AL CAPONE
Politics/Business
Born: January 17, 1899
Naples, Italy
Died: January 25, 1947

"Prohibition has made nothing but trouble."

Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York. Baptized "Alphonsus Capone," he grew up in a rough neighborhood and was a member of two "kid gangs," the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors. Although he was bright, Capone quit school in the sixth grade at age fourteen. Between scams he was a clerk in a candy store, a pinboy in a bowling alley, and a cutter in a book bindery. He became part of the notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan and worked in gangster Frankie Yale's Brooklyn dive, the Harvard Inn, as a bouncer and bartender. While working at the Inn, Capone received received a razor slash on his left cheek from his ear to his lip, which gave him the nickname "Scarface."

Al Capone was the symbol of lawlessness during the prohibition. His crime syndicate terrorized Chicago in the 1920s. He remained above the law until 1931 when he was indicted for income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison.