Capone, Al(phonse)

born Jan. 17, 1899, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.

died Jan. 25, 1947, Palm Island, Fla.

U.S. gangster.

Quitting school after the sixth grade, he joined the James Street Boys gang, led by Johnny Torrio. In a youthful fight in a brothel-saloon he was slashed across the left cheek with a knife or razor, prompting the later nickname "Scarface." In 1919 he joined Torrio in Chicago to help run the giant brothel business there. When Torrio retired (1925), Capone became the city's crime czar, running gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging rackets. He expanded his territory by killing his rivals, most famously in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, in which members of the Bugs Moran gang were machine-gunned in a garage on Feb. 14, 1929. In 1931 Capone was convicted for income-tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison; eventually he served time in the infamous prison Alcatraz (see Alcatraz Island). Suffering from paresis (a late stage of syphilis), he was released in 1939 and later retired to Florida, where he died a powerless recluse.

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