Al Capone
Undoubtedly the most famous criminal of the 20th century, even kingpin Al Capone was broken down by the desolate hopelessness found at Alcatraz. He once told the prison’s warden, “it looks like Alcatraz has got me licked.”
Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1899 and started his life of a crime as a young man. Around the age of 20, Capone headed to the city that would make him famous; Chicago. In the Windy City, Capone worked under gangster Johnny Torrio, running brothels and working as an enforcer. He rose through the gang’s ranks quickly, and became the boss in Chicago after an assassination attempt on Torrio. Capone transformed the gang into a money-making, and killing, machine. Capone and his men made piles of cash from gambling, brothels, and especially from illegal bootlegging of alcohol. His gang was at war during the late 1920s and 1930s with rival Chicago gangs looking to capitalize on the booze trade that flourished during Prohibition. Dead bodies littered the streets of Chicago as gunmen from all sides took aim at Capone’s multi-million dollar empire.
Local police and the federal government worked to try to put Capone in prison, but they were unsuccessful for years. Finally, Capone was sent away to the federal prison in Atlanta in 1932 after he was convicted for tax evasion. In 1934, Capone was notified he was being transferred to another federal pen, and the news was not good; the destination for the man nicknamed “Scarface” was Alcatraz.
Capone’s mental facilities began to break down while he was Alcatraz, due to a case of syphilis that went untreated for years. He was finally released from Alcatraz on January 6, 1939, but he spent the last year on The Rock in the hospital, the syphilis continuing to eat away at his brain. Capone was then sent to Terminal Island Prison and was paroled for good in November 1939, a shell of his former self. Al Capone spent the rest of his years in Florida, withering away until he finally died after a stroke in 1947. A simple and unglamorous end for a man who had once controlled the biggest criminal empire in America.