Account of the Life of Al Capone: Scarface

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

Alphonse Capone was the biggest force in organized crime. He started his career in 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. Capone was slashed in the face minutes later by the woman's brother.This man was a friend of Charles 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, where 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 of prostitution. After Guzik was roughed up by gangster Joe Howard Capone, his temper flared. It did not help 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 age of 25, Capone was one of the most powerful men in Chicago, but being such a force also made him a target for rival gangs.

Soon, Capone was stronger than almost every gangster in America in the 20s. He was the most feared man in Chicago, but he didn't earn it through bootlegging, pimping, or gambling. Al Capone had to kill men who got in his way. That is how Al Capone became the most powerful gangster ever. Of all the murders, the cause of many may lie in the hands of the Prohibition Act. The act started on January 16, 1920. It stated that liqueur that is a beverage cannot be manufactured, sold, or hauled on the face of the earth, but there were many people against this, a lot of whom were gangsters and other thugs. But they didn't just talk about it; many men became bootleggers and racketeers. The profits made by this were enormous.

Bootlegging led to a tremendous amount of rivalry between a lot of gangs. Al Capone was in constant danger because he was one of the top bootleggers. One of Al Capone's rivals was the gardener, Dion Obanion. Dion was a rival bootlegger whose behavior had to be controlled. He killed men whenever and wherever he wanted. Obion even went as far as tricking Torrio, which sent him to jail. Something he did wrong was brag about it. Days later, Obanion was taken out by three of Capone's men in his own flower shop. Capone and Torrio then took over the excellent bootlegging business that was Don's. After the murder of Dion Obanion, Al Capone and Johnny Torrio began to fear for their lives. The OBanions gang did not give up; at one point they struck in midday. Capone's headquarters was the Hawthorne Hotel.

There were two cars packed with thugs; the first car drove by shooting blank rounds to draw out Capone's men, and the next car was to spray the hotel lobby and other surrounding buildings with thousands of bullets. The plan did not work; Capone survived, as did many others; deaths were few. Two years after O'Bannon's murder, his former gang members made twelve unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Capone. The man who had been giving Capone the most trouble was George Bugsy Moran. Moran took over O'Banion's gang after the murder of Dion. Capone planned an assassination for Moran. To keep himself out of trouble, Capone laid back in Florida and left "Machine Gun McGurn in charge of the hit. On February 14, 1929, two of Capone's men, including McGurn, entered a garage where Moran and some 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 seven of Moran's men, but Moran was never there. The police and all the people of Chicago knew Capone ordered the murders. But with no evidence, Capone could not be arrested. It was known as the St. Valentine's 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 of any of the hundreds of crimes he committed; this is one of the most important facts that showed how many connections Capone had. It wasn't until the 1930s that Capone was convicted of tax invasion and served his first jail sentence. He was transferred through 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.

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