Capone, Al

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 1927 alone, his income was estimated at over $100 million from these sources. In the following years he eliminated his competitors in a series of gang wars, culminating in the St Valentine's Day massacre of 1929, in which his gang members murdered seven members of “Bugs” Moran's gang, 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. Badly affected by syphilis, he spent the rest of his life in his Miami Beach, Florida, mansion.