Al Capone And Organized Crime In The 1920s

Al Capone ran many illegal businesses including bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, and murders. There were many gangs in the world of organized crime and Al Capone’s was at the top. Al Capone was the most infamous gangster in the 1920’s.

Being a highly know and revered gangster was a big business. Money was made fast and very easily. Bootlegging alcohol was by far the most profitable in the 1920’s; this was because of the prohibition of alcohol. Gambling was another business that paid off; stations sanctioned for gambling were set up all over cities. Prostitution and murders were also crimes that made gangsters quick and easy money.

Alphonse Capone was the biggest force in organized crime. He started his career of crime in Boston as an apprentice to Johnny Torrio. There he earned the unforgettable nickname “Scarface.” It was in a bar when Capone made some rude comments about a woman. Minutes later, the woman’s brother sliced Capone in the face.

This man was a friend of Charles “Lucky” Luciano. Al Capone was punished and forced to apologize. Al Capone did not become a leader until he went to Chicago. At the time he was still an apprentice to Johnny Torrio.

In the middle of the gang violence and bootlegging was Chicago, the government was very weak which made it easier to do crime. Capone entered the city of Chicago in 1920. At the time, “Big Jim” Colosimo ran things. He made about $50,000 a month. Torrio and Capone started their business with four gambling joints/whore houses in Chicago. These underground places were known as deuces. In Chicago Capone met a man who would be his friend for life, Jack Guzik. Guzik and his family lived off prostitution. After Guzik was roughed up by gangster Joe Howard Capone let his temper flare. It did not his cause when Howard called Capone some foul names. Soon after the verbal altercation Capone shot him in cold blood. There was no conviction and it was becoming more and more clear that Capone was becoming extremely powerful. He obviously had connections in the law to not be convicted.

Al Capone finally got a taste of leadership after a few years of partnership with Torrio. Torrio left Capone in control of their areas to take his sick mother back to Italy. Capone was at the top of a Chicago suburb known as Cicero. At the ag...

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... of his guys were said to be located, The team was dressed in police uniforms and armed with machine guns and sawed off shotguns. They shot down 7 of Moran's men but Moran was never there. The police and all the people of Chicago all knew Capone ordered the murders.

But with no evidence, Capone could not be arrested. It was known as the St. Valentines Day Massacre and became the most publicity any gang event had ever received.

No other single gangster could be as infamous as Al Capone. Al Capone was the most powerful gangster to ever live. No one could stop his reign of crime, and anyone that got in his way, he would take out, even when it came to his friends. He was never convicted for any of the hundreds of crimes he committed; this is one of the most important facts that showed how many connections Capone had. It was until the 1930’s when Capone was convicted of tax invasion when he did his first jail sentence. He was transferred though many jails across America until he finally landed in Alcatraz. While serving his jail time Alphonse Capone became a victim of the deadly disease Syphilis. Al Capone died but his crime legacy will always live on.