Al+Capone

Al Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York. He was an Italian-American gangster who led a crime syndicate dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging of liquor and other illegal activities during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s. He grew up in a rough neighborhood were he joined two gangs which were named “Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors”. Besides those gangs he also became part of the notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan. Al Capone was a very bright kid but that didn’t help him because he dropped from school when he was in sixth grade at the age of fourteen. During that same year he beat up a female teacher. In America he was best known as a gangster and greatest symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States. Another thing he did was being a clerk in a candy store, a pinboy in a bowling alley, and a cutter in a book bindery. Half of the police force was paid by mob rulers; illegal alcohol was flowing free in the streets during the Prohibition Era. Al Capone was a gangster whose lifestyle involved crime, prostitution, and bootlegged alcohol. In his youth, Al Capone already started a life of crime which led to his being a notorious gangster as an adult; however, it was not his violence but his lifestyle that brought about his demise. Although Capone was responsible for several murders,the most notorious killing was committed on February 14, 1929, which became known as “The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.” Capone ordered four of his men, dressed in police uniforms to enter the headquarters of Bugs Moran's bootleg operations and kill his North Side gang. Capone was never tried nor charged for many of his crimes. Although he committed or ordered many murders, he had another side to him. He opened soup kitchens and had local merchants give food and clothing away to needy people using his own money.



Bibliography

“Al Capone” http://www.chicagohs.org/history/capone/cpn1.html

“Al Capone” http://www.angelfire.com/co/pscst/capone.html

“Al Capone” http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/78491.html