Alphonsus Capone is America's best-known mobster and the symbol of the collapse of law and order in Chicago during the 1920s Prohibition era. Born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York, he was raised in a rough neighborhood where he became a member of two gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors. Capone was bright, but quit school in the sixth grade at age fourteen to become part of the notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan. He worked in gangster Frankie Yale's Brooklyn dive, the Harvard Inn, as a bouncer and bartender.

Capone and his family moved to a house at 7244 South Prairie Avenue, Chicago, in 1919 after stirring up trouble in New York for hospitalizing a rival gang member. Capone's first arrest had been on a disorderly conduct charge while he was working for Yale. He had also murdered two men in New York, early testimony to his willingness to kill. He was never tried for the murders.

Capone went to work for Yale's old mentor, John Torrio, who was quick to notice Capone's potential and encouraged him as his protégé. By mid-1922 Capone ranked as Torrio's number-two man and eventually became a full partner in the saloons, gambling houses, and brothels of Chicago.

Capone inherited the "outfit" and became boss after Torrio was shot and decided to leave Chicago. He quickly proved that he was even better at organization than Torrio, syndicating and expanding the city's speakeasies, bookie joints, gambling houses, brothels, horse and race tracks, nightclubs, distilleries and breweries at a reported income of $100,000,000 a year.

The corrupt Chicago mayor William "Big Bill" Hale Thompson, Jr. decided that Capone was bad for his political image, even though the two had been doing business together. Big Bill Thompson found himself a new police chief, hoping to run Capone out of Chicago. When Capone sought out a new place to live, he quickly discovered that he was unpopular in much of the country. He finally bought an estate at 93 Palm Island, Florida in 1928.

Because of an extensive network of informants (from paper boys to policemen), attempts on Capone's life were never fruitful. On the other hand, Capone was skillful at doing-away with his enemies. He would normally commit his murders by renting the residence across the street from the victim's apartment, then gun him down when he stepped outside. These murders were fast and effective, and always managed to leave Capone with an alibi.

Capone's most famous murder spree was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. On February 14, 1929, four of Capone's men entered a garage at 2122 N. Clark Street. Two of Capone's men were dressed as police. The seven men inside thought it was a police raid, and dropped their guns and put their hands against the wall. Using two shotguns and two machine guns, Capone's men fired over 150 bullets into the victims. The building had been the headquarters of bootlegger George "Bugs" Moran's North Side gang. Capone himself had an alibi; he was in Florida on Valentine's Day.

Although Capone ordered dozens of deaths and had even personally killed people, he often treated those around him with generosity. After the 1929 stock market crash, he was the first to open soup kitchens; he also paid local merchants to give clothes and food to the needy.

Because Chicago's gangs traditionally refused to prosecute each other, Capone was never tried for most of his crimes. In 1930, at the peak of his power, Capone headed Chicago's new list of the twenty-eight worst criminals and became the city's "Public Enemy Number One." But it wasn't a rival gangster's bullet that would take down Capone. In 1931 he was indicted for income tax evasion for the years 1925-29, as well as the misdemeanor of failing to file tax returns for the years 1928 and 1929. A third indictment was added, charging Capone with conspiracy to violate Prohibition laws from 1922-31. He pled guilty to all three charges with the hopes of plea bargaining. However, Judge James H. Wilkerson would not make any deals. Capone consequently changed his pleas to not guilty and tried to bribe the jury, but Wilkerson changed the jury panel to thwart him.

The jury found Capone not guilty on eighteen of the twenty-three counts. Judge Wilkerson sentenced him to a total of ten years in federal prison and one year in the county jail. The fines were a cumulative $50,000 and Capone had to pay the prosecution costs of $7,692.29.

In May 1932, Capone was sent to the toughest of the federal prisons to begin his eleven-year sentence: Atlanta. There he quickly took over, obtaining special privileges from the authorities and such luxuries as a mirror, typewriter, rugs, and a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Because of the control he was enjoying in Atlanta, he was sent to Alcatraz. There were no other outfit members in Alcatraz, and security was so tight there that he could get no information of the outside world. He was unable to control anyone or anything and could not buy influence or friends. In an attempt to earn time off for good behavior, Capone became an ideal prisoner.

While at Alcatraz, he exhibited signs of syphilitic dementia. Capone spent the rest of his felony sentence in the hospital. On January 6, 1939, his prison term expired and he was transferred to Terminal Island, a Federal Correctional Institution in California, to serve his one-year misdemeanor sentence. After his release, Capone spent a short time in the hospital. He returned to his home in Palm Island where the rest of his life was relatively humdrum. His sickness caused him to deteriorate so that he could no longer run the Chicago mob. On January 21, 1947, he had an apoplectic stoke, and pneumonia set in on January 24. He died the next day from cardiac arrest.

Capone was first buried on Chicago's far South Side in Mount Olivet Cemetery, between the graves of his father, Gabriele, and brother, Frank. In March of 1950 the remains of all three were moved to Mount Carmel Cemetery on the far West Side. Such was the life and death of Al Capone.