The Everything Mafia Book (8 page)

Yale Grad

The next mentor Al Capone had in the life of crime was Frankie Yale (born Francesco Ioele). Yale owned a bar ironically called the Harvard Inn, and he hired the eighteen-year-old Capone as a bartender and bouncer. It is in this gin mill that he made the inappropriate remark that resulted in the scar on his face.

Capone learned about business finesse from his first mentor, Johnny Tor-rio; Yale schooled him in the more brutal arts of the Mafia. Capone became proficient at both in his notorious career. During this time Capone met and married (after their first child was born) an Irish-American girl named Mae Coughlin.

Shortly after his wedding, Capone flirted with respectability by taking a regular job, but this phase did not last long. His former boss, Johnny Torrio, called Brooklyn for his former protégé. Torrio had gone out to the Midwest and the emerging metropolis of Chicago. With its organized crime anything but organized, Torrio saw it as an opportunity to make something big. And he knew Al would fit right in.

Chi-Town

The Windy City was already known for vice and corruption when Capone got off the train in 1920. It was known as a slaughterhouse in more than one respect. Neighbors could hear the feral squeals from the meatpacking district, and the pitter-patter of Tommy guns punctuated the night.

The “Mr. Big” at the time was a man named “Big Jim” Colosimo. His wife was also Chicago’s most celebrated madam, Victoria Moresco. At that time the fledgling crime gang had a large-scale prostitution empire. When Johnny Torrio arrived in Chicago, he became Colosimo’s right-hand man. Together the two men opened a brothel, and Torrio had Al Capone work there when he arrived from New York.

Torrio was a stable gangster who did not indulge in the vices from which he profited. The same could not be said of Colosimo, who was spiraling out of control. He became wrapped around the little finger of a singer named Dale Winter. The call of the siren distracted him from more important matters, such as business. When Prohibition started Torrio suggested that Big Jim start making big money from booze. Jim was more into his women, so Torrio had him taken out of the picture.

Now that Johnny was top dog, Al rose to be his second in command. Capone started out managing the many brothels in Chicago, but he was not very comfortable in the role of pimp. When Prohibition roared into the 1920s, he got into the speakeasy end of the business.

Equal-Opportunity Mafioso

Capone, being American-born and exposed to many other ethnic groups growing up, was not as clannish as other Mafiosi. He married an Irish girl and met his new best friend in Chicago, an Orthodox Jewish family man named Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik. Capone put on the façade of a mild-mannered used-furniture dealer for his neighbors while he let it loose when engaged in his other life. Like many Mafiosi, he strived for respectability while making a living in illegal enterprises and using terror and murder as tools of his trade.

For many years Capone had a free ride in Chicago. The politicians and police were shamelessly corrupt. The people wanted their vices, and Capone was more than happy to provide them. Cries of outrage and calls for reform from the political machine were nothing more than lip service. It was a wide-open town where the mob ruled. Mayor “Big Bill” Thompson was considered to be one of the most corrupt men in a long line of corrupt politicians.

However, real reform was slowly making inroads into the Windy City. A man named William E. Dever succeeded Thompson as mayor, and he promised to crack down on the vice and corruption on his town. The Mafia took it in stride. A reformer at the top was a minor inconvenience when the rest of the team was more than eager to play ball.

Capone and Torrio were not the only Italian bosses operating in the Windy City. The Genna brothers, Angelo, Tony, Mike, Sam, Peter, and Vincenzo, controlled the South Side of Chicago. They were bitter rivals with the North Side gang, led by Dion O’Bannion. But after three of the brothers were killed in shootouts, the survivors left the racket business for good.

Al’s Private Fiefdom

When the heat in Chicago proper got too hot, Al left for the nearby suburb of Cicero. Located just outside the city, Cicero was a perfect place to open a new headquarters. They simply bought the town with the smoking barrels of their machine guns, using bribery as needed. In short order Capone controlled all the prostitution, gambling, and bootlegging in the town. He even took over the racetrack. Capone’s brother Frank acted as liaison with the corrupt local government.

Freedom of the Press

A maverick journalist named Robert St. John openly opposed the Capone invasion in his newspaper. It looked like Capone’s handpicked politicos might lose the election of 1924. Capone used muscle to try to sway the voting public. His goons loomed around polling places making it clear which candidate would be the “healthiest” choice. The cops were called in response, and Frank Capone was gunned down. He allegedly pulled his revolver when he found himself surrounded. (A dumb move, if indeed it’s true.) It was deemed that the police acted in self-defense when they killed him. At the end of the day, Al Capone owned Cicero, but at a terrible price, a brother’s blood.

Capone vented his frustration by shooting a small-time hood who dared to call the little big man an ethnic slur. He was brought to trial for the first time in his life, but he beat the murder rap. Witnesses were hard to come by, as was always the case with Mafia trials. The highly public trial made him something most mobsters did not want to be—famous.

King of Chicagoland

Few twenty-five-year-olds achieve the power and wealth that Al Capone had at that young age. And few people have to deal with murderous rivals and regular assassination attempts. Such is the price one pays for being King of the Underworld. Capone knocked off opponents, and they in turn were out to get him. One attempt on his partner Johnny Torrio was almost successful. The volatile hoodlum Bugs Moran pumped several shots into Torrio as he was entering his apartment building, but Torrio survived. Capone stayed with him at the hospital, even sleeping on a cot at the bedside of his friend and mentor.

Torrio got out of the business after being shot. He decided to retire and head for warmer climates, and he turned over his share of the massive empire to Capone. Success spoiled Capone. He moved into the palatial Metropole Hotel and lived a very public life of a media darling and national celebrity. He was a showman gangster, attempting to cultivate a Robin Hood image. He was a regular Joe who provided a service that the public wanted, a man who was misunderstood and being harassed by the authorities. Capone provided meals for the jobless, even serving up meals at makeshift soup kitchens. He regularly made public appearances, craving the spotlight. After all, he was just a businessman trying to live a good life. Or so he wanted people to believe.

Death of the Party
Capone continued to cement

Capone continued to cement his position as über-thug when he orchestrated a flamboyant hit on an old rival. He was back in New York attending a Christmas party and got wind that an old enemy, Richard “Peg-Leg” Lonergan, was going to crash the bash with some of his boys. The boisterous blowhards did not get very far before the Capone mob wished them a very bloody Christmas.

McSwiggin’s Curse

Capone faced another legal dilemma when his men machine-gunned a gang of Irish bootleggers. He did not know that partying with the Irishmen was Billy McSwiggin, the prosecutor who had unsuccessfully tried Capone for murder. Capone had not intended to hit McSwiggin, but nevertheless he took the heat from the otherwise indifferent police force. Cops, like the Mafia, look out for their own, and Capone had inadvertently broken the Mafia’s “we only kill our own” code. His gambling joints and bordellos began to be raided. Capone went into hiding. He surrendered after three months on the lam, but faced no charges. There was not enough evidence for an indictment. The frustrated authorities could not get this slippery gangster.

“Bugs” Moran

Courtesy of AP Images

George “Bugs” Moran, a prominent figure in Chicago’s underworld, poses in this circa 1932 photo.

Al Capone was not averse to being a true “hands-on” murderer. He personally killed many men in his time, and ordered the hits of many more. The notorious scene in the movie The Untouchables when Capone bashes the man to death with a baseball bat is based on a true story. In reality, however, Capone cracked the skulls of three men in the same session.

Peacemaker?

Capone fancied himself a peacemaker. Since he did not skulk in the shadows and everyone knew who and what he was, he called a public peace conference asking his fellow gangsters to put an end to the violence. Many felt his calls for peace were insincere. While he spoke publicly for an end to violence, he ordered the murder of dozens of rivals. He sent his armed hoods after Irish, Italian, and Polish competitors, and muscled in on the traditional black neighborhood numbers rackets.

Happy Valentine’s Day

To modern society, the scene of a mass murder has unfortunately become an all-too-common event. But back in the 1920s, even through the height of the bootlegging wars, no one was prepared for what has become the most famous “hit” in American Mafia history. Al Capone was still fuming over Bugs Moran’s attempt on Johnny Torrio’s life. In addition to almost whacking Torrio, Moran had twice tried to hit another Capone pal with the colorful name “Machine Gun” McGurn. Since Scarface was ruthless and not prone to forgiveness, he set a plan in motion to topple once and for all the pesky Bugs Moran and his gang of irksome rivals.

Capone had bought a lavish estate on Palm Beach in Florida and spent the winters there. He took off for Florida after setting the plan in motion to give himself an airtight alibi. He knew he would be the first suspect when the job was done. He left the details to Machine Gun McGurn. McGurn hired out-of-town talent and planned to lure Moran to a garage on the morning of February 14. The bait was a stash of quality booze at a good price. The hit team would be dressed as cops. Moran and company would think it was a raid, not an assassination. The phony cops burst into the garage simulating a police bust, made the hoods line up against the wall, and mowed them down. There was good news and bad news. The good news was that the hit went off without a hitch. The bad news was that Bugs Moran did not show up that day. The target of the hit had a guardian angel on his shoulder that Valentine’s Day.