Al Capone is one of America 's most well known gangsters. He undertook the systematic corruption of the city of Chicago , buying up policemen, judges and local officials.
His ‘career' as a gangster ranged from starting out in the Five Points Gang, run by ‘Terrible Johnny' Torrio, to driving the St Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929 when rival gangs threatened his operations.
He gained his ‘success' through managing to gain control over authority, bringing other gangs under his control through threats and was able to get away with crime because he had Chicago's police and politicians in his pay. Over half the police force took bribes from him. Al Capone was able to make so much money from threats as he forced businessmen and shopkeepers to pay ‘protection money' to gangsters in order to prevent their premises from being smashed up by the gang's ‘education committee'. By 1927, he was earning some $60 million a year from bootlegging, and made a further $10 million a year from racketeering.
Through his threats, violence, with a strange mixture of kindness – he was seen as a charitable “Robin Hood”, the public were willing to follow Al Capone.
Prohibition, as the ban on alcohol in America was known, came into force in January 1920. This act from the Government caused a wave of crime, and enabled ‘businessmen' like Al Capone to exploit the Government and provide alcohol at an enormous profit. Al Capone's character also enabled him to sweet-talk authority, travelling around wearing the smartest suits and riding in a huge bullet-proof car, Al Capone managing to get into the Time Magazine. He associated with big businessmen and he organised parties for them. Being a business man at heart, he managed to employ about 1000 men in a sort of private army which controlled his various businesses, consisting of alcohol, prostitution and protection rackets. Socially, the opened up clubs and brought in famous artists and jazz musicians. Naturally, people wanted alcohol and so were willing to make business with Capone.
However, his career of fame and fortune finally came to an end when he was found to be behind the St Valentine's Day Massacre that shocked the American public and led to demands for action to stop the gangster menace. He had always escaped jail until 1931 when he was sentenced to eleven years for not paying his income tax. Released in 1939, he never really recovered from his time in the infamous Alcatraz prison. He died on January 25 th 1947 due to natural causes.
Al Capone certainty did not help the ban of alcohol. Al Capone encouraged illegal drinking, earning $60 million a year from the beer trade. However, the US Government was silly to think, when establishing the law of prohibition, that such a law would not cause difficulty and conflict. Since alcohol played such an important role in people's lives, as soon as it was made illegal, people would do anything to get hold of it. This factor, combined with the power Al Capone managed to gain over people inevitably resulted in the corruption of authority and order in America .
