Al Capone Essay -- essays research papers

Al Capone I: Al Capone was born in New York City in 1899. His father, Gabriel and his wife, Teresa, came to America in 1894. They brought their two kids, Vincenzo, and Raffaele. In 1895 their third son was born, who they named Salvatore. II: The Capone family was nice and quit, Gabriel never hit the kids, he just "preached" to them and they'd listen. "...nothing about the Capone family was inherently disturbed, violent, or dishonest." Gabriel became an American citizen in 1906, his children all had Italian names but for the outside world they'd have different names. III: After Al was born Gabriel moved the family to an apartment above his barbershop in Brooklyn. This move would influence Al forever, he was exposed to other nationalities, Swedes, Irish, Germans, and Chinese lived in the neighborhood instead Italians as it had been. Education didn't mean much for many in New York, after you got out of high school you'd probably get a job. Al had good grades until he entered 6th grade. When he was fourteen he yelled at a teacher who hit him, he hit her back and was expelled from school, he never went to school again after that. About the same time that happened his family moved to a neighborhood that had a long lasting impression on him. This is where he met his first crime boss, Johnny Torrio and his future wife, Mae. IV: Johnny Torrio was a smart crime boss. He realized you needed brains and allies to survive. Many young boys worked for him, running errands mainly. But he started to trust the young Al Capone and gave him larger jobs to do. Many kids were in gangs, wether it be gangs of nationality, Irish, Italian, German, or ones of religion, Jewish gangs. V: Al was a good kid, came home on time and helped the family. No one would have suspected Al of becoming a mob boss. For awhile he worked at regular jobs, first a munitions factory then worked as a paper cutter. Frankie Yale was another crime boss except just the opposite of the "peaceful" Johnny Torrio. He built his gang off muscle. Yale opened a bar on Coney Island called the Havard Inn. Johnny Torrio got Al a job working there as a bartender. VI: Capone’s job at the Harvard Inn was to be a bartender, a bouncer and even wait on tables. One day he was waiting on a young couple and he leaned over and said to the woman "Honey, you have a nice ass and I mean that as a c... ...Jack Guzik and Frank Nitti. Later that year Ralph was indicted on tax evasion charges, he wasn't smart about covering up his money like Al was. "The Untouchables" had enough evidence to get permission from judges to take down Capone's breweries. The government realized they need a man inside and sent Michael J. Malone and another agent. XXI: Records from a raid on Hawthorne Hotel showed financial operations of the Hawthorne Smoke Shop. Al Capone opened a soup kitchen for those who lost their jobs in the great depression to try and restore his image in 1930. XXII: The Untouchables had taken over forty-five of Capone's trucks and raided tons of breweries. Wiretaps proved how bad things were going, a big blow was when a brewery was raided that produced 20,000 gallons a day. XXIII: Capone was arrested and brought to trial. He didn't worry too much since he had bribed the jury, the judge found out about this and changed the jury so it would be a fair trial. Capone was convicted of a few counts and was sentenced to 11 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/capone/index_1.html?sect=15