Notes+On+Al+Capone


 * At fourteen he quit school after striking a teacher. Capone and Lucky Luciano joined a gang known as the Five Pointers, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Capone worked for Frank Yale, president of the Unione Siciliane, as a bouncer and bartender. One night he made a remark about the sister of Frank Galluciano, and Galluciano slashed Capone's face with a pocket knife, leaving three large scars on the left side of his face. For much of his criminal career, newspapers would call Capone by the hated name "Scarface". Incredibly, Capone choose to forgive Galluciano and, years later, hired him as a bodyguard.


 * Within 2 years, Capone was earning $60 million a year from alcohol sales alone. Other rackets earned him an extra $45 million a year.


 * The 18th Amendment had banned the sale, transportation and manufacture of alcohol in [|America].But it was clear to some, that millions neither wanted this law nor would respect it. There was obviously a huge market for what in the 1920's was an illegal commodity. It was the gangsters who dominated various cities who provided this commodity. Each major city had its gangster element but the most famous was Chicago with Al Capone.
 * moved to Chicago in 1920 where he worked for Johnny Torrio the city's leading figure in the underworld. Capone was given the task of intimidating Torrio's rivals within the city so that they would give up and hand over to Torrio their territory. Capone also had to convince speakeasy operators to buy illegal alcohol from Torrio.
 * was very good at what he did.
 * 1925, Torrio was nearly killed by a rival gang and he decided to get out of the criminal world while he was still alive. Torrio handed over to Capone his 'business'.
 * Capone managed to bribe both the police and the important politicians of Chicago. He spent $75 million on such ventures but considered it a good investment of his huge fortune. His armed thugs patrolled election booths to ensure that Capone's politicians were returned to office.
 * For all his power, Capone still had enemies from other surviving gangs in the city. He drove everywhere in an armour plated limousine and wherever he went, so did his armed bodyguards. Violence was a daily occurrence in Chicago. 227 gangsters were killed in the space of 4 years and on St Valentine's Day, 1929, 7 members of the O'Banion gang were shot dead by gangsters dressed as police officers.

> > Chicago became home to Capone and many other organized crime gangs. "For a city that is so filled with the history of crime, there has been little preservation of the landmarks that were once so important to the legend of the mob in Chicago. Gone are the landmarks like the Lexington Hotel, where Al Capone kept the fifth floor suite and used the place as his headquarters. But most tragic, at least to crime buffs, was the destruction of the warehouse that was located at 2122 North Clark Street. It was here, on Valentine's Day 1929, that the most spectacular mob hit in gangland history took place..... the St. Valentine's Day Massacre." > > On December 1918, Al Capone killed a man in an argument. He called his old friend Torrio, whom he first met in N.Y., but was now in Chicago. Capone moved to Chicago became home to Capone and many other organized crime gangs. "For a city that is so filled with the history of crime, there has been little preservation of the landmarks that were once so important to the legend of the mob in Chicago. Gone are the landmarks like the Lexington Hotel, where Al Capone kept the fifth floor suite and used the place as his headquarters. But most tragic, at least to crime buffs, was the destruction of the warehouse that was located at 2122 North Clark Street. It was here, on Valentine's Day 1929, that the most spectacular mob hit in gangland history took place..... the St. Valentine's Day Massacre." > > Chicago at the invitation of Torrio. Al Capone became Torrio’s right hand man, and was bartender at his club. He got rid of the unwanted, and 'drunkards’. He was also involved in illegal gambling, bootlegging (illegal alcohol), and prostitution. When prohibition started in 1920, Capone ran the underground drinking establishments for Torrio, after he (Torrio) had Capone kill off the Chicago boss named Colosimo. Torrio then became the Chicago boss, and Capone the manager of alcohol in the city. When Torrio was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt, he stepped down from the head of the mob in 1925 and Al Capone became the head of the Chicago Mafia. Through his reign in Chicago Al had the congressmen, mayors, legislators, governors, city aldermen, and much of Chicago police force on his payroll. Alphonse Capone, better known to most of us as Al Capone, or “Scarface”, was The most notorious gangster in the history of the U.S.A. >
 * In 1931, the law finally caught up with Capone and he was charged with tax evasion. He got 11 years in jail. In prison, his health went and when he was released, he retired to his Florida mansion no longer the feared man he was from 1925 to 1931.
 * Chicago became home to Capone and many other organized crime gangs. "For a city that is so filled with the history of crime, there has been little preservation of the landmarks that were once so important to the legend of the mob in Chicago. Gone are the landmarks like the Lexington Hotel, where Al Capone kept the fifth floor suite and used the place as his headquarters. But most tragic, at least to crime buffs, was the destruction of the warehouse that was located at 2122 North Clark Street. It was here, on Valentine's Day 1929, that the most spectacular mob hit in gangland history took place..... the St. Valentine's Day Massacre."