On this day in history, November 16:
"Scarface" Al Capone was paroled and released from Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco, California, in 1939 due to the ravages of syphilis, which he had caught earlier while running whorehouses. For many years, he was considered the most notorious gangster in the world, managing Chicago's gambling, prostitution and bootlegging rackets with impunity.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian immigrant parents in 1899. His mother was a devout Catholic and his early, home environment was deeply religious. But he beat up his sixth grade teacher and quit school at age 14. He quickly gained experience on the streets. He joined the James Street Gang, run by Johnny Torrio, who also hired him as a bouncer at a saloon. Later, Torrio had Capone inducted into the infamous Five Points Gang.
Nicknamed “Scarface”
In 1918, in a bar fight over a girl, a hood slashed the left side of Capone's face three times with a knife, resulting in Capone's nickname, “Scarface,” by which he would be known for the rest of his life, though his close friends always called him “Snorky.”
The next year, New York police suspected Capone of two murders, so he moved to Chicago to work under Torrio's uncle, "Big Jim” Colosimo, who ran a chain of brothels. Torrio and Colosimo disagreed about bootlegging during Prohibition. Torrio was said to have conspired with Capone to have Colosimo murdered.
The new Torrio-Capone regime went to war with rival bootleggers in Chicago, killing Dion O'Bannion, the leader of the Irish, North Side Gang in 1924. The gang war continued and Capone's younger brother died in a hail of bullets. By this time, Capone controlled the suburban town government of Cicero.
Capone “Owned” Chicago
In February 1925, Torrio retired and told Capone: "It's all yours." Only 26, he now commanded a criminal organization in Chicago with 1,000 gunmen and a payroll of $300,000 per week. He made a smooth transition to "business executive," with his business card simply stating that he sold "second-hand furniture.”
Capone controlled the local, political process by threatening citizens into voting for candidates he selected. It was also reported that he had half of Chicago's police department on his payroll, and that his reach extended to the highest levels of the city government and the Illinois legislature. He was even suspected of having the Illinois governor "in his pocket.” He boasted that he “owned” Chicago.
Capone Became a Celebrity
By the late 1920s, Capone derived about $150 million in revenue from Chicago's gambling, prostitution and bootlegging rackets, and thus became a millionaire himself. He also became popular and was cheered by fans at the ballpark. During the Depression, he opened free soup kitchens for the needy.
Capone indulged in a luxurious lifestyle of custom-made suits, gourmet food, cigars, jewelry, and female companionship, though he was married and had a son. He became a celebrity and said, "I am just a businessman, giving the people what they want … All I do is satisfy a public demand.”
Capone was always concerned about his safety and surrounded himself with trusted bodyguards. Several attempts were made on his life by his rivals. In 1926, the North Side Gang shot into his entourage while he was eating lunch in the restaurant of the Hawthorne Hotel. The joint was destroyed, but Capone was unhurt.
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
On Valentine's Day in 1929, Capone ordered the bloody "St. Valentine's Day Massacre," the biggest gangland slaying in history. His underlings discovered the location of the warehouse of his chief rival, George "Bugs" Moran, and learned that Moran would attend a meeting there at a set time. Capone dispatched a carload of his henchmen dressed as police officers to the address.
They lined up seven, rival gangsters along a wall and then signaled for their accomplices with machine guns. The men were machine-gunned and shot-gunned to death, each with 15 to 20 or more bullets. But Moran was not among them. After the widely publicized massacre, including shocking photos, public opinion about Capone started to change, prompting federal law enforcement to focus more closely on investigating his activities.
Prohibition agent Eliot Ness began a successful probe of Capone and his business. He closed many of Capone’s breweries and speakeasies, and slowly brought his empire down.
Convicted of Income Tax Evasion
The federal government finally managed to arrest him by prosecuting him for income tax evasion in 1931. He was tried, found guilty, and sentenced the next year to 11 years in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. But he was still able to oversee his criminal empire from his cell.
In 1934, he was transferred to the new federal prison at Alcatraz Island, built to hold the country's worst criminals, in San Francisco Bay. Five years later, he was paroled, and lived out the last eight years of his life at his Florida estate, his brain almost totally destroyed by syphilis.
In the movies, Capone was portrayed by Rod Steiger in “Al Capone” (1959), Ben Gazzara in “Capone” (1975), and Robert De Niro in “The Untouchables” (1987).
“You can go a long way with a smile,” Capone once said. “You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun.”
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