this may not be the right site for this topic but oh well here it goes i know that Al Capone was not in the mafia but he was still part of the life and i was wondering what do the other people who post on this board think about him my 2 cents are that he was a pretty interesting guy. if this is the wrong board for this topic or if it has no place here then my apologies.

Nah, no worries Iceman. This is the right board for this type of thing, he doesn't fit into the GF Forum obviously. This is why this one exists. Anyway, he wasnt an idiot or a brute as most people make him out to be. He was a cunning gangster with a razor edge that kept him one step ahead of all his enemies. That is why he was never killed (the closest he came to death was being slashed in the face as a kid for mouthing off at the father of a girl who's ass he complimented, thus earning him the moniker "Scarface"). Anyhow, his only mistake was sleeping around with the prostitutes he hired, sampling the merchandise as it were, and this ultimately cost him his life - the syphilis he had been transmitted developed into neurosyphilis and he slowly disintegrated inside his Miami home. Dead at the young age of 47, he'd been released from one of the toughest prisons (Alcatraz) due to his poor health and confused demeanor.
If there was every a king of prohibition (and a true gangster if there was one) it was Capone.

I used to think he was just a crazy Chicago Thug until I looked deeper into him, then I found out he was not only an interesting guy, but also a very clever man. The only thing what brought him down was the IRS. Taxes.

It was very cheap how they kept him there, putting the maximum sentence for tax evasion. Just shows how untouchable he was for his time period.
Not only that, but much like John Gotti, he took his sentence like a man and didn't attract any negative attention to himself in the 6 years he wasted inside the Alcatraz Fortress. He's always had my respect.

That's right, he had to do some "quality control".

Looking deeper into his life see what he was like.A smart man who knew what he was doing.

i heard this a while back but i cannot rember where but i heard that the evidence that was used against al capone was 5 years old and the statue of limitations was only 3 years so if his lawyers would have been paying attention they would have gotten him off but i have not heard of that since i cannot seem to find reference to it any where

I think the feds pulled some strings to keep him there until it was obvious he was getting sicker and sicker. When they want to, they will get you. We saw this with John Gotti, whose 1992 racketeering and murder trial was plagued with prosecutors who flashed signals at witnesses, jurors who wrote to the judge about bias towards the goverment within the jury, a judge who refused all defense witnesses except for an accountant and also who would ban all of the previous legal team Gotti and Locascio had in order to prevent them from winning. One could argue that they deserved their fun, since Gotti had fixed one trial and intimidated witnesses in two others (albeit the witnesses denying any intimidation). You thumb your nose at the law, it will get you, and it will keep you.

[ August 25, 2001: Message edited by: Joey Montana ]

[ August 25, 2001: Message edited by: Joey Montana ]

Its funnny you mention Gotti Joey. When watching the program I saw on Capone he reminded me quite alot of Gotti. The way he dressed, his public image etc.

He hated his nickname as Scarface but soon earned another one I can't remember what it was but it had the same meaning as Dapper like Gotti's.

Dapper because of his $2000 (1000 quid) suits, yeah and Scarface because of the Scars on his face (which he covered with creme and powder). I agree there, but I think Gotti liked being dapper, but Capone definitely hated Scarface. I think its a cool name though

It's probably not such a cool name when you have a big scar on your face. Imagine if you had moles on your face, and people started calling you Moleface. Nobody likes to be reminded of their negative qualities.

In a preveious post, The Iceman writes : "I know that Al Capone was not in the mafia...."

I don't know about that Iceman. Capone actually started out in New York City under Mafia hoods like Frankie Uale, etc. He evidently made his bones at an early age. Possibly though, he may have never been officially initiated into La Casa Nostra, as back in those days, you had to be a Sicilian to take the oath of Omerta. We know that Meyer Lansky,and Bugsy Seigal were obviously never "Made Men," but they were recognized as members of the Mafia. I do believe that when he rose to power in Chicago, and Luciano and company formed the commission, he was originally a member of The Commission. C'mon SC, help me out here, it's been quite some time since I've read up on Capone!

Don Cardi

Before SC comes and corrects me, i'll put in my 2 cents. For one, he definitely made his bones are a very young age, he was ruthless and brutal. Secondly, under Yale, and also as a chief bootlegger and crime boss in Chicago, he earnt the respect of the made men in NY and nationwide, thus making him as untouchable and powerful as a Cosa Nostra boss. Of course, he never was "made" and didn't run a "family" per se, though his organization was built similarly to an Italian crime family, with the advisor, soldiers, captains and underboss type positions.
I dont remember why he wasn't made, he's Italian is he not? Anyway Alphonse Capone 1899-1947 R.I.P

Don Cardi -

I haven't read up on Capone in a long time either, but I recall hearing/reading that he wasn't a member of the Mafia because of the reason you stated (he wasn't Sicilian).

I think Mario Puzo hinted at this in "The Godfather" when he wrote about Vito sending Capone a message that he should stay out of the battle between Sicilians (Vito and Maranzano).

By the way.....here's a picture of Capone's childhood home here in Brooklyn (Garfield Place in Park Slope).

At the time they had stringent codes for acceptance in the Cosa Nostra. You had to be fully Sicilian (both parents). Then when Charles "Lucky" Luciano took part in the Commission he said "we have to stop this Sicilian thing. We're killing eachother over which part of the country we're from. This crap is giving us a bad name". From then on, you only needed to be fully Italian, but not from Sicily (as we see, one of the more famous mafiosi, John Gotti, was Napolitean. Nowadays, you only need to have an Italian father to be part of the Cosa Nostra. Shows that it's really gone downhill huh?

Capone was brash but he was smart enough not to get caught for criminal activities and the government got him the only way they could..by cheating. Yes, he owed the IRS but the sentence was way out of line with sentences for evasion even given the scale of his evasion amount.

Capone also made things worse by not getting himself cured of syphyllis which robbed him of his brain.

He was smart enough to have smart people around him and definitely epitomized the Bronx Tale line about 'being feared, because fear lasts longer than love'.

Respected but not liked outside of Chicago by other families from what we can gather. But do bosses really like each other anyway?

It wasnt his fault he wasnt treated until it reached the final stage "neurosyphilis". Back then they didnt give you exams, and in the last two years of his prison sentenced he was in the hospital for it. There was no way to presee it

I can't swear that this is the truth, but i remember reading (as a kid) that Capone knew of the syphilis early on, but he refused treatment because he hated needles.

I guess those scars on his face were brain-deep. What a moron