Al Capone

Al Capone was the son of two poor Italian immigrants, which at that time in history meant you didn't matter, so he had to find guidance with the only people that took an interest in him but unfourtnally for him it was some of the biggest mob leaders in New York. Even with that kind of influence hard to believe that a once soft spoken, intelligent kid from a good family would grow up to run a major city with blood, bullets, and booze.

First, Capone's lack of tolerance for authority and people who didn't respect him was obvious from a young age. In sixth grade a female teacher called Capone a dago and slapped him during a argument in class, which angered Capone to the point were he punched the female teacher in the face breaking her nose (Al Capone:Scarface). After the incident the Capone family moved to a new neighborhood, where Capone would meet the man that would help change his life forever. Johnny Torrio was at the time the most successful and respected gangster in New York and his headquarters was located across the street from the Capone's new house (Bergreen pg. 26). Torrio instantly became Capone's new role model; Capone even got a job running small errands for Torrio and his crew. Capone spent every waking moment with the Torrio organization, which in way served as his new educational system, seeing as he no longer attended regular school. After a few years Torrio moved to Chicago but Capone would soon find a new influence to further his street education. Before moving Torrio got Capone a job as a bartender slash bouncer for Frankie Yale, which is where he would earn the nickname Scarface after a late night scuffle left him with three knife cuts on his face (Al Capone:Scarface). It didn't take long before Yale was impressed with Capone and took him under his wing and taught him how a business could be built violence and fear. Capone worked for Yale for several years, but after he started a family of his own he decided to get a legitimate job. Capone took his knowledge of running numbers and turned it into a bookkeeping job for a construction company (Bergreen p.55), but that all ended November 14, 1920 when Capone's father died suddenly of a massive heart attack. This event is viewed as the one that pushed all Capone over the hump and signified the end of a legal working career (Bergreen p.59). Hearing of the passing of Mr. Capone, Johnny Torrio, who was now running a large brothel empire in Chicago, called for his young protйgй to join him in his new business.

Second, was Capone's introduction to the criminal empire that Torrio was running in Chicago. Capone started out managing brothels for Torrio but soon became Torrio's business partner instead of his employee (Schoenberg pg.134). The duo expanded their business into the suburbs of Cicero to avoid some of the heat from the Chicago police department. Capone was left in charge of all activities in Cicero, and his first order of business was an all-out take over on the suburb(Schoenberg pg.149). Capone, being the loyal family man he was, put two of his brothers to work, one was to handle the city government and the other to open and manage new brothels (Schoenberg pg.176). In 1924 Capone showed Chicago just exactly what he was capable of; it was an election year and Capone was willing to do anything to get his officials elected. Capone's strong-arm tactics started off with threats and kidnapping, but quickly shifted gears when the Chicago police department gunned down Frank Capone in broad day-light (The Legacy of Al Capone). The actions of the police enraged Capone so instead of kidnapping officials he began beating, torturing, and killing them till there were no candidates left. Shortly after the murder off his brother, Capone killed a man in bar because the man assaulted one of Capone's closet friends (Al Capone:Scarface). This would be the first time Capone would be acquitted on murder charges, due to the fact key witness came up missing or developed a sudden case of amnesia. The publicity caused by the case, seeing how it was the first time Capone was fingered as the gunman, gave Capone the notoriety, and allure he never had before. Feeling untouchable after the acquittal, Capone decided to weed out the people causing him problems and he started with a former ally to prove a point. Dion O' Banion was a long time ally of Torrio and Capone but O' Banion made the mistake of crossing Torrio. Banion setup Torrio to be one of his breweries that was going to be raided, and Torrio end up and O' Banion ended up with money (Al Capone:Scarface). After news of the setup Capone had three gunmen carry out a plan to assassinate O' Banion in his own flower shop (Bergreen pg.369). The plan was carried out to perfection, no witnesses, no convections, and most important it left a large bootlegging territory for Capone and Torrio to take over. Once again Capone felt untouchable nobody suspected him as the person behind the hit except two of O' Banion's friends who knew about the double crossing. Over the next several years O' Banion's associates, Hymie Weiss and Bugs Moran would make dozens of attempts to assassinate Capone (Bergreen pg.375). After many failed attempts on Capone's life Moran and Weiss decided to go after Torrio, which turned out to be some what successful. Torrio was shot 12 times in the face, neck, and chest but when Moran attempted to put one final bullet in Torrio's head but there were no bullets left in his or Weiss six shooters allowing Torrio to barely escape with his life (Al Capone:Scarface).

Finally, Capone's problems with his competitors would eventually lead to his down fall. Ironically the first competitor Capone had to take care of was his good friend Frankie Yale. Yale and Capone had a bootlegging deal that was experiencing a lot of hijacks, and naturally Capone assumed Yale was behind it (Kobler pg.110). While hiding at his estate in Florida, Capone put together a plan to have his former friend executed outside the very bar where Yale employed Capone for several years (Kobler pg.117). Through out the years Capone successfully eliminated all his competitors but one,