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Articles and Products of History Al Capone Al Capone was born Alphonse Capone in Brooklyn in 1899. His parents were Italian immigrants and it seemed that Al Capone’s fate would be a life time of hard work with little pay. That is until he fell into the ranks of an Italian street gang run by Johny Torrio and Lucky Luciano.
In December 1918, an argument between Al Capone and another man led to murder. Upon calling his old friend, Torrio invited Capone to Chicago where he was now residing. Al Capone decided to take advantage of his friends offer. When Al Capone arrived in Chicago, he went to work as a bouncer in Torrio’s club. It wasn’t long before Torrio gave him a more important task. Since prohibition, Torrio wanted to establish underground drinking establishments. Yet, “Big Jim” Colosimo, who ran Chicago’s underground, kept denying Torrio’s request. Al Capone did not hesitate to rid Torrio of “Big Jim” on May 11, 1920. In the end, Torrio became the boss of Chicago with Al Capone in charge of the alcohol for the city. In 1925, Torrio decided to resign as the boss of Chicago after an assassination attempt left him seriously wounded. This made way for Al Capone to take charge and show the gang how fearless he was. With city officials and policeman on his payroll, there was no need for him to fear anyone. Yet, the IRS was watching Al Capone and even hired Eddie O’Hare to gather information about Al Capone’s dog and race track business. The fact that Al Capone did not see what was going on was a testament of how careless he had grown. At this time he was both fearless and careless as evident in the St. Valentines Day massacre in which Capone shot down a group of seven people. The person he intended to shoot, Bugs Moran, was not even present. Eventually, the IRS convicted Al Capone of tax evasion and sentenced him to 11 years. After servicing his sentence Al Capone checked himself into a hospital, but not before killing Eddie O’Hare. However, he died of a stroke and pneumonia on January 25, 1947. Further Reading
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