FREE ESSAY ON AL CAPONE

AL CAPONE

Al Capone is America's best known gangster and the single greatest symbol of the collapse
of law and order in the United States during the 1920s Prohibition era. Capone had a
leading role in the illegal activities that lent Chicago its reputation as a lawless
city. 
Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York. Baptized Alphonsus Capone, he
grew up in a rough neighborhood and was a member of two kid gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers
and the Forty Thieves Juniors. Although he was bright, Capone quit school in the sixth
grade at age fourteen. Between scams he was a clerk in a candy store, a pinboy in a
bowling alley, and a cutter in a book bindery. He became part of the
notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan and worked in gangster Frankie Yale's Brooklyn
dive, the Harvard Inn, as a bouncer and bartender. While working at the Inn, Capone
received his infamous facial scars and the resulting nickname Scarface when he insulted a
patron and was attacked by her brother. 
In 1918, Capone met an Irish girl named Mary Mae Coughlin at a dance. On December 4,
1918, Mae gave birth to their son, Albert Sonny Francis. Capone and Mae married that year
on December 30. 
Capone's first arrest was on a disorderly conduct charge while he was working for Yale.
He also murdered two men while in New York, early testimony to his willingness to kill.
In accordance with gangland etiquette, no one admitted to hearing or seeing a thing so
Capone was never tried for the murders. After Capone hospitalized a rival gang member,
Yale sent him to Chicago to wait until things cooled off. Capone arrived in Chicago in
1919 and moved his family into a house at 7244 South Prairie Avenue. 
Capone went to work for Yale's old mentor, John Torrio. Torrio saw Capone's potential,
his combination of physical strength and intelligence, and encouraged his prot? g? . Soon
Capone was helping Torrio manage his bootlegging business. By mid-1922 Capone ranked as
Torrio's number two man and eventually became a full partner in the saloons, gambling
houses,and brothels. 
When Torrio was shot by rival gang members and consequently decided to leave Chicago,
Capone inherited the outfit and became boss. The outfit's men liked, trusted, and obeyed
Capone, calling him The Big Fellow. He quickly proved that he was even better at
organization than syndicating and expanding the city's vice industry between 1925 and
1930. Capone controlled speakeasies, bookie joints, gambling houses, brothels, income of
$100,000,000 a year. He even acquired a sizable interest in the largest cleaning and
dyeing plant chain in Chicago. 
Although he had been doing business with Capone, the corrupt Chicago mayor William Big
Bill Hale Thompson, Jr. decided that Capone was bad for his political image. Thompson
hired a new police chief to run Capone out of Chicago. When Capone looked for a new place
to live, he quickly discovered that he was unpopular in much of the country. He finally
bought an estate at 93 Palm Island, Florida in 1928. 
Attempts on Capone's life were never successful. He had an extensive spy network in
Chicago, from newspaper boys to policemen, so that any plots were quickly discovered.
Capone, on the other hand, was skillful at isolating and killing his enemies when they
became too powerful. A typical Capone murder consisted of men renting an apartment across
the street from the victim's residence and gunning him down when he stepped outside. The
operations were quick and complete and Capone always had an alibi. 
Capone's most notorious killing was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. On February 14,
1929, four Capone men entered a garage at 2122 N. Clark Street. The building was the main
liquor headquarters of bootlegger George Bugs Moran's North Side gang. Because two of
Capone's men were dressed as police, the seven men in the garage thought it was a police
raid. As a result, they dropped their guns and put their hands against the wall. Using
two shotguns and two machine guns, the Capone men fired more than 150 bullets into the
victims. Six of the seven killed were members of Moran's gang; the seventh was an unlucky
friend. Moran, probably the real target, was across the street when Capone's men arrived
and stayed away when he saw the police uniforms. As usual, Capone had an alibi; he was in
Florida during the massacre. 
Although Capone ordered dozens of deaths and even killed with his own hands, he often
treated people fairly and generously. He was equally known for his violent temper and for
his strong sense of loyalty and honor. He was the first to open soup kitchens after the
1929 stock market crash and he ordered merchants to give clothes and food to the needy at
his expense. 
Capone had headquarters in Chicago proper in the Four Deuces at 2222 S. Wabash, the
Metropole Hotel at 2300 S. Michigan Avenue, and the Lexington Hotel at 2135 S. Michigan
Avenue. He expanded into the suburbs, sometimes using terror as in Forest View, which
became known as Caponeville. Sometimes he simply bribed public officials and the police
as in Cicero. He established suburban headquarters in Cicero's Anton Hotel at 4835 W.
22nd Street and in the Hawthorne Hotel at 4823 22nd Street. He pretended to be an antique
dealer and a doctor to front his headquarters. 
Because of gangland's traditional refusal to prosecute, Capone was never tried for most
of his crimes. He was arrested in 1926 for killing three people, but spent only one night
in jail because there was insufficient evidence to connect him with the murders. When
Capone finally served his first prison time in May of 1929, it was simply for carrying a
gun. In 1930, at the peak of his power, Capone headed Chicago's new list of the
twenty-eight worst criminals and became the city'sPublic Enemy Number One. 
The popular belief in the 1920s and 30s was that illegal gambling earnings were not
taxable income. However, the 1927 Sullivan ruling claimed that illegal profits were in
fact taxable. The government wanted to indict Capone for income tax evasion, Capone never
filed an income tax return, owned nothing in his own name, and never made a declaration
of assets or income. He did all his business through front men so that he was anonymous
when it came to income. Frank Wilson from the IRS's Special Intelligence Unit was
assigned to focus on Capone. Wilson accidentally found a cash receipts ledger that not
only showed the but also contained Capone's name; it was a record of Capone's income.
Later Capone's own tax lawyer Lawrence P. Mattingly admitted in a letter to the letter,
and the coercion of witnesses were the main evidence used to convict Capone. 
In 1931, Capone was indicted for income tax evasion for the years 1925-29. He was also
charged with the misdemeanor of failing to file tax returns for the years 1928 and 1929.
The government charged that Capone owed $215,080.48 in taxes from his gambling profits. A
third indictment was added, charging Capone with conspiracy to violate 1922-31. Capone
pleaded guilty to all three charges in the belief that he would be able to plea bargain.
However, the judge who presided over the case, Judge James H. Wilkerson, would not make
any deals. Capone changed his pleas to not guilty. Unable to bargain, he tried to bribe
the jury but Wilkerson changed the jury panel at the last minute. 
The jury found Capone not guilty on eighteen of the twenty-three counts. Judge Wilkerson
sentenced him to a total of ten years in federal prison and one year in the county jail.
In addition, Capone had to serve an earlier six-month contempt of court sentence for
failing to appear in court. The fines were a cumulative $50,000 and Capone had to pay the
prosecution costs of $7,692.29. 
In May 1932, Capone was sent to Atlanta, the toughest of the federal prisons, to begin
his eleven-year sentence. Even in prison Capone took control, obtaining special
privileges from the authorities such as furnishing his cell with a mirror, typewriter,
rugs, and a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Because word spread that Capone had taken
over in Atlanta, he was sent to Alcatraz. There were no other outfit members in Alcatraz,
and security was so tight that he had no knowledge of the outside world. He was unable to
control anyone or anything and could not buy influence or friends. In an attempt to earn
time off for good behavior, Capone became the ideal prisoner and refused to participate
in prisoner rebellions or strikes. 
While at Alcatraz, he exhibited signs of syphilitic dementia. Capone spent the rest of
his felony sentence in the hospital. On January 6, 1939, his prison term expired and he
was transferred to Terminal Island, a Federal Correctional Institution in California, to
serve his one-year misdemeanor sentence. He was finally released on November 16, 1939,
but still had to pay fines and court costs of $37,617.51. 
After his release, Capone spent a short time in the hospital. He returned to his home in
Palm Island where the rest of his life was relaxed and quiet. His mind and body continued
to deteriorate so that he could no longer run the outfit. On January 21, 1947, he had an
apoplectic stoke that was probably unrelated to his syphilis. He regained consciousness
and began to improve until pneumonia set in on January 24. He died the next day from
cardiac arrest. Capone was first buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago's far South
Side between the graves of his father, Gabriele, and brother, Frank, but in March of 1950
the remains of all three were moved Cemetery on the far West Side. 
Bibliography
- Allsop, Kenneth. The Bootleggers: the Story of Chicago's Prohibition Era. New Rochelle,
NY: Arlington House, 1968. 
- Bergreen, Laurence. Capone: the Man and the Era. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994. 
- Enright, Richard T. Capone's Chicago. Likeville, MN: Northstar Maschek Books, 1931;
1987 reprint. 
- Halper, Albert, editor. The Chicago Crime Book. Cleveland: World Publishing Co., 1967.

- Hammer, Richard. The illustrated history of organized crime. Philadelphia: Courage
Books, 1989. 
- Kobler, John. Capone: the Life and World of Al Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992.