Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Italian immigrants that came to the U.S. seeking a better future. He was a very smart boy at school, but he had trouble following the strict discipline codes of his Catholic school. That's why, when he turned 14, he was expelled for hitting a teacher on her face.
From that moment on, Capone started his career as a gang member. He was part of the Five Points Gang in which he met his mentor, the Mafia Don Johnny Torrio. He continued working with Torrio, building a vast criminal empire with its base in Chicago, called the Chicago Outfit.
Capone's life in Illinois was luxurious and at the same time dangerous. After enemy gangs made an attempt to kill Torrio, in which he was wounded, the Italian mobster decided to go back to his homeland, leaving the whole operations of the Chicago crime syndicate in Capone's hands. Thereafter, Capone dedicated his efforts to consolidate his criminal empire. He was involved in the bootlegging business as well as in running rackets and prostitution cabarets.
A few years later, around the end of the 1920's, Capone was regarded as a celebrity. He said that his business was just about "giving people what they wanted". In 1929, an obscure fact was the starting point of the decline of Capone's career: The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, in which he ordered the murder of seven members of a rival gang led by Bugs Moran. The massacre was a response to an attempt of killing Capone in a drive-by shooting.
After several pictures of the massacre showed everywhere, Capone's reputation began to deteriorate and the police made more attempts to capture him. Finally, agent Elliot Ness led a team that caught Capone. The mobster was indicted for tax evasion and sentenced to eleven years of prison confinement.
Capone's life came to an end in 1947 after having lived many years tormented by syphilis. Nontheless, Capone's legend never died. He represents the spirit of the 1920's in the United States; a continuous search for opportunities and wealth. When you think about Capone, you think about earning $100 million per year in revenue and about having a huge black, bulletproof Cadillac that was later on used as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's limousine.
Capone symbolizes richness, influence and power. On the other hand, he is an icon for crime and violence. But, if there is something true about the 1920's is that they gave birth to the best (or worst) gangster of all times. He will stay in our memories forever.
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