(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone#/media/File:Al_Capone_in_1930.jpg)
One of the most notorious gangsters in history, Al Capone was born in Brooklyn on January 17, 1899 to Italian immigrants. Many immigrants during that time were uneducated, but Capone was born into a respectable, well-educated family. Although they lived in a tenement in a bad part of town, the family was respectable and law-abiding, and there are few indications of Capone’s future as a gangster. Evidence points to his schooling as a major contributor to his character, as he went to a Catholic school that employed strict brutal discipline methods, and he never returned after being expelled at the age of fourteen.
Capone then met gangster Johnny Torrio, who would influence his future heavily. Torrio was one of the first to embrace a new style of organized crime: maintaining a respectable appearance while running a racketeering business under the surface. There would soon be a huge transition in America from the crude culture of the past to a seemingly refined lifestyle. Capone joined Torrio’s gang, which eventually became the Five Points Gang. He earned his nickname “Scarface” during these years when a young man slashed his face with a razor.
Torrio moved from New York to Chicago and eventually sent for Capone in 1919 to come join him in managing the brothel business there. Capone allegedly assassinated Torrio’s boss, allowing him to take over the business. By 1925, Torrio had retired, and Capone took over the business in Chicago, running gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging operations. Capone took a brief break from the business when he married Mae Coughlin and settled down, but after his father’s sudden death, he went back to his life of crime. Historians believe that the death of his parents and the resulting freedom from their influence was the reason he stopped trying to maintain a respectable image. As his reputation grew, Capone developed a routine: traveling unarmed, during nighttime, and always accompanied by at least two bodyguards. He and Torrio became business partners managing the Four Deuces, a speakeasy, gambling joint, and whorehouse, all in one.
Stricter racketeering policies in Chicago forced Capone to move operations into a suburb, Cicero, for his first job. His brothers joined him in infiltrating the police departments; by threatening voters and kidnapping his opponents’ election workers, he won the office. After a thug assaulted his friend, Capone tracked him down and murdered him, earning him a new notoriety from the publicity surrounding the case, even though he got away with it. He gained ownership of Torrio’s legacy after an assassination attempt forced him out of the business, and Capone moved his headquarters to a luxury hotel in an attempt to become more visible. Unlike most gangsters of the time, he attended operas and talked with the press, contributing to his image as a respected businessman in the community. Capone’s next job involved smuggling bootleg whiskey into Chicago. He grew rich off of this business, but he also suffered a setback when one of his minions accidentally shot prosecutor Billy McSwiggin. Capone was immediately blamed for the attack, and although he escaped arrest again, there was a public outcry against gangster violence, destroying his beneficent image.
The police failed in their investigations against Capone, but they were relentless, forcing him to go into hiding for three months. Eventually, he turned himself in to the Chicago police, but they did not have enough evidence to convict him of any crimes, and he escaped arrest once again. After that, he became a peacemaker of sorts, attempting to tone down gang violence and mediating a truce between two rival gangs. The peace was short-lived, however, and the Chicago gangsters returned to their old ways after a few months. During this time of turmoil between gangs, Capone was relaxing on Palm Island Estate in Florida with his family, and he evaded IRS agent Elmer Irey with cash transactions so the IRS could not track his income and spending in relation to his bootlegging business.
While in Florida, Capone was still managing his business in Chicago; during this time, he organized the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, which remains one of the most well known in history. In an attempt to deal with a rival gangster, Bugs Moran, and his gang, Capone organized an ambush by his friend’s men. On Valentine’s Day, 1929, Moran’s gang were lured into a garage to purchase whiskey and then stopped by Capone’s men, disguised as police. After catching the bootleggers, the men opened fire and killed all but one of them, but Bugs Moran was nowhere to be found at the scene. Later, when investigating the case, the police knew that Capone had organized the massacre, even though he was not present in Chicago. The murders gained national publicity and ingrained an image of Capone as a ruthless and fearsome gangster, and the police increased their effort to catch him.
In March, 1929, Herbert Hoover remarked to his secretary of the Treasury, “Have you got this fellow Capone yet? I want that man in jail.” They worked with the US Prohibition Bureau and the IRS, and when it became clear that it would be difficult to convict him for prohibition violations, they focused on income tax evasion. In May, Capone was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon in Atlantic City while attending a “gangsters conference.” He was released just ten months later for good behavior, but was put on America’s Most Wanted list. Eventually, the IRS agent Elmer Irey successfully gathered enough evidence to try Capone in court, and another agent managed to expose his bootlegging violations.
In 1931, a jury met and determined that Capone was guilty of 22 counts of tax evasion and he and his gang were charged with 5,000 violations of the Volstead Act, enacted to carry out Prohibition. However, Capone’s lawyers managed to make a deal with the prosecutors, allowing him a lighter sentence in exchange for pleading guilty, and this enraged the people when word got out. His reputation destroyed and his “Robin Hood” image dismantled, Capone was found guilty and sentenced to eleven years in prison without bail and a total of $80,000 in fines and court fees. In 1934, he was moved to Alcatraz, where he was eventually released after six years for good behavior. He went back to his estate in Florida, where his health deteriorated and his wife stayed by his side until he died of a heart attack at age 48 in 1947.
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There is an interesting story behind the trial of Al Capone. Edward "Eddie" O'Hare worked with Al Capone at his height, and at one point, became and IRS informant in Al Capone's circles. He is accredited with feeding investigators information throughout their two year investigation on Capone.
ReplyDeleteBut two weeks before the trial, O'Hare told one of the lead investigators that Capone had already gotten a list of jurors and was beginning to bribe them off. On the day of the beginnings of proceedings, a new set of jurors was brought in by the judge, who believed O'Hare, and Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion.
O'Hare's son, Butch O'Hare would go on to become a Medal of Honor winner in WW2 and have the Chicago O'Hare airport named after him. Eddie O'Hare was assassinated in 1939.
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/capone/caponeaccount.html
This is a good, comprehensive account of Al Capone's life and the legacy he left as a notorious gangster. Looking at the FBI page for Al Capone on "Famous Cases & Criminals," I noticed that it said, "The investigative jurisdiction of the Bureau of Investigation during the 1920s and early 1930s was more limited than it is now, and the gang warfare and depredations of the period were not within the Bureau’s investigative authority." This reminded me of the much more limited scope of federal investigations into crime at the time. It also hints at the huge political influence that mob bosses wielded, partially because of corruption of officials but also simply because of the power they had over others.
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