Al Capone
By: Baer
Life of "The Big Fellow"
Al Capone was born on January 17,1899. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He was raised in a rough and violent neighborhood. He became apart of 2 childhood gangs, "The Brooklyn Rippers" and "The Forty Thieves Juniors". Capone ran smalltime scams as a clerk at a candy store, a pin boy in a bowling alley, and a cutter at a book bindery. When he was 20 he fled to Chicago to avoid a murder charge. There, he joined a more notorious gang named "the Five points" gang. He worked for a gangster named Frankie Yale at his Brooklyn Drive, The Harvard Inn, as a bouncer. While working at the inn he received his infamous facial scars and was later given the nickname "Scarface" after the brother of a patron he insulted attacked him. He quickly became the top assistant of the gangs leader, Johnny Torrio. When Torrio fled the country, Capone was left to take over the bootlegging business for the gang. He took advantage of this by conducting his business more openly. He waged war on rival gangs to protect his business interest. Seven members of a rival gang led by George "bugsy" Moran were shot to death in a garage in Chicago during the Valentine's Day Massacre, although Capone was in Florida at the time. He served ten years of hard labor for tax fraud. He suffered from paresis, which is contracted from syphilis, and became mentally incapable of returning to gang politics. His mentality was reduced to that of a 12-year old child. He resided to Palm Island and died of a stroke and pneumonia on January 25, 1947.
Impact of the 20's
Valentine's Day Massacre
Bootlegging
Trial of Al Capone 1931
Video Questions
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