The Rise of the

1
The Rise of the Original Gangster

• Presentation by Allison Price

2
No More Alcohol!?

• At midnight, January 16, 1920, the United States
  went dry. Breweries, distilleries, and saloons
  were forced to close their doors.

3
Public Enemy Number 1

• Mafia Leader, Crime Lord, Murderer, Intelligent
  businessman, bootlegger, bookkeeper, prison
  inmate in Atlanta and Alcatraz

4
Capones School Life

• Al Capone found school a place of constant
  discipline relieved by sudden outbreaks of
  violence..."
• Al did quite well in school until the sixth grade
  when his steady record of B's deteriorated
  rapidly.
• At fourteen, he lost his temper at the teacher,
  she hit him and he hit her back. He was expelled
  and never went to school again.

5
Kids in Gangs

• Italian gangs, Jewish gangs and Irish gangs.
• They were not the vicious urban street gangs of
  today, but rather groups of territorial
  neighborhood boys who hung out together.
• Capone belonged to the South Brooklyn Rippers
  and then later to the Forty Thieves Juniors and
  the Five Point Juniors.

6
A Normal Life

• He worked faithfully at exceptionally boring
  jobs, first at ammunitions factory and then as a
  paper cutter.
• He was a good boy, well behaved and sociable.
• Mommas Boy

7

• How did the soft-
• spoken dutiful Al Capone
• metamorphose into the spectacularly successful
  and violent super gangster?

8
Scar Face

• Capone became a bartender on Coney Island at the
  age of 18 under Frankie Yale.Here is where he got
  his nickname Scar Face.
• Watch What You Say!

9

• With a wife and child, Al moved to Baltimore,
  MD
• Quite suddenly, Al did another about face when
  his father died November 14, 1920, of heart
  disease at the age of fifty-five. 
• This event could be marked as the end of
  Capone's legitimate career. 

10
Chicago- Its Perfect

• Chicago was a perfect place to build a criminal
  empire.
• It was a bloody and brutal city
• It was strictly a commercial town with no
  appetite for snobbery or "old money."

11

• Big Jim Colosimeo owned the Colosimo Cafe, one
  of the most popular nightclubs in the city.
• As business grew, Big Jim brought in Johnny
  Torrio from Brooklyn to operate and grow their
  empire.
• At the age of 22, Capone came into being business
  partners with Torrio in Chicago and ran the Four
  Deuces (a speakeasy, gambling joint, and brothel)
  

12

• Capone decided that he wanted all-out conquest of
  a suburb outside of Chicago
• He installed his older brother Frank (Salvatore),
  a handsome and respectable-looking man of
  twenty-nine.
• Capone had people running for office in the city.
  He feared this would become ruined by a noisy
  reporter. He was correct.

13
Death of Frankie

• Frank Capone was approached by a convoy of
  Chicago policemen
• Someone recognized him and the cars emptied out
  in front of him.
• In seconds, Frank's body was riddled with
  bullets.
• Technically, the police called it self defense,
  since Frank, seeing the police coming at him with
  guns drawn, had drawn his own revolver.

14
Crime

• There was just a ridiculously large amount of
  violence between rival gangs, even between men in
  the same groups. They would trick, steal, lie,
  and kill their own. It was just a matter of time
  before they would all go to jail.

15
Assassination Attempts

• Capone and Torrio looking out for Hymie Weiss
  and other Dion associates including Bugs Moran
• Torrio hid in Hot Springs, AR
• Capone hired as many bodyguards as possible to
  surround him. Still several attempts were made on
  his life.

16

• In January of 1925, Johnny Torrio came back to
  Chicago. He and his wife Ann were just returned
  from a shopping trip and got out of their car to
  walk to the door of their apartment building.
• Torrio has Been Shot!

17
Hospital Stay

• Capone slept by Torrio in the hospital and had
  his own bodyguards stand guard around the
  hospital since security there was terrible
• Torrio healed and was able to stand trial for a
  raid he had done.
• Torrio wanted out to retire and wanted Al Capone
  to take his place.

18
St. Valentines Day Massacre

• Lured the men in with the promise of cheap liquor
• The delivery was to be made at 1030 am and
  McGurns men were to be waiting with them dressed
  in stolen police uniforms and trench coats,
  staging a raid

19

• Capone and McGurn were both very far away when
  this took place. Their men thought they saw Bugs
  Moran and got ready.
• The assassination squad got into their police
  uniforms and drove over to the garage in their
  stolen police car.

20

• The bootleggers, caught in the act, did what they
  were told they lined up against the wall
  obediently.
• The four assassins took the bootleggers' guns,
  and opened fire with two machine guns, a
  sawed-off shotgun and a .45. The men slumped to
  the floor dead, except for Frank Gusenberg who
  was still breathing.
• Anyone who watched this show believed that two
  bootleggers in trench coats had been arrested by
  two policemen. The four assassins left in the
  stolen police car.

21

• It was a brilliant plan and it was brilliantly
  executed except for one small detail
• Soon, real policemen came to the garage and saw
  Frank Gusenberg, on the floor, dying from
  twenty-two bullet wounds.
• The police could never pin the crime on Capone or
  McGurn

22
You Talkin Bout Me?

• Capone continued with his daily activities. He
  thought he had more pressing matters to resolve.
  Evidence was mounting that two of his Sicilian
  colleagues were causing him problems.
• This is how he decided to settle things

23
Settle It

• "Seldom had the three guests of honor sat down to
  a feast so lavish
• Capone proposed toast after toast to the trio.
  Saluto, Scalise! Saluto, Anselmi! Saluto, Giunta!
  

24
Eat Up Gentlemen

• A strange silence fell over the room.
• Nervously, the guest glanced up and down the
  long table. Capone leaned toward them. The words
  dropped from his mouth like stones.
• So they thought he didn't know? They imagined
  they could hide the offense?
• He never forgave disloyalty

25
Hospitality then Execution

• Capone had observed the old tradition.
  Hospitality before execution.
• The Sicilians were defenseless
• He halted behind the first guest of honor.

26
He Handled It

• Slowly, methodically, he struck again and again
• He moved to the next man and then to the third.
• Get the Gun

27
Ness and His Untouchables

• Elliott Ness and his group The Untouchables
  wanted to humiliate and imprison Al Capone
• Wanted to Get Him For
• -Tax Evasion
• - Illegal Bootlegging

28
They Got Him!

• June 5, 1931 the grand jury charged Capone with
  22 counts of tax evasion totaling 200,000
• A week later, another indictment was returned on
  the evidence provided by Ness and his team.
  Capone and sixty-eight members of his gang were
  charged with some 5,000 separate violations of
  the Volstead Act, some of them going back to
  1922.
• The income tax cases took precedence over the
  Prohibition violations.

29
Outcome

• Facing a possible 34 years in jail
• Capone's lawyers presented U.S. Attorney Johnson
  with a deal- Plead guilty, for a relatively light
  sentence.
• They accepted the deal and agreed to recommend a
  sentence between 2 and 5 years.

30
A Surprise

• Judge Wilkerson did not have to agree to the
  deal that the lawyers made.
• The deal was off and he could withdrawal the
  guilty plea and a trial was scheduled for October
  6

31
Bribery

• Capones men spent all summer long bribing the
  jurors.
• The Judge ruined everything.

32
GUILTY

• October 17, 1931, after 9 hours of discussion,
  the jury found Capone guilty of some counts but
  not all counts of tax evasion.
• The judge sentenced Capone to 11 years, 50,000
  in fines and court costs of another 30,000.

33
Livin Like A King

• He was living "like a king."
• He clearly lived better than the rest of the
  prisoners.
• He secreted several thousand dollars in cash.

34
Alcatraz

• Everything was censored
• No newspapers were allowed magazines had to be
  more than seven months old. The only source of
  news was new arrivals.
• Limited ablity to write
• Only immediate family could visit

35
How Al Capone Did in Jail?

• By 1938, he was confused and disoriented.
• He was in the hospital section being treated for
  syphilis.
• He was released in November of 1939. Mae took him
  to a hospital in Baltimore where he was treated
  until March of 1940.

36

• For his remaining years, Al slowly deteriorated
  in the quiet splendor of his Palm Island palace.
  Mae stuck by him until January 25, 1947 when he
  died of cardiac arrest at age 48