The Life of Al Capone
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The life of Al Capone Birth and family Capone was born to Gabriele Capone (December 12, 1864 – November 14, 1920) and his wife Teresina Capone (December 28, 1867 – November 29, 1952) in Brooklyn, New York, at the turn of the 20th century. Gabriele was a barber from Castellammare di Stabia, a village about 15 miles south of Naples, Italy. Teresina was a seamstress and the daughter of Angelo Raiola from Angri, a town in the province of Salerno. The Capones had immigrated to the United States in 1894, and settled in the Navy Yard section of Downtown Brooklyn. At the age of 14, the Capone family moved from the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn to 21 Garfield Street, in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. This new home had a huge impact on Al, as this is where he met his future wife Mae Josephine Coughlin, whom he would marry a few years later at St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church, and gangster Johnny Torrio. Gabriele and Teresina had seven sons and two daughters: • Vincenzo Capone (1892 – October 1, 1952). • Raffaele Capone (1894 – November 22, 1974). • Salvatore Capone (January 1895 – April 1, 1924). Called "Frank". Killed by police after firing on officers. • Alphonse Gabriel Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947). • Erminio Capone (1901 – ?). Called “John” or affectionately “Mimi”. He served prison terms for minor offenses such as vagrancy and illegal possession of alcohol. He changed his last name to “Martin” and reportedly was still alive in 1994. • Umberto Capone (1906 – June 1980). Called “Albert”. He was an employee of the newspaper Cicero Tribune under the ownership of his brother Al. He changed his last name to “Raiola” in 1942. • Matthew Capone (1908 – January 31, 1967). A Tavern owner. • Rose Capone (Born and died in 1910). Early criminal record Capone's life of crime began early. As a teenager, he joined two gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors, and engaged in petty crime. Capone quit school in the sixth grade at the age of 14, after he fought with a teacher at Public School 133. He then worked at odd jobs around Brooklyn, including in a candy store and a bowling alley. After his initial stint with small-time gangs, Capone joined the notorious Five Points Gang, headed by Frankie Yale. It was at this time he began working as a bartender and bouncer at Yale's establishment, the seedy Harvard Inn. It was there that Capone was slashed in the face during a fight with a thug, Frank Gallucio, after Capone had made a bold move on the man's sister. Once his face had been stitched up Capone went looking for Gallucio, who appealed to Lucky Luciano to mediate the dispute. Luciano and Yale decided that Gallucio's attack was justified and forbade Capone to exact revenge for the wound that would earn him the lifelong nickname "Scarface". In later years Capone employed Gallucio as a bodyguard when visiting New York. On December 30, 1918, Capone married Mae Josephine Coughlin, an Irish woman who shortly before their marriage had given birth to his son, Albert Francis ("Sonny") Capone. The couple lived in Brooklyn before moving to Amityville, Long Island, to be close to “Rum row”. Capone was still working for Frankie Yale and is thought to have committed at least two murders before being sent to Chicago in 1919, mainly to avoid the retribution of Bill Lovett, a psychotic lieutenant in the White Hand Gang, who was busy searching for the Italian kid with scars who had hospitalised one of his subordinates. Capone was familiar with Chicago, having been sent there previously by Yale in order to help crime boss Big Jim Colosimo dispose of a troublesome group of black hand extortionists. Capone went to work for Colosimo's empire under Giovanni "Johnny" Torrio, another Brooklyn boy. The move primed one of the most notorious crime careers in modern American history. 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. Al Capone's mug shot, 1931. (CHS DN-91508) 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. The unpretentious Capone home at 7244 South Prarie Avenue, far from Chicago's Loop and Capone's business headquarters. (CHS DN-91356) 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 protégé. 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 Torrio, syndicating and expanding the city's vice industry between 1925 and 1930. Capone controlled speakeasies, bookie joints, gambling houses, brothels, horse and race tracks, nightclubs, distilleries and breweries at a reported 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. The Tribune headline after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929. 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. Capone masterminded the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre which left seven men dead, but was in Florida when it happened. All but one of the victims were members of rival "Bugs" Moran's gang. (CHS ICHi-14406) 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. 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. Capone maintained a five-room suite and four guest rooms at the Metropole Hotel (2300 S. Michigan Avenue). The hotel served as his base of operations until 1928. (CHS ICHi-23301) Capone with deputy chief of police, John Stege, who eventually asked Capone to leave Chicago. (CHS DN-091506) 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.