The Life and Death of Al Capone

Al Capone was an American criminal who started engaging himself in criminal activities quite early in life and was very popular in the 1920s in Illinois.  Al Capone was born in 17th January, 1899 in Brooklyn to Teresa Capone and Gabriel and was named as Alphonse Gabriel Capone. He died in 1947.

He was popularly known by many as Scarface due to the knife cut mark that was on his left cheek. The name Al Capone is thus synonymous with crime especially in Chicago and thus one cannot talk of crime and fail to talk of this man. This research paper is specifically going o focus on the life and death of Al Capone. It will in particularly focus on his role as far as crime in the United States is concerned.

Al Capone rose to fame in the 1920s during the period known as the Prohibition era. His activities led Chicago to look as if it was a lawless state due to his success in criminal activities. Just like other students, Al Capone went to a public school but unfortunately the teachers in these schools were a bit harsh to immigrant students and would use physical force to discipline them and Al Capone being one of them as his family had migrated to USA from the Old Country, was thus no exception[1].

Specifically, Al Capone did not have a good relationship with his school’s administration and thus they were always crossing paths something that drastically affected his grades. After sometime, his relationship with teachers deteriorated to a level such that he was dispelled from school and that marked the end of his life in school[2].

Though indirect, his career received a major boost when his father relocated his family to 21 Garfield Place. This relocation gave Al Capone an opportunity to join local street gangs such as the Forty Thieves Juniors and the Brooklyn Rippers where he met other gangsters such as Johny Torrio and Lucky Luciano[3].

Having worked for James Street gang and Five points gang, Al Capone gained some skills in ‘street smarts’ making him to be qualified as a bar tender and a bouncer in a brothel in Brooklyn owned by Torrio and Frankie Yale.

As a bouncer, he would mistreat people for example; he broke the legs, arms and even skulls of those who were deemed to be chaotic. It was while working as a bouncer in this brothel that Al Capone earned his name the scarface after being attacked and slashed by Frank Gallucio after he insulted her sister although he would later lie that he was injured in the Great War in France[4].

It is in 1919 that he was arrested for the first time firstly for disorderly conduct and secondly for a murder case where he killed a man in  1918 but fortunately for Al Capone, as per ganglands’ principles or etiquettes, nobody testified for or against him and thus he was not tried for this murder. To ease down the tension that had built up, Yale who had been invited by his uncle Jim Colosimo in Chicago invited Al Capone to stay with him for a while. This time coincided with when the Prohibition Act was in force.

Torrio was in disagreement with his uncle because he wanted his uncle to embark on bootlegging something that he was totally opposed. By this time his uncle whoring business had already amassed enough profit and thus he did not see the need to diversify. Torrio started seeing his uncle as a stumbling block and thus thought of how he would eliminate him. With the help of Al Capone, the mission was executed and they took over the business[5].

While working for this gang, Al Capone helped his gang to prosper and extended its relations to another gang organization known as Colosimo mob. These organizations in one way or the other helped Al Capone to become the man he was.

The reason for this is that after five years of his service, Torrio accidentally got wounded and could no longer be able to lead the gang thereby transferring its leadership to Al Capone. Under his leadership, the gang became the most feared and successful and anyone who challenged its leadership was eliminated. Due to their ruthlessness, they were able to conquer over mobs that succumbed to their threats or entreaties. Those that would not dance to their tunes were suppressed by use of force and a case in point is the Dion O’Bannon’s killing attempt, the Irish Northern Side gang in 1924.

According to Oregon Coast Magazine, contrary to the expectations of Torrio and Al Capone, the failure to take over this gang opened a can of worms as from there on the two gangs never saw each other to eye and this culminated to the shootings that left Torrio badly injured. In 1926, he was at it again and was arrested in connection to murdering of three individuals where he spent only one night in jail only to be released for lack of enough evidence[6].

[1] Pasley, Fred D. Al Capone: The Biography of a self-Made Man. Kessinger Publishing, 2004; 45
[2] Oregon Coast Magazine online. Al Capone: Social Issues, 1899-1947. Available at http://www.u-s-          history.com/pages/h1616.html
[3] Lorrizo, Luciano J. Al Capone: a Biography. Green wood Publishing Company, 2003; 15
[4] Ibid; 16

[5] Carpenoctem. Alphonse “Scarface Al” Capone (1899-1947) Chicago Crime Leader. 2000. Accessed from                 http://www.carpenoctem.tv/mafia/acapone.html
[6] Oregon Coast Magazine online. Al Capone: Social Issues, 1899-1947. Available at http://www.u-s-          history.com/pages/h1616.html