What is the first thing you think when you hear the word mafia or prohibition in United States? I believe most of you would think about the most popular and one of the biggest gangsters in the world called Al Capone.
Al Capone was an Italian-American gangster born in NY Brooklyn in 1899 by immigrant Italian parents. As a kid, he was a member of two small street gangs, Junior Forty Thieves and Bowery Boys. He quit school when he was 14 and soon he became a member of the powerful Five Points Gang. He got the scars during his cooperation with Five Points Gang and that’s the reason he took the name Scarface. During his criminal carrier in NY, he got the tough guy’s reputation, and in 1919 Capone moved to Chicago at the invitation of Johnny Torrio (the Boss of his gang) to become the Underboss.
In 1925 Torrio left Chicago because of an assassination attempt against him, so Al Capone became the boss. He multiplied his gang wealth and stature by taking advantage of the prohibition. His crime activities (alcohol trade, set bets, bars, and strip clubs) made him a multimillionaire with a net worth of 100 million dollars (that equals to more than 1,3 billion today). He was one of the most powerful gangsters in America and he also had the protection of the Chicago mayor because he made him win the elections.
One of his most notorious crimes was the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. In 14-2-1929 some of Capone’s men were suited as cops and went to a garage to kill or just scared the boss of the North Chicago gang, George Baggs Moran. In the Garage, there were six of Moran’s men. Moran’s was close to the garage and went away when he saw Capone’s man but his 6 associates get shot by at least 150 bullets.
After the murder, the police made serious moves to catch Capone and his cooperation with the Mayor stopped. In 1931 after many years of research he was convicted of tax evasion and he went to Atlanta prison and some months later to Alcatraz. He got free in 1939 and he went to his house in Florida. In 1947 he died after suffering from bronchopneumonia.
