Back in 1917 young burly Al Capone was working at the Harvard Inn on Coney Island for Frankie Yale.Frankie Yale was a mob boss in New York.
On one particular evening back in 1917, a New York hood by the name of Frank Galluccio entered the dance hall/ speakeasy with his sister Lena and his date by the name of Maria Tanzio.
Al Capone was a bouncer/waiter at the Inn.
Al noticed Galluccio's young sister and began smiling at her. Lena became annoyed and embarrassed at Capone's constant staring that she asked her brother Frank to kindly ask Capone to stop it. Frank was just about to ask Capone to stop when Capone leans over to Lena and tells her "Honey, you got a nice ass and I mean that as a compliment, believe me"

Frank hears this, and goes ballistic. He quickly tells Capone that he won't take this shit from anybody and demands that Capone apologize immediately to his sister or else.

Al tells Frank with his arms extended "Come on buddy, I'm only joking"
Galluccio responds "This is no fucking joke! " Capone at this moment stops smiling and comes charging at Galluccio who quickly takes out a pocket knife and slashes Capone three times.
He aimed for the neck, but got his face instead as Galluccio had sveral drinks that evening.
Capone required up to 30 stitches at Coney island hospital. After the incident, Galluccio had a sitdown with the New York bosses. Capone was called upon and warned by the underworld not to attempt retribution for that slashing as Capone was at fault for insulting Galluccio's sister. Capone agreed and apologized for insulting his sister. Galluccio did feel bad for scarring Al, but did what he felt was right in protecting his sister's honor.

Al later told reporters his scars were acquired from the great war or from some barber as a young child. He applied talcum powder everyday to soften the glow of those scars and always preferred to take photos on his right side. His scars were as follows;

One oblique scar of 4" across cheek 2" in front of left ear
One vertical scar of 2 and a half inches on left jaw
One oblique scar of 2 and a half inches 2 "under left ear on neck.

Some unscrupulous newspapers and magazines even made his scars seem bigger to make Capone look more ruthless. Newspapermen dubbed him Scarface, but none of them would dare say it to his face.


http://www.myalcaponemuseum.com/id108.htm