Perhaps one of the most infamous and influential criminals in all of history, Al Capone was a forced to be reckoned with. Sometimes known as Scarface, the gangster was prominent during the prohibition era as the top crime boss in Chicago. Even then, being one of the most infamous crime lords in history, he’s never really known for what he’s actually done.
Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born on January 17, 1899 in the city of Brooklyn, New York. Al Capone was born on 17 January 1899, in New York, to Teresina and Gabriele Capone. Both his parents being the immigrants of Italian origin. While Capone’s mother worked as a seam-stress, his father Gabriele, worked as a barber. Capone discontinued his school life when he was just a sixth grader however. The believed reason that he was expelled from school was because he had assaulted his teacher. Later on, he took up low-life jobs to support himself.
Capone was eventually recognized by then noted gangster John Torrio. In the 1920’s, Johnny took the young Capone in his loving embrace and made him a part of the formerly infamous “Chicago Outfit”. The gang being into major businesses such as bootlegging, drug trafficking, prostitution, and many others.
A crackdown at the time on racketeering in Chicago meant that Al Capone’s first criminal duty was to move headquarters to the city of Cicero. From there; “With the assistance of his brothers Frank (Salvatore) and Ralph, Capone slipped into the government and police departments” (3). Between them they took leading positions within the Cicero city government in addition to running whore houses, gambling clubs, and racetracks.
Al Capone eventually kidnapped the opponents’ campaign workers and turned to threaten voters with violence. Capone also eventually took over office in Cicero just as he wanted but tragically, his brother Frank, had been killed in a afternoon meeting with Chicago’s police force before. Soon After, the failed assassination of Capone’s early friend and teacher John Torrio led the old man left his legacy of nightclubs, whorehouses, gambling dens, breweries and speak-easies to Capone(4). Capone’s new found status later showed him moving his headquarters to the marvelous Metropole Hotel as part of his personal vendetta to show himself more and become a court celebrity. This showed Capone fraternizing with the news/press and being seen at social places such as the theatre. Capone was particularly different from many gangsters who wanted to avoid publicity, he actually thrived on it. Always looking sharper than a knife, he wanted to be viewed as a respectable businessman and an important figure in all the surrounding community.
Capone’s bootlegging whiskey trail all the way from Chicago to New York was showing him to be a huge money maker, but “an incident involving Billy McSwiggin, known as the ’hanging prosecutor,’ was to prove a major setback for the unassailable gangster “(7). Billy was accidently shot and killed by Capone’s minions during a shoot-out between rivals outside of a bar. At first Capone was the one to be put on blast but once again due to shortage of evidence as always, he escaped arrest. However, the murder was blasted and shown to be a big outcry against monster violence and public distrust/hate went against Capone.
Over time and history, the smuggling techniques have changed and evolved, but the technique has continued to be used for the same exact purposes it was during Capone’s time; power and money. After the prohibition era, the method of smuggling never did go away, mostly due to the fact that other substances had taken over the scene. All the way from the time of Al Capone being alcohol being most demanded, to all types of substances in the streets of today being such as marijuana and more serious and addictive substances such as cocaine. The technique of smuggling didn’t even shudder after Capone’s death, as a matter of fact, it grew bigger. The substance market in the United States of America is the most rich, thriving, and powerful ones in the entire world, and with the magnetism of wealth comes the increasing numbers of drug traffickers to the States.
In Chicago today, the crime organizations are not just far more developed and elite comparing it to the time era of Capone, but also much more violent (3). In fact, Chicago has become much more violent. Back then, gangs were all sorts of mess on a structural level but now the gangs have sufficient structure and organization that Capone had began to start for them, and with these things violence and control is almost an expected sight in the streets of Chicago. Along with the incoming power struggle, the body count of humans also rise, and the deaths all have Capone to thank, for he single handedly introduced the most powerful way to gain control; smuggling.
Although the life of Al Capone is somewhat known as a dry subject, he was actually a huge stepping stone for the criminal community. Not to say that crime is in any way good in most cases, but you have to give the man credit where it’s due. He had a dream in a way, he set out on it and made it his own. Sure he had a little help along the way from very important figures in his life, be he forever solidified what he’s done in history. Without him, there wouldn’t be such stories about some of the things caused by him, people today see him as THE mobster and will forever remember what he did. The impact he made on not only criminal acts and what it took, will forever be credited for good and bad things such as security, crime organizations, techniques for crime, and many more