What city did Al Capone live in? Al Capone: biography, photos, interesting facts and quotes. The other side of "success"
Most often, people are interested in the personalities of historical figures who could become an example of behavior, or who created something useful for the country, for art, for science, for the future life. But there are a number of personalities who became famous not for creation, but for crimes, but are no less interesting to the public. One of the most famous criminals in the history of mankind is Alfonso Gabriel Capone, who is usually referred to by the diminutive name - Al Capone. Let's see what this gangster became famous for.
Famous boss of the Italian mafia | Airbnb
He is considered one of the founding fathers of organized crime in the United States during the era of Prohibition and the Great Depression, the author of the money laundering system and the concept of "racketeering". But most of all, Capone's name went down in history in connection with the sensational series of murders, called the "Valentine's Day Massacre." The biography of Al Capone is directly connected with his ancestors, more precisely with the Italian family. It was from Italy that Gabriel and Teresa Capone emigrated, who settled in the New York suburb of Williamsburg. And it is with the Italian mafia that their son will be connected all his life.
Gangster with good-natured face | Noticias Terra Alfonso was born in the last year of the 19th century and became the first of nine children of his father and mother. From an early age, his sharply excitable character was manifested. Today, a boy as a preschooler would have been among the patients of a psychiatrist and probably would not have fallen into the criminal sphere, but in the years of Al Capone's childhood, no one thought about such things. Therefore, Alfonso's aggression trailed behind him like a train. From the first grades, he loudly and violently cursed with classmates and teachers, and in the sixth grade he even tried to beat the teacher right in the lesson. Shortly thereafter, the teenager drops out and joins a local gang that would later become part of the famed New York Five Points gang.
Photo by Alfonso Capone | Zing News Young people were mainly engaged in extortion and illegal gambling. To cover his real occupation, the guy worked as a bouncer at the Harvard Inn club, and also acted as a professional billiards player. Al Capone's height was not too big, only 170 centimeters, but he was always very large and produced the effect of a thug. By the way, it was in the billiard room that a fight took place that “gave” Al Capone a scar on his face. He made an unambiguous remark about one of the girls, and she turned out to be either a sister or the wife of a criminal who was also present in the hall.
A stabbing ensued, and Alfonso got his famous scar on his cheek. It is curious that the future head of the mafia was always ashamed of such a banal story, so he invented an alternative version: supposedly the scar is the result of participation in heroic battles during the First World War. In fact, Capone not only did not fight, but did not serve in the army at all. By the age of 18, Alfonso Capone was suspected by the city police of a variety of crimes, including two murders. Therefore, the young man decided to seek his fortune in another metropolis and moved from New York to Chicago.
Mafia career
In the new place, "Great Al", as his friends called him, took up pimping in one of the provincial brothels. Among the gangsters of Chicago in the 30s, this was considered almost the most humiliating occupation, but Capone managed to make an incredibly profitable business out of a low-class institution. He turned it from an ordinary brothel into a four-story bar "The Four Deuces", where the beer house, sweepstakes, casino and the brothel itself were located floor by floor. What started out as a cheap haunt quickly turned into a $35 million a year business. Translated into today's money, this will be approximately 420 million per annum.
Capone started out as a pimp and rose to mafia leadership | BuGazete Therefore, it is not surprising that by the age of 26, Al Capone becomes the owner of the entire criminal empire, after the previous head of the mafia, John Torrio, also referred to as "The Fox" or "Papa Johnny", resigned this authority. First of all, the newly minted crime boss introduced such a previously unknown concept as racketeering. That is, he offered honest entrepreneurs to pay him a bribe, and a very considerable one, and for this he provided them with protection from other gangs, and sometimes from the police.
At the head of the Italian mafia | Free Keyword If businessmen refused, then their institution, and often themselves, was threatened with death. The mafia also began to exploit prostitution, introduced a fraudulent scheme, which after many years was called "money laundering", "bought" policemen and even high-ranking politicians for bribes, which was previously unimaginable. By the way, the invention of the money laundering scheme is also attributed to Alfonso Capone.
Capone invented a money laundering scheme | Chrontime The fact is that his personal business was directly related to the smuggling of alcoholic beverages, which were banned in those years in the United States. The profit had to be legalized, and for this the mafiosi opened a chain of laundries. Prices for services were set so low that the number of customers could not be counted. Accordingly, the gigantic profits actually received from the liquor trade were officially shown by the laundries. Actually, because of the washing of linen, the scheme was called “money laundering”, however, this term was first used only decades after the death of Al Capone.
The main distinguishing feature of the Al Capone mafia is the non-stop criminal showdown, usually ending in the death of one of the bandits. During the first five years of Capone's “reign”, over half a thousand far from ordinary gangsters died in skirmishes. Alfonso completely exterminated the Irish, Russian and Mexican gangs in Chicago, getting rid of the competition. It was his idea to replace the pistols familiar to Italian gangsters with machine guns, and then with light machine guns.
It was Capone who armed his people with light machine guns | out gun Also, according to his approval, explosive devices connected to the car's starter were used, which destroyed the car with the driver and passengers after the ignition was turned on. A series of gangster killings has become widely known as the "Valentine's Day Massacre". It began precisely on February 14, 1929, in a garage in which one of the gangs kept a warehouse of whiskey. Capone's armed men broke in in police uniforms, and the competitors, who thought they were victims of justice, meekly lined up against the wall for arrest, but were shot on the spot.
Notes on everything Similar shocking murders were repeated several more times. Direct evidence for these episodes of Capone was not found, so he, like all his wards, escaped punishment. Actually, for those mass executions, the police did not punish anyone at all, which once again proves how high Al Capone's hand climbed in law enforcement. However, it was the "Valentine's Day Massacre" that caused Alfonso to be closely monitored by representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI officers, not seeing an opportunity to arrest him for banditry, nevertheless found another lead to catch one of the most legendary gangsters of the 20th century - they turned to the Internal Revenue Service.
Personal life
From adolescence, revolving in criminal circles, Al Capone's personal life was inextricably linked with ladies of easy virtue. By the age of 16, the young man had several venereal diseases, including syphilis, which he tried to treat, but soon abandoned this business. Later, such a disregard for health will affect the son of Al Capone. Alfonso married at the age of 19. Al Capone's wife, Irish saleswoman and ardent Catholic May Josephine Coughlin, a month before the wedding gave birth to his only son, Albert Francis, who was called Sonny in the family.
Wedding of Alfonso and May Capone | Gazeta.ua It is curious that, due to his minority, Capone could not go down the aisle without the consent of his parents, so his father Gabriel wrote a written permission to the official services. As for the son, Albert Francis Capone, he was significantly affected by the carefree behavior of his father. The boy was born with congenital syphilis and a serious complication on the brain, underwent a series of operations in infancy, was able to survive, but was almost deaf.
With son Alfred Francis "Sonny" Capone | InfoSMI It is noteworthy that only once in his life Albert tried to feel like a criminal and stole some trinket in a store, but he was immediately arrested by the police. Capone Jr. was sentenced to two years probation, and he did not break the law until the end of his life. At an already mature age, Albert changed his famous surname to Brown, got married and gave birth to four daughters. So Alfonso Capone still has biological descendants.
Prison and death
As mentioned above, the police either could not or did not want to catch the head of the Italian mafia for criminal acts. And since even the FBI could not prove Capone's involvement in most of the crimes, the authorities found another loophole: they accused Alfonso of non-payment of income tax. In the fall of 1931, the mafia boss was sentenced to 11 years in prison and a huge fine. So that Capone could not lead his subordinates from prison, he was placed in a correctional institution in Atlanta, and later even in an isolated prison on Alcatraz Island.
Photos in the prison "Alcatraz" | Alcatraz History Of the 11 years, the gangster served only seven, but they were enough for Alfonso to finally undermine his health and be released, completely losing his criminal influence. In prison, his chronic syphilis entered the final stage of the destruction of the body, although Al Capone died for a different reason. At the end of January, he had a stroke, three days later doctors additionally diagnosed pneumonia, and on January 25, 1947, Alfonso Capone died of cardiac arrest in his country house in Florida.
Grave of Alfonso Capone | pressa.tv The mafia boss was buried in Chicago, but due to the huge flow of tourists, which actually turned into a pilgrimage, his body was reburied at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Illinois. In history, the name Capone remained as the personification of organized crime, but had a certain halo of gangster romance, which is very often used in cinema. Dozens of famous actors have played in Al Capone's films and television series, including legendary Hollywood stars and.
The personality of Al Capone is also interesting for collectors. They even sell weapons that belonged to him at auctions. For example, in January 2017, the Smith & Wesson 32-gauge Capone revolver, with which the mafia did not part even while playing golf, becomes the main highlight of American trading.
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Great Al" Capone (Italian: Alphonse Gabriel "Great Al" Capone). Born January 17, 1899 in Brooklyn - died January 25, 1947 in Miami Beach, Florida. Famous American gangster active in Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s.
He was the fourth child in the family. Parents were Italian immigrants - both were natives of Angri. They arrived in the US in 1894 and settled in Williamsburg, a suburb of Brooklyn, New York.
In total, the family had 9 children: 7 sons - James Vincenso, (March 28, 1892 - October 1, 1952), Rafaelle James (January 12, 1894 - January 22, 1974), Salvatore (July 16, 1895 - April 1, 1924), Alfonse, Ermino John (April 11, 1903 - July 12, 1985), Alberto Umberto (January 24, 1905 - January 14, 1980) and Matthew Nicholas (1908 - 1967), - and two daughters - Ermina (1901 - 1902) and Mafalda (January 28, 1892 - March 25 1988). James and Ralph were the only ones born in Italy, since Salvatore, all the other Capone children were born in the States.
Alphonse from an early age showed signs of a clear excitable psychopath. In the end, as a sixth grader, he attacked his school teacher, after which he left school and joined the James Street gang, led by Johnny Torrio, who then joined the famous Five Points gang of Paolo Vaccarelli, better known as Paul Kelly.
In the cover of true affairs (mainly illegal gambling and extortion) and the actual refuge of the gang - a billiard club - the overall teenager Alfonso was arranged as a bouncer. Addicted to playing billiards, he won absolutely every tournament held in Brooklyn during the year.
Due to his physical strength and size, Capone enjoyed doing this job in his boss Yale's squalid and shabby institution, the Harvard Inn.
It is to this period of life that historians attribute the stabbing of Capone with the felon Frank Galluccio. The quarrel occurred because of the sister (according to some reports, wife) Galluccio, against whom Capone released a cheeky remark. Galluccio slashed the young Alfonso in the face with a knife, leaving him with the famous scar on his left cheek, because of which Capone would receive the nickname in the chronicles and pop culture. "Scarface" (Scarface). Alfonso was ashamed of this story and explained the origin of the scar by participating in the Lost Battalion, the offensive operation of the Entente troops in the Argonne forest in the First World War, due to the incompetence of the command, which ended tragically for the infantry battalion of American troops. In fact, Alfonso not only was not in the war, but he never even served in the army.
In 1917, Capone was closely interested in the New York police: he was suspected of involvement in at least two murders, which served as an excuse for him to move after Torrio to Chicago and join the gang of "Big" Colosimo, the owner of several brothels and Torrio's uncle. Just during this period, there was a dispute between Colosimo and Torrio about expanding the scope of activities by bootlegging. Torrio was in favor, Colosimo was against.
The greedy and unprincipled Torrio, having exhausted all the arguments, decided to simply eliminate the intractable relative, and in this enterprise he found a supporter - Alfonso. The performer was an old acquaintance from the Five Points gang - thug Frankie Yale.
In the bootlegging business, the newly minted Torrio gang faced fiercer competition. After a few years of more or less peaceful coexistence, a conflict of interest led to a clash between the Torrio group and the Irish North Side gang of Deion O'Banion, which eventually resulted in the murder of the latter.
The O'Banion gang did not accept defeat, and the next notable victim of the confrontation was Alfonso's younger brother Frank. Two attempts on his life and severely wounding Torrio in a shootout forced him to retire and appoint Al Capone as his successor. At that time, the gang consisted of about a thousand fighters and collected 300 thousand dollars of income per week. Alfonso was in his 26th year and he was in his element.
Alfonso lived up to the Mafia's expectations. Al Capone introduced such a thing as "racketeering". The mafia also began to exploit prostitution, and all this was covered by huge bribes paid by Capone not only to policemen, but also to politicians.
The war of bandits under Capone took on unprecedented proportions for that time. Between 1924 and 1929 alone, more than five hundred gunmen were shot dead in Chicago. Capone mercilessly exterminated the Irish gangs of O'Banion, Dougherty and Bill Moran. Machine guns and hand grenades joined the machine guns. The bandit practice included explosive devices installed in cars that worked after the starter was turned on. The beginning of this series of murders entered the history of American forensic science under the name "Massacre on Valentine's Day."
Massacre on Valentine's Day
St. Valentine's Day Massacre- the name given to the massacre of Italian mafiosi from the Al Capone group with members of the rival Irish group Bugs Moran, as a result of which seven people were shot dead. It took place in Chicago on February 14, 1929, during the period of Prohibition in the United States.
On Thursday, February 14, Valentine's Day, seven bodies were found inside a warehouse disguised as a garage near Lincoln Park in north Chicago, lying in a row against a wall: Moran's closest henchman, Albert Kacellek, also known as "James Clark", Frank and Peter Gusenberg, Johnny May, Adam Heyer, Al "Gorilla" Weinshank, and Dr. Reinhard Schwimmer. All of those killed (with the exception of Schwimmer) were members of the Bugs Moran gang during their lifetime and were shot dead by members of the Al Capone family. Al Capone himself, having taken care of an alibi, was at that time on vacation in Florida.
The crime was planned to eliminate Bugs Moran, Al Capone's main competitor and adversary. The reason for their enmity was that both of them were engaged in bootlegging (illegal importation and sale of liquor) and wanted to solely control this business in Chicago.
The plan of the crime, with the approval of Al Capone, was developed by one of his henchmen, Jack McGurn, nicknamed "Machine Gun". In addition, he also wanted to avenge the failed attempt on his life that Frank and Peter Gusenberg had made a month earlier, who had tried to kill him in a telephone booth. McGurn formed a six-man team and put Frank Burke in charge. He himself, as well as his boss, was not personally present at the operation and spent that day in the company of his girlfriend Louise Rolf, renting a hotel room and thus providing his alibi.
Burke and his group set up a meeting with the Moran gang at a warehouse on North Clark Street under the pretense of selling smuggled whiskey. The delivery of the goods was allegedly to be carried out at half past ten in the morning on Thursday, February 14th. When Moran's men went inside, Burke's group drove up to the warehouse in a stolen police car. Since the two bandits were dressed in police uniforms, Moran's people mistook them for representatives of the law and, obeying the order, lined up against the wall. After they were disarmed, two of Burke's group opened fire on the bootleggers with machine guns. Six were killed on the spot, with the exception of Frank Gusenberg, who was alive when the police arrived and lived for about three more hours.
Following McGurn's plan, the two fake cops led their accomplices out of the warehouse with their hands up - to make it look like a normal arrest from the outside - and drove off. Their calculation paid off. As the witness Alfonsina Morin later testified, she did not see anything suspicious in this. Nevertheless, the main goal, for which the crime was planned, was not achieved - Bugs Moran was late for the meeting and, seeing a police car parked at the warehouse, disappeared.
A crowd gathered at the sound of the shots, and then the real police arrived. When Sergeant Sweeney asked the dying Frank Gusenberg (later found to have received 22 bullet wounds) who shot him, he replied that no one had shot him, and soon died without revealing the names of the perpetrators. This incident received wide publicity.
But, despite the fact that Al Capone's involvement was obvious, he and McGurn failed to indict, as both of them had an ironclad alibi. McGurn also soon married Rolf - in the press she was nicknamed the blond alibi (Blond Alibi), - so she was able not to testify against her husband.
No direct evidence of Capone's involvement in the episode was found. Moreover, no one has been brought to justice for the crime.
The published images from the crime scene shocked the public and badly ruined Capone's reputation in society, and also forced federal law enforcement agencies to come to grips with the investigation of his activities.
In July 1931, Al Capone was sentenced to eleven years in prison in the Atlanta Correctional Institution for tax evasion of $388,000. The verdict was handed down by the Federal Court.
In 1934, he was transferred to a prison on the island of Alcatraz, from where he came out seven years later with a terminally ill syphilis. Capone lost his criminal influence.
On January 21, 1947, Capone suffered a stroke, after which he regained consciousness and even recovered, but on January 24 he was diagnosed with pneumonia. The next day, Capone died of cardiac arrest.
Al Capone (documentary)
Al Capone Height: 170 centimeters.
Al Capone's personal life:
Wife - May Josephine Coughlin (April 11, 1897 - April 16, 1986). Capone married her on December 30, 1918 at the age of 19.
Coughlin was Irish Catholic and had given birth to their son, Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone, (December 4, 1918 – August 4, 2004) earlier that month. Since Capone was not yet 21 years old at that time, his parents required written consent to the marriage.
May Josephine - Al Capone's wife
Albert Capone was born with congenital syphilis and a severe mastoid infection. He underwent emergency brain surgery, but remained partially deaf for the rest of his life.
Unlike his father, Albert Capone led a fairly law-abiding life, except for a petty shoplifting in 1965, for which he received two years probation. After that, in 1966, he officially changed his name to Albert Francis Brown (Brown often used Al himself as a pseudonym). In 1941 he married Diana Ruth Casey (November 27, 1919 - November 23, 1989) and they had four daughters - Veronica Francis (January 9, 1943 - November 17, 2007), Diana Patricia, Barbra May and Terry Hall. In July 1964, Albert and Diana divorced.
The image of Al Capone in the movie:
Rod Steiger in Al Capone
Jason Robards in the movie Valentine's Day Massacre;
- Ben Gazzara in the movie "Capone";
Titus Welliver in the movie "Gangsters";
- F. Murray Abraham in the film "Dillinger and Capone";
- F. Murray Abraham in the film "Handsome Nelson";
in the film "The Untouchables";
Vincent Guastaferro in the movie Nitti the Gangster;
- Julian Litman in Al Capone Boys;
- William Forsythe in the TV series "The Untouchables";
- Stephen Graham in the TV series "Boardwalk Empire";
- Jon Bernthal in Night at the Museum 2;
- Roberto Malone in "The Hot Life of Al Capone"
Also in the movie there are a number of characters based on Capone's personality:
Paul Muni (Tony Camonte) in Scarface (1932);
Al Pacino (Tony Montana) in Scarface (1983);
Al Pacino (Big Boy Caprice) in Dick Tracy (1990);
Alexey Vertinsky (Al Kaponko) in the television series "Private Police" (2001)
In 1980, a joint single by Motörhead and Girlschool called "St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
The sixth and final bout between boxers Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta, which took place on February 14, 1951, was named the "Valentine's Day Massacre".
A similar situation is played out in the computer game Mafia 2, where soldiers of an unknown family, dressed as Empire Bay police officers, pogrom a drug factory disguised as a fish factory.
In the computer game Grand Theft Auto Online, an update called "Valentine's Day Carnage" has been released...
Al Capone's full name is Alphonse Gabriel Capone (1899-1947). This man glorified his name by engaging in criminal activities in Chicago (USA). A country with unlimited possibilities has given birth not only to outstanding scientists, brilliant politicians, big businessmen, talented writers, directors, artists, but also gangsters. In the latter, the Italians were especially successful, pouring into America from Italy and Sicily at the end of the 19th century.
Al Capone, looking at his good looks, you are once again convinced that everything in the world is not what it seems
These people crossed the ocean in search of a better life. But in order to take a worthy place under the sun, it was necessary to compete with other nationalities and peoples who also came to the New World. Part of the Italians preferred the simplest way. These gentlemen did not become scientists, entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers, but chose the path of crime. They began to prove their right to a prosperous life with the help of knives, brass knuckles and pistols. This method is as old as the world and in favorable conditions gives a good effect.
And favorable conditions for the Italian mafia developed during the Prohibition (1920-1933) and the Great Depression (1929-1939). It was during this period that organized crime gained momentum. On this wave, cruel, unprincipled and strong-willed individuals took the lead. Possessing leadership qualities, they united large groups of armed people around themselves and began to successfully compete with state power. The head of the Chicago mafia, Al Capone, was just such a leader.
He was born in Brooklyn (New York area) on January 17, 1899 in a large Italian family. His parents arrived in the New World in 1894 from southern Italy. His father began to work as a hairdresser, and his mother as a seamstress. The family had 9 children, including 7 sons and 2 daughters. At the same time, the two eldest sons were born in Italy, and all the rest in the USA.
Alphonse was the 4th child. He differed from his brothers and sisters in an unbalanced and quick-tempered character. In fact, from an early age he showed himself as a real psychopath. On the slightest occasion, he got into a fight with his peers, and once he attacked a school teacher with his fists. After that, the aggressive teenager was expelled from school, and he fell into the field of view of street gangs.
It is not known how the fate of Alphonse would have developed if he had not been noticed by a bandit named Fox. His real name was John Torrio. He gathered around him the most notorious scumbags of Brooklyn and dreamed of creating a whole criminal empire. The psychopath boy liked him and was accepted into the gang. Torrio's billiard parlor served as her cover. It was in this salon that the future head of the Chicago mafia began to learn the basics of professional criminal activity.
Capone was short, but physically very strong, and fearless in a fight. Therefore, at first, the impudent young man was obliged to fulfill the duties of a bouncer. And the adult members of the gang were engaged in the sale of drugs, sweepstakes, organizing gambling, lending money at interest and clearly monitoring their timely return. Gradually, Alfonse mastered billiards and achieved great skill in this game.
In late 1918, he married a girl named May Josephine Coughlin. But a month before the wedding, the couple had a boy - Albert Francis Capone (1918-2004). Since at the time of the marriage the future famous mafia was not yet 21 years old, his parents had to give written consent to the marriage. However, the family did not affect the lifestyle of the young man in any way. He continued his criminal activities under the wing of John Torrio.
One day a man came to the billiard room with his wife. Alphonse let out a greasy joke in her direction. The husband heard, and a fight began. During the scuffle, the man pulled out a knife and slashed the young bandit in the face with it. The knife literally broke Capone's left cheek in half. The head of the Chicago mafia was not proud of the scar that remained for life. He was received for insulting a woman, which at that time did not honor a man and was considered an extremely shameful act.
By 1919, the police were seriously interested in Alphonse. He was suspected of involvement in 2 murders committed by the Fox gang. John Torrio himself also fell under suspicion and decided to move from New York to Chicago. He took Alphonse with him, and the couple settled in a new city under the wing of the then head of the Italian mafia in Chicago, James Colosimo (Big Jim). He was related to Torrio.
Al Capone during his reign
Prohibition was introduced in the United States in 1920. According to him, the production, sale and purchase of alcoholic beverages became illegal. But in a vast multi-million country, such a law was pure folly. Americans have not stopped drinking. They began to buy alcohol from underground bootleggers, that is, from mafia people. And the income of the latter went up sharply.
John Torrio instantly realized what fabulous profits can be made thanks to the stupidity of the authorities. But Big Jim refused to go into the underground liquor trade, planning to go into legitimate business in the near future. This caused a sharp dissatisfaction with his entourage, and Torrio, thanks to his mind, took one of the leading places in it in just a year.
As a result, in May 1920, Colosimo was shot dead right in his own cafe. The police suspected Al Capone and several other bandits of the murder. But no one was arrested, and John Torrio stood at the head of the Italian mafia in Chicago. Alphonse became his right hand and soon turned into a rich man.
The criminal group Torrio began to rapidly expand its sphere of influence, but soon collided with the interests of the Irish mafia, which called itself the North Side. Dion Bennion was at the head of this criminal gang. The confrontation between the Italians and the Irish ended in the assassination of the leader of the latter. Bennion was shot in his own flower shop in November 1924. After that, a bloody war began between the Irish and Italian mafias.
At the end of January 1925, an attempt was made on the life of John Torrio. He drove up to his house with his wife in a car, where 3 Irish mafiosi were waiting for him. They opened fire with pistols and wounded the leader of the Italian bandits in the stomach, legs, and jaw. The wounds were very severe, but Torrio survived. However, he retired and announced Al Capone as his successor. So at the age of 25 he became the head of the Chicago mafia. He had more than a thousand fighters under his command, and bootlegging brought in about 400 thousand dollars a week.
The successor turned out to be even more determined than Torrio, who left the US and went to Italy. Under the new leader, the ruthless destruction of the Irish began. Their extermination continued until 1929. Nearly 500 Irish mafiosi died in the process. It was under Capone that bandits began to regularly use machine guns, machine guns and hand grenades. They started planting bombs on cars. Those worked after turning the ignition key.
Among all the bloody crimes, the most famous has gained massacre on valentine's day, which took place on February 14, 1929 in Chicago. She shocked the inhabitants of the city with her cynicism and disregard for the authorities. On that day, Italian mafiosi planned to kill the leader of the largest Irish gang, George Clarence Moran (Bax Moran).
To do this, the Italians developed a thorough plan. Several people, under the guise of a small criminal gang of bootleggers, turned to Bax with an offer to sell him a large consignment of contraband whiskey. Moran considered the offer profitable and made an appointment at one of his warehouses, disguised as a regular garage. On the specified date at 11 o'clock in the afternoon, a car with police signs drove up to the warehouse. Al Capone's people were sitting in it. Two of them were wearing police uniforms.
The whole company went into the warehouse and found seven Irish people sitting at the table. Bandits dressed as police officers demanded that those present stand in a row near the wall. The Irish obeyed meekly, naively believing that they were dealing with real police. But as soon as they dispersed along the wall, the intruders opened fire from machine guns. All the Irish bandits were killed, and the Italians calmly left the warehouse and drove away.
Irish shot on Valentine's Day
However, Bax Moran was not among those shot. He was late for the meeting, and when he appeared, he saw a police car near the doors of the warehouse and immediately left. The very same murder of 7 people made a lot of noise in Chicago. Everyone suspected Capone and his gang, but the main Italian mafia had an ironclad alibi. That day he was not in the city at all, he was in Miami. However, suspicions remained, and the Bureau of Investigation (in 1932 renamed the FBI) came to grips with his activities.
By this time, the leader of the Italian mafia already had a huge weight in Chicago. He bought with giblets many police officers, city officials, constantly allocated large sums to charity. Although he was not loved, he was respected and considered a benefactor. However, killing people on Valentine's Day markedly tarnished his reputation. BR began to dig under the mafia, but he was clean. For a long time he himself did not commit a crime, but entrusted it to other people. Therefore, no charges could be brought against him.
Then still very young Edgar Hoover created a special group of agents and instructed her to find at least something on Capone and put him in jail. Detectives began to intensively search for compromising evidence, and as you know, whoever searches will always find. By mid-1931, BR employees managed to collect material relating to the financial activities of the head of the Chicago mafia. It turned out that the bloody Italian did not pay taxes in the amount of 388 thousand dollars. Under American law, this is a very serious crime.
Already in July of the same year, Al Capone was arrested and brought before the Federal Court. He was sentenced to 11 years and imprisoned in Atlanta in May 1932 at the age of 33. In prison, he was diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhea. He also suffered from cocaine addiction at first. He worked 8 hours a day stitching soles on shoes.
Capone was apparently very happy that he was transferred to Alcatraz.
In 1934, the gangster was transferred to the most terrible prison in the United States, located on Alcatraz Island (now a museum). The most dangerous criminals were imprisoned in this federal prison, and the total number of cells did not exceed 600. The prison was specially rebuilt and opened in 1934 to put people like Capone there.
In Alcatraz on June 23, 1936, the head of the Chicago mob was shot in the back with barber scissors by a prisoner named James Crittenton Lucas. From the island prison on January 6, 1939, he was transferred to a federal prison in California, and was released on November 16, 1939.
Capone at his Palm Island home in Miami Beach, Florida
He was released a seriously ill man and was sent to the Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore for the treatment of chronic syphilis. But the hospital refused to accept the former gangster. Then Capone was placed in the Memorial Hospital, where he underwent a course of treatment and left on March 20, 1940 for Florida on Palm Island (Miami Beach), where his mansion, bought back in the 20s, was located. There, the former head of the Chicago mafia spent the remaining years of his life with his family.
Al Capone really hoped that the Florida climate would restore him at least some of the health destroyed by illness and prison. The debunked mafioso successfully celebrated his 48th birthday, but on January 21, 1947, he had a stroke, and on January 25, his heart stopped. So one of the most famous gangsters of the early 20th century, Alfonse Gabriel Capone, passed away.
Could Al Capone in suburban Chicago. It's all that's left of a once famous gangster
His body was interred at Carmel Roman Catholic Cemetery in Hillside, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. It's a long way from Florida, but that was the will of the deceased. He could not forget the city, which gave him, albeit for a short time, money, fame and power..
Stanislav Kuzmin
Alphonse Gabriel Capone, or Al Capone (Italian Alfonso Capone; January 17, 1899 - January 25, 1947) - the famous American gangster who operated in the 1920s and 1930s in Chicago. Under the guise of a furniture business, he was engaged in bootlegging, gambling and pimping. A prominent representative of organized crime in the United States, which originated and exists there under the influence of the Italian mafia. Also known as Scarface.
Al Capone was born on January 17, 1899 in Naples, the son of hairdresser Gabriel Capone and his wife Teresa. He was the fourth child in the family (there were nine in all). In search of a better life, the Capone family soon moved to America (Brooklyn).
The Capone family was primarily concerned with their own food, and therefore the education of the young Alfonso was essentially left to chance. One of the most legendary gangsters of the 20th century, Capone remained almost completely illiterate until his death.
Young Alfonso very early faced the need to earn his living on his own: like others of his peers, he could only qualify for a hard, low-paid job, devoid of all prospects. By the sixth grade, Alfonso had already become a full member of the gang and, along with everyone else, patrolled the streets of his native district.
Capone, who dropped out of school, tried a wide variety of professions for two years, having worked in a bowling alley, a pharmacy, and even a candy store, but he was more and more attracted to the nightlife. So, for example, having become addicted to playing billiards, he won absolutely all the tournaments held in Brooklyn during the year. There was a time when he worked as a bartender and at times as a bouncer. Due to his physical strength and size, Capone enjoyed doing this job in his boss Yale's squalid and shabby institution, the Harvard Inn. It is to this period of life that historians attribute the infamous stabbing of Capone with the bandit and murderer Frank Galluccio. The quarrel occurred because of the sister (according to some reports, the wife) Galluccio, who was very interested in the temperamental Capone. Galluccio inflicted a deep wound on Al by slashing his switchblade across his right cheek. He did not suspect that by doing so he was making history, rewarding his enemy with a scar that would imprint its owner in the criminal world under the nickname "Scarface" (Scarface).
At the same time, Capone continued to train diligently with weapons and became an excellent knife fighter, as a result of which he was soon noticed by the legendary gang of Johnny "Papa" Torrio, known as the Five Guns Gang. The most powerful and numerous criminal organization in New York, the Torrio gang consisted of more than one and a half thousand gangsters who traded in robberies, robberies, racketeering and contract killings. It was Torrio, who took Capone to the role of one of his personal thugs, who taught him especially dangerous tricks that would later allow Alfonso to rise to the very heights of the underworld. For the rest of his life, Capone was grateful to Torrio for the many lessons that really launched his lightning-fast career, and often called Johnny his father and teacher.
On December 18, 1918, Alfonso, who was 19 years old, married a 21-year-old Irish girl, Mae Coughlin, and a few months later became the happy father of little Albert Capone. However, at the same time, Torrio's business in New York went downhill and he was forced to move most of his operations to the more or less free Chicago. Capone, meanwhile, was a prime suspect in two premeditated murder cases, but was released when the prosecution's primary witness suddenly lost his memory and evidence mysteriously disappeared from the judge's office. Shortly after his release, Capone again started a quarrel with one of the street gangsters of a rival organization and in the end simply killed him. Without the help of Torrio, who had already left the city, his chances for another easy release were very slim, and, after calling Papa Johnny and describing the situation, Capone received an invitation to Chicago, quickly packed his few things and left New York with his wife and son immediately. ..
Arriving in Chicago, Capone took up bartending and bouncer duties at the Four Deuces, Torrio's new club, where he quickly gained a reputation as the most aggressive bouncer in town. The drunken visitors often left the club with broken arms and ribs, sometimes with a concussion, and once even with blood poisoning, when Capone lost his temper so much that he bit the poor fellow's neck to the artery. Such behavior could not go unnoticed for long, and he soon became a frequent visitor to the nearest police station, but thanks to Torrio's connections with the police, he was invariably released within two to three hours after his arrest. While working at the Four Deuces, Capone, on behalf of Torrio, strangled at least twelve people with his bare hands, whose bodies were carried under the cover of night through the basement into a quiet alley behind the club, where a stolen fast car was always waiting for Capone.
The aged Papa Torrio was weakening every day, and Capone took on more and more duties of the real Don of the underworld of the city. At its height, his underground organization consisted of more than a thousand armed gangsters and more than half of the city's policemen. Capone regularly paid personal salaries to senior police officers, district attorneys and mayors, legislators, and even US congressmen. One day, the mayor of Cicero, a small outskirts of Chicago, took it upon himself to pass a new decree without prior approval from Capone. An enraged gangster burst into the city council hall, dragged the mayor by the lapels of his jacket into the street and beat him half to death in front of the assembled crowd and deputies ...
However, the title of "King of Chicago" had its downsides for Capone. His family was constantly threatened by anonymous phone calls, he was shot on the streets, poison was poured into the clubs: One of Capone's most ardent opponents, the head of Chicago's second-largest street gang, Dion O'Brien, once staged a well-planned attempt on his life, literally riddling with several machine guns at the Hawthorne Inn hotel room, where Capone stayed for several days. Considering Capone, who had hidden under a heavy marble table, dead after more than a thousand rounds of ammunition were fired into the window of his room, O'Brien retired to celebrate the victory, while getting out from under the rubble Capone's nearly destroyed hotel was already planning a retaliatory strike.
As perpetrators of the quick and brutal murder of O'Brien, Capone chose two of his best shooters, John Scaliso and Albert Anselmi. However, almost immediately after they destroyed O'Brien, Capone learned of Scaliso and Anselmi's conspiracy with another rival gang, according to which they were supposed to remove Capone himself within the next week. Having invited the shooters to a banquet in honor of the successful work on O'Brien, Capone, with words of congratulations, took out a pre-prepared richly decorated bat and, in front of the assembled gangsters, killed both of them. Now only Bugs Morgan remained his last enemy - the only surviving assistant O " Brian, whose murder will subsequently begin the collapse of the entire empire of Al Capone ...
On Valentine's Day, several select Capone gangsters, dressed in police suits, broke into Morgan's basement and lined up the seven remaining O'Brien bandits along one of the walls. While Morgan's people decided not to resist, mistaking what was happening for another police raid, the gangsters The Capones shot them in cold blood with their machine guns, firing over 1,500 rounds of ammunition.Unfortunately, Morgan himself was not in the basement at that moment, and with his help, a gigantic "Bloody Saint Valentine" scandal arose in the city press, forcing the public to change their minds about bootlegging. wars.
The fall of Capone's empire was started by one of his own people, who was in charge of horse and dog racing. Eddie O'Hare, one of the best agents introduced by the US Internal Revenue Service into the underworld of Chicago, revealed to the tax inspectors the place where Capone hid his account books, reflecting the real turnover of the Capone empire.
Having never paid income tax in his life, Al Capone was arrested in June 1931 on charges of gross tax evasion and was forced to appear in federal court.
The amount of the proven non-payment was so small that Capone could have paid it out of his young son's pocket money, but the prosecution rejected his offer to settle the case out of court for a gigantic sum of $ 400,000 at that time and brought the matter to an end, as a result of which Capone was sentenced to a maximum fine of $50,000, reimbursement of costs of $30,000 and a maximum term for this type of crime - 11 years in prison.
His property, as well as the property of his wife, was confiscated, but most of the loot was written down to front men and several fictitious corporations, with the result that almost all of Capone's former wealth, estimated by police experts at $ 100,000,000, still remained in the hands of his family.
Al Capone spent the first year of his imprisonment in an Atlanta prison, and in 1934 he was transferred to the prison on Alcatraz Island, known as the "Rock", from where he was released five years later almost helpless and doomed, who had lost his health as a result of the development of uncured syphilis, picked up by him in the carefree years of his youth in New York. As a result of a rehearing of his case, which took place soon after, Capone was declared insane and placed under the care of his own family. At the same time, the Chicago gangsters who remained loyal to him, after many years of searching, nevertheless found Eddie O'Hare, who changed his name, and brutally killed Capone's longtime enemy in his own car. However, the influence of the aged Capone had already completely weakened by this time, and about the restoration of the former empire was out of the question, and while his few gangster friends continued to visit their ailing don regularly for several years and tell made-up stories about "taking ten central stores" and "a respectful message from the heads of America's crime families," his former accountant he kept a fictitious account of the millions thus earned, the end of the completely weakened king of Chicago was already at hand.
In January 1947, Alfonso Capone died as a result of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. His body was taken from Florida to Chicago, where it immediately came under the protection of several dozen gangsters armed with machine guns: even after his death, Capone continued to command the legions of the American underworld. After a closed funeral ceremony, the former king of Chicago, at the request of the family, was buried under a modest gravestone, where the legendary gangster rests to this day.
Chicago. The second most important city in the United States and one of the largest economic, industrial, transport and cultural centers on the entire continent. However, this is all said about modern Chicago and it is by no means famous for its high skyscrapers, clean streets and green squares. The criminal capital of America - that's how it was called in the beginningXX century. Thousands of criminal gangs operated there, trading in robberies, murders, pimping, drug trafficking, bootlegging and other types of illegal activities. And the most famous of the Chicago gangsters, without a doubt, is the "Great Al" Capone. He managed to organize this seething chaos and create one of the largest mafia empires in the world, which to this day is a kind of hallmark of the city.
Young Al Capone with his mother
Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, being the fourth of nine children. His parents were from Naples, where his father worked as a hairdresser and his mother as a seamstress. They, like thousands of other immigrants, were brought to America by the hope of a better life, but they never managed to find wealth. However, the parents of the man who would later become known to the whole world as "Great Al" did not lose heart. They regularly attended church, hoping that the merciful Lord would hear their prayers and send happiness, if not to them, then at least to their children. It is often mentioned in various sources that the then promising young man Alphonse was forced to take the “slippery slope”, because their family lived in poverty and was constantly in need of money, but in fact this is not entirely true. Indeed, the Capone family did not live well, but thanks to the diligence and diligence of their father, their financial situation was always stable. So, unlike thousands of other immigrant families, they quite made ends meet. But young Al decided from childhood that it was not for him to work hard all his life, in order to earn a piece of bread. He must receive everything at once and will make every effort for this.
The beginning of the way
Historians have different versions about how the “Great Al” grew out of the young smart boy Alfonse. Some believe that the “contagious” air of the Brooklyn slums, in which the family actually lived, is to blame. This area was a seething cauldron of various ethnic groups, peoples and social strata and was the concentration of all imaginable vices.
Others are sure that the young man was pushed to such a life by a protest against the rigid patriarchal foundations that reigned in the family, because the father kept his children in strictness, instilling in them a love of work and obedience to their elders. The school education was not the best either. According to the memoirs of Capone's contemporaries, the school institution in which young Al studied was located on the basis of the Catholic Church and was distinguished by an inadequately rigid program. Here they very willingly used physical and moral violence against the students, which caused a stormy protest from an impressionable young man.
Although Alfonse was a very smart, capable and promising student, he was expelled at the age of 14 for beating up a teacher who once again tried to hit him for his insolence. Since then, Capone no longer made attempts to continue his education and soon left his home.
After leaving home, Capone often hung out on the docks of Brooklyn and took on any job, unless, of course, he considered it humiliating or too dirty. Carrying dusty bales like a simple loader or digging in the ground for a piece of bread - this was not to his liking. Therefore, Al quickly joined the local youth gangs. The Five Corners Gang, the Plantation Boys, the Young Forty Thieves - today few people remember these names and very few people know that it was here that Capone got the experience that in the future will allow him to become the master of a huge mafia empire. The real character of Al Capone will be tempered in the Brooklyn slums, and his future mentor Johnny Torrio will only fully reveal him and teach him all the tricks of an undercover struggle for power in the criminal world.
Capone and his first criminal "teacher"
After leaving the youth gangs, Capone, with the help of his older friend Johnny Torrio (who had already moved to Chicago), got a job as a bartender and bouncer in a nightclub for gangster Frankie Yale. Once he quarreled with a client he did not like, throwing a few strong words at her address, and it ended in a stabbing when the lady's brother, without further ado, slashed the young bully with a knife in the face, leaving several deep cuts.
After that, Al Capone's left cheek was permanently adorned with a scar, which he was very embarrassed about. Subsequently, because of this scar, he was given the nickname "Scarface" - "scarface". It infuriated Al Capone even in adulthood. The memories of the unfortunate incident were disgusting, and Capone hated the nickname given to him with all his heart. After all, he got a scar out of stupidity, and not during a bandit raid, so there was nothing to be proud of. And even as the big boss of the criminal world, Capone tried to hide the scar and always called him a “combat wound” received in the war, although he, of course, never served in the army.
Who would have thought that this man is one of the most powerful gangsters of the 20th century? However, the Great and Terrible allowed his best friends to joke about this, and they often called him "Snorky", which meant "smart" in local slang.
At the same time, Capone meets his love - the Irish girl May Josephine Colin. Soon she becomes pregnant and he has to ask his parents for permission to marry, because at that time he was only 19 (in the USA, the age of majority comes at 21). Shortly before the wedding (the official ceremony took place on December 30, 1918), the couple has a baby, who was named Albert Francis. And the godfather is none other than his longtime friend Johnny Torrio, who has already achieved considerable heights in Chicago.
After this moment, the career of a young gangster will begin to rapidly go up. Historians believe that the highly experienced bandit Torrio already saw in him a potential mafia boss and decided to slowly prepare a worthy successor for himself. Torrio began to teach Capone how to deal with racketeering, maintaining a respectable image and hiding his "business" behind the curtain of legality. It is this knowledge that will later help him turn his gang into a real corporate empire.
Moving to Chicago
In 1920, Johnny Torrio becomes the leader of almost the entire Chicago mafia and invites Capone to his place, making him, in fact, his right hand. Rumor has it that he was awarded such an honor for the fact that, together with Frankie Yale, he sent boss Torrio to the next world. In the same year, the federal government announces the famous "dry law", unwittingly driving the alcohol market into the shadows. And the patron of Capone immediately generously endows his young companion, giving this part of the general "business" to his full disposal. And it should be noted that it was on bootlegging (illegal sale of alcohol) that he made most of his fortune.
Al Capone with his people The final formation of Capone as the main boss of the Chicago mafia happened in 1925. At this time, because of the constant violent clashes between the gangs, Chicago began to resemble a powder keg, and even such important figures as Johnny Torrio could not feel safe. Despite all the precautions, he still gets into a serious ambush and barely manages to stay alive. The raid shocked the old mafia boss so much that he pulled out of the business, handing over the reins to Capone. So at the age of 26, Al became the main gangster in the city.
Golden time
Science Johnny Torrio was not in vain. If at first Capone had a reputation for drinking and fighting and often got into trouble because of this, then after a few years under Torrio, he radically changed his image. He does not shy away from publicity, like many of his “colleagues” of gangsters, regularly goes to church, attends sporting events and openly sponsors charity events, distributing food and clothes to those in need (at this time, the financial crisis is already in full swing in America). In addition, Capone actually keeps in his pocket some local media and public figures who create for him the image of a real Robin Hood of the 20th century.
Al Capone on vacation But the other side of Al Capone's coin is simply terrifying. He can be considered one of the first who applied such tactics, which today is called aggressive marketing. And in its most disgusting form. As before, the gangster received the main income from bootlegging. He sold his goods through local bars and restaurants, and the owners of the latter had no choice, because in case of refusal to cooperate, the institution simply took off into the air, and often together with its owner.
The fight against competitors was also ruthless. His henchmen ruthlessly tortured and killed gangsters from hostile gangs, and Capone took their business for himself, crushing the gambling business, brothels, drug dens, hotels and many other criminal industries. Moreover, during the largest and noisiest showdowns, the gangster preferred to be in sight, for example, visiting an opera or theater, so that they could not be connected with what was happening. Capone's people did not leave witnesses, and it was impossible to talk to the gang members - everyone knew perfectly well that such poor fellows could only dream of an easy death later.
Sunset Al Capone
And although over the years of his activity, Al Capone was on the verge of collapse more than once, he always managed to successfully get out. Even after the bloody massacre in The Adonis Club Massacre, when some influential residents of the city were accidentally killed during a showdown, and even those who sincerely adored him turned away from Capone, he managed not only to avoid court, but also to regain his former reputation and strengthen the power of his gangsters over Chicago. However, as it turned out, not for long. In 1929, the event that later became known as the "Valentine's Day Massacre" occurred, which is now considered the beginning of the decline of Al Capone's golden age.
For a long time, the main competitor of the Italian mafia was the Irish gang of Bugs Moran, which often brought Capone big trouble and even attempted on some of his friends and family members. And on Thursday, February 14, 1929, it was planned to completely end it. Capone's friend and colleague Jack McGurn and his guys lured the Irish to a secluded place under the pretext of making a lucrative deal, and then dressed in police uniforms (to confuse other gangs and possible witnesses) committed reprisals. The Irish, under the pretext of inspection, were lined up against the wall and shot, but only Bugs Moran was not among them. He saw a police car around the corner and smelled something was wrong, and when he witnessed the murder, he immediately realized what really happened.
And although Al Capone himself at that time was relaxing in a hotel on the other side of the city and it was not possible to officially connect him with what happened, his reputation was seriously affected. Former loyal partners began to fear his cruelty and unbridledness, and each new murder only contributed to the growth of opposition among the allies. Capone's empire was crumbling before our eyes.
Conclusion and Last Days
But the last and decisive blow was dealt not by competitors or traitors, but by the federal authorities, who by that time had grown strong enough and declared war on crime. At that time, Al Capone was already so “famous” that the newly elected President Hoover personally initiated the persecution against him. Starting in 1929, accusations rained down on the gangster. Moreover, the accusers knew perfectly well that it would not work to attract Capone for the murders and smuggling of alcohol - he was too careful. Therefore, while any clues were being sought, lawsuits were initiated for illegal possession of weapons, contempt of court, vagrancy and other trifling cases, which, although they did not threaten a long term of imprisonment, greatly undermined the authority of the “important and respected person”.
Al Capone with his lawyers in the court of the city of Chicago The denouement came in 1931. Then Al Capone was finally put behind bars, charged with tax evasion. He was sentenced to eleven years in prison and a then-colossal $215,000 fine, not counting interest. He was supposed to serve time in prison in Atlanta. Then it turned out that the gangster was sick with gonorrhea and chronic syphilis. Historians believe that Capone caught the disease (which he infected his son with) while still working as a bouncer in a brothel at Frankie Yale's brothel club.
The former mafia boss found himself in an unenviable position and was subjected to constant attacks from other prisoners. Soon the authorities took advantage of this to transfer him to the newly opened Alcatraz prison, which was already considered the most impregnable and well-guarded. There he served his term until he was released in 1939. At that moment, Capone had already turned into a real ruin. Syphilis struck the brain, causing dementia (according to doctors, his intelligence was that of a teenage child). The last days of Al Capone lived out with his family in his mansion in Florida. He died on January 25, 1947 and was buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Illinois.
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