Al Capone's full name. Al Capone: biography, photos, interesting facts and quotes

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. The parents were Italian emigrants - both were natives of Angri. They came to the United States in 1894 and settled in Williamsburg, a suburb of Brooklyn, New York.

In total there were 9 children in the family: 7 sons - James Vincenzo, (March 28, 1892 - October 1, 1952), Raffaelle James (January 12, 1894 - January 22, 1974), Salvatore (July 16, 1895 - April 1, 1924), Alfonso, Ermino John (April 11, 1903 - July 12, 1985), Albert 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; starting with Salvatore, all the other Capone children were born in the States.

Alphonse with early years showed signs of being clearly an excitable psychopath. Ultimately, as a sixth-grader, he attacked his school teacher, after which he dropped out of 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.

To cover up the real business (mainly illegal gambling and extortion) and the gang's actual hideout - a billiard club - the oversized teenager Alfonso was hired as a bouncer. Addicted to playing billiards, within a year he won absolutely all the tournaments held in Brooklyn.

Due to his physical strength and size, Capone enjoyed doing this work in his boss Yale's squalid establishment, the Harvard Inn.

It is to this period of his life that historians attribute Capone’s stabbing with criminal Frank Galluccio. The quarrel arose over Galluccio's sister (according to some reports, wife), to whom Capone made an impudent remark. Galluccio slashed young Alfonso across the face with a knife, giving him the famous scar on his left cheek, which earned him the nickname Capone in chronicles and pop culture. "Scarface". Alfonso was ashamed of this story and explained the origin of the scar by participating in the “Lost Battalion,” an offensive operation of Entente troops in the Argonne Forest in World War I, which ended tragically for an infantry battalion of American troops due to the incompetence of the command. In fact, Alfonso not only was not in the war, but 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 gave him a reason to follow Torrio to Chicago and join the gang of “Big” Colosimo, the owner of several brothels and Torrio’s uncle. It was during this period that there was a dispute between Colosimo and Torrio about expanding the scope of bootlegging. Torrio was in favor, Colosimo was against.

The greedy and unprincipled Torrio, having exhausted all 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 formed Torrio gang encountered much more fierce competition. After several years of more or less peaceful coexistence, a conflict of interests led to a clash between Torrio’s group and Deion O’Banion’s Irish North Side gang, which ultimately resulted in the latter’s murder.

O'Banion's 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 Torrio's severe wound in a shootout forced him to retire and appoint Al Capone as his successor. At that time, the gang numbered about a thousand fighters and collected $300 thousand in income per week. Alfonso was in his 26th year and was in his element.

Alfonso lived up to the mafia's expectations. Al Capone introduced the concept of “racketeering.” The mafia also began to exploit prostitution, and all this was covered by huge bribes paid to Capone not only by police officers, but also by politicians.

The war of bandits under Capone took on proportions unprecedented for that time. Between 1924 and 1929 alone, more than five hundred mobsters were shot and killed in Chicago. Capone mercilessly exterminated the Irish gangs of O'Banion, Dougherty and Bill Moran. Machine guns and hand grenades joined the machine guns. Gangster practice included explosive devices installed in cars, which were triggered after the starter was turned on. The beginning of this series of murders went down in the history of American criminology under the name “Valentine’s Day Massacre.”

Valentine's Day Massacre

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. Occurred in Chicago on February 14, 1929, during Prohibition in the United States.

On Thursday, February 14, Valentine's Day, seven bodies were found lying in a row against a wall inside a warehouse disguised as a garage near Lincoln Park in north Chicago: Moran's closest lieutenant, Albert Kachellek, also known as "James Clarke", Frank and Peter Gusenberg, Johnny May, Adam Heyer, Al "Gorilla" Weinshank and Dr. Reinhard Schwimmer. All those killed (with the exception of Schwimmer) were part of the Bugs Moran gang during their lifetime and were shot by members of the Al Capone family. Al Capone himself, having taken care of an alibi, was on vacation in Florida at that time.

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 involved in bootlegging (illegal importation and sale of alcoholic beverages) and wanted sole control of this business in Chicago.

The crime plan, with the approval of Al Capone, was developed by one of his henchmen, Jack McGurn, nicknamed “Machine Gun”. In addition, in a similar way, he wanted to take revenge for the failed attempt on his life, which a month earlier was made by Frank and Peter Gusenberg, who tried to kill him in a telephone booth. McGurn formed a team of six people 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 friend Louise Rolf, renting a hotel room and thereby providing his alibi.

Burke and his group arranged a meeting with Moran's gang at a warehouse on North Clark Street under the pretext of selling contraband whiskey. The goods were allegedly supposed to be delivered at half past ten in the morning on Thursday, February 14th. As Moran's men went inside, Burke's group drove up to the warehouse in a stolen police cruiser. Since the two bandits were dressed in police uniform, Moran's men 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 police officers led their accomplices out of the warehouse with their hands raised - so that from the outside it seemed like a normal arrest - and drove away. Their calculation was justified. As witness Alfonsina Morin later testified, she did not see anything suspicious in this. However, 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 gunfire, and then the real police arrived. When Sergeant Sweeney asked the dying Frank Gusenberg (later it was established that he had received 22 bullet wounds) who shot him, he replied that no one, 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 could not be charged, since both of them had ironclad alibis. McGurn also soon married Rolf - in the press she was nicknamed Blond Alibi - so she got the opportunity not to testify against her husband.

No direct evidence of Capone's involvement in the episode was found. Moreover, no one was ever brought to trial for the crime.

The published photographs from the crime scene shocked the public and significantly damaged Capone's reputation in society, and also forced federal law enforcement agencies to closely investigate his activities.

In July 1931, Al Capone was sentenced to eleven years in prison in the Atlanta Penitentiary for failure to pay taxes in the amount of $388,000. The verdict was handed down by the Federal Court.

In 1934, he was transferred to a prison on Alcatraz Island, from where he emerged seven years later terminally ill with syphilis. Capone lost his criminal influence.

On January 21, 1947, Capone suffered a stroke, after which he regained consciousness and even began to recover, but on January 24 he was diagnosed with pneumonia. The next day, Capone died of cardiac arrest.

Al Capone ( documentary)

Al Capone's 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 age 19.

Coughlin was an 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, written consent to the marriage was required from his parents.

May Josephine - Al Capone's wife

Albert Capone was born with congenital syphilis and a severe mastoid infection. He underwent forced 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 incident in 1965, for which he received a two-year suspended sentence. After this, in 1966, he officially changed his name to Albert Francis Brown (Brown was often used by 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 movies:

Rod Steiger in the movie "Al Capone";

Jason Robards in the film "Valentine's Day Massacre";
- Ben Gazzara in the film “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 film "Nitti the Gangster";
- Julian Litman in the film “Al Capone's Boys”;
- William Forsyth in the series “The Untouchables”;
- Stephen Graham in the TV series Boardwalk Empire;
- Jon Bernthal in the film “Night at the Museum 2”;
- Roberto Malone in the movie "The Hot Life of Al Capone"

There are also a number of characters in the movie based on Capone:

Paul Mooney (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, Bronze records in the UK released a joint single by Motörhead and Girlschool called “St. Valentine's Day Massacre."

The sixth and final fight between boxers Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta, which took place on February 14, 1951, was called the Valentine's Day Massacre.

A similar situation is played out in the computer game Mafia 2, where fighters dressed as Empire Bay police officers unknown family They committed a pogrom at a drug factory disguised as a fish factory.

In a computer game Grand Theft Auto Online has released an update called "Valentine's Day Massacre"...

1920 -1930

Al Capone was born on January 17 1899

December 18 1918

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Alphonse Gabriel Capone, or Al Capone, was a famous American gangster who operated in 1920 -1930 's in Chicago. Under the guise of the furniture business, he was involved in bootlegging, gambling and pimping. A prominent representative of US organized crime, which originated and exists there under the influence Italian mafia. Also known by the nickname Scarface.

Al Capone was born on January 17 1899 years in Naples, in the family of hairdresser Gabriel Capone and his wife Teresa. He was the fourth child in the family (there were nine in total). 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 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 own living: like others his age, he could only apply for hard, low-paid work, devoid of any prospects. By the sixth grade, Alfonso had already become a full member of the gang and, like everyone else, patrolled the streets of his native area.

Capone, a school dropout, tried many different professions for two years, working in a bowling alley, a pharmacy, and even a candy store, but he was increasingly attracted to the nocturnal lifestyle. For example, having become addicted to playing billiards, within a year he won absolutely all the tournaments held in Brooklyn. 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 work in his boss Yale's squalid establishment, the Harvard Inn. It is to this period of his life that historians attribute Capone’s notorious stabbing with bandit and murderer Frank Galluccio. The quarrel occurred over the sister (according to some reports, wife) of Galluccio, who was very interested in the temperamental Capone. Gallucio inflicted a deep wound on Al, slashing his switchblade across Al's right cheek. He had no idea that he was making history by giving his enemy a scar that would mark its owner in the criminal world under the nickname “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 engaged in robberies, robberies, racketeering and contract killings. It was Torrio, who cast Capone as one of his personal thugs, who taught him especially dangerous tricks that would later allow Alfonso to rise to the very heights of the criminal world. To the end of his life, Capone was grateful to Torrio for the many lessons that really laid the foundation for his meteoric career, and often called Johnny his father and teacher.

December 18 1918 Alfonso, who turned 19, married 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 very badly and he was forced to transfer most of his operations to the still more or less free Chicago. Capone, meanwhile, was the prime suspect in two cases of premeditated murder, but was released when the prosecution's main witness suddenly lost his memory and physical evidence mysteriously disappeared from the judge's office. Shortly after his release, Capone again got into an argument 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 current situation, Capone received an invitation to Chicago, quickly packed his few belongings and, together with his wife and son, immediately left New York. ..

Arriving in Chicago, Capone began working as a bartender and bouncer at the Four Deuces, Torrio's new club, where he quickly gained a reputation as the most aggressive bouncer in the city. Overdone patrons 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 man’s neck to an 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 or three hours of 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 out under cover of darkness through the basement into a quiet alley behind the club, where Capone always had a stolen fast car waiting for him.

The aging Papa Torrio grew weaker every day, and Capone took on more and more of the responsibilities of the city's true underworld Don. At its height, his underground organization consisted of more than a thousand armed gangsters and more than half the city's police officers. Capone regularly paid personal salaries to senior police officers, prosecutors and county mayors, members of legislatures 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 first coordinating it with Capone. An enraged gangster burst into the city council chamber, 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” also had its downsides for Capone. His family was constantly threatened by anonymous phone calls, he was shot at on the streets, poison was added to clubs: One of Capone's most ardent opponents, the head of the second most important street gang in Chicago, Dion O'Brien, once staged a well-planned attempt on his life, literally riddling several machine guns in the Hawthorne Inn room, where Capone stayed for several days. Finding Capone, who was hiding under a heavy marble table, dead after more than a thousand rounds of ammunition were fired through the window of his room, O'Brien retired to celebrate his victory while climbing out of the rubble With the hotel almost destroyed, Capone was already planning a retaliatory strike.

To carry out the quick and brutal murder of O'Brien, Capone chose two of his best shooters, John Scalizo and Albert Anselmi. However, almost immediately after they destroyed O'Brien, Capone learned of Scalizo 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 ornate bat and, in front of the assembled gangsters, killed both of them with it. Now his last enemy was only Bugs Morgan - O's only surviving assistant. Brian, whose murder will subsequently mark the beginning of the collapse of Al Capone's entire empire...

On Valentine's Day, several selected Capone gangsters, dressed in police suits, burst 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 machine guns, firing more than one and a half thousand rounds. Unfortunately for them, Morgan himself was not in the basement at that moment and with his help, a gigantic scandal about “Bloody Saint Valentine” arose in the city press, forcing the public to change their opinion about bootlegging wars.

The fall of Capone's empire was started by one of his own people, who was responsible for horse and dog racing. Eddie O'Hair, one of the best agents embedded by the US Tax Police in the Chicago underworld, revealed to tax inspectors the place where Capone hid his account books, which reflected the real turnover of Capone's empire.

Having never paid income tax in his life, Al Capone was arrested in June 1931 accused of malicious 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 the then gigantic sum of $400,000 and brought the case to an end, as a result of which Capone was sentenced to a maximum fine of $50,000, costs of $30,000 and maximum period By this species crime - 11 years in prison.

His property, as well as that of his wife, was confiscated, but most of the loot was recorded in the names of front men and several fictitious corporations, as a result of which 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 year was transferred to the prison known as “The Rock” on the island of Alcatraz, from where he was released five years later, a practically helpless and doomed patient, having lost his health as a result of the development of untreated syphilis, contracted during the carefree years of his youth in New York. As a result of a retrial that took place shortly after, Capone was declared insane and placed under the guardianship of his own family. At the same time, the Chicago gangsters who remained loyal to him, after many years of searching, finally found Eddie O'Hare, who had changed his name, and brutally killed Capone's longtime enemy in his own car. However, the influence of the aged Capone had completely weakened by this time, and the restoration of the former empire was out of the question. And although his few gangster friends continued to visit their ailing don regularly for several years and tell fictitious stories about the “taking of ten central stores” and “a respectful message from the heads of the crime families of America,” and his former accountant especially for he was keeping a fictitious account of the millions earned in this way, the end of the completely weakened king of Chicago was already close.

In January 1947 Alfonso Capone died as a result of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. His body was transported from Florida to Chicago, where it immediately came under the guard of several dozen gangsters armed with machine guns: even after his death, Capone continued to command the legions of the American underworld. After a private funeral ceremony, the former king of Chicago, at the request of his family, was buried under a modest gravestone, where the legendary gangster rests to this day.

The most famous American gangster Al Capone did not live the longest, but very rich life. He managed to rise from the very bottom of the US criminal world and became the most influential mafioso of his time. This post will tell you how the fate of Al Capone turned out.

Classic look The American mafia of the 1920s and 1930s, with its high-profile shootouts and ruthless hitmen, arose, in fact, thanks to one man. No one knows exactly how many people were killed on his orders, but the name Al Capone alone terrified even his most ferocious colleagues in the “criminal business.”
There is still debate about where Alfonso Gabriel Fiorello Capone, better known as Al Capone, was born. The mafia boss himself said that he was born in Naples on January 17, 1899, but some of his biographers are sure that Alfonso was actually born in Castellammare del Golfo in 1895.
In 1909, Alfonso and his family followed the typical route for Italians of that time - to the USA.
The large Capone family (Alfonso's father had nine children) began to settle in a new place, in Williamsburg, a suburb of Brooklyn, and the grown-up Alfonso got a job as a butcher. However, his bad inclinations manifested themselves even at school - he could beat up a classmate for no reason, he would even raise his hand against teachers.
It is not surprising that very soon he began to play the role of a boy in the wings in one of the local gangs. Alfonso's criminal mentor was the leader of the group, Johnny Torrio. The bandit saw great promise in the recruit - excellent physical condition along with cruelty and mercilessness.

Where does the scar come from?

Officially, Alfonso began to play the role of a bouncer in a billiards club, which was the headquarters of the Torrio gang. Unofficially, he acted as a killer, eliminating those who did not please the leader. However, at first Alfonso’s victims were only minor figures, like the owner of a small Chinese restaurant, who had quarreled with the bandits.

Al Capone with his son, 1931.

Alfonso’s criminal career could have ended in the Brooklyn suburbs, since the daring young bandit often got into quarrels with more serious “authorities.” There was almost always a reason: seasoned criminals were infuriated by Alfonso’s skill while playing billiards, and he often accompanied his victories with impudent comments.
Once Capone grappled with bandit Frank Galluccio, and he slashed Alfonso in the face with a knife. This cut gave rise to Capone’s later nickname, “Scarface.” It should be noted that during his lifetime no one called the gangster that, and he himself, who had never served a day in the army, said that he was wounded at the front during the First World War.
Meanwhile Johnny Torrio became influential person in the US criminal world and moved to Chicago, where he headed one of the local gangster groups. Capone initially remained in New York, but then followed his boss. Firstly, Torrio needed a reliable killer in Chicago, and secondly, the police were closely involved in Capone’s previous affairs in New York.

Crime reformer

The main occupation of US criminals at that time was the sale of alcohol. In a country where Prohibition was in effect, this was an extremely profitable business. However, the Torrio group in Chicago had many competitors in this market, and Capone, who received the nickname “Al Brown,” began to fight against them.

Al Capone on vacation, 1930.

Before Capone, mafiosi, of course, also did not stand on ceremony when fighting each other, but more often they used knives, brass knuckles, and much less often - pistols. Capone, who created a real “special forces of killers” in the Torrio gang, did not take into account conventions and horrified his opponents with his cruelty.
Torrio's group waged war with the gang of Irishman Deion O'Banion. Its victims, in addition to ordinary soldiers, were Alfonso’s younger brother, who also became a bandit, and O’Banion himself. Johnny Torrio was seriously injured, as a result of which he retired, transferring control of the group to his “right hand” - Al Capone, who by that time was 25 years old.
Desperate pensioners and loser swindlers. How did the high-profile robberies of recent years end?
Capone's group changed the criminal world of America. New boss, without giving up the sale of alcohol, he brought the proceeds from prostitution under the control of criminals and engaged in what is today understood as the word “racketeering”, achieving colossal profits.
Al Capone dealt mercilessly with his competitors - it was thanks to him that the criminal world became rich in gun battles from automatic weapons and car bomb explosions. Competitors were eliminated in broad daylight, sometimes by throwing grenades, and they often dealt with not only the hostile bandit himself, but also members of his family.
The opponents, of course, tried to get to Al Capone himself, but they couldn’t do it - he had heavily armed guards, an armored car, and he dealt with those suspected of treason so brutally that there were practically no people willing to go over to the side of his competitors.

King of Chicago

The so-called “Valentine’s Day Massacre” on February 14, 1929, entered into American history when Capone’s gunmen, dressed in police uniforms, burst into the underground liquor warehouse of a rival group, lined up opponents against the wall and shot them with machine guns. The competitors, who were confident until the very end that they had been detained by the police, did not even have time to be surprised. Seven people became victims of this massacre.

Aftermath of the "Valentine's Day Massacre", February 1929.

The income of Capone's empire at the peak of his power reached the astronomical sum of $60 million in America in those years. The mafia boss bought the loyalty of police officers, politicians, journalists and was the uncrowned king of Chicago. During the Great Depression, he used his own money to open free canteens for the poor, which gained popularity among the lower strata of society.
Historians estimate that at least 700 people died in the mafia wars waged by Al Capone, of whom about 400 were killed on his personal orders.
However, the structure of the mafia was such that none of these crimes could be proven.

Tax trap

The new head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, took it upon himself to put an end to Capone. Realizing that it would be impossible to imprison the mafia leader for murder and racketeering, he went in from the other side. First, in 1929, Alya Capone was sentenced to 10 months in prison for illegally carrying weapons. But Capone didn’t even notice this period - he lived comfortably in prison, received visitors and continued to manage the group.
However, in 1931, Alya Capone was sentenced to 11 years for tax evasion. It took a lot of effort for the authorities to achieve a guilty verdict, but in the end they succeeded.
At first the story of running a gang from prison repeated itself, but then Capone was transferred to a federal prison in Atlanta and his connections were broken. It was finally possible to cut off the leader from his criminal empire in 1934, when he was transported to the most legendary and harsh prison in the United States - Alcatraz.

Alcatraz prison, where Al Capone served his sentence.

Here the bloodthirsty gangster was brought down from his arrogance and forced to work as a janitor, which is why the other prisoners began to call Capone “the boss with the mop.”
Over time, his health deteriorated, and doctors discovered that Capone had syphilis in late stage. There was nothing surprising in this - the criminal in Chicago kept a whole “harem” of prostitutes, and did not bother himself with protective measures.
In 1939, Al Capone, stricken with partial paralysis, was released for health reasons. He lost his influence in the criminal world, and this sick and aged man could not, as before, control a group of 1000 bandits with an iron fist.

Al Capone's grave.

Despite all this, Al Capone was, in a sense, lucky. Unlike many of his colleagues, he died in his bed, last years spending his life in his own home in Florida. The bloodthirsty gangster died on January 25, 1947. The cause of death was poor health, consequences of a stroke and pneumonia.

During Prohibition, Al Capone led a Chicago crime empire that raked in millions of dollars annually. He controlled bootlegging gambling and other types of illegal activities. Below are eight amazing facts from the life of the famous mafia boss.

Capone became a member of a street gang as a child

The future mafia leader was born on January 17, 1899 in Brooklyn, New York. Alphonse Capone was the fourth of nine children in a poor family. His parents, Gabriel and Teresa Capone, immigrated from Italy. The boy dropped out of school in the sixth grade, joining one of the Manhattan gangs. As he grew older, he worked as a bouncer and bartender in an establishment owned by mafioso Frankie Yale. In 1918 he married May Coughlin. The couple was inseparable until Capone's death and had an only son. In 1920, Capone moved to Chicago. There is a version according to which he went there to lay low after seriously wounding a member of a rival gang in a fight. In any case, Capone came to Chicago to visit Johnny Torrio, a former Brooklyn gangster.

He hated his famous nickname

In 1917, Capone's face was cut in a fight by other bandits because he insulted the sister of one of them. Three scars remain as a reminder of this incident. As a result, he acquired the nickname “Scarface.” The mafia boss preferred not to remember that long-ago incident and hated being called that. More often, his accomplices and friends called him Snorky, which means “doll” in slang.

The Mafia led by Capone raked in $100 annually.

Arriving in Chicago, Capone worked for Torrio, who was part of a criminal network led by a man named big Jim Colossimo. When he was killed (it is possible that he was “ordered” by Torrio and Capone), Torrio himself became the boss and made Capone one of his main assistants. In January 1925, Torrio was shot near his home in Illinois. He survived, but left Chicago that same year, leaving the 26-year-old Capone in his place. The new “master” expanded the organization and subsequently became one of the leading American mafiosi. According to some estimates, his crime syndicate "earned" approximately $100 million a year, mainly through bootlegging, racketeering, as well as through the underground casinos and brothels it controlled, and other types of illegal activities. The boss loved talking to reporters. Capone never felt guilty about how he made his living. He claimed that he was doing " public service" in Chicago, declaring that ninety percent of the people of Cook County drink and gamble, and his whole crime is that he provides them with these amusements.

He was never accused of the Valentine's Day massacre

On the morning of February 14, 1929, seven men somehow associated with the George "Bug" Marana Foundation were shot and killed. The victims included five of Moran's accomplices, his auto mechanic and his optometrist; Moran himself was not there. The group of attackers consisted of at least four men, two of them wearing police uniforms. With the light hand of newspapermen, the crime became known as the “St. Valentine’s Massacre.” The authorities conducted a thorough investigation, but to no avail. In the end, it was assumed that Capone eliminated his rival by planning and organizing these murders and providing himself with an alibi (he himself was in Florida). Due to lack of evidence, no formal charges were brought

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 not famous thanks to its tall skyscrapers, clean streets and green squares. The crime capital of America - that’s what they called it back in the beginningXX century. Thousands of criminal gangs operated there, engaging 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 “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 business card cities.

Young Al Capone with his mother

Alphonse Gabriel Capone Born January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, 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 better life, but they never managed to gain wealth. However, the parents of the man who would later become known throughout the 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. Various sources often mention that poverty forced the then promising young man Alphonse to take the “slippery slope”, since their family lived poorly and was constantly in need of money, but in fact this is not entirely true. Indeed, the Capone family did not live richly, but thanks to the diligence and hard work of their father, their financial situation was always stable. So, unlike thousands of other emigrant families, they made ends meet quite well. But young Al decided from childhood that working hard all his life in order to earn a piece of bread was not for him. He must get everything at once and will make every effort for this.

The beginning of the way

Historians have different versions about how “Great Al” grew up from the young, smart boy Alphonse. Some believe that this is due to the “contagious” air of the Brooklyn slums where the family actually lived. This area was a seething cauldron of various ethnic groups, peoples and social strata and was a concentration of every imaginable vice.

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 strict, instilling in them a love of work and obedience to their elders. School education was not the best either. According to the recollections of Capone's contemporaries, the school where young Al studied was located on the basis of the Catholic Church and was distinguished by an inappropriately strict program. Here they very willingly used physical and moral violence against students, which caused a violent protest among the impressionable young man.

Despite being a very smart, capable and promising student, Alphonse 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 made no further attempts to continue his education and soon left his home.

After leaving home, Capone began to often hang out on the docks of Brooklyn and take on any work, unless, of course, he considered it humiliating or too dirty. Carrying dusty bales like a simple loader or poking around in the ground for a piece of bread - this was not to his liking. Therefore, Al quickly joined local youth gangs. The Five Corners Gang, the Plantation Boys, the Young Forty Thieves - today few people remember these names and very few know that it was here that Capone gained the experience that in the future would allow him to become the ruler of a huge mafia empire. Al Capone's true character will be tempered in the Brooklyn slums, and his future mentor Johnny Torrio will only fully reveal him and teach him all the intricacies of the behind-the-scenes 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 comrade Johnny Torrio (who had already moved to Chicago), got a job as a bartender and bouncer in a nightclub for gangster Frankie Yale. One day he quarreled with a client he didn’t like, throwing a few strong words at her, and it ended in a stabbing when the lady’s brother, without further ado, slashed the young bully in the face with a knife, leaving several deep cuts.

After this, Al Capone's left cheek was forever adorned with a scar, which he was very embarrassed about. Subsequently, because of this scar, he was given the nickname “Scarface” - “face with a scar.” 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 soul. After all, he received the scar out of stupidity, and not during a bandit raid, so there was nothing to be proud of. And even as a big boss in the criminal world, Capone tried to hide the scar and always called it a “battle wound” received in the war, although, of course, he himself never served in the army.

Who would have thought that this man was one of the most powerful gangsters of the 20th century?

However, best friends The Great and Powerful allowed jokes about this, and they often called him "Snorky", which was local slang for "dressy".

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, since at that time he was only 19 (in the USA, adulthood is 21). Shortly before the wedding (the official ceremony took place on December 30, 1918), the couple gave birth to a baby, who was named Albert Francis. And the godfather becomes none other than his longtime friend Johnny Torrio, who has already achieved considerable heights in Chicago.

After this moment, the career of the young gangster will begin to rapidly rise. Historians believe that the 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 properly engage in racketeering, maintaining a respectable image and hiding his “business” behind a screen 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 became the leader of almost the entire Chicago mafia and invited Capone to join him, making him virtually his right hand. Rumor has it that he was awarded this honor because, together with Frankie Yale, he sent the boss Torrio to the next world. In the same year, the federal government announced the famous “Prohibition Law,” unwittingly driving the alcohol market into the shadows. And Capone’s patron immediately generously rewards his young companion, placing this part of the general “business” at his complete disposal. And it should be noted that it was through bootlegging (the illegal sale of alcohol) that he made most of his fortune.

Al Capone with his men

Capone's final emergence as the top boss of the Chicago mafia happened in 1925. At this time, due to constant violent clashes between 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 ends up in a serious ambush and barely manages to stay alive. The raid shocked the old mafia boss so much that he quit the business, handing over the reins to Capone. So, at the age of 26, Al became the main gangster in the city.

Golden time

Johnny Torrio's science 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 several years under the leadership of Torrio he radically changed his image. He is not averse to publicity, like many of his “colleagues” gangsters, regularly goes to church, attends sporting events and openly sponsors charity events, distributing food and clothing to the needy (at this time, America is already in the midst of a financial crisis). 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 back side Al Capone's medals are simply terrifying. He can be considered one of the first to use such tactics, which today are called aggressive marketing. And in its most disgusting form. As before, the gangster received his main income from bootlegging. He sold his goods through local bars and restaurants, and the owners of the latter had no choice, because if they refused to cooperate, the establishment simply went up in smoke, often along with its owner.

The fight against competitors was also merciless. His henchmen mercilessly tortured and killed bandits from hostile gangs, and Capone took over their business, taking over 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 plain sight, for example, visiting the opera or theater, so that he could not be connected with what was happening. Capone’s people did not leave any witnesses, and it was impossible to get the gang members to talk - everyone knew perfectly well that such poor people could only dream of an easy death.

Decline of 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 the showdown, and even those who had sincerely adored him turned away from Capone, he managed not only to avoid trial, 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, an 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 caused Capone major troubles and even attempted to kill some of his friends and family members. And on Thursday, February 14, 1929, it was planned to completely end it. Capone's friend and associate Jack McGurn and his guys lured the Irish to a secluded place under the pretext of concluding a lucrative deal, and then, dressed in police uniforms (to confuse other gangs and possible witnesses), carried out the massacre. The Irish, under the pretext of inspection, were lined up against the wall and shot, but Bugs Moran was not among them. He saw a police car around the corner and sensed something was wrong, and when he witnessed the murder, he immediately realized what had really happened.

And although Al Capone himself was vacationing in a hotel on the other side of the city at that time and it was never possible to officially link him with what happened, his reputation was seriously damaged. Former faithful 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 collapsing before our eyes.

Conclusion and last days

But the final and decisive blow was dealt not by competitors or traitors, but by the federal authorities, who by that time had become sufficiently strong and declared war on crime. At that time, Al Capone had already become so “famous” that the persecution against him was personally initiated by the newly elected President Hoover. Since 1929, accusations have rained down on the gangster. Moreover, the prosecutors knew very well that it would not be possible to prosecute Capone for murders and alcohol smuggling - he was too careful. Therefore, while the search for any clues was underway, lawsuits were initiated for illegal carrying of weapons, contempt of court, vagrancy and other trivial matters, which, although they did not threaten for a long time conclusions, but significantly undermined the authority of the “important and respected person.”

Al Capone with his lawyers in Chicago court

The denouement came in 1931. Then Al Capone was finally put behind bars on charges of tax evasion. He was sentenced to eleven years in prison and a colossal fine at that time of 215 thousand dollars, not including interest. He was supposed to serve his sentence in a prison in Atlanta. Then it turned out that the gangster was sick with gonorrhea and chronic syphilis. Historians believe that Capone contracted this disease (which he infected his son with) while working as a bouncer in a brothel at Frankie Yale's club-brothel.

The former mafia boss found himself in an unenviable position and was constantly attacked by other prisoners. Soon the authorities took advantage of this to transfer him to the newly opened Alcatraz prison, which was already considered the most impenetrable and well-guarded. There he served his sentence until he was released in 1939. At that moment, Capone had already become a real ruin. Syphilis affected the brain, causing dementia (according to doctors, his intelligence was that of a teenage child). Last days Al Capone lived with his family in his mansion in Florida. He died on January 25, 1947 and was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Illinois.

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