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birthday
Alphonse Capone was born in Brooklyn -
Expelled from school
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. -
Capone becomes scarface
Back in 1917 young burly Al Capone was working in the Harvard Inn on Coney Island for Frankie Yale. Frankie Yale was a mob boss in New York. On one particular evening back in 1917 a New York hood by the name of Frank Galluccio entered the dance hall/speakeasy with his sister Lena and his date by the name of Maria Tanzio. Al Capone was a bouncer/waiter at the Inn. Al noticed Galluccio's young sister and began smiling at her. Lena became annoyed and embarrassed at Capone's constant staring and -
Al capone marrys Mae Josephine coughlin
In 1918 Capone married Mae Coughlin, an Irish girl, who gave him a son that year, Albert "Sonny" Francis Capone. The couple lived in Brooklyn for a year. In 1919 he lived in Amityville, Long Island, to be close to "Rum Row." Capone was still working for Frankie Yale and is thought to have committed at least two homicides, until being sent to Chicago in 1919. Yale sent his protégé to Chicago after Capone was involved in a fight with a rival gang. Yale's intention was for Capone to "cool off" ther -
Capone moves from New York to Chicago
Capone's departure from New York, with his family, to Chicago is believed to have occurred in 1921. Capone purchased a modest house at 7244 South Prairie Ave. in the Park Manor neighborhood on the city's south side in 1923 for USD $5,500. Capone came at the invitation of Torrio, who was seeking business opportunities in bootlegging following the onset of prohibition. Torrio had acquired the crime empire of James "Big Jim" Colosimo after the latter refused to enter this new area of business an -
Capone moves his gang headquarters to Cicero, Illinois
After the 1923 election of reform mayor William Emmett Dever, Chicago's city government began to put pressure on the gangster elements inside the city limits. To put its headquarters outside of city jurisdiction and create a safe zone for its operations, the Capone organization muscled its way into Cicero, Illinois. This led to one of Capone's greatest triumphs: the takeover of Cicero's town government in 1924. Cicero gangster Myles O'Donnell and his brother William "Klondike" O'Donnell fought w -
Johnny Torrio retires, Capone is leader
The Torrio-Capone duo soon was on the move, taking over mobs that bowed to their entreaties or threats and going to war with those that wouldn't cooperate. Their most impressive coup was arranging the killing in 1924 of Dion O'Banion, the head of the largely Irish North Side Gang. Utilizing the murderous abilities of Frankie Yale of Brooklyn, the same man who carried out the Colosimo assassination, O'Banion's death ultimately failed to rout the North Siders who, instead, waged war off and on for -
Gangster Hymie Weiss killed by Capone's Mob
Hymie Weiss was suspected of having formed an alliance with South Side beer baron Joe Saltis, who went on trial for murder in October 1926. It was widely rumored that Weiss would buy off the jury in order to ensure an acquittal for Saltis. Jury selection began on October 11, 1926, and Hymie and four of his men were sighted there. At 4 o'clock that afternoon, Weiss and his pals left for their State Street headquarters, the old Schofield flower shop. Hymie Weiss and his men were crossing State -
Morans and Weiss' assination attemped on Capone
However, the violence that lead to this unprecedented level of criminal success drew the retaliation from Capone's rivals, particularly his bitter rivalries with North Side gangsters lead by Hymie Weiss and Bugs Moran. He had his car riddled with bullets more than once. In a particularly unnerving incident on September 20, 1926, the North Side gang shot into Capone's entourage as he was eating lunch in the restaurant of the Hawthorne Hotel. A motorcade of ten vehicles, using Thompson Submachi -
Al Capone buys 14 room mansion in Palm Island, FL
Sometime in 1928, Al Capone purchased a 14 room mansion in Palm Island, Florida. -
Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
Capone's most notorious killing was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. On February 14, 1929, four Capone men entered a garage at 2122 N. Clark Street. The building was the main liquor headquarters of bootlegger George "Bugs" Moran's North Side gang. Because two of Capone's men were dressed as police, the seven men in the garage thought it was a police raid. As a result, they dropped their guns and put their hands against the wall. Using two shotguns and two machine guns, the Capone men fired more -
Al Capone jailed for first time in Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary for carrying concealed deadly weapons
On May 17, 1929, Al Capone and his bodyguard were arrested in Philadelphia for carrying concealed deadly weapons. Within 16 hours they had been sentenced to terms of one year each. Capone served his time and was released in nine months for good behavior on March 17, 1930. -
Al Capone Convicted of Federal Tax Evasion
The U.S. Treasury Department had been developing evidence on tax evasion charges - in addition to Al Capone, his brother Ralph "Bottles" Capone, Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, Frank Nitti and other mobsters were subjects of tax evasion charges. On June 16, 1931, Al Capone pled guilty to tax evasion and prohibition charges. He then boasted to the press that he had struck a deal for a two-and-one-half year sentence, but the presiding judge informed him he, the judge, was not bound by any deal. -
Al Capone paroled and returns home to Palm Island, Florida
Al Capone was paroled on November 16, 1939 from the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island in California, spent a short time in a hospital, then returned to his home in Palm Island, Florida. -
Al Capone's Armored Cadillac Used as Franklin D. Roosevelt's Limousine
Capone’s car was a sight to behold. It had been painted black and green so as to look identical to Chicago’s police cars at the time. It also had a specially installed siren and flashing lights hidden behind the grille, along with a police scanner radio. To top it off, the gangster’s 1928 Cadillac 341A Town Sedan had 3,000 pounds of armor and inch-thick bulletproof windows. Mechanics are said to have cleaned and checked each feature of the Caddy well into the night of December 7th, -
Al Capone Dies
After his release, Capone spent a short time in the hospital. He returned to his home in Palm Island where the rest of his life was relaxed and quiet. His mind and body continued to deteriorate so that he could no longer run the outfit. On January 21, 1947, he had an apoplectic stoke that was probably unrelated to his syphilis. He regained consciousness and began to improve until pneumonia set in on January 24. He died the next day from cardiac arrest.
