Al Capone, The Myth, The Legend Essay, Research Paper
Al Capone : the Myth, the Legend
Al Capone was a heartless man, who did not care about the well-being of others; because of this, he killed many people. He led a life of show-boating and other such means of a rich and immoral man. His thoughts were only of what would help him to succeed, not of what would help others.
Al Capone’s mother was named Teresina Capone. Despite having many growing boys, she was still able to take in sewing piecework. Teresina was a mother of four, and also, she was a housewife. She made sure that the Capones were taken care of. Because of this, it is hard to understand why Al Capone became such a hated criminal.
Gabriele Capone was Al Capone’s father. Since he had the ability to read and write, he was able to get a job in a grocery store, until he was able to get enough money to open his own barber shop. He also wrote literature and poems, when he had the time.
Capone grew up in a loving family. His father never hit the kids, he only talked to them. There were no disturbances, violence, or dishonesty about this family. The killer in Capone was thought to have come from when he had gotten his first job. Capone was a role model to many of the boys in the community. He worked for a man named Johnny Torrio. He ran errands, and got paid for it, so he had pocket change. Torrio was a new type of gangster. He was one of the first of this new breed and helped with the development of a newly found criminal enterprise.
There were other Capone children, not just Al. James Capone was the oldest child. The two other kids in the family at this time, other than Al, were Ralph and Frank. James, Ralph, and Frank were not as well-known as Al. This was because Al was the only one working for Torrio.
Johnny Torrio moved to Chicago, when 1909 came around. Since he moved, Capone started getting into other things. One of these things was gangs. There were many gangs. These
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gangs were made up of what race they were, and where they were from. Even though he was in street gangs, and was good friends with Johnny Torrio, there was no sign as to how bad this man was going to be. There was only one real disruption in the Capone family. This was when James left the family and went west.
Frankie Yale built his turf on aggression and muscle. The Harvard Inn was a bar that was opened by him on Coney Island. Yale hired Capone because Torrio had recommended him. Capone worked as the bartender. Capone learned from Yale that he should control his temper, or soon Capone would be killed. Capone was taken under Yale’s wing.
Al Capone then met a woman. After awhile, they were married and had a child. He focused mostly on his family and a good career. He moved to Baltimore after he stopped working for Yale. He worked as a bookkeeper for a construction firm. Capone was very reliable and smart, so he was very successful.
One of the most perfect places to build a criminal empire, was Chicago. It was open to anyone with enough money to buy it. It was a rowdy, wild, and heavy-drinking place, so it came very cheap. Al Capone came to the city of Chicago in 1920. The province of organized crime had become the flesh trade. It was starting to be the main way of organized crime. Big Jim Colosimo was the head man of this city. Together, they earned $50,000 a month.
Colosimo owned a top club in Chicago. It was called Colosimo’s Cafe. He was a pimp, but it seemed that no one cared. Colosimo flashed his richness and glamour around by wearing diamonds and other flashy jewelry all the time. He was a true man of Chicago society, this was because he was handsome, generous, and larger than life. As Colosimo’s business grew, he brought in Torrio to help in operating and growing this empire. Torrio was able to expand the
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business unnoticeably. He was not interested in fooling around, he was a serious business man. Colosimo divorced his present wife, and married a singer, who had stolen his heart. Yale had heard about this, and muscled in on Colosimo’s enormous empire. Colosimo was assasinated in his own nightclub by Yale.
The police eventually figured out that Yale had killed Colosimo. There was a waiter who had witnessed who it was, but would not testify against Yale. So, Yale was able to get away from prosecution. He failed at his attempt to take over Colosimo’s empire. This was because Torrio was able to keep a hold of the business after Colosimo had been killed. Torrio had offered Capone money and opportunity for advancement, so it was hard for Capone to keep with the bookkeeping job.
Soon after all of this had happened, Al Capone began to run Chicago. While he was running it, the mayor was William Thompson, who got along very well with the Syndicate. There has been a succession of Democratic mayors in Chicago, but organized crime leaders had always been running Chicago. There was a political group called the “West Side Bloc,” who were put together in the days of Al Capone. This political group is still together to this day.
As Capone reached his thirtieth birthday, he appeared absolutely invulnerable. He had built a coalition that had reached across ethnic boundaries, and included many different cultures and people. He dominated the business of bootlegging, although he was not the only one in the business. It was the same in gambling and vice trade.
Capone manageably arose to his position of absolute eminence, within only a seven year span. He had the greatest success story that Chicago had seen in 100 years. The government forces began to gather momentum because Capone’s success gave them the influence. They
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knew that if they did not hurry up and catch him, that more people would become involved under Capone’s business.
Destiny alternately wanted Capone, although he thought that he was in control. Capone wore clothes that made him out to be a gangster. One style of which was custom-made suits. He loved flattery, and he generously rewarded those who provided it to him. He was a man who showed that he had money, he was not the type who would simply hide all of his wealth, he would flash it around. He especially loved the good life. His explanation of the good life was the best women, food, liquor, diamonds, and silk underwear.
Whenever Capone was crossed, he became overcome with rage. It has been reported that he knocked the brains out of several of his boys, using a baseball bat. He did this after he had decided that they had betrayed him. Because Capone was such a violent man, Torrio could use him. This was because Torrio enjoyed the use of power rather than other means. Direct action was the way that Torrio would rather do, than the ability to plan and keep the loyalty of his “Troops.” Torrio had to use fear to get respect. When he was at the top of his power reign, he sent orders through Capone to the Troops.
Torrio was killed. After he had been killed, Capone rose to the top. He celebrated his return to the top with a banquet at the Western Hotel. After many of Capone’s friends had been killed, he felt he was out of danger, but really was not out of it. Al Capone had been sent into a trial, because of his tax evasions. He had anticipated that he would have to pay heavy fines. He also anticipated that he would be in jail for about five years. He had also figured that he could transact all of his business while still in jail. Capone went to Alcatraz prison for five years. While there, he was living like a king. He hadall of the luxuries, except one. That one, was that
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he could not run anything from Alcatraz, so he would not know what was going on outside.
He then went back to court. The judge decided that it would be much better if Capone spent the rest of his sentence in the Cook County prison. Within days of his arrival there, this jail was the newest outpost for him. He handled a lot of his business there. After his sentence was served, he was released. He had slowly begun to deteriorate, until finally, he died of cardiac arrest. In his 48 years of being a well-known Mafia man, he had left his well-known marks all over. Capone has been remembered from all of the things he did. Although these were all bad, and he did nothing for the good, he is still remembered.