Alphonse scarface capone
Alphonse scarface caponeAlphonse “Scarface” Capone
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Alphonse Capone was born on January 17, 1899. He grew up in rough neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY where he would attend school only up to the sixth grade, when dropped out. Capone got his nickname “Scarface” from a knife attack by the brother of a woman whom Capone had insulted. The attack left him with three scars across his face and a new nickname.
Capone joined his first gang when he became part of the James Street Gang, headed by the well-known Johnny Torrio. In 1920, upon the request of Torrio, Capone went to work for Johnny’s Uncle, Big Jim Colosimo. Colosimo was the head of the largest prostitution and gambling ring in Chicago.
After the murder of Colosimo, Torrio took over his uncle’s empire, but he was forced to retire after an attempt on his life. So Capone took over and by the time he was 26, he was managing more than a thousand employees, each one of whom he demanded full commitment and loyalty.
In 1929, Al Capone’s most famous escapade occurred and was to become known as the St. Valentines Day massacre. The event took place at the
bootlegging headquarters of George “Bugs” Moran, Capone’s latest rival. Five police officers walked into the garage, lined up Moran’s men, and shot them down.
While these men appeared to be police officers, all five were really some of Capone’s hitmen.
Capone was able time and time again to avoid criminal charges, and became a true racketeer, an art of its own. Ironically, the government finally was able to put Scarface behind bars on charges of federal income tax evasion. He was sentenced to eleven years in prison. Eleven years that couldn’t even be saved by the four million-dollar bribe offered by Capone’s attorneys.
In 1934 Capone was transferred to Alcatraz, and in 1939 he was paroled. Suffering from syphilis that had begun to drive him insane, Capone knew he could no longer run his Chicago empire, so he retired to his Miami Beach mansion. The exact place where on January 25, 1947 Alphonse “Scarface” Capone died.
IMPORTANCE IN THE TWENTIES
In 1920 when prohibition became law, a large portion of the population still wanted alcohol. But not many were willing to put themselves at...
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