Al Capone was born in 1899 to a poor Italien immigrant family in New York. Despite his family being poor, he later went on to become the most infamous gangster in America. In his early years, Al Capone and his family lived in typical New York tenements, with his dad being a barber and his mom a seamstress. He was doing well in school until sixth grade, where he was found playing hooky and going to the docks. He later was beaten by the principal and then never returned to school again. His family at that time was wealthy enough to move to the outskirts of Brooklyn. In the 1900s, Capone started to get involved in small gangs and started running small errands for a gambling operator named Johnny Torrio. Overall, at that time, his gang activity has been relatively low. When Al Capone turned 19, he married Mae Coughlin after the birth of their child, Albert Francis. Wanting good for his new family, Capone moved to Baltimore and got a job as a bookkeeper for a construction company. It seemed like he was out of gangs, however, after his father passed away in 1920, Torrio offered Capone to work for him in Chicago. Capone immediately took the opportunity and helped Torrio run his operation in gambling and prostitution. But due to the 18th Amendment prohibiting the sale of alcohol, Torrio turned to an alternative called bootlegging. Capone helped smuggle alcohol among the Chicago streets and Torrio soon realized his strength and immediately made him a partner instead of just a hired guy. In 1925, Torrio decided to move back to Italy, leaving Al Capone with his business. This is when Capone decided to live a lavish lifestyle while operating his multimillion dollar cooperation in bootlegging, prostitution and gambling.Sources:
http://www.history.com/topics/al-capone
http://www.biography.com/people/al-capone-9237536
Nice post, it's interesting to know about Al Capone's career and development into gang life. It's interesting to see that the prohibition legislation only brought his gang life up again, because it was a regulation that was too minor.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post! I did not know that Capone life was family-oriented before he controlled the crime business. Another interesting fact about bootlegging is that it directly led to the creation of nascar as criminals developed faster cars to transport alcohol faster and outrun the law.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! It was really interesting to read and learn about Al Capone and his past, especially how he evolved from a family oriented Italian immigrant into the most infamous gangster in America. It's interesting that prohibition was basically the main thing that pushed Capone to get so involved in bootlegging and other criminal affairs.
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