Al Capone

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1 Al Capone

Al Capone

Exploiting the underbelly of society that Prohibition created — bootlegging, speakeasies, gambling halls and an overflowing amount of brothels — Al Capone became bigger than the Chicago underworld he created.

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New York Streets

In 1894, Gabriele Capone came to Brooklyn from the village of Castellmarre di Stabia, 16 miles south of Naples, Italy, with his pregnant wife and two children. About five years later, on January 17, 1899, the couple’s fourth child was born, Alphonse Capone.

Shortly after Capone was born, the family moved out of their Italian neighborhood and onto Park Avenue in Brooklyn (not to be confused with Manhattan’s Park Avenue). This exposed the young Capone to people of Irish, German, Swedish and Chinese descent. It also introduced him to lawlessness. He joined two kid gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors, and then went onto joining the Five Points gang in Manhattan. Though smart, he dropped out of school after sixth grade at the age of 14, and is rumored to have pimped prostitutes before reaching puberty.

It was also in Brooklyn that he met Johnny Torrio, a gangster, who would be pivotal in his life in Chicago. In Brooklyn, though, Torrio helped Capone get a job at Frankie Yale’s dive, The Brooklyn Inn, as a bouncer and occasional bartender and waiter. It was here that he got his signature scars on his face — leading to his nickname, “Scarface” — after he insulted a woman while her brother was in earshot.

He met Mary “Mae” Coughlin in 1918 and had a son with her, Albert “Sonny” Francis, on Dec. 4, 1918. Capone and Coughlin married later that month. Trying his hand at legitimacy, he moved his family to Baltimore and worked as a bookkeeper for a construction company. But after his father died in November 1920, Capone abandoned this plan. Torrio had moved to Chicago and beckoned Capone to follow. He did.

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Chicago’s Underbelly

“Big Jim” Colosimo brought Torrio to Chicago to help with his prostitution empire, which was centered on Colosimo Café, one of the most popular clubs in the city. It was into this that Capone, 22, came. He moved his family into a home at 7244 South Prairie Ave. in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, posing to his neighbors as a dealer in second-hand furniture.

Capone took over as manager of the Four Deuces, Torrio’s headquarters in the Levee area. The Four Deuces was almost all things sinful in one: a speakeasy, gambling joint, and whorehouse. He was Torrio’s No. 2 and also helped manage Torrio’s bootlegging business. By 1924, Capone had a hand in speakeasies, bookie joints, gambling houses, brothels, horse and race tracks, nightclubs, distilleries and breweries, and from all of these he is reported to have made more than $100,000 a week.

When Mayor William E. Dever succeeded the corrupt “Big Bill” Thompson in Chicago, Capone moved his operation to the suburbs, specifically to Cicero. Installing his older brother, Frank, as his government front man, Capone focused on running the town’s brothels, racetrack and gambling hall. Election day in Cicero was bloody. In the end, Capone won control of the city, but in the process, his brother was killed, election workers were kidnapped and voters threatened.

Back in Chicago, violence escalated over the next few years as opposing factions started picking off each other’s allies. And after a few high-profile murders, it was Torrio’s turn for a hit. Coming back from a shopping trip with his wife, Torrio was shot in the chest, neck, right arm and groin by George “Bugs” Moran. Surviving, he was able to make it to court for a previous murder investigation. But after spending some time in jail, he phoned Capone from jail to tell him he was retiring. The racket was now Capone’s.

And as leader of the Chicago’s underworld, Capone stepped up to a larger place in society. Formerly very secretive, Capone now frequented the opera, sporting events, charitable events and city hall. He also used his influence to help others. He opened soup kitchens and lobbied for milk bottle dating to keep spoiled milk from reaching children.

But Capone’s glory days were about to dim. Billy McSwiggin, the “hanging prosecutor”, who had tried to pin an earlier death on Capone, would soon meet his end, by way of one of Capone’s henchman’s guns. Bootlegger Jim Doherty picked McSwiggin up in his car to go play cards at one of Capone’s gambling halls in Cicero. Doherty’s car broke down, and they hitched a ride with bootlegger “Klondike” O’Donnell, one of Capone’s enemies. O’Donnell’s cruising around in Cicero was a territorial insult to Capone, who was also in the neighborhood that night. Capone and his men, not realizing that McSwiggin was in the bar, waited outside in a convoy of cars until the men came out. Then the shooting began; McSwiggin and Doherty were dead.

Capone went into hiding and soon got out of paying for the crime, after the police admitted they didn’t have sufficient evidence to keep him. But as bloody as this crime was, it wouldn’t be the worst to be attached to Capone’s name.

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St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

Bugs Moran had antagonized Capone long enough. While vacationing at his home in Palm Island, Florida, Capone met with Jack “Machine Gun” McGurn to plan the hit. Here’s their plan: A delivery was to be made at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, February 14, 1929 in what is today the heart of Lincoln Park. A bootlegger would lure the Moran gang to a garage to buy some whiskey. McGurn’s men would be waiting for them, dressed in stolen police uniforms as though they were staging a raid. And that’s how the whole thing started.

At the garage near 2122 N. Clark Street, a man who looked like Moran was spotted. The bootleggers, believing they were caught by the police, lined up against the wall. The four assassins took the bootleggers’ guns, and opened fire on the men. The seven men tumbled to the floor dead, except for one man, who was still breathing.

But there was one problem: Moran. He wasn’t among the men standing against the wall. Running late to the meeting, Moran saw the police car pulling up and stayed away until after the “police” left. The hit didn’t work.

After the massacre, the blame for the murders fell on Capone’s shoulders, despite his alibi of being in Florida. The police couldn’t find enough evidence to prosecute him, but the crime — along with McSwiggin’s murder and the rest of Capone’s public notoriety — called the attention of President Herbert Hoover and another government entity, the Internal Revenue Service.

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Prison

Hoover pressured Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon to head the government’s battle against Capone. And Mellon’s actions led to Capone’s 1931 conviction for tax evasion. Capone never paid taxes on what he gained from his illegal dealings. He was also charged with the misdemeanor of failing to file tax returns for the years 1928 and 1929. A third indictment charged Capone with conspiracy to violate Prohibition laws from 1922 to 1931. He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and one year in the county jail. Capone also had to serve an earlier six-month contempt of court sentence for failing to appear in court.

In May 1932, Capone was sent to the prison in Atlanta; he was later moved to Alcatraz. While in prison, he showed signs of syphilitic dementia. Capone was released on Nov. 16, 1939.

After his release, Capone’s health continued to deteriorate. On Jan. 21, 1947, he had a stroke; pneumonia set in on Jan. 24. He died the next day from cardiac arrest. He is now buried on the far West Side of Chicago.

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