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Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:00
he was a man who was impossible to
00:01
ignore the flamboyant character with a
00:03
cigar and a $50,000 pinkie ring although
00:07
he weighed over 250 pounds he could when
00:09
the occasion demanded it move with
00:11
lethal speed and force his jolly smile
00:14
contrasted with the two scars that
00:15
streaked across his left cheek then
00:17
there was his clothing his wardrobe was
00:19
nothing short of outrageous custom
00:21
tailored purple suits pearl gray fedoras
00:23
and diamond encrusted stick pens
00:26
he loved attention wanting people to
00:28
adore him even as he ruthlessly
00:30
dispatched those who had no use for his
00:32
name was Al Capone and he has become the
00:35
symbol of American greed and corruption
00:37
in the 1920s and 30s when his eyes On
00:40
January the 25th 1947 the New York Times
00:43
called him a monstrous symbol of a
00:45
disease which was eating into the
00:46
conscious of America but the paper went
00:48
on to say poem was incredible the
00:51
creation of an evil dream yes almost
00:53
everything that the public thought they
00:55
knew about him man’s the most of us
00:57
think we know today is false the
00:59
products of decades of glorification and
01:01
myth making and in today’s bio graphics
01:03
video we’re gonna peel back the layers
01:05
to discover the real Al Capone
01:14
[Music]
01:18
Gabrielle and Teresa Capone made the big
01:21
move from Sicily to New York in 1894
01:23
they ended up in a four room flat on
01:26
Park Avenue adjacent to the Brooklyn
01:28
Navy Yard the couple had two sons in tow
01:30
the youngest who was just a few months
01:32
old the third boy followed shortly after
01:34
their arrival a barber by trade
01:36
gabrielle was looking for a new life in
01:38
america what he found was a city in
01:41
which immigrants were viewed as lower
01:42
citizens Italians especially were
01:45
vilified by Americans who blamed the
01:47
spiraling crime rate that in New York
01:49
was experiencing on them yet the
01:51
Capone’s they were a hard-working family
01:53
they were law-abiding and trying to fit
01:55
in to their new society when their
02:01
fourth son Alphonse was born in 1899 the
02:03
family had settled into a decent but
02:06
hard existence life around the Brooklyn
02:08
Naval Yard
02:08
it was pretty rough-and-tumble and by
02:10
the age of 10 young Al Capone had begun
02:12
to exhibit the toughness and brashness
02:14
that he carried into his adult life from
02:17
the start al emerged as a natural leader
02:19
at the age of 14 he formed the Navy
02:22
Street gang in order to protect Italian
02:24
women from harassment from their Irish
02:26
neighbors by now he had been expelled
02:28
from school for punching a female
02:29
teacher in the face but you know what he
02:32
said well she ended him first just prior
02:34
to World War one the Capone’s they moved
02:36
out of the Italian ghetto Gabrielle’s
02:38
head down and get on with it attitude
02:40
was paying off and al found himself in
02:42
an upwardly mobile middle-class
02:44
community still further up the hill vote
02:46
was worthy really well-off people lived
02:48
this area
02:49
it was strictly off-limits for the likes
02:50
of the Capone’s the teenage owl looked
02:53
upon this area in envious eyes this was
02:56
where the Rockefeller snooped and feisty
02:58
teens saw no reason why he couldn’t live
03:00
the Rockefeller way he just had to find
03:03
a means
03:05
[Music]
03:09
by the age of 19 al had become a local
03:12
tough he knew how to use a gun and a
03:15
knife he was a big brutish brawler who
03:17
could knock a man to the ground with a
03:19
single punch it also found himself a
03:22
family on December 30th 1918 he married
03:24
maid Coughlin who was 2 years older than
03:27
him three weeks previously may have
03:29
given birth to their son Albert family
03:31
life in encourage Capone to get on the
03:33
straight and narrow intent on turning to
03:35
a respectful life worthy of his wife and
03:37
Charles he moved the family out of the
03:39
neighborhood and away from the bad
03:41
influences they shifted to Baltimore and
03:43
Al took a job as a bookie but ironically
03:46
this straight job would come in handy
03:47
down the track when he was juggling
03:49
millions of dollars and from bootleg
03:51
liquor now that could have been the end
03:53
of the story for Alphonse in major pain
03:55
they could have settled into an
03:56
uneventful life of respectability in
03:58
Baltimore maybe even work their way up
04:01
the social ladder to gain some community
04:03
status but well as we well know that
04:06
wasn’t to be
04:08
[Music]
04:11
with the sudden death of his father of a
04:14
heart attack
04:14
Al’s flirtation with respectability
04:16
while it was over he returned for the
04:18
funeral and soon found that the family
04:20
were now looking to him for guidance as
04:22
well as financial support that would
04:24
require more money than he was earning
04:26
as a bookkeeper in Baltimore meanwhile
04:28
the local gang Vord al had pulled away
04:30
from an outgrowth of the manhattan-based
04:32
five points gang they were to cross
04:35
ropes six months earlier and that he a
04:36
bigwig in Chicago named Big Jim Colosimo
04:39
had been struck dead the leader of the
04:41
gang that Capone had pulled away from
04:43
Johnny Torrio was intent on stepping
04:46
into the vacuum created by big Jim’s
04:48
demise he invited Capone to join him as
04:51
his right-hand man Torrio had been
04:53
grooming component for the last couple
04:54
of years had given him a job as a
04:56
collector to ensure extortion payments
04:58
were made al he soon graduated to become
05:01
the main bouncer and bartender at the
05:03
Harvard Inn on Coney Island now it was
05:10
one night of this establishment that al
05:11
told a female patron that she had a nice
05:14
rear end the girl’s brother well she
05:16
doesn’t take so kindly to the remark and
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in an instant hit carved up Capone’s
05:20
face with a bottle opener for the rest
05:22
of his life al would carry dual stripes
05:25
down his chink giving rise to the name
05:27
Scarface
05:28
[Music]
05:31
now while they’ve been in Baltimore
05:33
rumors had circulated that our had been
05:36
involved in a couple of murders one
05:38
prostitute who was suspected of
05:39
withholding pimp money and the other was
05:41
a friend who’d reneged on a gambling
05:43
debt
05:43
all of this was bringing unwanted police
05:46
attention to the gang and shortly after
05:48
his father’s funeral Capone was called
05:50
to a meeting with Lucky Luciano a key
05:52
member of the gang so what’s going on
05:55
now it’s reported to have asked
05:56
nervously I’ll tell you what’s going on
05:59
Luciano replied you gonna get the hell
06:01
out of town don’t bother to pack Luciano
06:04
he then handed al an envelope which
06:05
contained two thousand dollars which is
06:07
about $25,000 in today’s money and
06:09
directed him to go straight to Grand
06:11
Central Station and head for Chicago al
06:19
arrived in Chicago in 1921 ready willing
06:22
and eager to learn the ropes he left his
06:24
wife of a behind in Brooklyn with
06:26
instructions to follow once it
06:27
established their new life the challenge
06:29
now for Johnny Torrio the leader of the
06:31
gang was to get Al Capone to stop using
06:33
his fists and start using his brains in
06:35
order to succeed in the rackets he put
06:38
Capone in the position of head bouncer
06:40
and bartender at the four deuces a
06:42
four-story building which served as
06:44
Torrio’s general officers which also
06:46
housed a saloon at Cafe the top floor of
06:48
this establishment well that was a
06:49
brothel and Al apparently spent quite a
06:52
lot of time on that floor where he
06:54
wasn’t exactly working indeed his sexual
06:57
proclivities resulted in a lifelong
07:00
battle with syphilis
07:01
[Music]
07:05
this it was no place for the weak of
07:07
heart
07:08
countless unsolved murders took place
07:10
there with al playing a leading hand in
07:12
dispatching those who Torrio wanted
07:14
eliminated in fact al did so well within
07:17
the year but he was made a partner
07:19
sharing envy $100,000 annual profits now
07:23
Torrio tore Capone how to portray an air
07:25
of respectability even as he delved
07:28
deeper and deeper into the underworld as
07:30
a cover Al opened a secondhand furniture
07:32
store next door
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he carried business cards announcing his
07:35
occupation as furniture dealer as
07:38
Chicago authorities began to crack down
07:39
on organized crime Torrio spread his
07:42
business interests into the suburbs in
07:44
the suburbs local police and politicians
07:46
well they could be controlled more
07:48
easily in fact it was Torrio’s expansion
07:55
beyond Chicago that was the key to the
07:57
development of the empire that Capone
08:00
would eventually inherit by the time
08:02
Capone arrived in the Windy City Sario
08:04
had already set up Vice gambling and
08:06
prostitution operations in the nearby
08:08
town of Berner then with the election of
08:11
crime busting Chicago Mayor William
08:12
evine in October of 1923 the entire base
08:16
of the operation was moved to the
08:18
western suburb of Cicero
08:20
[Music]
08:21
[Applause]
08:21
[Music]
08:23
the plant was to make Cicero a wide-open
08:26
town where the gang could peddle booze
08:28
and accommodate gamblers at will to do
08:30
so Torrio he reached an agreement with
08:32
the authorities to shut down his
08:33
brothels in Cicero so long as he had
08:36
free rein on the other two arms of his
08:38
business by cutting the police and
08:40
politicians in on the profits Johnny
08:42
soon developed the operation he wanted
08:44
within six months of moving in the
08:46
outfit owned the town of Cicero lock
08:49
stock and barrel by January of 1924
08:58
Torrio felt so confident in his position
09:00
that he embarked on a trip back to the
09:02
old country where he planned to set his
09:04
mother up in a fine home in Venice in
09:06
his absence Mao would be in charge Alice
09:09
first challenge was to make sure that
09:10
the officials who had his back well that
09:12
they stayed in office the local
09:14
elections were to be held April and
09:16
Capone was prepared to go to any lengths
09:18
to keep the incumbents in office well
09:20
what’s the way Al Capone would do this
09:22
well that would be by bringing some
09:24
extra muscle he brought his two older
09:26
brothers Ralph and Frank over from New
09:29
York
09:29
the brothers thought nothing of
09:31
destroying ballots and replacing them
09:32
with votes for their own candidates
09:34
everyone kind of just went along with
09:36
whatever the Capone’s did the police
09:38
sheriff even the state’s attorney they
09:40
all went along with this apparently
09:43
deciding that it was futile to trying to
09:45
pose them on the day of the election in
09:46
Cicero Torrio Capone gangsters used guns
09:49
and fists to intimidate voters escorting
09:52
them to the ballot box and watching them
09:53
drop their votes for the incumbent mayor
09:55
directly into the box honest poll
09:57
Watchers and election officials were
09:58
held captive until after the ballot
10:00
closed honest citizens well obviously
10:02
they were outraged of this some of them
10:04
even called upon Chicago Judge Edmonds
10:06
DJ rocky to do something about the
10:08
Cicero gang
10:09
Jarecki deputized 70 Chicago cops who
10:12
went into Cicero in plain clothes and
10:14
unmarked black sedans
10:15
they seemed spotted Frank Capone on the
10:17
street gunning him down and riddling his
10:19
body with bullets
10:26
when our heard about his brother’s
10:29
slaying all of the sophistication that
10:31
Torrio had imbued him over the last year
10:33
was ripped away his savage nature was
10:36
Unleashed as he vowed to take revenge it
10:38
took all of Torrio’s persuasive skill to
10:40
keep him in check but Torrio he was not
10:42
able to keep Capone out of a spotlight
10:44
staying in the backgrounds having owls
10:46
Minds
10:47
cost the life of his brother Torrio he
10:49
continued to preach non-violence only
10:51
resorting to brute force when all else
10:53
fails but the name of Al Capone
10:55
well that was synonymous with violence
10:58
this is something that’s pretty well
11:00
illustrated in contemporary culture
11:01
we’ve got a clip here thanks to
11:03
Boardwalk Empire pretty nicely sums up
11:15
how we see Al Capone
11:17
now try as he might to follow his
11:18
leaders advice Capone was plagued by
11:21
mayhem and a temper that he found
11:23
difficult to control
11:24
Al’s base nature was combative rather
11:26
than diplomatic and it resulted in an
11:28
awful lot of bloodshed in the years that
11:30
were to come
11:31
Al’s pent-up emotions over the death of
11:33
his brother Frank were given expression
11:35
on the evening of May the 8th 1924 his
11:38
partner in a prostitution ring a Jacke
11:40
music had been roughed up by an Irish
11:42
thug named Joe Howard fought with using
11:44
him alone Capone
11:46
immediately tracked down Howard in a bar
11:48
and demanded to know what happens Howard
11:50
took one look at Capone called in a Dago
11:52
pimp and then told him to get lost
11:54
at this point Capone pulled out his
11:56
pistol and shot Howard in the face and
11:59
he did this in front of dozens of
12:01
witnesses
12:02
[Music]
12:07
the more it never convicted out for this
12:10
brazen murder but the press they
12:11
certainly did the original story
12:13
identified him as Al Brown but when it
12:16
was picked up by other papers it was
12:17
corrected to Alphonse Capone this was
12:20
really the beginning of his public
12:21
persona and when he became famous for it
12:24
less than a year later in January of
12:25
9025 Johnny Torrio was ambushed by rival
12:28
gang members he came within an inch of
12:30
losing his life surviving only to have a
12:32
nine-month prison term slapped on him
12:35
for operating an illegal brewery while
12:37
inside he decided that it had enough of
12:39
the Chicago madness by the end of that
12:41
year had completely handed the reins
12:42
over to Capone and he disappeared Capone
12:49
he inherited a gold mine from Johnny
12:51
Torrio that was fueled by a highly
12:53
organized operation that operated
12:55
largely behind the scenes in fact the
12:57
duplicity was so complete that 99% of
13:00
the citizens of Cicero never even saw a
13:03
gangster rather than AA be used the
13:05
government to control the area with
13:06
non-compliant merchants being plagued
13:08
with higher taxes and loss of parking in
13:11
front of their stores
13:12
well they quickly got the message and
13:13
they got into lying
13:15
[Music]
13:16
[Applause]
13:17
[Music]
13:18
now Capone set his sights on the north
13:21
side of Chicago to make some headway he
13:23
first had to subjugate the deadliest
13:25
gang Chicago had ever known the genes–
13:27
they operated in the open even having
13:30
police protection the genes– also had
13:32
been major suppliers of alcohol to the
13:34
Torrio Capone outfit and Capone had even
13:37
supported them in their battles with
13:39
other gangs but after crushing the rival
13:41
O’Banion gang the Jenners decided to
13:44
take over the Capone Empire it would
13:46
prove to be their undoing the genna’s
13:48
selected a couple of Sicilians to
13:50
assassinate Capone however recognizing
13:52
Capone’s power and fearful that such an
13:54
attempt would lead to their own demise
13:56
the Sicilian duo informed Capone of the
13:59
Jenners intentions al convinced them to
14:01
turn on the Genesis and in short order
14:03
they had killed three of the Genna
14:05
brothers the remaining three brothers
14:07
while they fled to Sicily with the
14:09
genna’s while they were out of the way
14:10
the piont now had to deal with the
14:12
survivors of the O’Banion gang who had
14:14
raided Capone’s headquarters a number of
14:16
times on one particular occasion made
14:18
used 8 touring cars they first shot
14:21
blanks to lure people outside and then
14:23
followed with live ammunition hoping to
14:25
kill Capone on the spot the ruse well it
14:27
didn’t work though over 1,000 rounds
14:29
were fired miraculously no one was
14:32
killed al was convinced that the brains
14:34
behind this attempted hit was Hymie
14:36
Weiss leader of the O’Banion gang and he
14:39
immediately ordered the death of this
14:41
man but hitmen set themselves up across
14:43
from Weiss’s flower shop and waited and
14:46
waited and waited after a week they
14:49
finally spotted Weiss walking towards
14:51
his shop they killed him and three of
14:53
his bodyguards successfully stepping
14:55
into the vacuum created by the killing
14:56
of Hymie Weiss with bugs moorim who was
14:59
as eager to get rid of Capone as Weiss
15:01
had been moran had plenty of guts but
15:03
little common sense he publicly
15:05
denounced Capone especially for peddling
15:07
bad
15:08
and bad alcohol constantly on the attack
15:11
Moran’s troops launched a number of
15:13
forays against Capone’s businesses by
15:19
february of 1929 Capone had had enough
15:22
he ordered a massive hit on Capone to
15:24
take place on some Valentine’s Day the
15:26
killers disguised as policemen entered
15:28
Moran’s warehouse and caught the seven
15:30
victims off-guard facing them towards
15:32
the wall as if they were gonna frisk
15:33
them they then moved them down with
15:35
machine-gun fire
15:37
Moran was not among them but this attack
15:40
but it was enough to scare him off
15:42
having eliminated all opposition on the
15:44
north side of Chicago Capone now focused
15:47
on the south after a number of killings
15:49
his rivals
15:50
well they sued for peace agreeing to
15:52
give al a large slice of their operation
15:58
by March of 1929 Al Capone he was the
16:02
undisputed king of Chicago being
16:04
portrayed to the public as the ultimate
16:06
gangster yet at the same time he was
16:08
being read the riot act by his peers for
16:11
years the leaders of organized crime had
16:13
been holding annual meetings to discuss
16:15
matters of mutual concern now the matter
16:17
of mutual concern well it was what to do
16:20
with Al Capone al had attracted a
16:21
tremendous amount of unwanted attention
16:23
with the cynth Allen tines Day Massacre
16:25
he was bringing too much unwanted
16:27
attention as the king and as well the
16:29
time had come for him to be neutralized
16:31
the Commission decreed that Joseph a Leo
16:34
an old enemy of Capone would be put in
16:36
place in Chicago to keep owl in check
16:38
Capone would also have to cede his
16:40
gambling operations to the Commission
16:42
Capone was privately outraged that the
16:44
Commission was muzzling him in this way
16:45
but he was also smart enough to know
16:47
that if he protested he would quickly be
16:50
eliminated he decided to take the advice
16:52
of the Commission and lie low for a
16:54
while and what better way to safely lie
16:56
low than from inside a jail cell within
16:59
16 hours of coming out of the Commission
17:01
meeting Capone had been arrested for
17:03
carrying a concealed weapon
17:04
Capone entrusted his $50,000 diamonds
17:07
pinky ring to his attorney with
17:08
instructions to give it to his brother
17:10
Ralph who would become acting heads
17:12
intially returns he then began eight
17:14
month jail time when he emerged from his
17:17
prison cell in March of 1930 Capone
17:19
discovered that the climate had changed
17:21
he had been listed as public enemy
17:24
number one by the FBI the federal
17:26
government now considered him a menace
17:28
to society and was prepared to do
17:30
anything to put him behind bars for good
17:32
it was certain that Al was violating the
17:35
Volstead Act by selling liquor but they
17:37
were unable to prove it not even Eliot
17:39
Ness and his Untouchables were able to
17:41
stop Capone finally the FBI decided that
17:44
their best chance of putting the pone
17:46
away was to convict him of tax evasion
17:48
Capone was used to being cheered when he
17:50
attended public events but now that the
17:52
government was bringing income tax
17:53
evasion charges against him crowds they
17:56
started booing him what’s worse his
17:58
formerly fail-proof methods of fixing
18:00
the outcomes of trials they were having
18:02
no effect al did manage to bribe several
18:05
jury members but on the day of the trial
18:07
the judge switched the jury panel from
18:09
that moment on four jurors were
18:11
sequestered
18:11
and they were out of Al’s reach after
18:13
presenting a damning case which
18:15
highlighted a life of lavish spending
18:17
yet virtually no tax payments the
18:19
prosecution concluded by reminding the
18:22
jury that Capone was no Robin Hood he
18:25
spent wildly on himself and his cronies
18:27
doing nothing to help the poor and the
18:29
down-and-out the judge found him guilty
18:31
on three counts of tax evasion and on
18:33
October 24th of 1931 he was sentenced to
18:36
11 years in prison
18:38
this was the harshest sentence ever
18:40
handed down for tax evasion
18:42
Capone well he thought that now his
18:44
gangland associates would rally to his
18:46
aid but they just didn’t get it
18:48
maybe his advancing syphilis had
18:50
something to do with it but the reality
18:52
was that had been artfully shunted aside
18:54
of the Atlantic City meeting in 1929 now
18:57
two years later his life was out in the
18:59
open for all to see and he had a felony
19:01
conviction to his name he was anathema
19:04
to his former gangland buddies make
19:06
Norton Capone spent most of his time in
19:08
an Atlanta prison and then spent the
19:10
last three years of his sentence of
19:12
Alcatraz by then his syphilis had
19:14
seriously eroded his mental faculties by
19:16
the time he died of cardiac arrest on
19:18
January the 25th 1947 doctors concluded
19:21
that he had the mind of a 12 year old
19:23
child and well that was all for Al
19:25
Capone
19:26
[Music]
19:29
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19:33
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19:33
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19:43
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