The state of al capone. It broke the mafia boss

The most famous American gangster Al Capone did not live the longest, but very rich life. He managed to rise from the very bottom of the US criminal world and became the most influential mafioso of his time. This post will tell you how the fate of Al Capone turned out.

The classic image of the American mafia of the 1920s and 1930s, with loud shootouts and ruthless hitmen, arose, in fact, thanks to one man. No one knows exactly how many people were killed on his orders, but the name Al Capone alone terrified even his most ferocious colleagues in the “criminal business.”
There is still debate about where Alfonso Gabriel Fiorello Capone, better known as Al Capone, was born. The mafia boss himself said that he was born in Naples on January 17, 1899, but some of his biographers are sure that Alfonso was actually born in Castellammare del Golfo in 1895.
In 1909, Alfonso and his family followed the typical route for Italians of that time - to the USA.
The large Capone family (Alfonso's father had nine children) began to settle in a new place, in Williamsburg, a suburb of Brooklyn, and the grown-up Alfonso got a job as a butcher. However, his bad inclinations manifested themselves even at school - he could beat up a classmate for no reason, he would even raise his hand against teachers.
It is not surprising that very soon he began to play the role of a boy in the wings in one of the local gangs. Alfonso's criminal mentor was the leader of the group, Johnny Torrio. The bandit saw great promise in the recruit - excellent physical condition along with cruelty and mercilessness.

Where does the scar come from?

Officially, Alfonso began to play the role of a bouncer in a billiards club, which was the headquarters of the Torrio gang. Unofficially, he acted as a killer, eliminating those who did not please the leader. However, at first Alfonso’s victims were only minor figures, like the owner of a small Chinese restaurant, who had quarreled with the bandits.

Al Capone with his son, 1931.

Alfonso’s criminal career could have ended in the Brooklyn suburbs, since the daring young bandit often got into quarrels with more serious “authorities.” There was almost always a reason: seasoned criminals were infuriated by Alfonso’s skill while playing billiards, and he often accompanied his victories with impudent comments.
Once Capone grappled with bandit Frank Galluccio, and he slashed Alfonso in the face with a knife. This cut gave rise to Capone’s later nickname, “Scarface.” It should be noted that during his lifetime no one called the gangster that, and he himself, who had never served a day in the army, said that he was wounded at the front during the First World War.
Meanwhile, Johnny Torrio became an influential man in criminal world USA and moved to Chicago, where he headed one of the local gangster groups. Capone initially remained in New York, but then followed his boss. Firstly, Torrio needed a reliable killer in Chicago, and secondly, the police were closely involved in Capone’s previous affairs in New York.

Crime reformer

The main occupation of US criminals at that time was the sale of alcohol. In a country where Prohibition was in force, this was extremely profitable business. However, the Torrio group in Chicago had many competitors in this market, and Capone, who received the nickname “Al Brown,” began to fight against them.

Al Capone on vacation, 1930.

Before Capone, mafiosi, of course, also did not stand on ceremony when fighting each other, but more often they used knives, brass knuckles, and much less often - pistols. Capone, who created a real “special forces of killers” in the Torrio gang, did not take into account conventions and horrified his opponents with his cruelty.
Torrio's group waged war with the gang of Irishman Deion O'Banion. Its victims, in addition to ordinary soldiers, were Alfonso’s younger brother, who also became a bandit, and O’Banion himself. Johnny Torrio was seriously injured, as a result of which he retired, transferring control of the group to his “right hand” - Al Capone, who by that time was 25 years old.
Desperate pensioners and loser swindlers. How did the high-profile robberies of recent years end?
Capone's group changed the criminal world of America. The new boss, without abandoning the alcohol trade, put the proceeds from prostitution under the control of criminals and engaged in what is today understood as the word “racketeering,” achieving colossal profits.
Al Capone dealt mercilessly with his competitors - it was thanks to him that the criminal world became rich in gun battles from automatic weapons and car bomb explosions. Competitors were eliminated in broad daylight, sometimes by throwing grenades, and they often dealt with not only the hostile bandit himself, but also members of his family.
The opponents, of course, tried to get to Al Capone himself, but they couldn’t do it - he had heavily armed guards, an armored car, and he dealt with those suspected of treason so brutally that there were practically no people willing to go over to the side of his competitors.

King of Chicago

The so-called “Valentine’s Day Massacre” on February 14, 1929, entered into American history when Capone’s gunmen, dressed in police uniforms, burst into the underground liquor warehouse of a rival group, lined up opponents against the wall and shot them with machine guns. The competitors, who were confident until the very end that they had been detained by the police, did not even have time to be surprised. Seven people became victims of this massacre.

Aftermath of the "Valentine's Day Massacre", February 1929.

The income of Capone's empire at the peak of his power reached the astronomical sum of $60 million in America in those years. The mafia boss bought the loyalty of police officers, politicians, journalists and was the uncrowned king of Chicago. During the Great Depression, he used his own money to open free canteens for the poor, which gained popularity among the lower strata of society.
Historians estimate that at least 700 people died in the mafia wars waged by Al Capone, of whom about 400 were killed on his personal orders.
However, the structure of the mafia was such that none of these crimes could be proven.

Tax trap

The new head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, took it upon himself to put an end to Capone. Realizing that it would not be possible to imprison the mafia leader for murder and racketeering, he went in from the other side. First, in 1929, Alya Capone was sentenced to 10 months in prison for illegally carrying weapons. But Capone didn’t even notice this period - he lived comfortably in prison, received visitors and continued to manage the group.
However, in 1931, Alya Capone was sentenced to 11 years for tax evasion. It took a lot of effort for the authorities to achieve a conviction, but in the end they succeeded.
At first the story of running a gang from prison repeated itself, but then Capone was transferred to a federal prison in Atlanta and his connections were broken. It was finally possible to cut off the leader from his criminal empire in 1934, when he was transported to the most legendary and harsh prison in the United States - Alcatraz.

Alcatraz prison, where Al Capone served his sentence.

Here the bloodthirsty gangster was brought down from his arrogance and forced to work as a janitor, which is why the other prisoners began to call Capone “the boss with the mop.”
Over time, his health deteriorated, and doctors discovered that Capone had advanced syphilis. There was nothing surprising in this - the criminal in Chicago kept a whole “harem” of prostitutes, and did not bother himself with protective measures.
In 1939, Al Capone, stricken with partial paralysis, was released for health reasons. He lost his influence in the criminal world, and this sick and aged man could not, as before, control a group of 1000 bandits with an iron fist.

Al Capone's grave.

Despite all this, Al Capone was, in a sense, lucky. Unlike many of his colleagues, he died in his bed, spending the last years of his life in his own home in Florida. The bloodthirsty gangster died on January 25, 1947. The cause of death was poor health, consequences of a stroke and pneumonia.

During the 14 years of Al Capone's reign, there were 700 mob murders in Chicago; of these, 400 were ordered by Capone himself.

Alphonse Fiorello Caponi is much better known by his nickname Al Capone. He was born, according to his own statement, in Naples in 1899 (according to another version, in Castelamaro four years earlier). In 1909, the Caponi family, like many other Italians, moved to New York in search of happiness. Richard (Richard) Caponi, the eldest son, became a policeman. His brother Alfonso (Al Capone) chose the opposite path. But he started out harmlessly enough - as a butcher's assistant in Brooklyn. However, he was soon drawn into the criminal environment.

To begin with, Al Capone worked in one of the local gangs as a help boy, but his abilities were soon noticed, and the guy was helped to retrain as a professional

onal killer. His first “wet case” was the murder of an obstinate Chinese who did not want to share the income from his restaurant.

Meanwhile, the struggle for the presidency in the “Sicilian Union” was unfolding in the country. During the struggle, Frank Aiello destroyed the head of the union, Big Jim Colosimo, in order to install Johnny Torrio in his place. Frank Aiello and Johnny Torrio invited Canone to Chicago in the mid-1920s. Capone, having gone through the stages of working as a bartender and bouncer, takes the nickname Al Brown and becomes Torrio's assistant. From now on, he is a bootlegger, that is, a person involved in the illegal sale of alcohol (Prohibition was in effect in the USA at that time). At the same time, Al Capone created a reliable group

at the combat cover.

The “Sicilian Union” of gangsters that emerged at the beginning of the century made the hired killer a popular profession. As part of the community of mafia clans in the 1930s, the so-called “Murder Corporation” was even created, uniting full-time criminals - executors of mafia death sentences.

When the police were able to get some arrested Mafiosi to talk in 1940, it revealed, as Mafia scholars write, "a picture of a veritable death-for-hire industry - a gigantic killer enterprise that spread its tentacles throughout the country and operated on an incredible scale with punctuality, precision and extraordinary efficiency good quality

this mechanism..."

The stage for the creation of a kind of murder community was prepared during a meeting of underworld leaders in Atlantic City in 1929. At this meeting, in addition to Al Capone, Joe Torrio, Lucky Luciano, and Dutch Schultz were present. During the creation of the crime syndicate, the distribution of territories and sectors of activity, representatives of the top of the American underworld swore to strictly implement the secret code that they developed and which from now on was supposed to regulate relations between various gangs.

Each leader of a gang of bandits had the right to control the life and death of his people within the established competence

tions. Outside the gang he led, even on his own territory, he was prohibited from holding court on his own. He had to necessarily bring the issue that arose for discussion to the highest council of the criminal syndicate, consisting of the most powerful leaders called upon to monitor the observance of order within the organization, consider all controversial issues that threatened to lead to bloody skirmishes, and resolutely suppress any initiatives that could harm the syndicate.

The Supreme Council made a decision by a simple majority of votes after a kind of trial, where the accused, who was usually absent, was defended by one of the members of the Areopagus. Justified

A death sentence was passed very rarely; mostly the high council spoke in favor of using one punishment - death.

The execution of sentences was entrusted to the "Murder Corporation". Executioners for these purposes were supplied by gangs from different regions of the United States. Greatest success used by people from a gang called the Brooklyn Union.

Having become the leader of organized crime in Chicago, Al Capone gives orders to eliminate his opponents in the gangster environment - both real and potential. To protect himself, Al Capone ordered a personal Cadillac weighing 3.5 tons. The vehicle had heavy armor, bulletproof glass and a removable rear window for shooting at pursuers.

Al Capone waged war against his former benefactor, Frank Aiello, and his brothers. The Aiello family maintained an entire army of hired killers, but Al Capone's boys turned out to be more agile in this battle of octopuses. Frank Aiello and several of his brothers and nephews were killed. The surviving members of the Aiello clan hired a brilliant professional killer, 22-year-old Giuseppe Gianta, nicknamed Jumping Toad, and also bribed two people from Al Capone's entourage - Albert Anselmi and John Scalise.

“The trio, of course, would have completed the task,” the journalists write, “if the suspicious Al Capone, in front of everyone, had not beaten his most faithful assistant, Frank Rio, not without his consent

Certainly. The trick was a success, and Janta, without hesitation, offered Rio his help, believing that he would want to take revenge for the insult. Frank Rio bargained for a long time about the price of his betrayal, and then went straight to the boss and told him everything.

Capone, in a rage, literally crushed the Havana cigar, which at that moment was in his hands, with his thick ringed fingers. And, of course, it didn’t stop there. As the head of the largest criminal community, through the mediation of Rio, he invited all three to a large Sicilian reception as especially honored guests. Lunch was to take place in a separate room of the luxurious Auberge de Gammond restaurant. The Capone Who Never Stopped

he poured himself before the expenses, and watched with disgust as the guests gorged themselves on delicacies prepared especially for the farewell dinner. Raising his glass of red wine, Al Capone made another toast:

Long life to you, Giuseppe, to you, Albert, and to you too, John... And success to you in your endeavors.

The guests chorused:

And success in your endeavors...

Due to the abundance of food and wine, many began to take off their jackets and unfasten their belts. Sang old songs native land. By midnight, the sated guests put down their plates. There was excitement at the end of the table where Capone was sitting. The owner again raised his glass and made another toast in honor of the trio sitting nearby, but instead

In order to drink, he threw the contents of the glass in their faces, smashed the glass on the floor and screamed:

Bastards, I will make you vomit what you swallowed here, because you betrayed the friend who feeds you...

With a swiftness surprising for a man of his size, he rushed at them. Frank Rio and Jack McGorn have already pointed their weapons at the traitors. Frank walked around them from behind, wrapped them in rope and tied them to the backs of chairs. He then forced all three of them to turn towards Capone. Those present remembered this scene for a long time.

Al Capone had a baseball bat in his hands. The first blow hit Scalise's collarbone. As the bat dropped, Satan's madness from Chicago to

grew. Foam appeared on his thick lips, he moaned with excitement, while those subjected to a barbaric beating screamed and begged for mercy.

They were not spared..."

On the orders of Al Capone, the famous massacre took place on St. Valentine's Day. In January 1929, Bugs Moran's (real name George Miller) gang stole Al Capone's trucks and blew up several bars he owned. Capone's main gunman, Jack McGorn, nicknamed Machine Gun, was ambushed and barely escaped alive. This forced Capone to liquidate the Moran gang.

On February 14, 1929, one of Capone's men called Moran and said that he had stolen a truckload of contraband liquor. Moran ordered the truck to be driven

to the garage, which served as a secret warehouse for alcohol. When Moran's gangsters gathered to receive the cargo, a car drove up to the garage, from which four people got out - two of them in police uniforms. The imaginary policemen ordered Moran's men to stand facing the wall, took out machine guns and opened fire. So six gangsters were shot, and another died from his wounds in the hospital, having managed to declare before his death: “Nobody shot at me.” Moran was late for the meeting and survived.

Capone himself, of course, had a strong alibi on the day of the massacre.

Capone's "Empire" brought him $60 million a year, but he also spent a lot. On horse racing alone he lost up to a million a year. His homes in Florida and Chicago were guarded

around the clock, and armed bodyguards accompanied the boss everywhere. He had his own secret entrance to Chicago hotels - first to the modest Metropole, where 50 rooms were reserved for his retinue, and then to the luxurious Lexington. Capone's wife, Irishwoman May, whom he married back in at a young age, as a rule, was in honorable exile. He kept a bunch of mistresses and selected more and more girls from his brothels.

During the Wall Street Crash and economic crisis Al Capone, in order to win public favor, was one of the first to establish soup kitchens for the unemployed. He was one of the first to put the matter of bribing the press on a grand scale. His public relations consultant

Chicago Tribune reporter Jack Lingle organized almost weekly articles praising Al Capone. Officially, Lingle received $65 a week at the newspaper, but his secret salary was $60,000 a year. Lingle was shot and killed on June 9, 1930, on the eve of a meeting with FBI agents looking for dirt on Capone.

During the 14 years of Al Capone's reign, there were 700 mob murders in Chicago; of these, 400 were ordered by Capone himself. 17 professional killers were formally charged, but it was rare that gangsters were put behind bars.

In the 1930s, when Edward Hoover headed the FBI, American justice developed new methods of fighting the mafia.

to her. Since it was extremely difficult to prove the involvement of mafiosi in murders, they were sent to prison on charges of lesser crimes. So, in 1929, Al Capone was convicted of carrying a weapon without permission; he spent 10 months in prison. However, even while in prison, he received whoever he wanted and freely used the telephone, running his empire around the clock.

For the second time, the boss of bosses received a sentence for non-payment of taxes in the amount of 388 thousand dollars. Al Capone's lawyers tried to bargain with the judge, but he was adamant. Then they took on the jury, but on the day of the hearing the judge replaced the jury with others. On October 22, 1931, the jury returned a guilty verdict, which allowed Su.

It is not possible to sentence the gangster to 11 years in prison.

While in local prison, Al Capone continued to lead his men, but when he was transferred to a federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia, this became impossible. And in 1934, Al Capone completely cut off the air, sending him to famous prison on Alcatraz Island. This meant the end of the king of gangsters' career.

In prison, Al Capone kept himself apart from others, but when he was stripped of his privileges and forced to work as a janitor, prisoners began calling him “the boss with the mop.” One day, when he refused to take part in a prison strike, someone stabbed him in the back with a pair of scissors.

Al Capone's memory began to change; his health

worsened. A medical examination revealed that he had late stage syphilis. In 1939, Al Capone was partially paralyzed and was released early.

Recent years his life he lived in his home in Florida. Al Capone died on January 25, 1947 from a heart attack and pneumonia. Before his death, as befits a Catholic, he managed to receive Holy Communion. It is not known whether he spoke in his dying confession about the hundreds of people killed on his orders, and about the forty whom he killed with his own hand.

Al Capone was buried at the Mont Olivets cemetery in Chicago, but so many tourists came to his grave that the family was forced to move the gangster’s ashes to another cemetery.

1931, October 18 - one of the loudest trials in US history. It wasn’t even the figure of the defendant, America’s most famous gangster Al Capone, that caused a sensation, and certainly not the sentence: only 11 years in prison plus a fine and legal costs.

The highlight of the process was the precedent that was created: having lost hope of catching Al Capone for his bloody crimes, which the whole of America knew about, the FBI entrusted its ward to a neighboring department - the tax service, which, having studied the gangster's expenses and expenses, put Capone behind bars for banal non-payment of taxes on income from illegal business.

Its universities

Neither the gangster himself nor his lawyers bothered to calculate this cunning legal trap that two independent punitive authorities had prepared for him in advance, although the court referred to a precedent from three years ago. However, the smart son of Italian emigrants could hardly have predicted his future brilliant career in the gangster field.

Alphonse Capone was born in 1899 in Brooklyn, New York. The family was large, peaceful and pious; its head, who moved to the United States from the vicinity of Naples, ran a hairdressing salon, which he hoped to pass on to one of his seven sons. The third (and first born in the USA) - Alphonse - showed more hope than the others, who later changed his name to the short, energetic Al.

But Gabriele Capone’s hopes were not destined to come true: in the sixth grade, his son responded to the teacher’s slap in the face with the same response, for which he was temporarily expelled from school. He would not return to it, preferring to complete his education on the street: he joined one of the many youth gangs, which, by the way, included another famous gangster of the 1920s, Lucky Luciano.

The mere presence in a street group did not necessarily foreshadow a criminal future: the restless children of emigrants (usually Italian, Irish and Jewish) fought, hooliganized, and sometimes stole in petty ways, but not all of them became criminals. Alfonso did not break ties with the family, helping her with odd jobs. He turned out to be especially capable of accounting and all his life he could easily count in his head, amazing his interlocutors. Biographers noted that at that time there was nothing antisocial in the behavior of the future king of Chicago gangsters, except for fights, drinking and street vandalism, common among teenagers.

Alfonso's life changed dramatically after meeting one of the most successful crime bosses on East Coast- Johnny Torrio. He was a gangster of a new breed, one of those who turned lone bandits into a tightly structured criminal business corporation. Torrio did not rely on the blunt force of weapons, but on strengthening the vertical of power, establishing the necessary connections, laundering shadow income and investing money in legal businesses. He could often be seen in fashionable clubs and on tennis courts and almost never in the saloons and brothels that he owned, especially during gang wars. He didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t cheat on his wife, and didn’t cheat on his partners.

The gentleman gangster liked the smart and tough guy.

The Torrio gang consisted of more than 1,500 gangsters who engaged in robbery, robbery, racketeering and contract killings. It was Torrio, who took Alfonso to the role of one of his personal thugs, who taught him especially dangerous tricks that would later allow Capone to rise to the very top of the criminal world. Until the end of his life, Capone was grateful to Torrio for the many lessons that laid the real foundation for his fast career, and often called Johnny his father and teacher.

At first, after joining the gang, Torrio preferred to entrust Alfonso with the most dirty and simple matters of the organization: from beating up debtor shop owners to collecting tribute from prostitutes. After probation Al Capone was over and he was able to prove his criminal talent and ability to cope with unexpected situations, Torrio transferred him to work as a bouncer at the Harvard Inn, owned by the Torrio family, where Capone spent the entire next year. By this time, he had already gained a reputation as an excellent fighter among the “Five Trunks” and did not stop constantly practicing the art of using a knife, in which he had no equal for a long time.

While working at the Harvard Inn, he was able to perfect his shooting with revolvers and automatic weapons, for this he spent two hours every night in the hotel basement, practicing shooting at bottles. After a year of solid work as a bouncer, Capone took the position of hotel bartender.

There Capone received his first baptism of fire - along with a scar on his face: a visitor became jealous of the bartender's girlfriend, and knives were used. Another acquisition was syphilis, which 19-year-old Alfonso did not want to cure, deciding that it would go away on its own. He hid this fact from future wife- Irish from a prosperous middle-class family. The poor Italian did not receive the blessing of the bride's parents, and the young people got married secretly, having already given birth to a son and presenting their families with a fait accompli.

1920 - Torrio became cramped and uncomfortable in snobbish New York, and he wanted to move to the more democratic Chicago, which at that time had already earned the sad reputation of the gangster capital of the United States. They made a lot of money there, drank fortunes, Caruso often sang at gangster gatherings, politicians and the police were bought outright by local authorities, and law and order in the city were personified by the Thompson brand of machine guns, popular among the local gang. Residents of Chicago had become accustomed to the sight of blood - it flowed like a river not only in the country's largest slaughterhouses, but also on the streets in broad daylight. Torrio invited the promising Al Capone to this “raspberry” city.

And he fully lived up to his expectations. In Chicago, Capone's first high-profile case was not a bloody showdown, but the unexpected unification of two large gangs - Torrio and local authority Colosimo. Capone skillfully resolved the situation, fraught with great blood, by convincing the leaders of both groups not to fight each other, but to pool capital to expand their spheres of influence. Torrio's team joined Colosimo's empire, and thanks to the business acumen and ability to hide from the first, as well as the money and connections of the second, the syndicate's affairs went uphill.

Torrio's right hand Al Capone was not forgotten: 5 years later, when the boss retired, he named Capone as his successor. So the former six became one of the bosses of the Chicago mafia. However, a lot had happened before that.

Thief in Prohibition

The main areas of activity of the mafia at that time were racketeering, underground gambling, prostitution and, of course, alcohol. The golden days for Chicago gangsters came after Congress passed the 18th Amendment to the Constitution (Volstead Act) in December 1917, which prohibited the production, sale, export and import of alcohol in America. True, until all states ratified it (there were only 38 of them at that time), a little over a year had passed. In January 1919, Prohibition became a reality throughout the United States, with the exception of the territories that refused to ratify the amendment - Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The reaction to the introduction of Prohibition was easy to predict: a thriving underground alcohol market immediately arose - whiskey and beer were secretly transported from Canada by bootlegger couriers or driven on the spot, selling at exorbitant prices in secret saloons. The money received from illegal production, smuggling and sale of alcohol was laundered, invested in legal businesses, and also bribed trade union leaders, police officers and officials.

Al Capone began to conduct business coolly even by Chicago standards. Soon, entire areas of Chicago turned into feudal appanages for the new alcohol baron. Although Capone appeared to be a furniture dealer to the police, newspapermen (and the family he brought from Brooklyn), this could not mislead anyone. Everyone knew who was boss in the city; Al Capone’s cruelty was legendary. There were fewer and fewer people who did not want to adapt: ​​if they did not come to their senses, they were simply destroyed.

Among the rare daredevils who dared to challenge Al Capone were journalists from the Cicero Tribune, whose pages constantly described the “arts” of the uncrowned king of the Chicago underworld. But after he, along with his brother Frank, tried to push their candidates into the city assembly of Cicero, not disdaining the kidnapping and murder of competitors, bribery, and seizure of ballot boxes, the patience of the mayor of Chicago himself and the city police chief came to an end.

Dressed in civilian clothes, 79 police officers armed with machine guns showed up at the problematic polling station and, meeting Frank Capone, riddled him with bullets. Formally, the cops shot in self-defense, because the temperamental Italian, seeing the strangers, immediately grabbed his revolver.

Al Capone gave his brother a royal funeral and declared a vendetta on the Chicago police. Several police officers were killed and a number of precincts were destroyed: a war between gangsters and the police began in the city.

In fact, Al Capone's henchmen killed hundreds of competitors and servants of the law. However, the most notorious crime was the famous St. Valentine's Day massacre, largely thanks to the press and cinema. 1929, February 14 - Capone’s men, dressed in police uniforms, “arrested” in broad daylight seven unsuspecting bandits from Moran’s rival gang (the same one that made an attempt on Capone’s boss, Johnny Torrio), took them to a barn and shot them in cold blood. The victims had no doubt that this was a police raid, and resignedly stood facing the wall and raised their hands.

The police tried to immediately arrest Al Capone, because it was no secret to any of the residents of Chicago who exactly dealt with Moran’s people. But he was in Florida, and the FBI did not have serious evidence sufficient to put him on the federal wanted list. The only thing that remained in this situation was to invite the gangster with a subpoena to testify, which they did. But Capone's lawyers insisted on a delay due to the alleged illness of their client.

Pay the tax and sit quietly

After the Valentine's Day massacre, Capone became the darling of journalists, but the incredible publicity they created for Al Capone ultimately served the king of the underworld badly. President Herbert Hoover himself became interested in the circumstances of the murder in Chicago, and ordered all special services to closely deal with the gangster. “I want this guy to go to prison” - this phrase from the president addressed to Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon played the role of a trigger.

Mellon decided to attack the gangster from two sides: firstly, to look for evidence of his violation of Prohibition Law, and secondly, of tax laws. Regarding taxes, two years before the massacre on St. Valentine's Day, a judicial precedent was created that made it possible to insure in case significant success could not be achieved on the alcohol front.

The war on organized crime was waged before Al Capone, but rarely did any of the leaders of gangster syndicates go to jail: as a rule, ordinary performers ended up there. The whole country knew about the organizers, but the FBI most often did not have enough hard evidence with which to go to court; witnesses were either removed or intimidated.

The situation changed radically in 1927, when, during the consideration of a routine case of alcohol smuggling in the Supreme Court, the judge suddenly blamed the defendant for something that he had not indicated in the case. tax return income received, among other things, from their illegal business. This decision, strange at first glance (who would voluntarily testify against oneself?) was not unconstitutional. By law, American citizens are required to pay taxes on absolutely all types of income - the latter even means any increase in the amount in a bank account, as well as income from illegal activities.

However, tax officials are not interested in the source of income (unlike the police, FBI, and prosecutors). But if an increase in the taxpayer’s wealth over the past fiscal year is proven, and this fact is not reflected in the tax return, the violator is brought to justice. criminal liability for non-payment of taxes. In other words, an American engaged in illegal activities can evade prosecution by the FBI and the police as much as he likes, but not from the tax department: it is enough to track his expenses for the same year, and then check whether the funds spent coincide with the declared ones.

There is a situation “between two fires”. If you pay everything due taxes, in particular regarding illegal commercial activities, the tax authorities will lag behind, but then the FBI and the prosecutor’s office will immediately take care of you. If you keep quiet about illegal business, they will leave you behind (if there are no sufficient grounds to take the case to court), but the same tax police will scrupulously check all your bank accounts and expenses. And then wait for the summons - already on tax matters.

In Al Capone's time this was all new. In addition, he himself, like most Americans, refused to believe that a person could be convicted of failing to pay taxes on income from an illegal business. It turned out it was possible.

The role of chief beater in the exemplary hunt for public enemy number one was entrusted to the energetic and fanatically dedicated Special Agent of the Treasury (as they would now say, an employee of the tax police) Eliot Ness. The exploits of the group of fellow legal enthusiasts he put together, nicknamed the Untouchables, are immortalized in numerous novels, films and television series.

Ness began the siege of the gangster's empire with a backdoor maneuver. His men conducted a thorough investigation into whether Capone was actually ill when he refused to appear in court to testify. It was not difficult to detect the simulation: the “bedridden” allowed himself to attend horse races in Miami and take a trip to the Bahamas.

Contempt of court is a serious offense in America. As soon as, after months of delays and postponements of hearings, the king of the gangsters finally appeared to testify, he was arrested right in the courtroom. Al Capone faced a year in prison and a $1,000 fine, but in the end the judge released Capone on bail.

But this was only the first warning. Another arrest soon followed, and again for little things: Capone and his bodyguard were detained for carrying an unregistered weapon. This time, the gangster decided not to tempt fate and, together with his accomplice, arrived in court, where each was sentenced to a year in prison. Of these, the gangster served only 9 months, after which he was released for exemplary behavior.

Meanwhile, the ring around him continued to shrink. The newspapers published a list of public enemies compiled by the head of the Chicago Criminal Justice Commission, and this list, it’s easy to guess, opened with a familiar surname (later FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover became interested in the idea - and thus the legendary “Ten Most Wanted Criminals” of the FBI was born).

In addition, Ness's people, having introduced their informants into the circle of the king of gangsters, on their tip, carried out several successful raids on secret saloons, causing damage to Capone's empire of several hundred thousand dollars. And besides this, Ness discovered the traces of two accountants who handled all of Capone’s financial affairs. They agreed to cooperate with the investigation, and Capone, who also had “moles” in the thoroughly corrupt Chicago police, found out about this and set a bonus on their heads - $50,000 each.

And yet the Untouchables did not retreat; the case was brought to court. 1931, June 16 - Al Capone was accused of tax evasion and violation of Prohibition. He was facing 30 years in prison, and lawyers persuaded Capone to make a deal with the prosecutor's office. He agreed and managed to boast to journalists that in exchange for admitting guilt, he was promised a minimum sentence, from 2 to 5 years. But Judge James Wilkerson unexpectedly announced that, although he had been familiarized with the recommendations of the prosecutor's office, he himself had no obligations to the defendant and considered it impossible to bargain with the federal court. Stunned, Capone was forced to change his line of defense and declared his innocence.

After that the 4th began month-long process, during which Al Capone’s remaining free men tried to bribe almost every one of the jurors. Ness became aware of this and reported everything to Judge Wilkerson, who responded historical phrase: “I'm not surprised. Continue with your work, gentlemen, and leave the rest to me.”

The trial, to which the leading American media sent their best reporters (which is why it received the name “Who’s Who in American Journalism”), began with a new sensational statement judges. He said that another case was being heard in the next room at the same time, after which he ordered the bailiffs to make an unprecedented exchange: to send the entire jury to the next hearing. in full force, and deliver the local jurors to the courtroom - also included.

The gangster’s defense and he himself were shocked by the judge’s decision: none of his team knew the new jurors, they had not been “worked with” beforehand, and the entire carefully developed plan was going downhill.

On the evening of Friday, October 17, 1931, the jury, after nine hours of deliberation, returned a verdict: guilty on several (but not all) counts of tax evasion. And on the second day, the judge sentenced Capone to 11 years in federal prison and a fine of $50,000, as well as reimbursement of legal costs ($7,692) and the return of unpaid taxes ($215,000) to the treasury with interest accrued on this amount.

Capone filed an appeal, which was rejected, and on November 11, 1931, the verdict came into force. At first, Capone was kept in a local prison, then the most famous American convict was transferred to the Georgia federal prison in Atlanta, and later to the legendary one on a rocky island in San Francisco harbor.

In total, he spent seven and a half years behind bars and was released early due to a serious illness: chronic syphilis brought back partial paralysis. Immediately after his release, the ex-gangster underwent brain surgery, but this only delayed the inevitable end by several years. There was no question of returning to Chicago and leading his empire: Al Capone was rapidly falling into childhood and, a year before his death, had the consciousness of a 12-year-old child.

While still in prison, Al Capone learned about the repeal of Prohibition. According to statistics, on the night of December 5-6, 1933, immediately after Congress ratified the long-awaited 21st Amendment to the Constitution (repealing the notorious 18th), Americans drank to celebrate one beer 178 million liters.

The man whom Prohibition first made rich, making him a living legend, and then brought to an inglorious end, died on January 25, 1947, ironically outliving the author of the ill-fated 18th Amendment, Congressman Andrew Volstead, by only a couple of weeks.

A. Soloviev

ed. shtprm777.ru

Among the American gangsters of the 20th century, Al Capone, a native of Italy, became one of the most brutal and famous. The Chicago mafia, under his leadership, terrified the people of the United States for more than a decade. The crime boss died in 1947 at the age of 48.

America is a great country that sheltered a family of immigrants and raised their son to become the greatest mafia boss - Al Capone. “Great Al,” as he was respectfully known, created the largest criminal empire in history, which existed under his leadership from 1920 to 1930. How did the career of the glorious gangster develop, when and why did he collapse? criminal community, we’ll talk about this later.

Biography of Al Capone

The greatest devotee of the criminal world was born on January 17, 1899 in Italy. There are large discrepancies about the place of birth of the baby. Alphonse Fiorello Capone himself, the full name of the criminal figure, claimed that he was born in Naples. His biographers insist that Alfonso was born in 1895 in Castellammare del Golfo (Sicily). The boy's parents were Gabriele Capone and Teresa Raiola. It was large family with 9 minor dependents. Al became the fourth child.

The head of the family, Gabriele, worked as a barber. Every year things got worse. The south of Italy, unlike the north of the country, developed poorly both economically and socially. Full speed ahead there was a “New Wave” of immigration to the United States ( late XIX- beginning of the 20th century). The Capone family also decided to move to America in 1909. The immigrants settled in Williamsburg, a suburb of Brooklyn. Alfonso was lucky enough to be accepted into the school.

Fig.1 Immigrants from Italy

By the age of 13, he was characterized as a cruel boy, often raising his hand against classmates and teachers. After another assault against the teacher, the evil child was expelled. His parents immediately got him a job as a butcher's assistant. Some time later, the young man met local hooligans from the James Street gang, led by Johnny Torrio (Fox). Subsequently, the group joined the Five Points criminal community of Paolo Vaccarelli, numbering 1,500 people.

Mafia career

At the age of 18, Al worked as a bouncer in one of the bars in New York, owned by Frankie Yale. Young Capone was hired by Johnny Torrio. It was in this drinking establishment that Al earned himself a long scar on his left cheek. He insulted the sister of gangster Frank Galluccio. An enraged Frank had to defend his family’s honor with a knife right on the spot. The gangster intended to plunge the blade into the ignoramus’s neck, but he dodged and the blade cut his face.

The incident was dealt with by bosses at the highest levels and did not end in the impudent man’s favor. I had to apologize to Frank Galluccio and his sister. The knife wound turned out to be serious and required surgical intervention. A scar remains as a souvenir. After this incident, Capone acquired another nickname, “Scarface.” He was embarrassed by the scar, trying to pose for photographers with his right side. Sometimes he joked that this was a wound received in the First World War.

Fig.2 Al Capone's scar

2 years after the stabbing incident, bar owner Frankie Yale had trouble with a gang of Irishmen. In one of the fights, Al Capone severely maimed one gangster. In retaliation, the Irish opened a real hunt for the bouncer. Frankie Yale had to transport Capone to Chicago, where his boss Johnny Torrio had already settled. It was assumed that Al would sit out in Chicago until the anger of the Irish subsided. But Capone never returned to New York.

Chicago

Prohibition was in force in the country, and the main occupation of criminal clans was the sale of alcohol. The Torrio criminal community has difficulties in this field due to strong competition. Capone demonstrated his effectiveness in eliminating rivals. The young man organized a real “special forces of killers” in the gang, which included his younger brother.

The gang of Irishman Deion O'Banion and American Bugs Moran were Torrio's main competitors. Gang members made repeated attempts on the lives of Alfonso and Johnny. They managed to capture Capone's younger brother and the driver, subsequently torturing them to death. Capone took revenge mercilessly. Machine guns and grenades were added to the machine guns.

Fig. 3 Gangsters of the 1930s USA

Enemies gave Capone a new nickname - "Al Brown". During the next assassination attempt, Johnny Torrio was seriously injured and was forced to retire. Torrio appointed his replacement " right hand» Alphonse Capone, noting the gangster's successes. By this time the receiver was 25 years old. At the head of the gang, Capone started a real war. Eliminations of competitors occurred regularly and even in broad daylight. By the age of 30, Alfonso had become the king of crime in Chicago.

“Great Al” moved around the city in 2 armored vehicles: a Cadillac V16 Model 452 Imperial Sedan weighing 3.5 tons and a Cadillac V8 Model 341. The first had loopholes and could release a smoke screen, and the second had a rear window that folded back for shooting at pursuers.

Valentine's Day Massacre

One of the most notorious cases of the gangster wars was the “Valentine's Day Massacre,” which occurred on February 14, 1929. Wanting to inflict serious damage on their competitor, Bugs Moran's gang, the criminals came up with a cunning plan. According to legend, two bootleggers from Canada were looking for alcohol sales in Chicago and found buyers from Bugs Moran. They decided to discuss the deal in one of the Chicago garages. It was assumed that the leader of the rival group himself would arrive at the meeting. However, seven gang members without a boss arrived to discuss the deal.

In the midst of negotiations, police showed up in the garage. They were Capone's gunmen in disguise. The gangsters were “detained,” their weapons were confiscated, they were forced to face the wall and they were shot. Then the “policemen” and two fake bootleggers fled the crime scene. According to rumors, Bugs Moran had a miraculous escape. He was late for the meeting, and when he arrived at the meeting place, he saw a police car and disappeared.

The massacre caused a public outcry, becoming the last straw of patience. The city administration and police turned a blind eye to shadow commercial activities, but murders that resembled executions were too much. Everyone knew who was behind the massacre, but there was no direct evidence. All the leader's associates had an alibi. The FBI declared Capone a personal enemy.

Personal life of a mafioso

At the age of 19, Alfonso became a father. The son was born to a girl of Irish descent named May Josephine Coughlin. The girlfriend was 2 years older than her chosen one. The baby was named Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone. 1 month later the couple got married. This is the only child of “Great Al”.

The boy was observed from birth chronic diseases: syphilis and mastoiditis. The child underwent brain surgery, which resulted in partial deafness. At the age of 37, Capone's son married, giving his father 4 granddaughters. In 1966, Albert changed his last name to Brown. As his father was once called.

Arrest and death

Al Capone's criminal stories haunted the director of the FBI Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover. It was clear that putting the 30-year-old King of the Underworld in prison would not be so easy. The murders and racketeering remained unproven for years. Then the ideological lawyer decided to use another way to send the gangster to prison. Capone was exhausted by various lawsuits, which required significant expenses for defense. Then, during a personal search, a pistol was found on Capone and he was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

While the gangster was serving his sentence, a special unit of FBI employees (the untouchables) were looking for any evidence of violation of the law. Elmer Irey, under the direction of Eliot Ness, became interested luxury home, who bought his wife a “Great Al.” The transaction was carried out through shell companies.

Elmer and Eliot realized that they could put Capone behind bars for a long time, accusing him of tax evasion. This is a serious crime in the USA. The tangle began to unravel. A book with Capone's black accounting fell into the hands of the special department. The accountant was promised protection in exchange for testifying against the boss. In 1931, "Great Al" was sentenced to 11 years on charges of tax evasion. However, the state failed to return his fortune from the accounts of shell companies.

Jail

After going to prison, Al Capone began to lead his gang from behind bars. He already had this experience during his first imprisonment. However, the gangster was transferred to a federal prison, deprived of contact with his accomplices. But for greater isolation, the king of the underworld was given a cell in Alcatraz prison, where he was transferred in 1934.

The leader's ambitions evaporated. Here he was forced to work in humiliating positions. The prisoners called him "the boss with the mop." The gangster's health was melting before our eyes. After the examination, doctors announced the diagnosis - syphilis. last stage. The bandit contracted the disease in his youth, but left his recovery to chance. The infection lurked in the body and did not bother me.

Fig.4 Al Capone in prison 1939

Liberation

In 1939, Alfonso's health deteriorated so much that he was released early. He was released partially paralyzed and terminally ill. Connections and influence in the criminal world were lost. There was no question that he, as before, would be able to control a gang of 1,000 fighters. In turn, friends and acquaintances visited him in the house where he returned from prison.

Surprisingly, in this state and in the presence of many blood enemies, “Great Al” lived for a relatively long time. On January 25, 1947, 48-year-old Alphonse Fiorello Capone died in his own bed. The cause of death was complications from a stroke and pneumonia.

8 interesting facts from the life of the king of the criminal world Al Capone:

Al Capone was born on January 17, 1899 in Naples, the son of hairdresser Gabriel Capone and his wife Teresa. He was the fourth child in the family (there were nine in total). In search of a better life, the Capone family soon moved to America (Brooklyn).

The Capone family was primarily concerned with their own food, and therefore the education of young Alfonso was essentially left to chance. One of the most legendary gangsters of the 20th century, Capone remained almost completely illiterate until his death.

Young Alfonso very early faced the need to earn his own living: like others his age, he could only apply for hard, low-paid work, devoid of any prospects. By the sixth grade, Alfonso had already become a full member of the gang and, like everyone else, patrolled the streets of his native area.

Capone, a school dropout, tried many different professions for two years, working in a bowling alley, a pharmacy, and even a candy store, but he was increasingly attracted to the nocturnal lifestyle. For example, having become addicted to playing billiards, within a year he won absolutely all the tournaments held in Brooklyn. There was a time when he worked as a bartender and at times as a bouncer. Due to his physical strength and size, Capone enjoyed doing this work in his boss Yale's squalid establishment, the Harvard Inn. It is to this period of his life that historians attribute Capone’s notorious stabbing with bandit and murderer Frank Galluccio. The quarrel occurred over the sister (according to some reports, wife) of Galluccio, who was very interested in the temperamental Capone. Galluccio hit Alya deep wound, slashing his switchblade across his right cheek. He had no idea that he was making history by giving his enemy a scar that would mark its owner in the criminal world under the nickname “Scarface.”

At the same time, Capone continued to train diligently with weapons and became an excellent knife fighter, as a result of which he was soon noticed by the legendary gang of Johnny "Papa" Torrio, known as the Five Guns Gang. The most powerful and numerous criminal organization in New York, the Torrio gang consisted of more than one and a half thousand gangsters engaged in robberies, robberies, racketeering and contract killings. It was Torrio, who cast Capone as one of his personal thugs, who taught him especially dangerous tricks that would later allow Alfonso to rise to the very heights of the criminal world. To the end of his life, Capone was grateful to Torrio for the many lessons that laid the real foundation for his lightning-fast career, and often called Johnny his father and teacher.

On December 18, 1918, Alfonso, who turned 19, married 21-year-old Irish girl Mae Coughlin, and a few months later became the happy father of little Albert Capone. However, at the same time, Torrio's business in New York went very badly and he was forced to transfer most of his operations to the still more or less free Chicago. Capone, meanwhile, was the prime suspect in two cases of premeditated murder, but was released when the prosecution's main witness suddenly lost his memory and physical evidence mysteriously disappeared from the judge's office. Shortly after his release, Capone again got into an argument with one of the street gangsters of a rival organization and in the end simply killed him. Without the help of Torrio, who had already left the city, his chances for another easy release were very slim, and after calling Papa Johnny and describing the current situation, Capone received an invitation to Chicago, quickly packed his few belongings and, together with his wife and son, immediately left New York. ..

Arriving in Chicago, Capone began working as a bartender and bouncer at the Four Deuces, Torrio's new club, where he quickly gained a reputation as the most aggressive bouncer in the city. Overdone patrons often left the club with broken arms and ribs, sometimes with a concussion, and once even with blood poisoning, when Capone lost his temper so much that he bit the poor man’s neck to an artery. Such behavior could not go unnoticed for long, and he soon became a frequent visitor to the nearest police station, but thanks to Torrio's connections in the police, he was invariably released within two or three hours of his arrest. While working at the Four Deuces, Capone, on behalf of Torrio, strangled at least twelve people with his bare hands, whose bodies, under the cover of darkness, were carried out through the basement into a quiet alley behind the club, where a stolen fast car was always waiting for Capone.

The aging Papa Torrio grew weaker every day, and Capone took on more and more of the responsibilities of the city's true underworld Don. At its height, his underground organization consisted of more than a thousand armed gangsters and more than half the city's police officers. Capone regularly paid personal salaries to senior police officers, prosecutors and county mayors, members of legislative assemblies and even US congressmen. One day, the mayor of Cicero, a small outskirts of Chicago, took it upon himself to pass a new decree without first coordinating it with Capone. An enraged gangster burst into the city council chamber, dragged the mayor out into the street by the lapels of his jacket and beat him half to death in front of the assembled crowd and deputies...

Best of the day

However, the title of “King of Chicago” also had its own implications for Capone. negative aspects. His family was constantly threatened by anonymous telephone calls, he was shot at on the streets, poison was added to clubs: One of Capone's most ardent opponents, the head of the second most important street gang in Chicago, Dion O'Brien, once staged a well-planned attempt on his life, literally riddling several machine guns in the Hawthorne Inn hotel room where Capone stayed for several days. Believing Capone, who was hiding under a heavy marble table, dead after more than a thousand rounds of ammunition were fired through the window of his room, O'Brien retired to celebrate his victory while climbing out of the rubble. With the hotel almost destroyed, Capone was already planning a retaliatory strike.

To carry out the quick and brutal murder of O'Brien, Capone chose two of his best shooters, John Scalizo and Albert Anselmi. However, almost immediately after they destroyed O'Brien, Capone learned of Scalizo and Anselmi's conspiracy with another rival gang, according to which they were supposed to remove Capone himself within the next week. Having invited the shooters to a banquet in honor of the successful work on O'Brien, Capone, with words of congratulations, took out a pre-prepared ornate bat and, in front of the assembled gangsters, killed both of them with it. Now his last enemy was only Bugs Morgan - O's only surviving assistant. Brian, whose murder will subsequently mark the beginning of the collapse of Al Capone's entire empire...

On Valentine's Day, several selected Capone gangsters, dressed in police suits, burst into Morgan's basement and lined up the seven remaining O'Brien bandits along one of the walls. While Morgan's people decided not to resist, mistaking what was happening for another police raid, the gangsters The Capones shot them in cold blood with machine guns, firing more than one and a half thousand rounds. Unfortunately for them, Morgan himself was not in the basement at that moment and with his help, a gigantic scandal about “Bloody Saint Valentine” arose in the city press, forcing the public to change their opinion about bootlegging. wars.

The fall of Capone's empire was started by one of his own people, who was responsible for horse and dog racing. Eddie O'Hair, one of the best agents embedded by the US Tax Police in the Chicago underworld, revealed to tax inspectors the place where Capone hid his account books, which reflected the real turnover of Capone's empire.

Having never paid income taxes in his life, Al Capone was arrested in June 1931 on charges of malicious tax evasion and was forced to stand trial in federal court.

The amount of the proven non-payment was so small that Capone could have paid it out of his young son's pocket money, but the prosecution rejected his offer to settle the case out of court for the then gigantic sum of $400,000 and brought the case to an end, as a result of which Capone was sentenced to a maximum fine of $50,000, costs of $30,000 and a maximum sentence of 11 years in prison.

His property, as well as that of his wife, was confiscated, but most of the loot was recorded in the names of front men and several fictitious corporations, as a result of which almost all of Capone's former wealth, estimated by police experts at $100,000,000, still remained in the hands of his family.

Al Capone spent the first year of his imprisonment in an Atlanta prison, and in 1934 he was transferred to the prison known as “The Rock” on the island of Alcatraz, from where he was released five years later, a practically helpless and doomed patient, having lost his health as a result of the development of untreated syphilis, which he had contracted. during the carefree years of his youth in New York. As a result of a retrial that took place shortly after, Capone was declared insane and placed under the guardianship of his own family. At the same time, the Chicago gangsters who remained loyal to him, after many years of searching, finally found Eddie O'Hare, who had changed his name, and brutally killed Capone's longtime enemy in his own car. However, the influence of the aged Capone had completely weakened by this time, and the restoration of the former empire And although his few gangster friends continued to regularly visit their ailing don for several years and tell fictitious stories about the “taking of ten central stores” and “a respectful message from the heads of the criminal families of America,” his former accountant especially for he was keeping a fictitious account of the millions earned in this way, the end of the completely weakened king of Chicago was already close.

In January 1947, Alfonso Capone died as a result of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. His body was transported from Florida to Chicago, where it was immediately guarded by several dozen gangsters armed with machine guns: even after his death, Capone continued to command the legions of the American underworld. After a private funeral ceremony, the former king of Chicago, at the request of his family, was buried under a modest gravestone, where the legendary gangster rests to this day.