SCAREFACE: THINGS YOU DIDNT KNOW ABOUT HIM

SCARFACE: THE REAL STORY

Alphonse Gabriel Capone, sometimes known as ‘Scarface’ was an American businessman and gangster. El Capon was a cigar-chomping folk-hero-mobster involved in everything from racketeering to murder and drug-running (and what would ultimately put him behind bars, tax evasion). For others, maybe there’s a desire to know the truth about the man who inspired Scarface.

 Are you interested in the realities of the prohibition gangster’s life? Below are some things you may not know about the man who once earned the title Public Enemy Number One. 

In any case, Alphonse Gabriel “Al” Capone is more than the sum of the above, an enigmatic, ruthless, and highly-respected individual who was one the 20th century’s most infamous cultural figures before he was even thirty years-old. Have you ever asked yourself, “what did Al Capone do?”

Early Life of El Capone

Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 17, 1899. His parents were Italian immigrants who arrived in the United States in 1893.

 At 14, he was expelled for hitting his female teacher in the face. He then started working odd jobs around the city and played semi-professional baseball. By the time Capone was 14 years old, he had met Johnny Torrio. Johnny was a New York City gangster whom he would consider a mentor. Torrio sought to transform the business of organized crime from being a grisly and violent culture to a corporate one. Torrio introduced Capone to the crime world, and eventually, Capone and Torrio were working with some of the most significant gangs in New York.

 One day, Capone made a crude public remark about the size and shape of a lady’s gluteus maximus. The brother to the lady was in the area and tried to defend his sister’s honor by slicing up Capone’s face. Capone would have been around 18 or 19 at the time and already had a certain reputation. Fortunately for the brother, Capone’s then boss, Frankie Yale, did not consider the matter worth further mayhem. He squashed the beef, reportedly ordering the brother (Frank Gallucio) to reimburse Capone. Later on, Capone hired Gallucio as a bodyguard.

Later Life OF El Capone

Public Enemy Number one just meant that the government considered him to be the worst criminal. Capone’s boisterous nature and extroverted violence attracted a great deal of public interest and law enforcement/political outrage which ended not only in his conviction but also in his transfer to Alcatraz, the “Supermax” prison of its day. Basically, he carved out an empire for himself like Columbo in Columbia (South America) did, and set rules that were followed by the Mob until the government intervened…

Capone was responsible for his boss, Torrio, moving to the suburbs and away from the mayor’s “cleanup” of Chicago; he practically bought all the important city officials” for his boss. He established speakeasies, gambling dens, and was so successful at all he did that Torrio, his boss, turned his entire operation over to his new assistant from the East Coast!

After almost being killed, Torrio was no longer able to do ‘anything’, so Capone became the “Man’ at the top of the Chicago gang operation at either 25 or 26 years old.

He ran every possible vice known to man at the time in Chicago, and killed possible hundreds of people who either stood in his way or were thought to be disloyal to him. At the same time, he instructed his men to liberally hand out coal (the main form of heat in those days), food and even money to the poor or downtrodden, personally setting up soup kitchens for the people of Chicago during the Great Depression: ruthless in business but magnanimous in giving. (I personally believe this is part of the reason people still strive to find out more about him even today and the ‘cult’ around his memory). Loved by some, hated by others…there will never be another as great as Chicago’s “Scarface”!

He started out as part of the Mob, but took it farther than any other man could have imagined then…by virtue of his intelligence, hard work, and personality, he became his own man, a man who has not been eclipsed in the Mob yet!

Did you know that the US government, short on personnel during the beginning of WW II, paid Al Capone and his men to provide security on the Chicago boat docks during the evening and nighttime!

Death of El Capone

Capone was released from prison on November 16, 1939, and referred to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for the treatment of paresis (caused by late-stage syphilis). Hopkins refused to admit him on his reputation alone, but Union Memorial Hospital accepted him. Capone was grateful for the compassionate care that he received and donated two Japanese weeping cherry trees to Union Memorial Hospital in 1939. 

Capone left Baltimore on March 20, 1940,at this point, he was very sick after a few weeks of inpatient and a few weeks of outpatient care, for Palm Island, Florida. In 1942, after mass production of penicillin started in the United States, Capone was one of the first American patients to get treated by the new drug. Though it was too late for him to reverse the damage in his brain, it did slow down the progression of the disease. 

In 1946, his physicians examined him and concluded that Capone had the mentality of a 12-year-old child. Capone spent the last years of his life at his mansion in Palm Island, Florida, spending time with his wife and grandchildren. 

On January 21, 1947, Capone had a stroke. He regained consciousness and started to improve, but contracted bronchial pneumonia. He suffered a cardiac arrest on January 22, and on January 25, surrounded by his family in his home, Capone died after his heart failed as a result of apoplexy. His body was transported back to Chicago a week later and a private funeral was held. He was originally buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago. In 1950, Capone’s remains, along with those of his father, Gabriele, and brother, Salvatore, were moved to Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.