Al Capone

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Al Capone

Alphonse Capone, or better known as Al capone or “scarface” is Americas most notorious gangster. His acts of violence make him the single greatest symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s Prohibition era.
He was born on January 17, 1899 in Brooklyn, New York, into a life of crime. He was in two kid gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors. surprisingly, he was a smart student, but his gang acts go to the best of him and he beat up his sixth grade teacher and quite school. From there he picked up his education from the James Street gang. This was run by Johnny Torrio.
By his late teens Capone had been hired by Torrio and Frankie Yale as a bouncer at a saloon brothel in Brooklyn. In 1918 he was involved in a bar fight over a girl with hoodlum Frank Galluccio. Gallucio went after Capone with a knife, resulting in Capone's picking up the moniker by which he would be known for the rest of his life--"Scarface"
By 1919 he was already suspected by New York police of at least two murders, so he moved to Chicago to work under Torrio's uncle, "Big" Jim Colosimo, a Chicago gangster who ran a string of brothels.
It was in Chicago that Capone began his legacy. He bootlegged, influenced life, and murdered in an era that was already tough enough.
Torrio and Colosimo had a dispute over bootlegging during the Prohibition era--Torrio was for it and Colosimo was against it. Torrio hatched a plot with Capone to have Colosimo "rubbed out" and they got their old pal Frankie Yale to do it. Over the next few years the new Torrio-Capone regime went to war with rival bootlegging gangs in Chicago. They organizated colosimos territory for the distribution of liquor, wine,and beer. Beer accounted for more than 90 percent of illegal prohibition profists. They made a deal with breeries that were still licensed to sell near beer, which had less than .5 percent alcholol. The near beer business was a perfect cover for producing as...
  • Submitted by: whockey17
  • Date Submitted: 05/26/2009 07:40 PM
  • Category: Biographies
  • Words: 1108
  • Pages: 5
  • Views: 65
  • Rank: 121138

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