The Capone’s were a quiet, conventional family. They never hit their children; they talked to them, and preached to them, they listened to their parents. Nothing about the Capone’s were violent or dishonest. They were law-abiding, unremarkable Italian-American’s. Shortly after Al was born, Gabriele moved the family to a better home over his new barber shop. Moving into a broader ethnic universe allowed Al to escape the solidly Italian neighborhood. This exposure would help him create his future criminal empire. The neighborhood where Al lived his first ten years were harsh. In 1904, at

In May of 1927, the United States Supreme Court decided that a bootlegger had to report and pay income taxes on all of his illegal business earnings. With this ruling, the Special Intelligence Unit of the IRS was able to go after Al Capone. With this, Capone moved to Miami and bought a fourteen-room estate in Palm Island. The Palm Island estate came to the attention of the IRS. His wife spent that year on a decorating spree, while Al tried to establish himself as a good citizen in Miami. However, Capone was secretly making plans to solve problems that continued to be created by Yale. On July 1, 1928, Yale was at a speakeasy when he received a phone call. He ran outside to check his car and he was riddled with bullets, and nailed to the seat with a tommy gun. Bugs Moran was still an issue. Capone’s friend, McGurn, paid a visit to Capone that winter to discuss the problems with Bugs Moran and his people. McGurn came up with a plan. The plan was to take place on February 14, 1929. He had a bootlegger lure Moran and his men to a garage to discuss a whiskey deal. McGurn’s men would be waiting there dressed as police. McGurn’s men went to into the garage and found seven men. They did as they were told and lined up against the wall. They were shot to death with machine guns and sawed off shotguns. One man survived. Gusenberg, still alive and in true gangster fashion, refused to talk to authorities. He died several hours later. The plan seemed to work, with one minor flaw. Moran wasn’t there. He arrived late, seen the “police” and left. No one was ever brought to justice for what soon became known as the St. Valentines Day Massacre.

With a wife and baby to support, Al focused on a legitimate career. He worked as a bookkeeper for quite some time. But, on November 14, 1920 Capone’s father died at the age of fifty-five. That seems to have marked the end of Capone’s legitimate career. At that point Capone resumed his relationship with Torrio who was residing in Chicago. Torrio invited Capone to join him, and in early 1921, he did just that. When Capone arrived, brothels were becoming the main income for organized crime. The head of these businesses was “Big Jim” Colosimo. Big Jim brought Torrio in on the deal, and their empire grew tremendously. The downfall of Colosimo was a young singer. He divorced his wife and married the young lady soon after. This is when Yale decided to take over. On May 11, 1920, Yale assassinated Big Jim in his nightclub. Eventually, the police figured out who the killer was, and he was arrested. Yale avoided prosecution, but didn’t get what he came for. Torrio was now in total control of the multimillion-dollar business. It was then that Torrio brought twenty-two year old Al Capone from his bookkeeping job. By now Capone turned his back on any honest career for the rest of his life. Al soon became friends with a Jewish-Orthodox man named Jack Guzik. Capone’s alliances outside of the ‘Italian community’ would pay off.

the age of five, Al started school. He was soon kicked out. At the age of 14, while in the sixth grade, he was thrown out of school for throwing a female teacher to the ground. About this time, the family moved to yet another home. This move would have a lasting impact on him. It would be here that he would meet the people who would have the most influence on his future, his soon to be wife Mae and Johnny Torrio.

Some topics in this essay:
Capone Capone, Bugs Moran, Island Prison, Shortly Al, Doherty Doherty, Yale Capone, Capone Italians, Colosimo Jim, Elliot Ness, Palm Island, al capone, capone capone, johnny torrio, rival gangs, palm island, bugs moran, family moved, palm island estate, evidence capone, capone’s friend, grand jury, al capone capone,