Al Capone Al Capone really began his "career" when he moved to Chicago from New York to join his long time friend Johnny Torrio. Torrio was running a business in gambling and prostitution but switched to bootlegging after the 18th Amendment that banned the selling of alcohol. Torrio promoted Capone to his partner after recognizing his exceptional street smarts and knowledge with numbers. Torrio and Capone had conflicting lifestyles. Torrio had a more low profile style whereas Capone was a lot less subtle. Capone quickly gained a reputation of a drinker and a troublemaker. After hitting a taxi while driving drunk, he was arrested for the first time. However, Torrio used his connections to the city government to get Capone off clean. Capone briefly cleaned up his act when his family moved to Chicago until 1923. In 1923, Chicago elected a mayor that vowed to rid the city streets of crime and corruption. Capone and Torrio moved to Cicero, a suburb of Chicago to avoid being shut down. In 1924, Cicero's mayoral election threatened their operation. To ensure their business continued to run smoothly, they used intimidation on election day to guarantee that their candidate was elected. Some voters were shot or killed.
Career Without Torrio
After rival mobsters tried to kill Torrio, he left the business and went back to Italy. Despite Torrio telling him to live a low profile lifestyle, Capone moved into a luxurious suite in a downtown Chicago hotel and lived a very expensive and public lifestyle. His operations at the time had an estimated worth of $100 million a year. The media began following Capone more and he was able to win the publics sympathy because of his generous personality. At the time he was seen as a Robin Hood figure or someone who worked for the people as the anti-Prohibition movement grew. However, his reputation began to decline as his name was tied closely to brutal violence. After three of Capone's enemies were seen in Cicero, he order a few of his men to hunt them down. Following the three murders the public protested the gang-dominated lawlessness and demanded justice. Because there was no evidence of the murders, the police raided Capone's business and gathered evidence that would eventually help them charge Capone for income-tax evasion. In response, Capone set up a peace agreement between all the city's criminals. They were able to arrange an agreement but it only lasted two months. In 1929, Capone dominated the Chicago bootlegging business. However, some other racketeers wanted some of that profit. One being Capone's long-time rival "Bugs" Moran. Moran had previously tried to kill both Capone and Torrio and was now after one of Capone's men, Jack McGurn. Capone and McGurn decided to kill Moran. McGurn's gunman posed as police and slaughtered seven of Moran's men in cold blood but failed to kill Moran. Immediately following the murders, the public and media blamed Capone for the crimes even though he was staying in his house in Miami. He then became "Public Enemy Number One".
Al Capone's Arrest
In response the to the massacre, President Herbert Hoover ordered the federal government to try to get Capone on income-tax evasion. The government was able to prosecute him easier because in 1927 the Supreme Court ruled that illegally made money was still taxable. Capone tried to use bribery and intimidation in court but he failed and he was convicted on twenty-two charges of income-tax evasion. He spent his first two of his eleven years in Atlanta prison then the remainder of his sentence in Alcatraz. After six years his health began to fail and finally died after a cardiac arrest in 1947.