Capone goes to prison - Oct 17, 1931 - HISTORY.com Capone goes to prison Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1931, gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion and fined $80,000, signaling the downfall of one of the most notorious criminals of the 1920s and 1930s. Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899 to Italian immigrants. He was expelled from school at 14, joined a gang and earned his nickname “Scarface” after being sliced across the cheek during a fight. By 1920, Capone had moved to Chicago, where he was soon helping to run crime boss Johnny Torrio’s illegal enterprises, which included alcohol-smuggling, gambling and prostitution. Torrio retired in 1925 after an attempt on his life and Capone, known for his cunning and brutality, was put in charge of the organization.

Prohibition, which outlawed the brewing and distribution of alcohol and lasted from 1920 to 1933, proved extremely lucrative for bootleggers and gangsters like Capone, who raked in millions from his underworld activities. Capone was at the top of the F.B.I.’s “Most Wanted” list by 1930, but he avoided long stints in jail until 1931 by bribing city officials, intimidating witnesses and maintaining various hideouts. He became Chicago’s crime kingpin by wiping out his competitors through a series of gangland battles and slayings, including the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929, when Capone’s men gunned down seven rivals. This event helped raise Capone’s notoriety to a national level. Among Capone’s enemies was federal agent Elliot Ness, who led a team of officers known as “The Untouchables” because they couldn’t be corrupted. Ness and his men routinely broke up Capone’s bootlegging businesses, but it was tax-evasion charges that finally stuck and landed Capone in prison in 1931. Capone began serving his time at the U.S.

Penitentiary in Atlanta, but amid accusations that he was manipulating the system and receiving cushy treatment, he was transferred to the maximum-security lockup at Alcatraz Island, in California’s San Francisco Bay. He got out early in 1939 for good behavior, after spending his final year in prison in a hospital, suffering from syphilis. Plagued by health problems for the rest of his life, Capone died in 1947 at age 48 at his home in Palm Island, Florida. Related Videos Al Capone Blog Al Capone Al Capone was born in Brooklyn , New York, on January 17, 1899, to Neapolitan immigrants Gabriel and Teresa Caponi. Originally named Alphonse Caponi, his name was Americanized to "Al Capone." In 1904, at the age of five, young Alphonse started his school career at Public School 7 in Brooklyn. School was tough for Capone. The teachers were not tolerant of immigrant children and often used physical force as a means of discipline. Capone always had a problem with authority, and by the time he entered sixth grade, his grades began to drop drastically.

At 14, Capone started a fist fight with a teacher, was expelled, and never returned to school again. Shortly after he was expelled, his father moved the family to 21 Garfield Place, in the neighborhood that would influence the direction of Capone's life and ultimately, his future. Capone joined two local street gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors. Among the members were Johnny Torrio and Lucky Luciano. As a young man, Capone held many odd jobs, from a candy store clerk to a bowling alley pinboy. Capone entered organized crime when he went to work for gangster Frankie Yale, at his club the Harvard Inn. It was here that Capone received his nickname, ï¿½Scarface," after being attacked by a man for insulting his sister. It also was here that Capone was arrested for the first time. While attending a dance in 1918, Capone met Mary ï¿½Mae" Coughlin. On December 4, 1918, she gave birth to their son, Albert ï¿½Sonny" Francis. Shortly after, they were married and Capone moved his family to Chicago.

Once in Chicago, Capone went to work for Johnny Torrio, an influential lieutenant in the Colosimo Mob. Soon after, the leader, Big Jim Colosimo, was murdered and Johnny Torrio took over with Capone at his side. By 1922 Capone had become a full partner with Torrio in his gambling houses, saloons, and brothels. In 1925, after being seriously wounded, Torrio retired and Capone became boss. By then, rival gang members considered Capone ruthless, and posed little threat to his plans for taking over the Chicago ï¿½racketeering rights." Any rival gang posing a threat to his plans was either destroyed, or diminished greatly in size, leaving full reign to Capone. Between 1925 and 1930, Capone controlled the majority of Chicago's vice industry, including speakeasies, bookie joints, brothels, horse and race tracks, gambling houses and distilleries. His reported income was estimated to be $100 million a year. Along with all his illegal holdings, Capone also held a large interest in Chicago's largest cleaning and dyeing plant chain.

Although Capone was responsible for several murders, he always had an alibi and was usually out of town when the killings occurred. The most notorious killing was committed on February 14, 1929, which became known as ï¿½The St. Valentine's Day Massacre." Capone ordered four of his men, dressed in police uniforms, to enter a garage on North Clark street. This was the headquarters of George ï¿½Bugs" Moran's bootleg operations and North Side Gang. When the Moran gang dropped their guns and put their hands against the wall, Capone's men gunned them down. Six Moran gang members and an innocent friend were shot. Moran, who was the intended target, was across the street at the time. Although Capone both ordered and committed murders himself, he also had another side. Shortly after the stock market crash of 1929, he opened soup kitchens and arranged for local merchants to give away food and clothing to needy people, at his own expense. Due to gangland's traditional refusal to press charges, Capone was neither charged nor tried for many of his crimes.

In 1926 he was arrested for murdering three people, spent the night in jail and then was released due to lack of evidence. Capone's first jail sentence was in May 1929, but he was charged only for carrying a gun. By 1930, Capone topped Chicago's list of the 28 worst criminals and designated as ï¿½Public Enemy Number One." In 1931, after years of criminal activity, Capone was indicted on twenty-three counts of income tax evasion. Judge James H. Wilkerson found him guilty on five of the twenty-three counts and sentenced him to 10 years in federal prison and fines in the amount of $50,000. He also was sentenced to one year in county jail for an earlier contempt-of-court charge. In May 1932, Capone was sent to Atlanta State Prison, where he quickly established himself as a kingpin within the prison and began taking control. In order to stop his influence, he was transferred to Alcatraz to finish out his sentence.

Alcatraz was cut off from the rest of the world, and with no other gang members residing there, Capone soon found there was nothing over which to gain control. Capone tried to earn time off for good behavior by becoming the model prisoner. During his stay at Alcatraz, Capone began to show signs of syphilitic dementia and spent the balance of his felony sentence in the hospital. On January 6, 1939, he was transferred to Terminal Island to carry out his misdemeanor sentence. On November 16, 1939, Capone was released from prison. After a short stay in the hospital, Capone returned to his home in Palm Island, Florida, to spend the rest of his life in peace and quiet. Due to his dementia, his mind was rapidly deteriorating and he was no longer strong enough to run the outfit. On January 21, 1947, Capone suffered an apoplectic stroke and was hospitalized. On January 24, pneumonia set in and Capone died the next day.

Capone was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery between the graves of his father and brother until March 1950, when the remains of all three were moved to Mount Carmel Cemetery on the far West Side of Chicago. ---- Selected Quotes ---- Al Capone 85-AZ Official Bookstore Al Capone at Alcatraz Al Capone still remains one of the most notable residents of “the Rock.” In a memoir written by Warden James Johnston, he reminisced about the intensity of public interest around Capone's imprisonment, stating that he was continually barraged with questions about “Big Al.” Each day newspapers and press flooded his office with phone calls, wanting to know everything from how Capone liked the weather on “the Rock,” to what job assignment he was currently holding. Before arriving at Alcatraz, Capone had been a master at manipulating his environment at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta. Despite strict convictions from the courts, Capone was always able to persuade his keepers into procuring his every whim, and often dictated his own privileges. It was said that he had convinced many guards to work for him, and his cell boasted expensive furnishings which included personal bedding along with many other amenities not extended to other inmates serving lesser crimes.

His cell was carpeted, and also had a radio around which many of the guards would sit with Al conversing and listening to their favorite radio serials. His friends and family maintained residence in a nearby hotel, and each day he was flooded with visitors. Capone started his life of crime at a young age. Rumored to have started pimping prostitutes before reaching puberty, he was raised on the tough streets of Brooklyn and earned extra money as a bouncer in various brothels. By the age of twenty, Capone had moved to Chicago and was managing a popular nightclub named The Four Deuces. By 1924, Capone had his hand in various rackets, including prostitution rings, bootlegging, and gambling houses and was believed to be earning over $100,000 per week. Capone had mastered the art of politics, and as a wealthy, powerful gangster figure, he attempted to balance his activities. Despite his illegitimate occupation, he had become a highly visible public figure. He made daily trips to City Hall, opened soup kitchens to feed the poor, and even lobbied for milk bottle dating to ensure the safety of the city's children.

City officials often were embarrassed by the politic strength of Capone, and began leveraging his illegal activities through police raids, along with setting intentional fires to his places of business. In the beginning, the public glamorized Capone's activities and identified with him as a modern day Robin Hood. It wasn't long, however, before the public started weighing against him when it was believed that he had ordered the death of a famed local prosecutor named Billy McSwiggin. The young prosecutor had before tried to pin Capone with the violent murder of a rival gang member and he had a reputation for going after bootleggers. Although many speculated against Al's involvement in McSwiggin's death, there was a great outcry against gangster violence, and public sentiment went against Capone. Capone quickly went into hiding, fearing he would be tried for McSwiggin's murder. He remained out of sight for nearly three months, and then after realizing he couldn't live the remainder of his life underground, he negotiated his surrender to the Chicago Police. The authorities eventually recognized that they lacked sufficient evidence to bring Capone to trial, and though very unpopular with public opinion, he was set free. The public was outraged and law officials were left embarrassed.

“Big Al” had become one of the most powerful crime czars in Chicago. It was said that Capone was now big as life, and more powerful than the mayor himself. By 1929, Capone's empire was worth over $62,000,000, and he was ready to wage war on his most prominent bootlegging rival, George “Bugs” Moran. Bugs was also one of the principal Chicago gangsters. He was known to publicly talk against Capone, and maintained a sense of spiteful arrogance that was said to anger Capone so much that Moran became one of Al's routine topics of discussion. It was rumored that Capone gave orders to take Bugs down by assassinating his gang members from the bottom, not stopping until they reached Bugs. Personal letters and original documents are included in the book “Letters from Alcatraz” by Michael Esslinger. Al Capone at U.S.P. Alcatraz - AZ# 85 Al Capone at U.S.P Atlanta on May 4, 1932 Capone playing cards during his transfer to U.S.P. Atlanta on the Dixie Flyer.

Capone in May of 1929 The Alcatraz Warden's Notebook Card on Al Capone, 85-AZ (tap/click photo to enlarge). Capone was living lavishly in Palm Beach, and assigned one of his top associates “Machine Gun” McGurn to mastermind the hit. McGurn had one of his bootleggers lure members of the Moran gang into a garage to buy liquor at an unreasonably cheap price. The deal was made and the delivery was scheduled to take place on Valentines Day. McGurn and his men awaited them in stolen police uniforms. When they arrived, McGurn's gang pretended to be police making a bust, and ordered all of Moran's men to stand facing the wall. Thinking that they had just been caught by police, seven members of the Moran gang turned to the wall awaiting arrest. McGurn and his men opened fire with machine guns, fatally killing the gangsters. Bugs, who saw the police car before stopping and thought it was a raid, fled the scene. Capone was credited with what would be deemed one of the most famous mass murders in American history, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The St.

Valentine's Day Massacre received national attention, and Capone was glamorized in books and newspapers across the country. Capone was a high class, family oriented and self-made gangster-millionaire who now had the attention of everyone. Many of the local politicians were complaining about Capone and his self proclaimed political stature. The publicity ultimately backfired and attracted the attention of President Herbert Hoover. Having just started his presidential term, Hoover demanded that Capone be brought to justice. Andrew Mellon, the Secretary of the Treasury, was pressured by Hoover to spearhead the government's battle against Capone. Mellon collected harsh evidence against “Big Al” which exploited his gang affiliations, bootlegging, prostitution rings, and flagrant evasion of taxes. It would take nearly five years and an intensive undercover operation before Capone was finally convicted. On October 17, 1931, Alphonse Capone was sentenced to 11 years, $50,000 in fines, and was forced to pay court fees totaling over $30,000. The judge refused to allow Capone to be released on bail and he was confined at the Cook County Jail until arrangements were made for his transfer to Atlanta.

On May 4, 1932, Capone began serving out his federal prison sentence at Altanta. Capone quickly flaunted his power and started to again have the ability to dictate his privileges. He was given unlimited access to the Warden, and was said to maintain large reserves of cash hidden in his cell, often generously “tipping” guards who would assist him by yielding to special requests. His time spent at Atlanta would not be as plush as when he was confined in Cook, but he still had means to manipulate the system. In 1934, Attorney General Homer Cummings along with Sanford Bates, the head of the Federal Prisons, made arrangements to send Capone to a facility where he would be unable to leverage the system. Alcatraz was the perfect answer to a problem that no one could seem to control. In August of 1934, without any formal notice, Capone was placed on a secure prison railroad car, on a journey along with 52 other inmates to America's Devil Island. From the first moment of his arrival, Capone worked to manipulate the system.

Warden Johnston had a custom of meeting the new “fish” when they first arrived at Alcatraz, and usually participated in their brief orientation. Johnston wrote in a later memoir that he had little trouble recognizing Capone while he stood in the lineup. Capone was grinning, and making quiet smug comments from the side of his mouth to other inmates. When it became his turn to approach Warden Johnston, it appeared that he wanted to show off to the other inmates by asking questions on their behalf in a leader-type role. Johnston quickly provided him his prison AZ number, and made him get back in line with the other convicts. During Capone's time on Alcatraz, he made several attempts to con Johnston into allowing him special privileges, but all were denied. Johnston maintained that Capone would not be given any special rights and would have to follow the rules as would any other inmate. Capone eventually conceded and one day made the comment to Johnston, “It looks like Alcatraz has got me licked.” Capone spent 4 ½ years on Alcatraz and held a variety of jobs. Capone's time on Alcatraz was not easy time.

Capone got into a fight with another inmate in the recreation yard and was placed in isolation for eight days. While working in the prison basement, an inmate who was standing in line waiting for a haircut, exchanged words with Capone and stabbed him with a pair of shears. Capone was admitted into the prison hospital and released a few days later with a minor wound. Capone eventually became symptomatic from syphilis, a disease he had evidently been carrying for years. In 1938, he was transferred to Terminal Island Prison in Southern California to serve out the remainder of his sentence, and was released in November of 1939. Capone died on January 25, 1947, in his Palm Island Mansion from complications of syphilis. Capone's cell at Eastern State Penitentiary (Credit: Eastern State Penitentiary Museum) Capone being transferred to the federal prison in Atlanta in May of 1932. Actual letters and original documents from Capone are included in “Letters from Alcatraz” by Michael Esslinger.

Al Capone's Alcatraz Cell: B-181 (Later renumbered to B-206) Al Capone in Miami Florida, Circa 1930's Capone on Alcatraz in 1934. Al Capone Trial: Anniversary of Gangster's Conviction SHARE PhotoQuest / Getty Images A November 1930 mugshot of Chicago gangster Al Capone Oct. 17, 1931: Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion and later sentenced to 11 years in prison Here’s a friendly regular reminder of why you should pay your taxes: Al Capone, the Chicago mob boss known for making the city’s bloody bootlegging business even bloodier, faced trial in 1931 — not for the dozens of murders he is suspected of engineering, but for the $215,000 in taxes he never paid on more than a million dollars in illegal earnings. Instead of a body count, prosecutors totaled the lavish expenditures that made Al Capone one of the flashiest figures of the Prohibition era. According to the New York Times’ account of the trial, Federal Attorney G. E. Q.

Johnson harped on the extravagance of Capone’s $135 suits and $27 silk shirts — which, “ in the stress and passion of his talk ,” the prosecutor sometimes referred to as $27,000 silk shirts. The expenses got bigger: $6,500 spent on meat to feed guests at Capone’s nightly poker parties, $8,000 on diamond belt buckles, $116,000 lost on horse races. The idea was that Capone’s expenses would prove that he had once had the money that had gone unreported. The list went on, as TIME reported : Witnesses from Florida said Capone had spent $40,000 for his Palm Island home, $100,000 to improve it, swore to a $6,500 meat bill, a $2,085 hotel bill, a $9,000 telephone bill, asserted he distributed $5 tips and spent thousands of dollars on cakes and macaroni. Prize Miami witness was one H. F. Ryder, a garrulous carpenter whose $1,011 bill had been paid by “Mr. Al—Mr.

Capone—the gentleman there.” Witness Ryder said Capone’s friends “gave me a sandwich sometimes,” thought “Mr. Al was a mighty fine man,” even though he still owed him $125. He told of being paid $250 from “a roll that would choke an ox”—as big as Judge Wilkerson’s fist. “There were money wrappers by the handful around the place. All marked $1,000.” But when, on this day — Oct. 17 — in 1931, the jury returned their verdict, Capone was found guilty of only five of the 23 charges against him. Both the prosecutors and defense attorneys were puzzled; Capone’s attorney, unsure what he was hearing, asked for the verdict to be read a second time. Capone, on the other hand, “ grinned as though he felt he had gotten off easily ,” despite the fact that the five counts still carried a potentially heavy sentence. It’s unlikely his grin lasted through his sentencing hearing in November, since the 11-year term the judge imposed was then a record-breaking penalty for tax fraud.

The costs of Capone’s years of extravagant living caught up with him behind bars, where he suffered from dementia related to late-stage syphilis. By the time he was released, his physician concluded that he had the mental capacity of a 12-year-old . He never returned to gang life, or — at least publicly — to Chicago. Read TIME’s original coverage of Capone’s trial, here in the archives: Who Wouldn’t Be Worried? Al Capone | Organized Crime Encyclopedia Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Organized Crime Encyclopedia Wiki January 17, 1899 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. Died January 25, 1947 (aged 48) Palm Island (Florida), U.S.

Gender Chicago Outfit/Head of the Outfit Status Mount Carmel Cemetery, but he was originally buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois Predecessor Paul Ricca "faggot." - Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), popularly known as Al Capone, was an American gangster who led a crime syndicate dedicated to the smuggling and bootlegging of liquor and other illegal activities during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s. Born in Brooklyn, New York New York, to southwest Italy emigrants Gabriele and Teresina Capone, Capone began his career in Brooklyn before moving to Chicago and becoming the boss of the criminal organization known as the Chicago Outfit (although his business card reportedly described him as a used furniture dealer). By the end of the 1920s, Capone had gained the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation following his being placed on the Chicago Crime Commission’s “public enemies” list.

Although never successfully convicted of racketeering charges, Capone’s criminal career ended in 1931, when he was indicted and convicted by the federal government for income tax invasion. Contents Edit Capone was born to Gabriele Capone (December 12, 1864 – November 14, 1920) and his wife Teresina Raiola (December 28, 1867 – November 29, 1952) in Brooklyn, on January 17, 1899. Gabriele was a barber from Castellammare di Stabia, a town about 15 miles (24 km) south of Naples, Italy. Teresina was a seamstress and the daughter of Angelo Raiola from Angri, a town in the province of Salerno in southwestern Italy. The Capones had emigrated to the United States in 1894 and settled in the Navy Yard section of downtown Brooklyn. When Al was 14, the Capone family moved to 21 Garfield Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

The new home was where Al met Mae Josephine Coughlin, whom he married 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:Edwardo Capone (1852 – October 1, 1952), Raffaele Capone (January 12, 1894 – November 22, 1974), Salvatore Capone (January 1895 – April 1, 1924) Alphonse Gabriel Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), Erminio Capone (born 1901, date of death unknown), Umberto Capone (1906 – June 1980), Matthew Capone (1908 – January 31, 1967), Rose Capone (born and died 1910) and Mafalda Capone (later Mrs. John J.

Maritote, January 28, 1912 – March 25, 1988). Early Criminal Days Edit Capone’s life of crime began early. As a teenager, he joined two gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and engaged in petty crime. Capone left school in the sixth-grade at age 14, after being expelled for punching a teacher in the crotch 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 a bouncer at Yale’s establishment, the seedy Harvard Inn. It was there that Capone got the scars that gave him the nickname “Scarface”. 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 violent lieutenant in the White Hand Gang, who was busy searching for Capone who had supposedly hospitalized one of his subordinates.

Capone was familiar with Chicago, having been sent there previously by Yale in order to help crime boss James “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 native. Capone also met a man named Anthony Accetturo, who he helped in many things. Accetturo repaid him by killing Capone’s slight enemies. Accetturo was at Capone’s court hearing for tax evasion. Orgin of the nickname Edit When he was working as a waiter for a young couple, he turn down his mom in sex for his wife down and said to the woman, “Honey, you have a nice ass dick and I mean that as a compliment.” Her brother, Frank Gallucio, pulled a knife and slashed Capone in the face three times before leaving the bar with his sister. Word of the fight eventually reached Yale, who forced Capone to apologize to Gallucio. This incident caused Yale to take Capone under his wing and eventually led to his rule over the Chicago Outfit.

It is speculated that Capone forgave Frank Gallucio and even hired him as a bodyguard later in his career. However, the knife wounds left gruesome scars, which plagued Capone for the rest of his life. He truly disliked this sobriquet and once, allegedly, killed another man because he called him that. Personal Life Edit 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.” immediately recognized Capone’s talents, and soon Capone was elevated to running the Four Deuces bar and given responsibility for much of the alcohol and prostitution rackets in the city of Chicago. With prohibition in full effect, there was a fortune to be made in bootlegging. Colosimo’s reluctance to move into this area of crime led to his murder on May 11, 1920, in the foyer of his own nightclub. Yale was later arrested for the murder, but the case collapsed through lack of evidence.

Torrio was now in charge and promoted Capone to be his second in command. The Capone family moved to Chicago for good, buying a red-brick bungalow at 7244 South Prairie Avenue on the city’s South Side. The house served as Al Capone’s first headquarters. Cicero,Illinois Edit After the 1923 election of reform mayor William Emmett Dever in Chicago, Chicago’s city government began to put pressure on the gangster elements inside the city limits. To put its headquarters outside of city jurisdiction and create a safe zone for its operations, the Capone organization muscled its way into Cicero, Illinois. This led to one of Capone’s greatest triumphs: the takeover of Cicero’s town government in 1924. The 1924 town council elections in Cicero became known as one of the most crooked elections in the Chicago area’s long history, with voters threatened at polling stations by thugs. Capone’s mayoral candidate won by a huge margin but only weeks later announced that he would run Capone out of town.

Capone met with his puppet-mayor and personally knocked him down the town hall steps, a powerful assertion of gangster power and a major victory for the Torrio-Capone alliance. For Capone, this event was marred by the death of his brother Frank at the hands of the police. As was the custom amongst gangsters Capone signaled his mourning by attending the funeral unshaven, and he cried openly at the gathering. He ordered the closure of all the speakeasies in Cicero for a day as a mark of respect. Much of Capone’s family put down roots in Cicero as well. In 1930, Capone’s sister Mafalda’s marriage to John J. Maritote took place at St. Mary of Czestochowa, a massive Neogothic edifice towering over Cicero Avenue in the so-called Polish Cathedral style. Power and wealth in Chicago Edit Severely injured in a 1925 assassination attempt by the North Side Gang, the shaken Torrio turned over his business to Capone and returned to Italy.

Capone was notorious during the Prohibition Era for his control of large portions of the Chicago underworld, which provided the Outfit with an estimated US$10 million per year in revenue. This wealth was generated through all manner of illegal enterprises, although the largest money-maker was the sale of liquor. Demand was met by a transportation network that moved smuggled liquor from the rum-runners of the East Coast and The Purple Gang in Detroit and local production in the form of Midwestern moonshine operations and illegal breweries. With the funds generated by his bootlegging operation, Capone’s grip on the political and law enforcement establishments in Chicago grew stronger. Through this organized corruption, which included the bribing of Mayor of Chicago William “Big Bill” Hale Thompson, Capone’s gang operated largely free from legal intrusion, operating brothels, casinos and speakeasies throughout Chicago. Wealth also permitted Capone to indulge in a luxurious lifestyle of custom suits, cigars, gourmet food and drink (his preferred liquor was Templeton Rye from Iowa), jewelry and female companionship.

However, this unprecedented level of criminal success drew the attention of Capone’s rivals, particularly his bitter rivalries with North Side gangsters such as Levi Rivaille, Eren Jaeger and lieutenant Erwin Smith. Such opposition led to attempts to assassinate Capone throughout the 1920s. He was shot in a restaurant, and he had his car riddled with bullets more than once. These attacks prompted Capone to order the outfitting of his Cadillac with armor plating, bullet-proof glass, run-flat tires, and a police siren. However, most of the would-be assassins were incompetent, and Capone was never seriously wounded. But, it should be noted that although Capone was never hurt, every attempt on his life left him increasingly shaken and slightly afraid of Moran who most certainly had an involvement in almost every attempt. Members of the gang that had wounded Torrio shot into the headquarters of Capone’s gang, which was disguised as a doctor’s office and an antique dealer’s shop. Nobody was hurt in the raid (Capone’s bodyguard threw him to the ground at the first sound of gunfire), although the headquarters was riddled with bullet holes.

This event scared Capone to no end and forced him to call for truce, one that would be short-lived.When the headquarters moved to the Lexington Hotel, Capone had it filled with his armed bodyguards around the clock. For his trips away from Chicago, Capone was reputed to have had several other retreats and hideouts located in Brookfield, Wisconsin; Saint Paul, Minnesota; Olean, New York; French Lick, as well as Terre Haute, Indiana; Dubuque, Iowa; Hot Springs, Arkansas; Johnson City, Tennessee; and Lansing, Michigan. Tunnels found under the city of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, are said to have been another hideout of Capone’s.[3] As a further precaution, Capone and his entourage would often suddenly show up at a one of Chicago’s train depots and buy up an entire Pullman sleeper car on night trains to places like Cleveland, Omaha, Kansas City and Little Rock/Hot Springs, Ark. where they would spend a week in a luxury hotel suite under assumed names (with the apparent knowledge and blessing of local authorities). In 1928, Capone bought a retreat on Palm Island, Florida.

In retrospect, these security measures seem excessive and based on paranoid ideation. Nevertheless, Capone’s fear of being killed was quite understandable in light of the North Side’ repeated attempts to eliminate him. The fusilade launched against his headquarters where at least ten gunmen blasted away at him for over ten minutes must have been particularly unnerving. Capone considered Moran to be a homicidal lunatic (for good reason) and lived in continuous fear of him and his gang of brutal thugs. Even in his last days, as he lay ravaged by syphilis, Capone raved on about Moran (as well as communists and foreigners) whom he was convinced was still plotting to do him in from the confines of his Ohio prison cell. Capone`s Image Edit Part of the reason Capone was taken to task in this way was his status as a celebrity. On the advice of his publicist, he stopped hiding from the media by the mid-1920s and began to make public appearances. When Charles Lindbergh performed his famous transatlantic flight in 1927, Capone was among the first to push forward and shake his hand upon his arrival in Chicago.

Capone often tried to whitewash his image and be seen as a community leader. For example, he started a program, which was continued for decades after his death, to fight rickets by providing a daily milk ration to Chicago school children. Also during the Great Depression, Capone opened up a few soup kitchens for the poor and homeless. Capone was a man with style, and if he ever killed someone himself, or one of his henchmen killed an important person, hundreds of dollars worth of flowers was sent to the funeral, and even Capone and some of his men went to the funeral. In one instance, one of Capone’s rival gang leaders was killed by his men, and Capone sent $5,000 worth of flowers to the funeral. In one fight between Capone’s men and another gang, an innocent woman was shot, not fatally, and required hospital treatment. Capone paid for all the hospital fees. Capone could often be seen sitting in box seats with his son and bodyguards at Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs games. He, his brother Ralph, and Gusik regularly went to the race tracks in Chicago as well as during their security forays into Arkansas and Nebraska.

He was also an opera fan and liked circuses and rodeos where he would buy huge blocks of tickets and distribute them among low income neighborhoods. Capone and Nitti were both fans of “New Orleans” jazz music and were instrumental in the rise of such talents as Louis Armstrong and others who regularly played at Capone speakeasies on the South Side. Bob Hope related performing, when he was an up and comer, at one of these clubs where he was terrified of the prospects of bombing in front of such a crowd. He gained a great deal of admiration from many of the poor in Chicago for his flagrant disregard of the Prohibition law that they despised. He was viewed for a time as a lovable outlaw, partially because of his extravagant generosity to strangers and often lending a hand to struggling Italian-Americans. His nightclub, the Cotton Club, became a hot spot for new acts such as Charlie Parker and Bing Crosby. He was often cheered in the street. Such efforts, however, did not change his reputation for violence and murder within the city. Capone did not help his own PR problems by being linked to an incident where two men were bludgeoned to death with baseball bats after they were thought to be disloyal to the Outfit.

The brutal murders of the St. Valentine’s Day massacre also didn’t help, as they made people view Capone as a killer and socially unacceptable. Capone headed a list of “public enemies” corrupting the city compiled by the chairman of the Chicago Crime Commission, Frank J. Loesch, in April 1930. The list was published by newspapers nationwide, and Capone became known as “Public Enemy No. 1.” St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Edit Al Capone orchestrated the most notorious gangland killing of the century, the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side. Although details of the killing of the seven victims in a garage at 2122 North Clark Street are still in dispute and no one was ever indicted for the crime, their deaths are generally linked to Capone and his henchmen, especially Jack “Machine Gun” McGurn. McGurn is thought to have led the operation, using gunmen disguised as police and toting shotguns and Thompson submachine guns. The massacre was Capone’s effort to dispose of Moran.

The North Side gang had become increasingly bold in hijacking the Outfit’s booze trucks and encroaching on the South Side and Capone was ready to put it to an end. After all efforts to secure a truce had failed, Capone, his accountant/chief extortionist Jake “Greasy Thumb” Gusik and Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti agreed that they’d have to risk the political heat that would come from wiping out Moran and his gang or face eventual elimination at the hands of the North Siders. They assigned the task to McGurn and told him to use “outside torpedoes” to avoid implication. McGurn secured the services of triggermen from New York, Tennessee, Detroit and downstate Illinois.They rented an apartment across from the Clark Street trucking garage that served as a Moran headquarters to monitor their targets’ habits and movements and placed a call to the garage offering to sell a truckload of whiskey stolen by freelancing Sicilian immigrants from a Capone shipment. Such freelancers often hijacked such shipments from both gangs and sold them to the highest bidders so no suspicions were aroused in the Moran camp. The stolen booze (high-grade Canadian whiskey) was brought to the the garage and the deal was done.

As hoped, the entire Moran gang was there. Unknown to the North Siders, these “freelancers” were being paid by McGurn to set them up for the kill. On January 13, the freelancers called again and set up another transaction for the next day. The freelancers were expected to drive the truck right into the garage, where McGurn hoped the entire Moran gang would again be assembled. At the set time, a stolen Chicago police car pulled up and uniformed “officers” entered the building along with others who had been standing nearby. Apparently, the gang members thought that they had been scammed and that they had been set up for a raid. They sheepishly lined up to cooperate in the belief that their lawyers would fix things downtown as they had many times before. Moran, spotting what he thought to be a police car outside, decided to keep walking and did not enter the garage. It is believed that a local optometrist (who supplemented his income through bootlegging and liked to hang out at the garage with the gang members) had been mistaken that morning for Moran because he was of similar height and wore the same color gray hat and coat favored by the North Side chieftain.

After the bogus Moran entered, the lookouts triggered the “raid.” Forensic evidence shows that the seven victims were almost cut in two by machine gun fire and that many of the victims had their faces shot off by shotgun blasts for good measure. People in the neighborhood saw the police go in and heard what they thought were a series of backfires which were common at a garage. The “police” later led some men out to the car and left. The grisly scene was discovered after the mechanic’s dog began to howl so loudly that neighbors went in to see what was wrong. One of the Moran gang survived long enough to be questioned in a hospital before he died. True to gangland fashion, he refused to cooperate with the police in the slightest degree, obedient to the unwritten code of honor then prevalent among the Chicago underworld. Although Moran escaped, all his chief deputies were killed and his illegal liquor operation in Chicago rapidly declined. When asked by reporters if he believed Capone was behind the killings, Moran scornfully replied “Only Capone kills like that!” An indignant Capone countered, “Oh yeah? Listen … they don’t call that guy ‘Bugs’ for nothing!” in a reference to Moran’s reputation for savagery.

With his remaining resources, Moran marked Capone and his key underlings for extermination. Capone arranged to have himself jailed in Philadelphia for a year to avoid numerous “murder for hire” outfits that were hunting for him. McGurn was gunned down at a bowling alley on the anniversary of the garage slaughter and two others involved in the kllling disappeared. Moran eventually ran out of resources and fled to Ohio, allowing Capone to return to Chicago, where he quickly found himself in the legal quagmire that effectively removed him from power. It is generally thought that Capone precipitated his own decline with the garage killings. Graphic photos of bodies lying in pools of blood were plastered all over the papers. A secret convocation of Chicago civic leaders initiated an all-out effort to drive Capone from power. Nevertheless, had Capone and his gang done nothing, the North Side gang likely would have succeeded in killing their rivals and taking over the entire city. Moran and his associates were driven by a visceral hatred of the “South Side Scum” whom they considered to be sexual deviants and degenerates who dealt in prostitution and drug peddling and allowed debased jazz musicians to play in their bars and brothels.

Moran had also repeatedly vowed to avenge the deaths of his close friends and mentors O’Banion and Weiss (the latter being gunned down on the steps of Trinity Cathedral). It is said that Nitti became enraged with McGurn (whom he considered to be a rival) over Moran’s escape and the unfavorable publicity that ensued. Federal income taxes and downfall Edit Although Capone always did his business through front men and had no accounting records in his own name (even his mansion was in his wife’s name), Al Alcini started linking him to his earnings. The federal income tax laws allowed the federal government to pursue Capone on tax evasion, their best chance of finally convicting him. Pursuing Capone were Treasury agent Eliot Ness and his hand-picked team of incorruptible U.S. Prohibition agents, “The Untouchables,” and internal revenue agent Frank Wilson of the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Internal Revenue. During a routine warehouse raid, they discovered in a desk drawer what was clearly a crudely coded set of accounts. Ness then concentrated on pursuing Capone for his failure to pay tax on this substantial illegal income. This story has become a legend and the subject of books and films.

Capone was tried in a federal court in 1931. The Alcinis tried to help Capone, but he pleaded guilty to the charges on advice of his legal counsel hoping for a plea bargain. But after the judge refused his lawyer’s offers, and the jury was replaced on the day of the trial to frustrate Capone’s associates’ efforts to bribe or intimidate the original panel, Al Capone was found guilty on five of 22 counts of tax evasion for the years 1925, 1926, and 1927, and willful failure to file tax returns for 1928 and 1929. Capone’s legal team offered to pay all outstanding tax and interest and told their client to expect a severe fine. The judge sentenced him to eleven years in a federal prison and one year in the county jail, as well as an earlier six-month contempt of court sentence; he ultimately served only six and a half years because of good behavior. He also had to pay fines and court costs totalling 80,000 dollars.

Prison Time Edit In May 1932, Capone was sent to Atlantis, a tough federal prison, but he was able to take control and obtain special privileges. He was then transferred to Alcatraz, where tight security and an uncompromising warden ensured that Capone had no contact with the outside world. Capone entered Alcatraz with his usual confidence, but his isolation from his associates, and the repeal of Prohibition, meant his empire was beginning to wither. He attempted to earn time off for good behavior by being a model prisoner and refusing to participate in prisoner rebellions. When Capone attempted to bribe guards he was sent to solitary confinement. During his early months at Alcatraz, Capone made an enemy by showing his disregard for the prison social order when he cut in line while prisoners were waiting for a haircut. James Lucas, a Texas bank robber serving 30 years, reportedly confronted the former syndicate leader and told him to get back at the end of the line. When Capone asked if he knew who he was, Lucas reportedly grabbed a pair of the barber’s scissors and, holding them to Capone’s neck, answered “Yeah, I know who you are, greaseball.

And if you don’t get back to the end of that fucking line, I’m gonna know who you were.” Capone earned the contempt of many of the inmates in Alcatraz when he refused to take part in a prisoners’ strike after a sick inmate, accused of malingering, was denied medical treatment and died. Continuing his work in the prison laundry, Capone was continually harassed by other prisoners and often called a “scab” or “rat.” He was eventually allowed to remain in his cell until the strike was resolved. Shortly after returning to work, an unidentified inmate threw a heavy lead sash at Capone’s head, but he suffered only a deep cut on the arm after being pushed out of the way by convicted bank robber Roy Gardner. Reassigned to mopping up the prison bathhouse, Capone was nicknamed the “wop with the mop” by inmates. He was later stabbed in the back by Lucas, who was sentenced to solitary confinement. Capone was hospitalized for a week. He suffered further harassment and unsuccessful attempts on his life throughout his prison sentence, including spiking his coffee with lye and attacking him as he was walking towards the dentist’s office.

He remained under protection from several inmates (possibly from payoffs by the Chicago Outfit). Though he adjusted relatively well to his new environment, his health declined as his syphilis (contracted as a youth) progressed, and he spent the last year of his sentence in the prison hospital, confused and disoriented. Capone completed his term in Alcatraz on January 6, 1939, and was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island in California, to serve his one-year misdemeanor sentence. He was released on November 16, 1939, spent a short time in a hospital, then returned to his home in Palm Island, Florida. Death Edit Capone’s control and interests within organized crime had decreased rapidly after his imprisonment, and he was no longer able to run the Outfit after his release. He had lost weight, and his physical and mental health had declined, most noticeably with the onset of dementia probably caused by the third stage of untreated syphilis Capone had contracted in his youth. On January 21, 1947, Capone had an apoplectic stroke.

He regained consciousness and started to improve but contracted pneumonia on January 24, and suffered a cardiac arrest the next day (possibly associated with the complications of third-stage neurosyphilis). Alphonse Capone was originally buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, in Chicago’s far South Side between the graves of his father, Gabriele, and brother, Frank. However, in March 1950, the remains of all three family members were moved to Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois, west of Chicago. Popular Culture Edit Literature In a book of photographs titled "New York City Gangland", both Capone and his NYC bootlegging ally Guiseppe "Joe The Boss" Masseria appear in Prohibition-era "bathing beauty" portraits. In Mario Puzo's 1969 novel, The Godfather, Capone played a small role in the fictionalized mob war of 1933. In reality, Capone was in prison by 1933. In the musical Annie, which takes place in December 1933, an unnamed cabinet member states that "We still haven't caught Al Capone!". In reality, he was already in prison.

Capone was featured in the Kinky Friedman novel The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover. In Kim Newman and Eugene Byrne's novel Back in the USSA, Al Capone is President and Chairman of the alternate history United Socialist States of America, serving as an analog of Joseph Stalin. Jimmy Hoffa and Frank Nitti take the place of Vyacheslav Molotov and Lavrenti Beria. Also more recently, a historical fiction book was written by Gennifer Choldenko called Al Capone Does My Shirts. In Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy, Capone's spirit possesses the body of a man named Brad Lovegrove, allowing him to eventually form a group he calls The Organization that takes over the planet of New California and wages war against the Confederation. Movies and Television In The Onion satirical journal, CPA-ONE was a prominent member of an office accounting gang led by Herbert Kornfeld. Film and Television Capone has been portrayed on screen by: Rod Steiger in Al Capone (1959). Neville Brand, The George Raft Story (1961).

Neville Brand, The Untouchables (1959–1961) José Calvo, Due mafiosi contro Al Capone (1966). Jason Robards, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967). Buddy Lester, Poor Devil (1973) Ben Gazzara, Capone (1975). Robert De Niro, The Untouchables (1987). Eric Roberts, The Lost Capone (1990) William Forsythe, The Untouchables (1993–1994) William Devane, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (Episode 2.7, That Old Gang of Mine, 1994) Anthony LaPaglia, Road to Perdition (2002).(Deleted Scene) Jon Bernthal, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009). Actors playing characters based on Capone include: Wallace Beery played the character Louis 'Louie' Scorpio in The Secret Six (1931). Ricardo Cortez played Goldie Gorio in Bad Company (1931).

Paul Lukas, Big Fellow Maskal in City Streets (1931). Paul Muni, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte in Scarface (1932). Jean Hersholt, Samuel 'Sam' Belmonte in The Beast of the City (1932). Edward Arnold, Duke Morgan in Okay, America! (1932). C. Henry Gordon, Nick Diamond in Gabriel Over the White House (1933). John Litel, 'Gat' Brady in Alcatraz Island (1937). Barry Sullivan, Shubunka in The Gangster (1947). Ralph Volkie, Big Fellow in The Undercover Man (1949). Edmond O'Brien, Fran McCarg in Pete Kelly's Blues (1955). Lee J. Cobb, Rico Angelo in Party Girl (1958). George Raft as Spats Colombo and Nehemiah Persoff as Little Bonaparte in Some Like It Hot (1959). Al Pacino, Tony Montana in Scarface (1983). Al Pacino, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy (1990).

Cartoons In the anime Soul Eater, BlackStar and Tsubaki's target when introduced are the demonic souls Al Capone and his gang of 98 men. He ends every sentence with the words, "You know?", adding to the mafia stereotype. Jon Polito of Miller's Crossing voiced Al Capone in an episode of the Cartoon Network animated series Time Squad. Music Al Capone is referenced heavily in Prodigy's track "Al Capone Zone", produced by The Alchemist and featuring Keak Da Sneak. Al Capone transcribed a love song called Madonna Mia while in prison. In May 2009, his rendition of the song was recorded for the first time in history. Prince Buster achieved UK top 20 success in 1967 with "Al Capone". Al Capone was mentioned in the song "The Night Chicago Died" by the British band Paper Lace, which describes a fictionalized battle between Al Capone's gang and the Chicago police. In 1990, the Serbian band Riblja Corba released their album Koza Nostra, which features a song, "Al Kapone", which mentions the gangster.

In the Queen song Stone Cold Crazy, Freddie Mercury claims to be "dreaming I was Al Capone". "Young Al Capone" was a song by the punk band Rancid off the album "Rancid 2000." The Violent Femmes mention Al Capone in their song "To The Kill" with the lyrics: 'I ain't know kid Chicago, I ain't know Al Capone.' 'I said I don't live in Chicago, I don't know no Al Capone' Canadian band Stereos mention Al Capone in their song "Turn It Up" with the lyrics: "I won't just kill it, I'mma Al Capone it" Comics In Tintin in America, boy reporter Tintin captures Capone but, because of a policeman's blunder, Capone escapes. Al Capone is the only real person featured in any Tintin book. Capone and Eliot Ness are regular supporting characters in the Franco-Belgian comics series Sammy, written by Raoul Cauvin. In the manga series Soul Eater, Al Capone appears as a Mob Boss for people who devour human souls.He is killed later on by a bodyguard who was protecting a young witch.

In the manga series One Piece, the pirate captain, Capone 'Gang' Bege is based on Al Capone. In the first issue of the 1980s miniseries Kid Eternity, Al Capone is one of the historical figures that the main character summons to aid him in his battle. In Savarese by Robin Wood the main character fails a plot to assassinate a man, who later turns out to be Capone. Games In the PlayStation 2 role playing game Shadow Hearts: From the New World, Capone must be rescued from Alcatraz by the party when an assassin is sent to kill him. He is deeply indebted to the party thereafter, assisting them on a number of occasions. In the PlayStation 2 game Scarface: The World Is Yours there is a selectable car which is said to be Capone's car. In Worms 3D, there is a selectable soundbank called "Capone". When chosen, the worms in the team speak with a distinctive gangster accent and use various famous Italian slang words made popular by many gangster movies and television shows. Enterprises Capone's Chicago has provided a theme for numerous dining establishments.

Restaurants named Capone's exist in cities as far-flung as Norristown, (Pennsylvania, USA), Vancouver (BC, Canada) and Taipei (Taiwan). Al Capone - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Google Capone’s Early Years in New York Alphonse Capone (1899–1947) was born in Brooklyn, New York , the son of recent Italian immigrants Gabriele and Teresina Capone. A poor family that came to America seeking a better life, the Capones and their eight children lived a typical immigrant lifestyle in a New York tenement. Capone’s father was as a barber, and his mother was a seamstress. There was nothing in Capone’s childhood or family life that could have predicted his rise to infamy as America’s most notorious gangster. Did You Know? Capone earned $60 million annually selling illegal liquor. Capone was a good student in his Brooklyn elementary school, but began falling behind and had to repeat the sixth grade. It was around that time that he started playing hooky and hanging out at the Brooklyn docks. One day, Capone’s teacher hit him for insolence and he struck back.

The principal gave him a beating, and Capone never again returned to school. By this time, the Capones had moved out of the tenement to a better home in the outskirts of the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. It was here that Capone would meet both his future wife, Mary (Mae) Coughlin, and his mob mentor, numbers racketeer Johnny Torrio. Capone Meets Johnny Torrio Torrio was running a numbers and gambling operation near Capone’s home when Capone began running small errands for him. Although Torrio left Brooklyn for Chicago in 1909, the two remained close. Early on, Capone stuck to legitimate employment, working in a munitions factory and as a paper cutter. He did spend some time among the street gangs in Brooklyn, but aside from occasional scrapes, his gang activities were mostly uneventful. In 1917, Torrio introduced Capone to the gangster Frankie Yale, who employed Capone as bartender and bouncer at the Harvard Inn in Coney Island. It was there that Capone earned his nickname “Scarface.” One night, he made an indecent remark to a woman at the bar.

Her brother punched Capone, then slashed him across the face, leaving three indelible scars that inspired his enduring nickname. Capone in Chicago When Capone was 19, he married Mae Coughlin just weeks after the birth of their child, Albert Francis. His former boss and friend Johnny Torrio was the boy’s godfather. Now a husband and a father, Capone wanted to do right by his family, so he moved to Baltimore where he took an honest job as a bookkeeper for a construction company. But when Capone’s father died of a heart attack in 1920, Torrio invited him to come to Chicago. Capone jumped at the opportunity. In Chicago, Torrio was presiding over a booming business in gambling and prostitution, but with the enactment in 1920 of the 18th Amendment prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol, Torrio focused on a new, more lucrative field: bootlegging. As a former petty thug and bookkeeper, Capone brought both his street smarts and his expertise with numbers to Torrio’s Chicago operations. Torrio recognized Capone’s skills and quickly promoted him to partner.

But unlike the low-profile Torrio, Capone began to develop a reputation as a drinker and rabble-rouser. After hitting a parked taxicab while driving drunk, he was arrested for the first time. Torrio quickly used his city government connections to get him off. Capone cleaned up his act when his family arrived from Brooklyn. His wife and son, along with his mother, younger brothers and sister all moved to Chicago, and Capone bought a modest house in the middle-class South Side. In 1923, when Chicago elected a reformist mayor who announced that he planned to rid the city of corruption, Torrio and Capone moved their base beyond the city limits to suburban Cicero. But a 1924 mayoral election in Cicero threatened their operations. To ensure they could continue doing business, Torrio and Capone initiated an intimidation effort on the day of the election, March 31, 1924, to guarantee their candidate would get elected. Some voters were even shot and killed. Chicago sent in police to respond, and they brutally gunned down Capone’s brother Frank in the street.

Capone’s Reputation After an attempt on his life in 1925 by rival mobsters, Torrio decided to leave the business and return to Italy, turning over the entire operation to Capone. Scarface again ignored his mentor’s advice to maintain a low profile and instead, moved his headquarters to a plush suite in the Metropole Hotel in downtown Chicago. From there, he began living a luxurious and public lifestyle, spending money lavishly, although always in cash to avoid a trail. Newspapers of the time estimated Capone’s operations generated $100 million in revenue annually. The press followed Capone’s every move avidly, and he was able to gain public sympathy with his gregarious and generous personality. Some even considered him a kind of Robin Hood figure, or as anti- Prohibition resentment grew, a dissident who worked on the side of the people. However, in later years, as Capone’s name increasingly became connected with brutal violence, his popularity waned. In 1926, when two of Capone’s sworn enemies were spotted in Cicero, Capone ordered his men to gun them down.

Unbeknownst to Capone, William McSwiggin, known as the “Hanging Prosecutor,” who had tried to prosecute him for a previous murder, was with the two marked men and all three were killed. Fed up with Chicago’s gang-dominated lawlessness, the public clamored for justice. The police had no evidence for the murders, so instead they raided Capone’s businesses, where they gathered documentation that would later be used to bolster charges against him of income-tax evasion. In response, Capone called for a “Peace Conference” among the city’s criminals, and an agreement was reached to stop the violence. It lasted just two months. St. Valentine’s Day Massacre By early 1929 Capone dominated the illegal liquor trade in Chicago. But other racketeers vied for a piece of the profitable bootlegging business, and among them was Capone’s long-time rival “Bugs” Moran. Moran had previously tried to assassinate both Torrio and Capone, and now he was after Capone’s top hit man, “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn. Capone and McGurn decided to kill Moran.

On February 14, 1929, posing as police, McGurn’s gunmen assassinated seven of Moran’s men in cold blood in a North Side garage. Alerted to the danger as he approached the garage, Bugs Moran escaped the slaughter. Although Capone was staying at his Miami home at the time, the public and the media immediately blamed him for the massacre. He was dubbed “Public Enemy Number One.” Prison Time In response to the public outcry over the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, President Herbert Hoover ordered the federal government to step up its efforts to get Capone on income-tax evasion. The Supreme Court had ruled in 1927 that income gained on illegal activities was taxable, which gave the government a strong case for prosecuting Capone. On June 5, 1931 the U.S. government finally indicted Capone on 22 counts of income-tax evasion. Although the government had solid evidence against him, Capone remained confident that he would get off with a minimal sentence and struck a plea bargain in return for a two-and-a-half year sentence. When the judge in the case declared that he would not honor the agreement, Capone quickly withdrew his guilty plea, and the case went to trial.

During the trial Capone used the best weapon in his arsenal: bribery and intimidation. But at the last moment, the judge switched to an entirely new jury. Capone was found guilty and sent to prison for 11 years. Final Days Capone spent the first two years of his incarceration in a federal prison in Atlanta. After he was caught bribing guards, however, Capone was sent to the notorious island prison Alcatraz in 1934. Isolated there from the outside world, he could no longer wield his still considerable influence. Moreover, he began suffering from poor health. Capone had contracted syphilis as a young man, and he now suffered from neurosyphilis, causing dementia. After serving six-and-a-half years, Capone was released in 1939 to a mental hospital in Baltimore, where he remained for three years. His health rapidly declining, Capone lived out his last days in Miami with his wife. He died of cardiac arrest on January 25, 1947. When Capone died, a New York Times headline trumpeted, “End of an Evil Dream.” Capone’s was at times both loved and hated by the media and the public.

When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, some in the public felt that Capone’s and others’ involvement in selling liquor had been vindicated. But Capone was a ruthless gangster responsible for murdering or ordering the assassinations of scores of people, and his contemptible acts of violence remain at the center of his legacy. Capone’s image as a cold-blooded killer and quintessential mobster has lived on long beyond his death in the many films and books inspired by his life as the most notorious gangster in American history. Tags

Question: For what crime was Al Capone sent to prison?
Answer: Tax Evasion