During Prohibition, Al Capone led a Chicago crime empire that raked in millions of dollars annually. He controlled bootlegging, gambling, and other 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 leader of the mafia was born on January 17, 1899 in New York, Brooklyn. 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 got older, he worked as a bouncer and bartender in an institution owned by mobster Frankie Yale. In 1918 he married May Coughlin. The couple were inseparable until Capone's death, they had an only son. In 1920, Capone moved to Chicago. There is a version according to which he went there to lay low after he badly injured 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 for insulting the sister of one of them. Three scars remained as a memory of this incident. As a result, the nickname "Scarface" stuck to him. About that old case, the mafia boss preferred not to remember and terribly disliked being called that. More often, accomplices and friends called him Snorky, which means “chrysalis” in jargon.

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 the main assistants. In January 1925, Torrio was shot at near his home in Illinois. He survived, but left Chicago that same year, leaving 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" about $100 million a year, mainly from bootlegging, racketeering, and from underground casinos and brothels he controlled, and other illegal activities. The boss liked talking to reporters. Capone never felt guilty about how he earned his living. He claimed to be 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 charged with the Valentine's Day massacre.

On the morning of February 14, 1929, seven men connected in one way or another with the foundation of George Maran, nicknamed the Beetle, were shot to death. Among the victims were five of Moran's accomplices, his auto mechanic and optometrist; Moran himself was not there. The group of attackers consisted of at least four men, two of them wearing police uniforms. WITH light hand Newsboys' crime became known as the "St. Valentine Massacre". The authorities conducted a thorough investigation, but to no avail. In the end, the assumption arose that Capone eliminated the rival, having conceived and organized these murders and provided himself with an alibi (he himself was in Florida). No charges were filed due to lack of evidence.

The most famous American gangster Al Capone lived not the longest, but very eventful life. He managed to rise from the very bottom of the US criminal world and became the most influential mafia of his time. About how the fate of Al Capone, this post will tell.

The classic image of the American mafia of the 1920s and 1930s, with high-profile gunfights and ruthless hitmen, arose, in fact, thanks to one person. No one knows exactly how many people were killed on his orders, but Al Capone's name alone terrified even his most ferocious colleagues in the "criminal business."
The birthplace of Alfonso Gabriel Fiorello Capone, better known as Al Capone, is still being debated. 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 a 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 a classmate for no reason, even raised his hand to 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. Mentor on the criminal path for Alfonso was the leader of the group, Johnny Torrio. The bandit saw great prospects in the recruit - excellent physical condition along with cruelty and ruthlessness.

Where is the scar from?

Officially, Alfonso began to play the role of a bouncer in a billiard club, which was the headquarters of the Torrio gang. Unofficially, he played the role of 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 quarreled with bandits.

Al Capone with his son, 1931

Alfonso's criminal career could have ended in the Brooklyn suburb, as the impudent young bandit often quarreled with more serious "authorities". There was almost always a reason: experienced criminals were infuriated by Alfonso's skill while playing billiards, and he often accompanied his victories with bold comments.
Once Capone grappled with the gangster Frank Galluccio, and he slashed Alfonso with a knife in the face. From this cut came the later nickname of Capone - "Scarface". It should be noted that no one called the gangster that during his lifetime, and he himself, who had not served in the army for a day, said that he had been wounded at the front during the First World War.
Meanwhile, Johnny Torrio has become a powerful man in criminal world United States and moved to Chicago, where he headed one of the local gangs. Capone first stayed in New York, but then followed the boss. Firstly, Torrio in Chicago needed a reliable killer, and secondly, the police came to grips with Capone's previous cases in New York.

Underworld reformer

The main occupation of the criminals in the United States 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", took up the fight against them.

Al Capone on vacation, 1930

Before Capone, the mafiosi, of course, also did not stand on ceremony in the fight against each other, but more often knives, brass knuckles, and much less often pistols were used. Capone, who created a real “special forces of killers” in the Torrio gang, did not take into account conventions, and terrified his opponents with his cruelty.
The Torrio group was at war with the gang of the Irishman Dayon O'Banion. Her victims, in addition to ordinary fighters, were her younger brother Alfonso, 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 swindlers-losers. How did the high-profile robberies of recent years end?
The Capone gang has changed the criminal world of America. The new boss, without abandoning the liquor trade, brought the proceeds of prostitution under the control of criminals and engaged in what is today understood as the word "racket", having achieved enormous profits.
Al Capone dealt with competitors ruthlessly - it was thanks to him that the criminal world was enriched by automatic weapons firefights and car bomb explosions. Competitors were eliminated in broad daylight, sometimes throwing grenades, often dealt with not only the hostile bandit himself, but also his family members.
Opponents, of course, tried to get to Al Capone himself, but they couldn’t do it - he had guards armed to the teeth, an armored car, and he dealt with those suspected of betrayal so cruelly that there were practically no people willing to go over to the side of competitors.

King of Chicago

The so-called "Massacre on Valentine's Day" on February 14, 1929, when Capone militants dressed in police uniforms broke into a rival group's underground liquor warehouse, lined up opponents against the wall and shot them with machine guns, entered the history of America. Competitors, until the last sure that they were detained by the police, did not even have time to be surprised. Seven people were killed in this massacre.

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

The income of Capone's empire at the peak of his power reached the astronomical sum of America in those years at 60 million dollars. The mob boss bought the loyalty of cops, politicians, journalists and was the uncrowned king of Chicago. During the Great Depression, he opened canteens for the poor at his own expense, which earned him popularity among the lower strata of society.
Historians estimate that at least 700 people died in the mafia wars waged by Al Capone, of which about 400 were killed on his personal orders.
However, the structure of the mafia was such that none of these crimes could be proved.

tax trap

To put an end to Capone, the new head of the FBI, Edgar Hoover, undertook. Realizing that it would not be possible to imprison the mafia leader for murders and racketeering, he went from the other side. First, in 1929, Al Capone was sentenced to 10 months in prison for illegal possession of weapons. But Capone did not even notice this period - he lived in comfort in prison, received visitors and continued to manage the group.
However, in 1931, Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years for tax evasion. It took a lot of effort for the authorities to get a guilty verdict, but in the end they succeeded.
At first, the story of managing a gang from prison repeated itself, but then Capone was transferred to a federal prison in Atlanta, and his ties were broken. It was finally possible to cut off the ringleader from his criminal empire in 1934, when he was transferred to the most legendary and harsh US prison - Alcatraz.

Alcatraz prison, where Al Capone was serving his sentence.

Here, a bloodthirsty gangster was brought down to his arrogance, forced to work as a janitor, which is why the rest of the prisoners began to call Capone "boss with a mop."
Over time, his health deteriorated, and doctors discovered that Capone had syphilis in an advanced 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, as before, could not manage a group of 1000 bandits with an iron fist.

Al Capone's grave.

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

Alphonse Gabriel Capone, or Al Capone (Italian Alfonso Capone; January 17, 1899 - January 25, 1947) - the famous American gangster who operated in the 1920s and 1930s in Chicago. Under the guise of a furniture business, he was engaged in bootlegging, gambling and pimping. A prominent representative of organized crime in the United States, which originated and exists there under the influence of the Italian mafia. Also known as Scarface.

Al Capone was born on January 17, 1899 in Naples, the son of hairdresser Gabriel Capone and his wife Teresa. He was the fourth child in the family (there were nine in all). 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 the 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 of his peers, he could only qualify for a hard, low-paid job, devoid of all prospects. By the sixth grade, Alfonso had already become a full member of the gang and, along with everyone else, patrolled the streets of his native district.

Capone, who dropped out of school, tried a wide variety of professions for two years, having worked in a bowling alley, a pharmacy, and even a candy store, but he was more and more attracted to the nightlife. So, for example, having become addicted to playing billiards, he won absolutely all the tournaments held in Brooklyn during the year. 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 job in his boss Yale's squalid and shabby institution, the Harvard Inn. It is to this period of life that historians attribute the infamous stabbing of Capone with the bandit and murderer Frank Galluccio. The quarrel occurred because of the sister (according to some reports, the wife) Galluccio, who was very interested in the temperamental Capone. Galluccio inflicted a deep wound on Al by slashing his switchblade across his right cheek. He did not suspect that by doing so he was making history, rewarding his enemy with a scar that would imprint its owner in the criminal world under the nickname "Scarface" (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 who traded in robberies, robberies, racketeering and contract killings. It was Torrio, who took Capone to the role of one of his personal thugs, who taught him especially dangerous tricks that would later allow Alfonso to rise to the very heights of the underworld. For the rest of his life, Capone was grateful to Torrio for the many lessons that really launched his lightning-fast career, and often called Johnny his father and teacher.

On December 18, 1918, Alfonso, who was 19 years old, married a 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 downhill and he was forced to move most of his operations to the more or less free Chicago. Capone, meanwhile, was a prime suspect in two premeditated murder cases, but was released when the main prosecution witness suddenly lost his memory and evidence mysteriously disappeared from the judge's office. Shortly after his release, Capone again started a quarrel 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 situation, Capone received an invitation to Chicago, quickly gathered his few things and left New York with his wife and son immediately. ..

Arriving in Chicago, Capone took up bartending and bouncer duties at the Four Deuces, Torrio's new club, where he quickly gained a reputation as the most aggressive bouncer in town. The drunken visitors 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 fellow's neck to the 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 to three hours after his arrest. While working at the Four Twos, Capone, on behalf of Torrio, strangled at least twelve people with his bare hands, whose bodies were carried under the cover of night through the basement into a quiet alley behind the club, where a stolen fast car was always waiting for Capone.

The aged Papa Torrio was weakening every day, and Capone took on more and more duties of the real Don of the underworld of the city. At its height, his underground organization consisted of more than a thousand armed gangsters and more than half of the city's policemen. Capone regularly paid personal salaries to senior police officers, district attorneys and mayors, legislators, 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 prior approval from Capone. An enraged gangster burst into the city council hall, 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" had its downsides for Capone. His family was constantly threatened by anonymous phone calls, they shot at him on the streets, they poured poison in the clubs: One of Capone's most ardent opponents, the head of Chicago's second-largest street gang, Dion O'Brien, once staged a well-planned attempt on his life, literally riddling the Hawthorne Inn hotel room with several machine guns, where Capone stopped for a few days. Considering Capone, who had hidden under a heavy marble table, dead after more than a thousand rounds of ammunition were fired into the window of his room, O'Brien retired to celebrate the victory, while Capone, who was getting out from under the rubble of the almost destroyed hotel, was already planning a return hit.

Capone chose two of his best shooters, John Scaliso and Albert Anselmi, as the perpetrators of the quick and brutal murder of O'Brien. However, almost immediately after they destroyed O'Brien, Capone learned of Scaliso 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 richly decorated bat and, in front of the assembled gangsters, killed both of them. Now only Bugs Morgan remained his last enemy - the only surviving assistant O " Brian, whose murder will subsequently begin the collapse of the entire empire of Al Capone ...

On Valentine's Day, several select Capone gangsters, dressed in police suits, broke 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 Capone shot them down in cold blood with over 1,500 rounds of machine guns.Unfortunately, Morgan himself was not in the basement at that moment, and with his help, a gigantic "Bloody Saint Valentine" scandal arose in the city press, forcing the public to change their minds about bootlegging. wars.

The fall of Capone's empire was started by one of his own people, who was in charge of horse and dog racing. Eddie O'Hare, one of the best agents introduced by the US Internal Revenue Service into the underworld of Chicago, revealed to the tax inspectors the place where Capone hid his account books, reflecting the real turnover of the Capone empire.

Never paid in my life income tax, Al Capone was arrested in June 1931 on charges of gross 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 a gigantic sum of $ 400,000 at that time and brought the matter to an end, as a result of which Capone was sentenced to a maximum fine of $50,000, reimbursement of costs of $30,000 and a maximum term for this type of crime - 11 years in prison.

His property, as well as the property of his wife, was confiscated, but most of the loot was written down to 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 he was transferred to the prison on Alcatraz Island, known as "The Rock", from where he was released five years later almost helpless and doomed patient, who lost his health as a result of the development of uncured syphilis, picked up by him in the carefree years of his youth in New York. As a result of a rehearing of his case, which took place soon after, Capone was declared insane and placed under the care of his own family. At the same time, the Chicago gangsters who remained loyal to him, after many years of searching, nevertheless found Eddie O'Hare, who changed his name, and brutally killed Capone's longtime enemy in his own car. However, the influence of the aged Capone had already completely weakened by this time, and about 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 made-up stories about "taking ten central stores" and "a respectful message from the heads of America's crime families", his former accountant specifically he kept a fictitious account of the millions thus earned, the end of the completely weakened king of Chicago was already at hand.

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

1920 -1930

Al Capone was born on January 17 1899

December 18 1918

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

Al Capone was born on January 17 1899 years in Naples, in the family of the hairdresser Gabriel Capone and his wife Teresa. He was the fourth child in the family (there were nine in all). 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 the 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 of his peers, he could only qualify for a hard, low-paid job, devoid of all prospects. By the sixth grade, Alfonso had already become a full member of the gang and, along with everyone else, patrolled the streets of his native district.

Capone, who dropped out of school, tried a wide variety of professions for two years, having worked in a bowling alley, a pharmacy, and even a candy store, but he was more and more attracted to the nightlife. So, for example, having become addicted to playing billiards, he won absolutely all the tournaments held in Brooklyn during the year. 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 job in his boss Yale's squalid and shabby institution, the Harvard Inn. It is to this period of life that historians attribute the infamous stabbing of Capone with the bandit and murderer Frank Galluccio. The quarrel occurred because of the sister (according to some reports, the wife) Galluccio, who was very interested in the temperamental Capone. Galluccio inflicted a deep wound on Al by slashing his switchblade across his right cheek. He did not suspect that by doing so he was making history, rewarding his enemy with a scar that would imprint its owner in the criminal world under the nickname "Scarface" (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 who traded in robberies, robberies, racketeering and contract killings. It was Torrio, who took Capone to the role of one of his personal thugs, who taught him especially dangerous tricks that would later allow Alfonso to rise to the very heights of the underworld. For the rest of his life, Capone was grateful to Torrio for the many lessons that really launched his lightning-fast career, and often called Johnny his father and teacher.

December 18 1918 Alfonso, who was 19 years old, married a 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 downhill and he was forced to move most of his operations to the more or less free Chicago. Capone, meanwhile, was a prime suspect in two premeditated murder cases, but was released when the main prosecution witness suddenly lost his memory and evidence mysteriously disappeared from the judge's office. Shortly after his release, Capone again started a quarrel 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 situation, Capone received an invitation to Chicago, quickly gathered his few things and left New York with his wife and son immediately. ..

Arriving in Chicago, Capone took up bartending and bouncer duties at the Four Deuces, Torrio's new club, where he quickly gained a reputation as the most aggressive bouncer in town. The drunken visitors 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 fellow's neck to the 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 to three hours after his arrest. While working at the Four Twos, Capone, on behalf of Torrio, strangled at least twelve people with his bare hands, whose bodies were carried under the cover of night through the basement into a quiet alley behind the club, where a stolen fast car was always waiting for Capone.

The aged Papa Torrio was weakening every day, and Capone took on more and more duties of the real Don of the underworld of the city. At its height, his underground organization consisted of more than a thousand armed gangsters and more than half of the city's policemen. Capone regularly paid personal salaries to senior police officers, district attorneys and mayors, legislators, 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 prior approval from Capone. An enraged gangster burst into the city council hall, 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" had its downsides for Capone. His family was constantly threatened by anonymous phone calls, he was shot on the streets, poison was poured into the clubs: One of Capone's most ardent opponents, the head of Chicago's second-largest street gang, Dion O'Brien, once staged a well-planned attempt on his life, literally riddling with several machine guns at the Hawthorne Inn hotel room, where Capone stayed for several days. Considering Capone, who had hidden under a heavy marble table, dead after more than a thousand rounds of ammunition were fired into the window of his room, O'Brien retired to celebrate the victory, while getting out from under the rubble Capone's nearly destroyed hotel was already planning a retaliatory strike.

Capone chose two of his best shooters, John Scaliso and Albert Anselmi, as the perpetrators of the quick and brutal murder of O'Brien. However, almost immediately after they destroyed O'Brien, Capone learned of Scaliso 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 richly decorated bat and, in front of the assembled gangsters, killed both of them. Now only Bugs Morgan remained his last enemy - the only surviving assistant O " Brian, whose murder will subsequently begin the collapse of the entire empire of Al Capone ...

On Valentine's Day, several select Capone gangsters, dressed in police suits, broke 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 Capone shot them down in cold blood with over 1,500 rounds of machine guns.Unfortunately, Morgan himself was not in the basement at that moment, and with his help, a gigantic "Bloody Saint Valentine" scandal arose in the city press, forcing the public to change their minds about bootlegging. wars.

The fall of Capone's empire was started by one of his own people, who was in charge of horse and dog racing. Eddie O'Hare, one of the best agents introduced by the US Internal Revenue Service into the underworld of Chicago, revealed to the tax inspectors the place where Capone hid his account books, reflecting the real turnover of the Capone empire.

Never paid income tax in his life, Al Capone was arrested in June 1931 on charges of fraudulent 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 a gigantic sum of $ 400,000 at that time and brought the matter to an end, as a result of which Capone was sentenced to a maximum fine of $50,000, reimbursement of costs of $30,000 and a maximum term for this type of crime - 11 years in prison.

His property, as well as the property of his wife, was confiscated, but most of the loot was written down to 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 In 1992 he was transferred to the prison on Alcatraz Island, known as "The Rock", from where he was released five years later, practically helpless and doomed, who had lost his health as a result of the development of uncured syphilis, picked up by him in his carefree years in New York. As a result of a rehearing of his case, which took place soon after, Capone was declared insane and placed under the care of his own family. At the same time, the Chicago gangsters who remained loyal to him, after many years of searching, nevertheless found Eddie O'Hare, who changed his name, and brutally killed Capone's longtime enemy in his own car. However, the influence of the aged Capone had already completely weakened by this time, and about 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 made-up stories about "taking ten central stores" and "a respectful message from the heads of America's crime families", his former accountant specifically he kept a fictitious account of the millions thus earned, the end of the completely weakened king of Chicago was already at hand.

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

Most often, people are interested in the personalities of historical figures who could become an example of behavior, or who created something useful for the country, for art, for science, for the future life. But there are a number of personalities who became famous not for creation, but for crimes, but are no less interesting to the public. One of the most famous criminals in the history of mankind is Alfonso Gabriel Capone, who is usually referred to by the diminutive name - Al Capone. Let's see what this gangster became famous for.

Famous boss of the Italian mafia | Airbnb

He is considered one of the founding fathers of organized crime in the United States during the era of Prohibition and the Great Depression, the author of the money laundering system and the concept of "racketeering". But most of all, Capone's name went down in history in connection with the sensational series of murders, called the "Valentine's Day Massacre." The biography of Al Capone is directly connected with his ancestors, more precisely with the Italian family. It was from Italy that Gabriel and Teresa Capone emigrated, who settled in the New York suburb of Williamsburg. And it is with the Italian mafia that their son will be connected all his life.

Gangster with good-natured face | Noticias Terra

Alfonso was born in last year XIX century and became the first of nine children of his father and mother. From an early age, his sharply excitable character was manifested. Today, a boy as a preschooler would have been among the patients of a psychiatrist and probably would not have fallen into the criminal sphere, but in the years of Al Capone's childhood, no one thought about such things. Therefore, Alfonso's aggression trailed behind him like a train. From the first grades, he loudly and violently cursed with classmates and teachers, and in the sixth grade he even tried to beat the teacher right in the lesson. Shortly thereafter, the teenager drops out and joins a local gang that would later become part of the famed New York Five Points gang.

Photo by Alfonso Capone | Zing News

Young people were mainly engaged in extortion and illegal gambling. To cover his real occupation, the guy worked as a bouncer at the Harvard Inn club, and also acted as a professional billiards player. Al Capone's height was not too big, only 170 centimeters, but he was always very large and produced the effect of a thug. By the way, it was in the billiard room that a fight took place that “gave” Al Capone a scar on his face. He made an unambiguous remark about one of the girls, and she turned out to be either a sister or the wife of a criminal who was also present in the hall.

A stabbing ensued, and Alfonso got his famous scar on his cheek. It is curious that the future head of the mafia was always ashamed of such a banal story, so he invented alternative version: allegedly the scar is the result of participation in heroic battles during the First World War. In fact, Capone not only did not fight, but did not serve in the army at all. By the age of 18, Alfonso Capone was suspected by the city police of a variety of crimes, including two murders. Therefore, the young man decided to seek his fortune in another metropolis and moved from New York to Chicago.

Mafia career

In the new place, "Great Al", as his friends called him, took up pimping in one of the provincial brothels. Among the gangsters of Chicago in the 30s, this was considered almost the most humiliating occupation, but Capone managed to make an incredibly profitable business out of a low-class institution. He turned it from an ordinary brothel into a four-story bar "The Four Deuces", where the beer house, sweepstakes, casino and the brothel itself were located floor by floor. What started out as a cheap haunt quickly turned into a $35 million a year business. Translated into today's money, this will be approximately 420 million per annum.

Capone started out as a pimp and rose to mafia leadership | BuGazete

Therefore, it is not surprising that by the age of 26, Al Capone becomes the owner of the entire criminal empire, after the previous head of the mafia, John Torrio, also referred to as "The Fox" or "Papa Johnny", resigned this authority. First of all, the newly minted crime boss introduced such a previously unknown concept as racketeering. That is, he offered honest entrepreneurs to pay him a bribe, and a very considerable one, and for this he provided them with protection from other gangs, and sometimes from the police.

At the head of the Italian mafia | Free Keyword

If businessmen refused, then their institution, and often themselves, was threatened with death. The mafia also began to exploit prostitution, introduced a fraudulent scheme, which many years later became known as “money laundering”, “bought” police officers and even high-ranking politicians for bribes, which was previously unimaginable. By the way, the invention of the money laundering scheme is also attributed to Alfonso Capone.

Capone invented a money laundering scheme | Chrontime

The fact is that his personal business was directly related to the smuggling of alcoholic beverages, which were banned in those years in the United States. The profit had to be legalized, and for this the mafiosi opened a chain of laundries. Prices for services were set so low that the number of customers could not be counted. Accordingly, the gigantic profits actually received from the liquor trade were officially shown by the laundries. Actually, because of the laundry, the scheme was called “money laundering”, however, this term was first used only decades after the death of Al Capone.

home distinguishing feature mafia Al Capone - non-stop criminal showdown, usually ending in the death of one of the bandits. During the first five years of Capone's “reign”, over half a thousand far from ordinary gangsters died in skirmishes. Alfonso completely exterminated the Irish, Russian and Mexican gangs in Chicago, getting rid of the competition. It was his idea to replace the pistols familiar to Italian gangsters with machine guns, and then with light machine guns.

It was Capone who armed his people with light machine guns | outgun

Also, according to his approval, explosive devices connected to the car's starter were used, which destroyed the car with the driver and passengers after the ignition was turned on. The gangster killing spree got widely famous name"Massacre on Valentine's Day". It began precisely on February 14, 1929, in a garage in which one of the gangs kept a warehouse of whiskey. Capone's armed men broke in in police uniforms, and the competitors, who thought they were victims of justice, meekly lined up against the wall for arrest, but were shot on the spot.

Notes on everything

Similar shocking murders were repeated several more times. Direct evidence for these episodes of Capone was not found, so he, like all his wards, escaped punishment. Actually, for those mass executions, the police did not punish anyone at all, which once again proves how high the law enforcement agencies got Al Capone's hand. However, it was the "Valentine's Day Massacre" that caused Alfonso to be closely monitored by representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI officers, not seeing an opportunity to arrest him for banditry, nevertheless found another lead to catch one of the most legendary gangsters of the 20th century - they turned to the Internal Revenue Service.

Personal life

From adolescence, revolving in criminal circles, Al Capone's personal life was inextricably linked with ladies of easy virtue. By the age of 16, the young man had several venereal diseases, including syphilis, which he tried to treat, but soon abandoned this business. Later, such a disregard for health will affect the son of Al Capone. Alfonso married at the age of 19. Al Capone's wife, Irish saleswoman and ardent Catholic May Josephine Coughlin, a month before the wedding gave birth to his only son, Albert Francis, who was called Sonny in the family.

Wedding of Alfonso and May Capone | Gazeta.ua

It is curious that, due to his minority, Capone could not go down the aisle without the consent of his parents, so his father Gabriel wrote a written permission to the official services. As for the son, Albert Francis Capone, he was significantly affected by the carefree behavior of his father. The boy was born with congenital syphilis and a serious complication on the brain, underwent a series of operations in infancy, was able to survive, but was almost deaf.

With son Alfred Francis "Sonny" Capone | InfoSMI

It is noteworthy that just once in his life, Albert tried to feel like a criminal and stole some trinket in a store, but he was immediately arrested by the police. Capone Jr. was sentenced to two years probation, and he did not break the law until the end of his life. In already adulthood Albert changed his famous surname to Brown, got married and gave birth to four daughters. So Alfonso Capone still has biological descendants.

Prison and death

As mentioned above, the police either could not or did not want to catch the head of the Italian mafia for criminal acts. And since even the FBI could not prove Capone's involvement in most of the crimes, the authorities found another loophole: they accused Alfonso of non-payment of income tax. In the fall of 1931, the mafia boss was sentenced to 11 years in prison and a huge fine. So that Capone could not lead his subordinates from prison, he was placed in a correctional institution in Atlanta, and later even in an isolated prison on Alcatraz Island.

Photos in the prison "Alcatraz" | Alcatraz History

Of the 11 years, the gangster served only seven, but they were enough for Alfonso to finally undermine his health and be released, completely losing his criminal influence. In prison, his chronic syphilis entered the final stage of the destruction of the body, although Al Capone died for a different reason. At the end of January, he had a stroke, three days later, doctors additionally diagnosed pneumonia, and on January 25, 1947, Alfonso Capone died of cardiac arrest in his country house in Florida.

Grave of Alfonso Capone | pressa.tv

The mafia boss was buried in Chicago, but due to the huge flow of tourists, which actually turned into a pilgrimage, his body was reburied at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Illinois. In history, the name Capone remained as the personification of organized crime, but had a certain halo of gangster romance, which is very often used in cinema. Dozens of famous actors have played in Al Capone's films and television series, including legendary Hollywood stars and.

The personality of Al Capone is also interesting for collectors. They even sell weapons that belonged to him at auctions. For example, in January 2017, the Smith & Wesson 32-gauge Capone revolver, with which the mafia did not part even while playing golf, becomes the main highlight of American trading.