X204 Project

“I’m a businessman. I’ve made my money supplying a popular demand. If I break the law, my customers are as guilty as I am.”  

      Alphonse “Al” Capone was a notorious American mobster based in Chicago. He became increasingly popular among the people of Cook County during the Prohibition era. Capone was the main man for bootlegging, the illegal selling and distributing of alcohol.

      Capone viewed people as either potential customers or potential threats. He used his popularity with the press to help people see him as someone who was on their side during the Prohibition. He used this to his advantage to get what he wanted. Since Capone is majority Italian, the way he ran his mob was different than most. His men were very loyal, and if not they would be dead.  Once, he had invited members from his mob whom he had found out had been aiding his rival gangs to dinner, and afterwards he had proceeded to tell them that he knew and he tortured them all night before killing them. Capone had a tendency to run things the old way while making a modern twist. He would host a soup kitchen for the press to see and at the same time he would be paying off police.

      Uncle Al is still one of the most famous mobsters in America. He was only sent to prison on tax-evasion in 1931, four years after the Supreme Court deemed illegal income was taxable in 1927. He later died of a heart attack at his home in Miami on January 25, 1947.

     By E. Green, Business Major – IUPUC