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Born Alphonse Capone of an Italian immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York on January 17, 1899, Al Capone quit school after the sixth grade and associated with a notorious street gang, the Five Points gang, a criminal enterprise of mostly younger Italian-Americans in Manhattan that also graduated such well-known mobsters as Charlie “Lucky” Luciano and Johnny Torrio. It was in New York that Al Capone suffered a facial wound in a fight at a brothel, earning him the nickname “Scarface.”

About 1920, at Torrio’s invitation, Al Capone, whose other nicknames included Snorky, the Big Guy, and Big Al, joined Torrio in Chicago where he had become an influential lieutenant in the Colosimo mob. Colosimo operated hundreds of brothels and gambling rackets, but he reportedly refused to go into bootlegging, which, with the enactment of Prohibition in 1920, was a huge growth opportunity for organized crime groups.

Interestingly enough, Colosimo was shot to death the same year Al Capone came to Chicago. Although nobody was ever arrested for Colosimo’s murder, many believe Torrio ordered the hit, and that Capone was an accomplice in the killing.

Torrio inherited Colosimo’s organization and quickly capitalized on the illegal alcohol industry. His leadership was relatively short. In 1925, Torrio was shot and injured by a rival gang, and then he was sentenced to nine months in prison for operating an illegal distillery.

Torrio resigned as leader of the criminal organization that became known as the Outfit and, for three years, moved back to Italy. With Torrio’s resignation, Al Capone took control of the Outfit.

From 1925 through 1929, Al Capone was the most-visible mobster in America. Capone worked with local media and friendly politicians to cultivate an image of a businessman concerned with the welfare of his fellow Chicagoans. But Al Capone’s tenure was also a period of rising rivalries with other Chicago gangsters, with conflicts that frequently turned violent.

The escalating Mob violence in Chicago culminated with the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre on February 14, 1929. Seven members or associates of the Bugs Moran gang – rivals of Al Capone — were lined up against the wall of a garage by men posing as police and machine-gunned to death.

The brutality of the murders made headlines throughout the country. Although Al Capone was at his vacation house near Miami at the time of the massacre and never arrested for the crime, he was widely suspected of ordering the massacre. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre happened just a month before Capone was arrested by federal agents for contempt of court for his failure to answer a federal subpoena. This would lead to a series of charges, arrests, convictions, releases and appeals that ultimately left Capone serving time at the Cook County Jail, the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, and Alcatraz.

On November 16, 1939, Al Capone was released after having served seven years, six months and fifteen days, and having paid all fines and back taxes.

Suffering from paresis derived from syphilis, he had deteriorated greatly during his confinement. Immediately on release he entered a Baltimore hospital for brain treatment and then went on to his Florida home, an estate on Palm Island in Biscayne Bay near Miami, which he had purchased in 1928.

Following his release, he never publicly returned to Chicago. He had become mentally incapable of returning to gangland politics. In 1946, his physician and a Baltimore psychiatrist, after examination, both concluded Capone then had the mentality of a 12-year-old child. Al Capone resided on Palm Island with his wife and immediate family, in a secluded atmosphere, until his death due to a stroke and pneumonia on January 25, 1947.