Al Capone | |
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![]() Al Capone in 1930
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Born |
Alphonse Gabriel Capone January 17, 1899 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
Died | January 25, 1947 Palm Island, Florida, U.S. |
(aged 48)
Resting place | Mount Carmel Cemetery |
Nationality | American |
Other names | , Big Al, Big Boy, |
Occupation | Gangster, bootlegger, racketeer, boss of Chicago Outfit |
Height | 5' 10½" (1,79 m) |
Criminal charge | Tax evasion |
Criminal penalty | 11-year sentence in Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary and Alcatraz |
Spouse(s) | Mae Coughlin (m. 1918–1947) |
Children | Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone (1918–2004) |
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Alphonse Gabriel Capone (/æl kəˈpoʊn/;Italian pronunciation: [kaˈpone] January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname Scarface, was an American mobster, crime boss and businessman who attained fame during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. His seven-year reign as crime boss ended when he was 33 years old.
Capone was born in Brooklyn in New York City to Italian immigrants. He was considered a Five Points Gang member who became a bouncer in organized crime premises such as brothels. In his early twenties, he moved to Chicago and became bodyguard and trusted factotum for Johnny Torrio, head of a criminal syndicate that illegally supplied alcohol—the forerunner of the Outfit—and that was politically protected through the Unione Siciliana. A conflict with the North Side Gang was instrumental in Capone's rise and fall. Torrio went into retirement after North Side gunmen almost killed him, handing control to Capone. Capone expanded the bootlegging business through increasingly violent means, but his mutually profitable relationships with mayor William Hale Thompson and the city's police meant that Capone seemed safe from law enforcement.