Al Capone

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Alphonse Gabriel Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), popularly known as Al Capone or Scarface, was an Italian 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, to southwestern Italian 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).<ref>Iorizzo, Luciano J. Al Capone: a biography. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2003. ISBN 0-313-32317-8</ref>

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 evasion.

Sommaire 1 Early life 2 Early criminal career 3 Chicago 4 Activity in Cicero, Illinois 5 Capone's wealth and power grows in Chicago 6 St. Valentine's Day Massacre 7 Federal income taxes and downfall 8 Capone's image 9 Prison time 10 Physical decline and death 11 Popular culture 11.1 Film 11.2 Literature 11.3 Television 11.4 Music 11.5 Comics 11.6 Video games 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links

Early life

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.

Gabriele and Teresina had nine children: Vincenzo Capone (1892 – 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).

The Capone family emigrated to Canada for some time before returning in 1894 and settling in the Navy Yard section of downtown Brooklyn. When Al was 14, the Capone family moved to 21 Garfield Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn. In the new neighborhood, Al Capone met both gangster Johnny Torrio and Mae Josephine Coughlin, whom he would marry a few years later at St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church.

Early criminal career

Capone's life of crime began early. As a teenager, he joined two gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors, and engaged in petty crime.

Capone left school in the sixth-grade at age 14, after being expelled for punching a teacher 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 that 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." Various stories are circulated that attempt to explain the name:

1. One story is that when he was working as a waiter for a young couple, he leaned down and said to the woman, "Honey, you have a nice ass 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.
2. Another story is that he asked a Sicilian barber to give him a particular style of haircut popular with Sicilian gangsters and the barber refused (perhaps because Capone was a Neapolitan), upon which Capone vandalized the shop, knocking down a row of personalized shaving mugs belonging to customers and the barber then slashed his face with a straight razor.

This incident caused Yale to take Capone under his wing and eventually led to his rule over the Chicago Outfit. <ref> http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/capone/scarface_4.html </ref> It is speculated that Capone forgave Frank Gallucio and even hired him as a bodyguard later in his career.^{[citation needed]}

However, the knife wounds left gruesome scars, which plagued Capone for the rest of his life.

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."

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.

Chicago

Torrio 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 Capone's first headquarters.

Activity in Cicero, Illinois

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. Cicero gangster Myles O'Donnell and his brother William "Klondike" O'Donnell fought with Capone over their home turf. The war resulted in over 200 deaths along with the infamous "Hanging Prosecutor" Bill McSwiggins.

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.

Capone's wealth and power grows in Chicago

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 moneymaker 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 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 Dion O’Banion, Bugs Moran and lieutenant Earl "Hymie" Weiss. 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 fit his Cadillac with armor plating, bullet-proof glass, run-flat tires, and a police siren. Most of the would-be assassins were incompetent and Capone was never seriously wounded, but every attempt on his life left him increasingly shaken and slightly afraid of Moran, who was almost certainly involved in most of the attacks.

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 forced him to call for a 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. 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 connivance of local authorities. In 1928, Capone bought a retreat on Palm Island, Florida.

Capone considered Moran to be a homicidal lunatic, and lived in fear of the Moran gang. The fusillade launched against his headquarters, where at least ten gunmen fired for over ten minutes, must have been particularly unnerving. Even in his last days as he lay ravaged by syphilis, Capone raved on about Communists, foreigners, and George Moran, whom he was convinced was still plotting to kill him from his Ohio prison cell.

St. Valentine's Day Massacre

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 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 supposed 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. Frank Gusenberg, a member of the Moran gang, survived long enough to be questioned in a hospital before he died. However, when asked "Who shot you?" Frank replied, "Nobody shot me" denying any justice on the murderers.

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 killing 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.

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

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. This brought the Government's attention to the fact Al Capone was not paying substantial income tax. The federal income tax laws allowed the federal government to pursue Capone on tax evasion^{[citation needed]}, 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 agent Frank Wilson of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Internal Revenue, later IRS. 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.

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^{[citation needed]}. 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;<ref>For court decisions regarding Al Capone and his tax problems, see Capone v. United States, 56 F.2d 927, 3 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) paragr. 885 (7th Cir. 1932), cert. denied, 286 U.S. 553 (1932); and United States v. Capone, 93 F.2d 840, 38-1 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) paragr. 9011 (7th Cir. 1937), cert. denied, 303 U.S. 651 (193Image:Cool.gif,</ref> he ultimately served only six and a half years because of good behavior in prison.<ref name="ch11">http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/capone/chapter_11.html</ref> He also had to pay fines and court costs totalling $80,000. <ref>http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/capone/trial_26.html</ref>

Capone's image

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 many soup kitchens for the poor and homeless.

Capone retained a personal style, and hundreds of dollars worth of flowers were sent to the funerals of important opponents. On occasion 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, but not fatally, and required hospital treatment. Capone paid all her hospital bills.

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: accounts of this incident put the bat in Capone's hands. 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 figure.^{[citation needed]}

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."

Prison time

In May 1932, Capone was sent to Atlanta, 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 C. 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."<ref> Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3 </ref>

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.<ref name="ch11"/> 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.

Physical decline and death

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. 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).^{[citation needed]}

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

Capone's persona and character have been used in fiction as a model for crime-lords and criminal masterminds ever since his death. His accent, mannerisms, facial construction, sometimes his physical stature, type of dress, and often even parodies of his name are found in various cartoon series villains as well as some movies. These characters are often shown as wily and crafty, rather than contemptible, criminal characters.

Film

• One of the most notorious American gangsters of the 20th century, Capone has been the subject of numerous articles, books, and films. He has been portrayed on screen by Nicholas Kokenes, Wallace Beery, Paul Muni, Barry Sullivan, Rod Steiger, Neville Brand, Jason Robards, Ben Gazzara, Robert De Niro, William Devane, Titus Welliver, Anthony LaPaglia and William Forsythe.

• In the 1932 film Scarface, Capone is fictionalized as "Antonio 'Tony' Camonte" (played by Paul Muni).

• In the 2002 movie Road to Perdition, the character "Michael Sullivan Sr", a Pittsburgh enforcer (played by Tom Hanks), tells an Illinois bank manager during a robbery: "And I want dirty money only, everything you're holding for Capone that's off the books."

Literature

• In Mario Puzo's 1969 novel, The Godfather, Capone played a small role in the fictionalized "Salvatore Maranzano mob war" of 1933. (In real life, Maranzano had been killed in 1931). In the novel, Maranzano refuses "Don Vito Corleone's" request for a partnership and sharing of the gambling and other rackets that Maranzano controls in New York City. According to the novel, Maranzano asks his good friend Al Capone send two of his best gunmen to New York to finish off "Corleone". However, Corleone hitman "Luca Brasi" and his men intercept the two Capone gunmen at the train station, usher them into a cab, and bring them to a warehouse. "Brasi" hacks the limbs off one man with an ax, causing him to bleed to death. The second gunman swallows his towel-gag in fear and suffocates. "Corleone" then send a message to Capone, telling him, a Neapolitan, to stay out of the affairs of two Sicilians, and to never to come to New York City, as it is "unhealthy for Neapolitans". The Don esteemed Capone as a "stupid, obvious cutthroat." Capone sends back word that he will no longer interfere.

• In Peter F. Hamilton's 1996 - 1999 The Night's Dawn Trilogy, Capone returns from the Beyond to the 27th century and plays a prominent role as one of the leaders of the "possessed movement".

• In Gennifer Choldenko's 2004 children's book Al Capone Does My Shirts, Al Capone plays a minor role in the story as a laundry worker.

Television

• The 1959 television film and TV series The Untouchables highlights Capone and his era, perpetuating the myth of the personal war between Capone and Federal Agent Eliot Ness.

• In Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), episode Murder Ain't What it Used to Be, the 1920s Chicago gangster character "Bugsy" is based on Capone, so much that the plot involved him in a scam that involved stealing over $1 million of liquor for bootlegging.

• In Time Squad, Capone trades places with a bunch of clowns to make sure a terrible childhood experience he had doesn't happen to another child.

• In Family Guy, season one, episode Death Is a Bitch, Capone plays cards with Adolf Hitler.

• In Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Capone is portrayed by a character named "Rat Capone". The character's schemes are somewhat similar to the real Capone's, such as smuggling cheese (whereas Al smuggled alcohol).

• In Lois and Clark, episode seven of season two, Capone appears as a clone created by evil scientist, "Dr. Emil Hamilton".

• In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will is by himself and starts to say a rhyme and of the lines mentions Al Capone.

Music

• Hard rock legend Queen mentions Capone in their song Stone Cold Crazy.
• The Paper Lace song entitled The Night Chicago Died imagines Capone and his army of criminals waging war against the Chicago Police force.
• Capone is the subject of the Prince Buster song Al Capone.
• Capone is the namesake of Rancid's song Young Al Capone.
• An image of Capone appears in the album art for Sufjan Stevens's 2005 album Illinois.
• Comedic songwriter Wesley Willis has a song about Al Capone on his second greatest hits album.
• Serbian rock musician and songwriter Bora Djordjevic has a song named Al Capone (the song was made in 1996 and it was referring to Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic)

Comics

• In the comic strip Dick Tracy, cartoonist Chester Gould created the villainous crime-boss "Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice" in 1931 as a caricature of Capone.
• In the Tintin series of children's comics, Capone's gangsters are first encountered in Tintin in the Congo. Capone himself makes a brief appearance in Tintin in America when "Tintin" goes to Chicago to fight the criminal syndicates. This is the only notable appearance by a real person in the Tintin series.
• In the Batman series, an enemy named the "Ventriloquist" operates and commits all of his criminal acts through a dummy called "Scarface".

Video games

• A fictional likeness of Al Capone appeared in the XSEED game Shadow Hearts: From The New World along with representations of Eliot Ness and his sister Edna Capone when Johnny and the others go to Chicago.

References

Further reading

• Kobler, John. Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81285-1
• Pasley, Fred D. Al Capone: The Biography of a Self-Made Man. Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Co., 2004. ISBN 1-4179-0878-5
• Schoenberg, Robert J. Mr. Capone. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. ISBN 0-688-12838-6

External links

• Listen online – The Life Story of Al Capone - The American Storyteller Radio Journal
• Miami Beach USA The Un-Welcomed Visitor: Al Capone in Miami. (with photos)
• Obituary, NY Times, January 26, 1947 Capone Dead At 48; Dry Era Gang Chief
• Selective Service System Records — Has photograph and registration card.
• Collection of Al Capone pictures
• Complete FBI files on Al Capone
• Find-A-Grave Alphonse ‘Al’ Capone
• A short profile of his older brother Vincenzo
• An article on the Brothers Capone
• Modèle:Imdb name
• johnsonsdepot.com "Little Chicago" (Johnson City, Tennessee)
• "Al Capone at the Windsor Hotel" Johnson City, TN Press, July 30, 2007.
• "Did Al Capone once hide out in Johnson City?" Kingsport Times-News. July 31, 2006.
• Al Capone at the Crime Library

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