Al Capone And His Life Of Crime And Villainy

Prohibition led to the bootlegging of liquor and the gang wars of the 1920’s. The most notorious gangster of all time, known as Al Capone, was the most powerful mob leader of his era. He dominated organized crime in the Chicago area from 1925 until 1931. Capone grew up during the roaring 20s in Chicago. He joined the James Street gang, lead by Johnny Torrio. In 1920, Torrio asked Capone to move to Chicago and work with his uncle who controlled the city’s largest prostitution and gambling ring at the time. Capone had liked that idea. Later that year the Prohibition act came into affect and Capone became interested in selling illegal whiskey and other alcoholic beverages. Al Capone was America's best known gangster and greatest

Capone’s early life begins when his Italian immigrant parents Gabrielle and Teresa Capone moved to America. He was born on January 17, 1899. Al was one of eight children in his family; however his family did not make too much money being his father worked as a barber and his mother worked as a seamstress. He grew up in Brooklyn, and went to school at Brooklyn Elementary. During his sixth grade year he started falling behind so he had to repeat sixth grade. Capone started playing hooky and hung around the Brooklyn docks. One day during school the principal hit Capone for being rude and disrespectful, however instead of taking it Capone hit the principal back. They moved from their tenements to the the outskirts of Park Slope. This is the place he met his gangster mentor Johnny Torrio.

Al Capone did not apologize for the way he made his money. He told reporters it was a “public service” for the people of Chicago, and is quoted saying “Ninety percent of the people of Cook County drink and gamble and my offense has been to furnish them with those amusements.” Capone owned a custom-built, bullet-proof Cadillac limo that was eventually seized in 1932 by the U.S. Treasury. It was then sent to Washington D.C. and used by President Roosevelt. Al’s life resembled one of a movie star’s because the press followed him around and were constantly publishing about him.

In the bustling streets of New York City, a young Al Capone’s journey began from humble beginnings to become a notorious kingpin of Chicago. To be infamous means to be known for evil reasons. Alphonse Capone was born in the late 1900s in Brooklyn, New York, and was a mobster. Al Capone started committing crimes because of his tough childhood, became notorious for his bootlegging and other crimes, and was finally arrested for tax evasion. Al Capone’s crowded lifestyle affected his life of crime.

It took time and persistence for Al Capone to become a leader, and to be considered the notorious criminal he was, and due with the guidance of Johnny Torrio, a mob leader in Chicago, Al Capone became the man he was set to be when came to Chicago. In the award-winning book “American Decades” it states “... in 1919 after the 18th amendment went into effect, bootlegging operations opened up and drew in immense wealth. In 1925, Torrio retired, and Capone became the crime czar of Chicago, running gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging rackets and expanding his territories by the gunning down of rivals, and rival gangs.” (Bondi).

Alphonse was destined to a life of lawlessness from a young age. In his adolescence, he lived the life of an Italian Immigrant. Sequestered to predominantly Italian boroughs, education was lackluster and the influence of the Italian mob was ever present. However, Capone's education played a key role in his development. As Kobel states in his novel, it was here at school where Capone met another future mob boss. Another Italian delinquent youth at the time, Salvatore Lucania, also known as Lucky Luciano. (Kobler 23) Capone continued to live a moderately normal life until his expulsion from school at age fourteen. He worked side jobs around Brooklyn

Even though many recognize Al Capone as a nuisance, he did well for the people in the community. Better known as Scarface he left a huge impact on the world after he died. The ones who showed respect got respect and the ones who didn’t got what he thought they deserved. Capone wrecked havoc in Chicago, Brooklyn and Florida. He was the reason for the collapse of the law and order in the United States during the early 1900s. Capone’s rise in the gang world was tremendous.

Torrio focused on a new , more lucrative field. As a former petty thug, and bookkeeper, Capone brought both his street smarts and his expertise with numbers to Torrios Chicago operations. Torrio recognized Capones skills and quickly promoted him to his partner. However, Capone began to develop a reputation of a drinker and gambler. He was arrested for the first time, after hitting a parked taxi cab while drunk.

Al Capone, who was born in New York in 1899, was one of the most prominent gangsters in America in the 1920s. He was the son of Italian immigrants, and after leaving school at a young age, became a small-time criminal. Known as ‘Scarface,’ he had links to the leader of the Five Points Gang, Johnny Torrio, and moved to Chicago in 1920, where he gradually rose through the ranks as a partner in saloons, gambling and brothels. They moved their operations to Illinois after an offer to work with Jim Colosimo, a central figure in Chicago’s brothel business. Gang rivalry heated up after a dispute between Torrio and Colosimo over whether to begin in the bootlegging business, and in 1920, Colosimo was murdered allegedly by Al Capone. After this, Torrio’s criminal empire expanded massively throughout Chicago, before leaving in 1925 and handing over operations to Capone. After taking over, Capone expanded operations even further, and was able to control Chicago’s Mayor, ‘Big Bill’ Thompson and fix his elections. A local newspaper from the time reported

When Capone was 19, he married an Irish girl named Mae Coughlin, a few weeks after they gave birth to their son, Albert Francis Capone. After their marriage, Capone took a moral job as a bookkeeper. This brief hiatus ended when his father died and Torrio offered Capone to move to Chicago and work for him. Capone accepted this invitation and began working for Torrio’s lucrative bootlegging business. Bootlegging, as you might wonder, is the illegal sale of alcohol during the Prohibition

now the story behind him. What made him to be the most feared gangster in the city of Chicago? How did this kid from a rough neighborhood and no money grow up to have $60,000,000? I’ve always been fascinated with organized crime but had never been taught anything in school about it. This report gave me the chance to explore something interesting and also educational. The more I researched Al Capone, the more I wanted to learn about him. He may look like an innocent Italian at a glance, but he

In 1920, the United States entered a new stage in its life, the Era of Prohibition. However, flaws in the planning, execution, and administration caused this noble idea to vacillate unquestionably. However, men who were willing to break the law were the ones that were able to build a lucrative life for themselves; one such man was Alphonse Capone. However, honest men such as Elliot Ness fought adamantly to defend their morals, beliefs, and the law of the land. Nevertheless, Capone was a man who took advantage of his time and lived the life of the American Dream: going from rags to riches. However, it was this very same opulence that caused his downfall and incarceration. The tireless efforts of Elliot Ness eventually paid off

He then proceeded to discover that many policemen who investigated him drank in speakeasies and so he offered them small lump sums to continually report back with nothing, this is how his business thrived. Another way that Capone and his goons made money was to go through a process of 'racketeering.' This was a process where people who represented

Out of the turmoil and the collapse of law and order in the 1920’s, perhaps the most recognized figure to emerge from the time is Al Capone. “The New York Times said of Al Capone that he was "the symbol of a shameful era, the monstrous symptom of a disease which was eating into the conscience of America. Looking back on it now, this period of Prohibition in full, ugly flower seems fantastically incredible. Capone himself was incredible, the creation of an ugly dream".” (www.umich.edu) He impacted society through his ruthless tactics, secret alliances, and penetrant for violence typified by the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. Capone controlled many businesses in Chicago such as speakeasies, gambling houses, brothels, horse and race tracks, etc. at an approximated income of $100,000,000 a year. For several years, Al Capone was never convicted for the crimes he committed, and when he did, he had an alibi or there was never sufficient evidence against him. Al Capone had more power in society than most of the political leaders did during that time period.

He was born in Brooklyn to poor Italian immigrants and joined a street gang at a young age after he was expelled from school for punching a female teacher. Capone might have had a brighter future had he continued his education, but instead, he became America’s biggest crime boss.