Al Capone is probably the worlds most famous gangster. He was born in 1899 in Brooklyn, NY, the fourth of nine children, to immigrant parents from Naples, Italy. Capone left school during the sixth grade after he was beaten by the principal for beating up his tutor. He joined the James Street Gang, a tough street gang of teenagers run by Johnny Torrio who would himself become a founder member of the Chicago Mob. The James Street Gang was a part of the much larger (and less youthful) Five Points Gang where Capone later graduated to.

Capone was hired by Torrio as a bouncer at a seedy dive bar and brothel in Brooklyn. It was whilst working here that Al got his famous 'Scarface' nickname after a fight with another hood called Frank Galluccio when his left cheek got slashed. Capone would later tell reporters that his scar was a reminder of his service in France in the 'Lost Battalion' during World War I. Capone never fought in France.

In 1919, Capone was in trouble with the law in New York and moved to Chicago to help out his old buddy John Torrio who was working the brothels in the Windy City for his uncle. Torrio was at the time having big problems with his uncle, Big Jim Colissimo, who did not want to get involved with the booze rackets that Prohibition would bring. Capone and Torrio sent to New York for a team of hit men and removed Colissimo from the equation. Together, Torrio and Capone began taking charge in Chicago. Those gangs that would not toe the Torrio-Capone line went to war with them. The most famous of these wars was with the O'Banion Gang from Chicago's North Side. It was this gang that put John Torrio in hospital in 1925. When he finally got out about a month later, he told Capone "Al, it's all yours", took 30 million dollars with him and retired back to Brooklyn.

So, at the age of 26, Al Capone became the leader of one of the worlds largest crime families. The Capone Mob numbered over 1000 members, the majority stone cold killers. He was a murderer, pimp, extortionist and bootlegger, but the public loved him. Capone was seen in the company of movie stars, big business people and political figures. He restricted the Outfit's activities to those the public wanted - booze, prostitution and gambling. If the people are given what they want, they are not going to want to stop you! Al Capone was cheered when seen at public events - Herbert Hoover was booed.

Capone surrounded himself with his most trusted mobsters. Trust was everything. If you couldn't trust your bodyguards, you would end up whacked. Capone's trust was well placed with his men. And that trust was returned equally. Capone became known as a man who could be counted on in any event. But even so, Al had to be careful. There were many attempts to rub him out. On one occasion, the O'Banion gang sent a whole motorcade of machine gun happy mobsters past his Cicero headquarters. Over 1000 rounds were fired into Capone's headquarters building but Al escaped without a scratch.

Capone eventually dealt with his enemies. His most famous personal retribution involved the killing of three of his own men, John Scalise, Albert Anselmi and Hop Toad Giunta. These three men were conspiring to have Capone eliminated but Al got wise to their scheme. Capone invited them to a banquet and, after the meal, pulled out a club and bashed their brains in on the dinner table.

Just months prior to this, Capone orchestrated one of the most famous Mob hits of all time - The St. Valentines Day Massacre. As successful as the hit was, it was not a winner for Capone. The massacre of the seven north side mobsters was all over the news papers and the public's attitude to gangsters began to change. Wholesale slaughter was not what the public wanted. The hit also focused the efforts of the law enforcement community on Al Capone. However, Capone had an iron clad alibi when the murders were taking place - he was at his Miami condo talking to the local district attorney on the telephone at the time.

Capone could not be connected to any of the murders he had ordered or carried out himself but the Internal Revenue Service managed to get him on tax evasion charges and put him away for 11 years.

Capone's time was spent at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta and later on the island prison of Alcatraz in San Francisco harbor. Capone's time in Alcatraz was not easy. Although he could gain favor from some with enticements of money, other criminals were not so taken with the mighty Al Capone. There were many attempts on Capone's life in Alcatraz. He was stabbed in the back, an attempts were made to poison him, strangle him and stick him in the head with a device called a sash weight. He was released in 1939 due to ill health brought on by syphilis contracted in his early whore house days. The infection spread to his brain and he was a virtual vegetable most of the time. He was taken to his Florida mansion where he spent the rest of his life. He died on January 25th, 1947.