Alphonse Capone
Alphonse Capone(1899-1947), also called Scarface the most famous American
gangster, who dominated organized crime in Chicago from 1925 to 1931.
Capone's parents immigrated to the United States from Naples in 1893; Al,
the fourth of nine children, quit school in Brooklyn after the sixth grade
and joined Johnny Torio's James Street Boys gang, rising eventually to the
Five Points Gang. Torrio went to Chicago and early in 1921 Al accepted an
invitation to go with him to Chicago. With his knowledge of business and his
experience with the brutal Frankie Yale, Capone would be good in the career
One February evening in North Chicago, seven well-dressed men were found
full with bullets inside the S.M.C Cartage Co. garage. They had been lined
up against a wall, with their backs to their executioners and shot to death.
With the exception of Dr. Reinhardt H. Schwimmer these men were mobsters
working under the leadership of gangster and bootlegger, "Bugs" Moran.
Within a few seconds, while staring at a bare brick wall, these seven men
had become a part of Valentine's Day history: the St. Valentine's Day
Massacre. In the case of The Valentine's Day Massacre, the person with the
most motive was not difficult to come by. Although he claimed to be in
Florida at the time of the murders, Al Capone was, without hesitation, the
one and only suspect in this infamous crime. Thanks to prohibition, Capone
had become the crime czar of Chicago, running gambling, prostitution and
bootlegging rackets while continuously expanding his territories by getting
rid of rival gangs. Capones fortune was estimated at $60,000,000. That kind
of money gave Al Capone one of the oldest and most common motives in murder
mystery history. He had to take down "Bugs" Moran at any cost. But as one of
the leading gangsters in Chicago, Moran was not an easy person...