Alphonse+Gabriel+(+Al+Capone+)


 * Introduction**

"I make money by supplying a public demand. If I break the law, my customers who number hundreds of the best people in Chicago, are as guilty as I am. The only difference is that I sell and they buy. Everybody calls me a racketeer. I call myself a businessman"(Simkim). Al Capone being as the biggest crime lords of the 1920's through the 1930's openly admitted to the public how his wealth was gained (Beashears). Even a fancy man he was, being how he had a great impact to the image of how the gangsters would be dressing like. Al Capone ran everything from illegal alcohol, gambling establishments. Everything was in control of Alphonse Al Capone (Simkim). From Bribing police and even judges, Al Capone had anything in his grasp (Rosenberg).


 * Personal Background**

You would think Capone had a rough childhood but in reality Al Capone grew up in a nice neighborhood. Al Capone was born in New York, Brooklyn January 17, 1899 and his father lead a job as a barber. So Al Capone and his family led a normal life for a family that migrated from Italy (Rosenberg). Al Capone at the age of 14 soon joined a gang called the Brooklyn thieves and escalated into other activities. After the many gangs that he joined when Capone joined the five points, it was here where Capone meet Frankie. Capone worked for Frankie in order to gain his trust, Capone would do so by working as a bartender and as a waiter. One time while working he got into a fight with a customer and the person pulled out a knife and slashed Capone in the face thus came his nick name Scar Face (Rosenberg). Al Capone went on to marry Mary Coughlin who was a pretty blonde from a respectable middle class Irish family. Al Capone and Mary soon married on December 30, 1918 and weeks later had a son. Al Capone's only son was named Sonny, Sonny was born 3 weeks after their weeding. One thing people might not know is that Capone really cared for his son and took him to baseball games (Rosenberg). Capone did a lot to take care for his family. Capone soon decided to wrote his own book titled " The Biography Of A Self Made Man" (Beshears). Al Capone's old businesses used to produce million dollars just from just selling alcohol illegally. Even though Capone was loyal to his family soon over time Capone did have a lot of mistresses over the years. One thing that really affected Capone is that he had contracted a disease from a prostitute and Capone was never aware of that. Capone had risen to the top of the ranks by 1922, in Torrio's organization (Rosenberg). Even though Al Capone had got really big and powerful he was still able to be sentenced to prison for tax evasion. Capone was given no special treatment despise he had a lot of money which he would use to bribe judges and would've easily ran the prison. But in this occasion the president himself had struck down hard on Capone and made sure that money would not help him (Yaccino). Capone soon was to spend almost all his remaining days in prison due to the harsh conditions he had.Once he had discovered about his disease, the problem had already risen to be much worse than if he had treated it sooner (Yaccino). Due to the fact that Capone was not able to get treatment sooner, Al Capone slowly was dying because the state of his health. On January 19, 1947, Capone suffered a stroke after developing pneumonia. Capone officially died on January 25, 1947 of cardiac arrest at the age of 48 (Rosenberg).


 * Personality Traits**

Most people would think of the biggest gangster in America as a bad person. Al Capone was actually really generous and would always tip waiters a lot of money. Even always tending to his kid and taking him to a baseball game (Rosenberg). He was also smart with his businesses because he was able to run all of them (Yaccino). I think one of Al Capones biggest traits is how fashionable he was. He would always be dressed with his Fedora and his Suit (Crandell). Al was also a great leader because he was able to keep all his men from going to jail or receiving any danger (Beshears). Alphonse was also really loyal growing up because he was always loyal to his leaders. Loyalty meant a lot him to because of how that got him to were he was (Rosenberg). Al Capone was also really violent when he was angered. He got cut in the face after he started a fight where he was working thus getting his nickname Scar Face (Rosenberg). One of Alphonse's most beneficial personality trait was being an infulentional person. Capone was able to keep all his men from betraying him and getting many members because of this traits (Yaccino).


 * Obstacles**

One of Capone's biggest obstacles was always dealing with the police. Since the police were always trying to find ways to arrest him, Capone was constantly having trouble with the police (Beshears). Another obstacle was other gang members always trying to kill Al Capone. Since he was a really known mobster everyone wanted a shot at Capone. Capone even had to build a custom bulletproof car for his own protection from other gangs (Rosenberg). The police never left Capone alone, the police even managed to send him to jail for 11 years (Beshears). Like I had said about other gangs, while he was in prison everyone wanted to fight or even kill Al Capone. Since other gangs always competed for territory or for all his illegal businesses, they all wanted to take him out (Rosenberg). I think Al Capone's most vital obstacle was that he had contracted a disease from a hooker. When he was in prison his disease got worse and when he got out, he got a lot of treatment for it. Despise all the treatment he took, he could no longer fight off the disease and Al Capone died (Simkin).


 * Historical Significance**

What Al Capone was most known for having been the most biggest gangster ever known to America. His fame ran from the 1920's through the 1930's as the biggest crime lord in New York and Miami. Al Capone was really known because of how big his businesses were and how he handled everything (Beshears). Al Capone ,even being fashionable brought the iconic image of how gangsters would love to be seen dressed. Since Al Capone was always dressed in his fedora,dark suit jackets tie, and always with a cigar in his mouth. This how Al Capone inspired the era of gangsters way of dressing (Rosenberg). Al Capone definitely had much to be known for and one of those things is his own auto biography that he wrote him self. He titled it "The Biography Of A Self-Made Man" which was made in order for people to see his way of life (Beshears). Al Capone was always in articles, newspapers, books, and films. With a rock steady musician who wrote a song about him named "Al Capone". Al Capone was equally seen as a celebrity and many people loved his personality which gave him all his exposure into many articles. Even though he had a impact on clothing for gangsters Al Capone was also a patron for black jazz musicians (Crandell). Capone even influenced the directer of Breaking Bad by basing the main character of Breaking Bad off of Al Capone. He was pictured in many movies, seeing how his reputation was really big. The movie Scar Face is based off of Al Capone as well as many other mobster movies that were made during and after his time (Crandell)(Yacciono). When most people who know and hear the name Al Capone, the first thing that most likely pops in their heads is how big of a mobster he was known for. I think Capone is mostly known for have been a really big gangster of the 1920's-1930's. Well Capone's most historical significance was being a really big mobster who ruled the streets and even police and judges (Rosenberg). Another thing Capone was known for having his men dressed in police uniforms and killing six leading members of the Bugs Moran Gang. They were killed in a garage by Al Capone's men and this became known as St Valentine's Day Massacre. This is what pretty much brought Capone's downfall because after this the president Roosevelt took notice into Capone. He after tried his hardest to have Capone arrested and be put behind bars. Before all this Capone was big but wasn't really known around America till the massacre. This brought all the attention towards Capone and grew a big reputation because of it. So in the end Capone had got all the attention from the president and after was sentenced to jail for tax evasion. This occurred because of the famous St Valentine's Massacre that was planned by Capone to kill rivalry gang leaders (Sinkim).


 * References**

[|Beshears, Laura]. "Honorable Style In Dishonorable Times : American Gangsters Of The 1990's And 1930." //Journal Of American Culture 3(2010) : 197. eLibrary.// Web. 17 Sep. 2014//. **SE#5**//

Crandell, Ben, Staff. "Public Enemy No. 1 revisited ." //South Florida Sun - Sentinel//. 22 Jul. 2014: D8. //eLibrary//. Web. 07 Jan. 2015. **SE#1**

King C, David. //Al Capone And The Roaring Twenties//. WoodBridge: Black Birch Press inc, 1999. Print. **SE#2**

RosenBerg, Jennifer. "Al Capone A Biography Of The Iconic American Gangster." //About Education.// 2015. //History1900's.about.com//. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. **SE#4**

Simkim, John. "Al Capone." //Spartacus Educational.// 1997-2014. //Spartacus Educational.// Web. 29 Jan. 2015. **SE#3**

Yaccino, Steven. "Effort To Honor Eliot Ness In Capital Finds Trouble In Chicago". //New York Times//. 05 Mar. 2014: A14. //eLibrary//. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. **SE#6**