Al Capone



"I have spent the best years of my life giving people the lighter pleasures, helping them have a good time, and all I get is abuse, the existence of a hunted man."

- Al Capone

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone, also known as Scarface, (January 17, 1899 - January 25, 1947)  was a notorious Chicago gangster who was active throughout the 1920s. The son of Italian immigrants from New York City, Capone was expelled from school at age 14 and became involved with crime soon after, moving to Chicago in his early twenties. Al Capone rose to power in the crime–filled prohibition era, running a group known as the Chicago Outfit which specialized in smuggling and bootlegging alcohol as well as prostitution. To maintain a positive public image with the poor, who were the main consumers of his "business", Capone made many donations to charities with some of his illegitimately acquired money.

His image took significant damage in 1929 when he was exposed for involvement in the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in which seven rival gang members were killed, and later he was convicted for tax evasion and sent to Alcatraz. He died there of a stroke in 1947.

Years later in 1986, news celebrity Geraldo Rivera hosted a television special called "The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults" in which he uncovered a secret vault that used to be owned by Capone and supposedly contained treasure. However, to his embarrassment and the disappointment of everyone else, it was empty.