Al Capone
By: Lukas Parrish
Biography
Alphonse "Scar Face" Capone was born January 17, 1899 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the 4th of 9 kids in his family. His parents were immigrants from Naples, Italy. He dropped out of school in the 6th grade after getting into a fight with a teacher. After dropping out of school, he did a little bit of small time crime until he eventually joined the James Street Gang. Here he became friends with Johnny Torrio, the gang leader, and Lucky Luciano who would later become one of the most prominent gangsters. After becoming involved in the gang, he became a bouncer for a saloon. Here he got into a fight which left three nasty looking scars on his left cheek which is why he's called scar face. To escape a murder charge, he escaped to Chicago in 1919 which happened to be the same year that alcohol was outlawed. Torrio, who was already there to help his uncle with his prostitution operation, employed Capone. Capone started as a bouncer and was later upgraded to an enforcer. The leader of the gang was murdered, so Torrio took over and Capone rose in the ranks to become Torrio's right hand man. Torrio later ordered a hit on the rival gang. The leader was killed, so to get revenge, their rival gang ordered a hit on Torrio. Torrio wasn't killed, but he retired after that. Capone took over the gang after Torrio died. Capone was one of the most ruthless gang leaders. He was suspected to be behind 200 murders. Capone ended up going to jail on a tax fraud charge. He was in jail for 11 years which was the longest sentence for any tax fraud case. When he got out, he had some brain damage from illnesses, so he retired in his mansion in Florida. Al Capone died on January 25, 1947.
Impact On Society
Al Capone's impact on society was bad. He brought lots of death and crime into the 20's. He was one of the main reasons why the 20's are considered to be a wild, dangerous time in America's history.
St. Valentines Day Massacre
A hit that was ordered by Al Capone in order to weaken his rival gang and take out their leader, Bugs Moran, but it failed to take out Moran.
Capone's Trial
Capone was put in jail for 11 years. The only thing that the cops could get him on was tax fraud.
Capone's Alcatraz Cell
Al Capone spent part of his 11 years in the infamous Alcatraz or otherwise known as "the rock".
Al Capone
What did Al Capone say his occupation was to the IRS?
Did Al Capone going to prison slow the amount of alcohol coming into Chicago?
Citations
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/BiographiesDetailsPage/BiographiesDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Biographies&limiter=&u=lees33148&currPage=&disableHighlighting=true&displayGroups=&sortBy=&source=&search_within_results=&p=BIC1&action=e&catId=GALE%7C00000000MQ1T&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CK2411000016
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Al_Capone.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hMty6xwRT8
http://www.wbez.org/blog/john-r-schmidt/2012-02-14/different-st-valentines-day-story-96117
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/capone/caponeimages.html