Arguably the most famous American gangster of the Prohibition era, Al Capone made history as one of the most successful gangsters of all time. With a nickname like Scarface, how could he not turn to some sort of life of crime? He received his nickname from a scar on the left side of his face that he got in a fight when he was younger. The young man cut his cheek with a knife or razor which gave him one of his most distinctive features. Spending most of his time in Chicago, Capone made hundreds of millions of dollars from various illegal activities, such as prostitution, gambling, and bootlegging. In his time he had a net worth of $100 million, which today would amount to $1.3 billion. He is believed to have earned $60 million from bootlegging, $25 million from gambling, $10 million from vice and $10 million from racketeering. He was also a strong advocate of eliminating competition, as seen in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Although he was best known for his brutal and ferocious way of dealing with his enemies, he was also the type who went around among people being friendly with handshakes and smiles, never expecting anything in return for what he did for their people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Al Capone was born on January 17, 1899 to immigrant parents. Although he was considered an extremely bright student, Al Capone was expelled from his school at age 14 for hitting a teacher and never returned to school. After dropping out of school, he associated with Johnny Torrio, lieutenant of the Five Points Gang, who showed him how to run a gang effectively and efficiently. He began by doing smaller jobs, such as bartending and hopping at brothels run by Torrio, and then slowly worked his way up to the higher ranks within the gang. In 1918, Al Capone married an Irish girl named Mae Coughlin and found work as an accountant, taking a break from the gangster life. After the unexpected death of Capone's father, Capone returned to work for Torrio. During his hiatus from the gang, Al and Mae had a son, Sonny, in 1918. In 1920, Torrio sent for Capone to join him in Chicago to help him with the prostitution business there. Capone was said to have killed Big Jim Colosimo, Torrio's boss, to make way for Torrio to take control of the gang. In 1919, the 18th Amendment was ratified and Prohibition began across the United States, which led to new bootlegging operations that brought in large amounts of money to the gangs. Torrio retired from his post as gang leader in 1925 after a failed assassination attempt by a rival gang, which made Capone the gang leader who now took control of the bootlegging, gambling and prostitution businesses. He rose to prominence when he began defeating rival gangs that threatened his place at the top. As his reputation among the gangs grew, he never carried a weapon as a sign of status, but he never went anywhere without at least two of his bodyguards around him, and even rode in cars among them. At that point he only traveled at night, unless it was absolutely necessary to travel in daylight. While he worked on the south side of Chicago, he had his competition on the north side. Many of these contestants are also well-known gang leaders such as Bugs Moran, Hymie Weiss, and Dean O'Banion. These were tolerable competitors until a comment made by O'Banion reached Capone in 1929: "Tell the Sicilians to goto hell" (Kobler). This comment, of course, made Capone very angry since he was Sicilian and took the comment personally. Capone ordered a hit on O'Banion, and O'Banion was assassinated, which led to a war between the It is estimated that around 130 gangsters from a dozen different gangs were killed during the course of the year doing behind closed doors. According to the phone book, the store he owned was an antique shop. The entire store was packed and he never sold anything to anyone, and if a customer called about an item, he was always told that. the item had already been sold. If anyone ever approached the store, the sign on the door would have said it was closed for the day. It seems like it would have been easy to figure out what exactly was going on in the building, but every time the. FBI or other government agencies were investigating, Capone would tell some of his men to pretend to buy products in the store to throw them away. This business front made it easy to hide Capone's real business dealings with his bootlegging and other illegal ventures; smuggling was the most profitable at the time. To eliminate a threat to his empire in Chicago, Capone allegedly ordered a hit on George 'Bugs' Moran's gang, which would prove to be "the most infamous of all gangster murders in America" ​​(O'Brien). Four men, two dressed as police officers, broke into a garage that Moran used for his illegal activities. The four men are alleged to have announced that it was a raid and ordered the seven men in the garage to lean against the wall and opened fire on them with Thompson submachine guns. Among those killed in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre were Frank Gusenberg, Moran's hitman, and Frank's brother, Peter Gusenberg. Four other men were gangsters for Moran, but the last was an optician who associated with criminals for fun. Capone's main target, Moran, was missing that day. Al Capone was not present at the massacre as he was on vacation at his home in Palm Island, Florida. The fact that Capone was not in the state gave him a strong alibi and no one was ever charged with anything regarding the massacre (O'Brien). Although many saw Al Capone as a violent and ruthless person, he was not always a horrible person. In the eyes of some, he was a community leader because of the things he did during the Great Depression. Capone started a program that provided milk to children in Chicago to combat a bone-softening disease called rickets. He also supported the everyone-knows dates on milk jugs to ensure the safety of children in the city. Additionally, he opened many soup kitchens for people severely affected by the Great Depression. The kitchen served over 120,000 free meals to people in the communities. He was also known to send flowers to his rival gang member's funeral, once spending over $5,000 on flowers. Capone became very popular among the people during the Prohibition era due to his underground businesses supplying alcohol. In April 1930, the Chicago Crime Commission released its first public enemies list with 28 names on it, Al Capone's name was number one on the list. list ("Exhibit: Al Capone verdict"). For most of his gang-related career, Capone had evaded prosecution for his criminal activity within the gang. Finally, in 1930, after a grueling investigation by the federal government, Al Capone was indicted for tax evasion. Which seems, after all the other more serious criminal activities he had committed, asomewhat ridiculous given that he had committed far worse crimes than simple tax evasion, but he was remarkably efficient at making sure he didn't get caught or have a strong alibi. . The man responsible for arresting the gangster was Eliot Ness, one of the federal agents best known for his work on the Capone case. President Herbert Hoover actually said "I want that man in prison" when talking about Al Capone. According to the ATF website, a force of 3,000 police officers and 300 Prohibition agents failed to bring Capone to justice. Initially, Ness and his team of "untouchables" were trying to frame Al Capone on Prohibition charges. They found him with more than 5,000 violations, but they threw them out. A week later he ruled in favor of his tax evasion charge because there was a chance that jurors would be more sympathetic to him for his bootlegging activities ("Eliot Ness "). After the tax evasion indictment, the judge also revived the prohibition charges to ensure a long prison sentence. According to the FBI website, on June 16, 1931, Capone pleaded guilty to tax evasion and Prohibition charges and bragged about how he had gotten a deal for a 2 1/2-year sentence, but was actually not bound by an agreement. Later, he changed his plea to not guilty. On October 18, 1931, Capone was found guilty and in November was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison, fined $50,000, charged $7,692 in his court costs, with $215,000 with interest on the back taxes. He started in the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, serving two years there, 4 1/2 years in Alcatraz and finishing his sentence in Terminal Island Prison. He was transferred from the United States Penitentiary due to the manipulation of the guards who guarded him. He had convinced the guards to give him everything he wanted. He had a lavish cell with expensive furnishings such as a personal bed, a desk and other furnishings that were not given to other prisoners who had lesser sentences. It had a carpet and a radio where the guards sat to talk and listen to the radio. Near the penitentiary, Capone's family stayed in a hotel and he always received visitors. In 1934, Capone was placed on a prison train car and took a trip to Alcatraz. As soon as he arrived "on the rock", Capone tried to use the system in his favor like when he was in Atlanta. Capone met Director Johnston upon his arrival and attempted several times to obtain special privileges, but were always denied. Johnston said that he would not be given anything special and that he would have to live like all the other Alcatraz inmates. Capone spent 4 1/2 years on the "rock" and held many jobs during his time there. Once he got into a fight and was placed in solitary confinement for eight days, and another time while waiting to get a haircut, another inmate stabbed him with shears. Capone was admitted to the prison hospital and released with minor injuries. While on Alcatraz, Capone's latent syphilis became symptomatic and it was obvious that he had been carrying the virus for many years. Then, in 1938, he was taken to Terminal Island Prison in Southern California for the remainder of his sentence and was released in November 1939. Soon after his release, he was sent to a Baltimore hospital for brain treatment due to complications due to syphilis and disease. then went to his home in Palm Island, Florida. He never returned to Chicago after his release from prison as he had become mentally incapable of running a gang again. In 1946, a Baltimore psychiatrist and Capone's personal physician examined Capone's mental capacity and determined that he had the.