One of the most notorious criminals in U.S. History was Al Capone? What did Capone do
to become so infamous? What happened to him? In the 1920s, the passage of 18th Amendment
(which illegalized alcohol) gave rise to large-scale organized crime throughout the United States.
These crime "syndicates" were responsible for bringing in much of the illegal liquor
pouring into the country. This importation of alcohol made many of these criminals millionaires.
The most notable of these gangsters was Al Capone.
Al Capone was born on January 17, 1899 in Brooklyn, one of the boroughs of New York
City. He was a talented student but had great difficulty following the rules. He was expelled
from school at the age of 14, after he hit a teacher in the face. After leaving school,
he had a number of odd jobs, including working at a bowling alley, a candy store, working
as a bouncer at a bar, and a small-time boxing promoter.
As Capone entered his early twenties, he moved to Chicago and became involved in the world
of organized crime. He worked with John Torrio's gang, which was the biggest and most well-organized
crime syndicate in Chicago. In no time at all, Capone became one of the top men in Torrio's
gang. In 1925, Torrio was shot several times and
retired, leaving Capone in charge. At the age of 26, Al Capone found himself as the
head one of the most extensive networks of illegal breweries and bootleggers in the nation.
Throughout the 1920s, Capone continued to expand this enterprise and became unbelievably
wealthy in the process. Capone became well-known for his excesses,
indulging in expensive food, drink, cigars, clothing, and jewelry. More money was spent
to avoid trouble. In order to keep himself, and his organization out of trouble, millions
of dollars was spent bribing public officials. Judges, juries, police officers, and politicians
were all paid off to ensure that law enforcement officials throughout Chicago would look the
other way. Violence was also used to further their law-breaking
ways. Buildings were bombed and members of rival gangs were beaten or even murdered.
For example, on February 14, 1929, Capone's men disguised themselves as police officers.
They entered the headquarters of a rival gang and used machine guns and shotguns to execute
seven men. This incident became known as the Valentine's Day Massacre. When news and pictures
of the incident reached the newspapers, the public was appalled.
To crack down on Al Capone's illegal dealings, the Department of Treasury appointed a special
task force to bring down Capone's operation. Elliot Ness was chosen to lead this team of
law enforcement agents which came to known as The Untouchables (because they could not
be bribed or otherwise manipulated). The Untouchables began raids on the illegal
stills and breweries and had a major impact on Capone's business. Ness estimated that
they had seized more than $1 million of breweries (this would be more than $13 million today!).
Eventually, the work of Ness, his fellow agents, and IRS investigator Frank Wilson led to the
end of Capone's illegal ventures. Capone was charged with 22 counts of tax evasion, as
well as over 5,000 violations of the Volstead Act (this was the law that had enforced the
18th Amendment). Capone was sentenced to eleven years in prison
in 1932. He served out this sentence in both the Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary and the federal
prison known as Alcatraz, which is just off the coast of San Francisco. After being released
from prison, Capone lived out the remainder of his life in Florida. He died in January
of 1947, after suffering from a stroke, cardiac arrest, and contracting pneumonia, all within
a few weeks. Following Capone's capture and imprisonment,
there was still much organized crime to be dealt with. J. Edgar Hoover, the director
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, appointed agents to track down and eliminate these other
outlaws. These agents, known as G-Men (Government Men), worked throughout the late 1920s and
early 1930s to bring order to lawless cities such as Chicago and Kansas City (two cities
that became well-known for harboring gangsters). They even created a "Public Enemies List"
which stated the most wanted criminals in the nation (Al Capone was the nation's first
"Public Enemy #1"). With the passage of the 21st Amendment in
December of 1933, much of the lawlessness came to an end. Since alcohol was once again
legal to make and transport, the criminal elements of the nation moved on to other illegal
activities, and receded into the darker fringes of society.