Al
Capone |
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Al Capone |
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| Capone, Al (1899-1947),
Italian-American gangster of the Prohibition era, also known as Scarface
because of a knife cut to his cheek. He was born Alphonse Capone in Naples,
Italy, and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He left school at an early age
and spent nearly ten years with gangs in Brooklyn. In the 1920s he took
over a Chicago organization dealing in illegal liquor, gambling, and prostitution
from the gangster Johnny Torrio. In the following years he eliminated
his competitors in a series of gang wars, culminating in the Saint Valentine's
Day massacre of 1929, that won him control of Chicago's underworld. Convicted
of income tax evasion in 1931 and sentenced to 11 years in prison, he
was released on parole in 1939. Crippled by syphilis, he spent the rest
of his life in his Miami Beach, Florida, mansion. |
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