in Cicero. He established suburban headquarters in Cicero s
Anton Hotel at 4835 W. 22nd Street and in the Hawthorne Hotel at 4823
22nd Street. He pretended to be an antique dealer and a doctor to front
his headquarters.
Capone maintained a five-room suite and four
guest rooms at the Metropole Hotel (2300 S.
Michigan Avenue). The hotel served as his base
of operations until 1928.
Because of gangland s traditional refusal to prosecute, Capone was never
tried for most of his crimes. He was arrested in 1926 for killing three
people, but spent only one night in jail because there was insufficient
evidence to connect him with the murders. When Capone finally served his
first prison time in May of 1929, it was simply for carrying a gun. In
1930, at the peak of his power, Capone headed Chicago s new list of the
twenty-eight worst criminals and became the city s "Public Enemy Number
One."
The popular belief in the 1920s and 30s was that illegal gambling
earnings were not taxable income. However, the 1927 Sullivan ruling
claimed that illegal profits were in fact taxable. The government wanted
to indict Capone for income tax evasion, Capone never filed an income
tax return, owned nothing in his own name, and never made a declaration
of assets or income. He did all his business through front men so that
he was anonymous when it came to income. Frank Wilson from the IRS s
Special Intelligence Unit was assigned to focus on Capone. Wilson
accidentally found a cash receipts ledger that not only showed the
operation s net profits for a gambling house, but also contained
Capone s name; it was a record of Capone s income. Later Capone s own
tax lawyer Lawrence P. Mattingly admitted in a letter to the government
that Capone had an income. Wilson s ledger, Mattingly s letter, and the
coercion of witnesses were the main evidence used to convict Capone.
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