Alphonse Gabriel Capone, sometimes known by the nickname Scarface, was an American gangster and

Alphonse Gabriel Capone, sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. His seven-year reign as a crime boss ended when he went to prison at the age of 33.

Capone was born in New York City in 1899 to Italian immigrants. He joined the Five Points Gang as a teenager and became a bouncer in organized crime premises such as brothels. In his early twenties, he moved to Chicago and became a bodyguard and trusted factotum for Johnny Torrio, head of a criminal syndicate that illegally supplied alcohol—the forerunner of the Outfit—and was politically protected through the Unione Siciliana. A conflict with the North Side Gang was instrumental in Capone's rise and fall. Torrio went into retirement after North Side gunmen almost killed him, handing control to Capone. Capone expanded the bootlegging business through increasingly violent means, but his mutually profitable relationships with mayor William Hale Thompson and the city's police meant he seemed safe from law enforcement.

Capone apparently reveled in attention, such as the cheers from spectators when he appeared at ball games. He made donations to various charities and was viewed by many as a "modern-day Robin Hood". However, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, in which seven gang rivals were murdered in broad daylight, damaged the public image of Chicago and Capone, leading influential citizens to demand government action and newspapers to dub Capone "Public Enemy No.1".

The federal authorities became intent on jailing Capone and charged him with 22 counts of tax evasion. He was convicted of five counts in 1931. During a highly publicized case, the judge admitted as evidence Capone's admissions of his income and unpaid taxes, made during prior (and ultimately abortive) negotiations to pay the government taxes he owed. He was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. After conviction, he replaced his defense team with experts in tax law, and his grounds for appeal were strengthened by a Supreme Court ruling, but his appeal ultimately failed. Capone showed signs of neurosyphilis early in his sentence and became increasingly debilitated before being released after almost eight years of incarceration. On January 25, 1947, he died of cardiac arrest after a stroke.

EARLY LIFE
Capone was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York on January 17, 1899. His parents were Italian immigrants Gabriele Capone (1865 to 1920) and Teresa Capone (née Raiola; 1867 to 1952). His father was a barber and his mother was a seamstress, both born in Angri, a small commune outside of Naples in the Province of Salerno. Capone's family had immigrated to the United States in 1893 by ship, first going through Fiume (modern-day Rijeka, Croatia), a port city in what was then Austria-Hungary. The family settled at 95 Navy Street, in the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn, New York City. Gabriele Capone worked at a nearby barber shop at 29 Park Avenue. When Al was 11, he and his family moved to 38 Garfield Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Gabriele and Teresa had eight other children: Vincenzo Capone, who later changed his name to Richard Hart and became a Prohibition agent in Homer, Nebraska; Raffaele James Capone, also known as Ralph "Bottles" Capone, who took charge of his brother's beverage industry; Salvatore "Frank" Capone, Ermina Capone, who died at the age of one, Ermino "John" Capone, Albert Capone, Matthew Capone, and Mafalda Capone. Ralph and Frank worked with Al Capone in his criminal empire. Frank did so until his death on April 1, 1924. Ralph ran the bottling companies (both legal and illegal) early on and was also the front man for the Chicago...

LINK TO ARTICLE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone

TAGS: Al Capone, People from Park Slope, People from Cicero Illinois, Inmates of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Five Points Gang, Deaths from syphilis, Depression-era gangsters, Deaths from cerebrovascular disease, Deaths from pneumonia in Florida, Deaths from bronchopneumonia, Deaths from bleeding, Criminals from Chicago, Chicago Outfit mobsters, Chicago Outfit bosses, Catholics from New York (state), Catholics from Illinois, American bootleggers, American people convicted of tax crimes, American gangsters of Italian descent, American crime bosses, American businesspeople convicted of crimes, Al Capone

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