Al Capone: Chicago's King

In 1920, the Congress of the United States ratified the Eighteenth Amendment, which was a ban across the United States on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of all alcoholic beverages. During this time, also known as the Prohibition-era, many citizens smuggled and transported alcohol, a process referred to as bootlegging. The illegal activity brought much stress and challenges for law enforcement agencies of the area; they struggled to continuously keep alcohol off the streets. One man that caused a majority of the stress and stands out for his bootlegging empire is Al Capone. According to many historians and biographers, Al Capone was, perhaps, one of the most notorious and ruthless gangsters of the Prohibition-era based on his involvement in smuggling and bootlegging liquor, as well as his criminal activities.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in the year 1899, Alphonse “Al” Gabriel Capone was one of eight children. Gabriel Capone and Teresina Raiola, Al Capone’s parents, were immigrants from Naples, Italy (Al Capone). As a child, Capone was expelled from school after he hit his teacher in response to the teacher hitting him. The Capone family of ten lived in a small apartment in the heart of Brooklyn but later moved into a nicer neighborhood called Park Slopes (A & E Television Networks). In his new neighborhood of Park Slopes, Capone met his future wife, Mary Coughlin, and his future life and mob mentor, Johnny Torrio. As a young adult, Capone worked as a clerk in a candy store, a pin boy in a bowling alley, and a cutter in a book bindery (Al Capone). He also worked as a bouncer and a bartender in the Harvard Inn for Jonny Torrio’s friend and Frankie Yale. The Harvard Inn is where Capone received his famous scars, which gave him the nickname, Scarface. When Capone was only nineteen, he married an Irish woman by the name of Mary “Mae”