Al Capone

Alphonse Capone

Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 17, 1899. He was in gangs from a very young age. He did not stay in school very long and actually dropped out in the sixth grade. Some of his early crimes included prostitution rings and bootlegging. He was said to been involved in the crime life before he reached the age of 11.

When Al was 20 years old he moved to Chicago with the request of Johnny Torrio to join the gang life there. The leader of the gang was Jim Colosimo. As soon as he arrived in Chicago he was immersed in new bootlegging opportunities and politics.

Under Torrio, Al Capone rose to the higher positions in the Colisimo’s gang. Jim Colisimo was soon violently murdered by another gang. At the demise of Colisimo, Torrio moved up to the position of being the leader of the gang. Not long after Torrio took the leading role he was wounded in a assassination attempt. John Torrio then ceded the lead role to Capone.

az-capone-atlanta.jpg

When Al Capone was away in Florida the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre ensued. The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre included several gang members machine gunning members of the Moran Gang, after they posed as police officers. But even though he was away, he and his gang were blamed. This was the start of major gang violence in Chicago.

Al Capone was scheduled to appear before court on March 12, 1929. He received a conditional threat of punishment or a subpoena from the Federal Grand Jury. He convinced his lawyers to delay his court date until March 20th. His excuse was that he had bronchial pneumonia. He was placed under arrest after the hearing on charges of Contempt of Court. He soon posted the bond and was released. Almost a month later he was arrested along with his bodyguard for carrying a concealed weapon. He was released on good behavior after just nine months. Their sentence had been one year.

After a long trial process on tax evasion charges he was sentenced to jail in Alcatraz. He was in jail for just over seven and a half years during which his health worsened greatly. He then returned to Chicago and died on January 25, 1947.


Some other pages that you might find helpful are Prohibition and/or Speakeasies. I have found these authors to be well informed and their pages are very helpful.

Bibliography
“Famous Cases Alphonse Capone,aka.Al,Scarface.” Federal Bureau of Investigation. 4
Feb. 2009. <http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/capone/capone.htm>
“Al Capone” Al Capone at Alcatraz. 5 Feb. 2009. <http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/cap1.htm>

Author: Will Cross

Add a New Comment
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License