WEBVTT
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February 14th, 1929 at 1030 a .m. 2122 North
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Clark Street. Two men in police uniforms walk
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in. Seven men line up against the wall. 70 rounds
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from Thompson's submachine guns. Bugs Moran wasn't
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even there. The day Chicago lost its soul. And
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Al Capone got the nickname he hated most, public
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enemy number one. Al Capone's rise to infamy
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began long before he became the face of Chicago
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crime. Rooted in the rough streets of Brooklyn,
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where a single violent encounter earned him the
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nickname Scarface. That title, which he famously
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despised, serves as the perfect entry point into
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a life that was as much about carefully constructed
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myth as it was about brutal reality. We often
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see him as this caricature of the roaring 20s.
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But the actual mechanics of his ascent and his
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strange connections to places like Ontario reveal
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a much more calculating figure. To understand
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how a kid for Brooklyn ends up controlling the
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liquor flow of the American Midwest, we have
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to look at the environment that produced him.
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It really starts in the Navy Yard section of
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Brooklyn at the turn of the century. Born in
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1899 to Neapolitan immigrants, Alphonse Capone
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didn't actually grow up in a criminal household.
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His father, Gabrielle, was a barber, and his
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mother, Teresina, was a seamstress. They were,
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by all accounts, a hard -working, law -abiding
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family. But the Brooklyn streets at that time
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were a different story. According to biographies
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like the one by Diederbeer, Capone was a bright
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student until about the sixth grade. That's when
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things fractured. He allegedly struck a female
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teacher. got hit back by the principal, and basically
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walked out of the school system forever at age
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14. That transition from a stable home to the
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street gangs is where the transformation begins.
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The gang names from that era sound almost like
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something out of a comic book. The Junior 40
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Thieves, the Brooklyn Rippers, and eventually
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the James Street Boys. It seems like a natural
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progression of escalation. You start with petty
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vandalism and move toward organized racketeering.
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It's during this Brooklyn period that he meets
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the man who would essentially build him, Johnny
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Torrio. Torrio wasn't just another street thug.
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He was known as the Fox because he was a strategist.
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He saw potential in Capone, but before they could
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move their operation to Chicago, there's that
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pivotal moment at the Harvard Inn in 1917. The
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Harvard Inn was a saloon and brothel in Coney
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Island owned by Frankie Yale, another mentor
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of Capone's. Capone was working the door as a
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bouncer and waiting tables. One night, a man
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named Frank Galucio came in with his sister,
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Lena. Capone, who was about 18 at the time, made
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a crude comment to Lena, something about her
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having a nice backside, though the phrasing varies
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depending on the source. Galucio didn't take
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it lightly. He pulled a knife or a razor and
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slashed Capone across the left cheek three times.
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Those wounds required 80 stitches and left the
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permanent scars that gave him the nickname he
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loathed. He would later tell people they were
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war wounds from his time with the Lost Battalion
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in France, but records show he never actually
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served in the military. There's a persistent
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question about whether he ever sought revenge
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for those scars. In the world of the Five Points
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Gang, you'd expect a violent retaliation, but
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the resolution was strangely professional. Instead
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of ordering a hit on Gal Lucio, Capone was reportedly
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forced by his bosses to apologize for insulting
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the woman. There's a rumor Gal Lucio had strong
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connections in the underworld. The irony is that
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years later, once Capone was the king of Chicago,
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he actually hired Frank Gal Lucio as a bodyguard.
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It's a fascinating power move. By putting the
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man who scarred him on the payroll, he wasn't
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just showing forgiveness. He was demonstrating
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absolute dominance. He took the one man who had
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physically bested him and turned him into a subordinate.
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That move to Chicago in 1919 was a turning point.
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Torrio had already gone out there to work for
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Big Jim Colossimo, who ran a massive vice empire.
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Capone followed because things were getting too
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hot for him in New York after a run in with the
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Irish White Hand Gang. When he arrived in Chicago,
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he started a place called the Four Deuces. It
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was a four -story building that functioned as
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a microcosm of their entire business model. A
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saloon on the first floor, gambling on the second,
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a brothel on the third, and Torrio's offices
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on the fourth. When Prohibition hit in 1920,
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the infrastructure was already there to capitalize
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on the sudden illegality of alcohol. Prohibition
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turned these local racketeers into national CEOs.
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But there is a specific piece of the Capone puzzle
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that often gets overlooked in American histories.
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And that's his connection to Guelph, Ontario,
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that there's been a lot of debate among historians
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about how often he actually crossed the border.
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But the local legends in Guelph are incredibly
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persistent. The city was nicknamed Little Chicago
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during the 20s. The central piece of evidence
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usually cited is the Sleeman Brewery. The Sleeman
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family was caught smuggling beer into the U .S.
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in 1933. which resulted in a 50 -year ban on
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the brewing beer. John W. Sleeman has even stated
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that his family lore confirms they were supplying
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Capone's organization. The geography makes sense.
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Guelph was a railway hub, and it was far enough
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from the border to avoid the immediate scrutiny
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that places like Windsor or Niagara Falls faced.
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There are stories of Capone staying at the King
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Edward Hotel or visiting the Sleeman family to
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negotiate shipments. Some historians, like Michael
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Matchett, argue that the primary contact in Canada
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was actually Rocco Perry, the so -called king
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of the bootleggers in Hamilton. Perry was essentially
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the Canadian version of Capone. Even if Capone
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wasn't personally walking the streets of Guelph
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every week, his logistics network definitely
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ran through that part of Ontario. The green door
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in Guelph is still pointed out by locals as a
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spot where these transactions allegedly occurred.
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It highlights how prohibition created this international
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shadow economy. But as the profits grew, so did
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the violence leading to the St. Valentine's Day
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Massacre in 1929. This is the event that really
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broke his relationship with the public. It wasn't
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just a gang hit. It was a military style execution
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in broad daylight. The goal was to eliminate
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George Bugs Moran, the head of the North Side
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Gang, who had been hijacking Capone's liquor
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shipments and trying to assassinate his associates.
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Capone's plan involved four men, two of them
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dressed as police officers, raiding a garage
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at 2122 North Clark Street. The technical precision
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of that hit was terrifying that Moran's men thought
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it was a routine police raid, so they lined up
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against the wall without a fight. The attackers
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then used Thompson sub -machine guns to fire
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70 rounds into seven men. The brutal detail that
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usually sticks out is that the attackers marched
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the two men in civilian clothes out of the building
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with their hands up as if they were being arrested
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by the two officers. This fooled the neighbors
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into thinking the situation was under control.
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The tragic irony is that Bugs Moran wasn't even
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there. He saw the police car arriving, thought
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it was a bust, and kept driving. He survived,
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but his gang was effectively broken. Capone had
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a perfect alibi, of course. He was at his home
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in Palm Island, Florida, at the time of the shooting.
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He even made sure to be seen by local authorities
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there. But the massacre backfired. Before the
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shooting, Capone was seen by many as a sort of
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colorful folk hero, a man giving the people the
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beer the government tried to take away. After
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seven men were found slaughtered in a garage,
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the public enemy number one label started to
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stick. This brings us to the soup kitchens. In
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1931, at the height of the Great Depression,
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he opened a kitchen that served thousands of
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meals a day. Was that a genuine attempt to help
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his fellow citizens, or was it a desperate PR
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move to salvage his reputation? It was almost
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certainly both, but heavily weighted toward ego
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and optics. By 1930, the federal government,
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under orders from President Herbert Hoover, was
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closing in on him. The soup kitchen at 935 South
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State Street was a massive operation, serving
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breakfast, lunch, and dinner to the unemployed.
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It was one of the few places where no questions
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were asked and no one had to prove their poverty.
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For the people who were starving, the motivation
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didn't matter. They were getting fed. But for
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Capone, it was a way to say to the public, look,
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the government is letting you starve, but the
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so -called gangster is the one putting bread
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on your table. It's a classic move in the playbook
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of organized crime, the social bandit archetype.
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If you can embed yourself into the community
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as a benefactor, the community is less likely
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to cooperate with the police. However, even the
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charity had a dark side. There were reports during
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the trial of Daniel Ceratella, a Capone associate,
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that some of the food served in the kitchen,
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like donated ducks, had actually been extorted
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from local businesses. He was essentially forcing
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legitimate companies to fund his philanthropy.
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It wasn't Robin Hood stealing from the rich to
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give to the poor. It was a billionaire mobster
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using his muscle to buy a better image. That
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image couldn't save him from the Treasury Department.
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It's one of the great anticlimaxes of history
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that the man linked to hundreds of murders was
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finally brought down by accountants. Because
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he never filed a tax return, the IRS was able
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to track his massive expenditures, custom suits,
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the Florida mansion, the armor Cadillac, and
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prove that he had income he wasn't reporting.
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In 1931, he was convicted of tax evasion and
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eventually sent to Alcatraz. That's where the
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story takes a very dark turn, as the syphilis
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he had contracted as a young man in the Brooklyn
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brothels began to ravage his brain. It's a stark
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contrast to the man who once sat at the center
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of the world's most sophisticated criminal network.
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By the time he was released in 1939, he had the
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mental capacity of child. The man who orchestrated
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the St. Valentine's Day massacre and negotiated
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beer deals in Guelph was reduced to fishing in
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his swimming pool in Florida. It's a reminder
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that the empire he built was entirely dependent
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on a sharp, calculating mind that eventually
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betrayed him. His legacy isn't just about the
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crime. It's about how he showed that a criminal
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organization could be run with the efficiency
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of a Fortune 500 company, provided you have the
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right leverage and the right myths. The cultural
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footprint he left is massive. He defined the
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visual language of the American gangster. The
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fedora, the cigar, the pinstriped suit. But the
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reality of his childhood in Brooklyn and those
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early mentors like Torrio show that he didn't
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just emerge from a vacuum, that he was a product
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of an era where the law was at odds with public
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desire, and he was smart enough to step into
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that gap. Whether he was a monster or a misunderstood
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businessman depends entirely on which part of
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his life you choose to focus on. But you can't
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deny he changed the structure of American crime
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forever. His story remains a complex weave of
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genuine charity. extreme violence, and international
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logistics that stretch from the streets of Chicago
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all the way into the breweries of Ontario. If
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you found this look into the mechanics of the
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Capone Empire insightful, consider sharing this
00:12:19.590 --> 00:12:22.049
episode with someone who enjoys a deeper dive
00:12:22.049 --> 00:12:26.309
into the shadows of history. And that's the way
00:12:26.309 --> 00:12:26.990
I heard it.
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February 14th, 1929 at 1030 a .m. 2122 North
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Clark Street. Two men in police uniforms walk
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in. Seven men line up against the wall. 70 rounds
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from Thompson's submachine guns. Bugs Moran wasn't
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even there. The day Chicago lost its soul. And
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Al Capone got the nickname he hated most, public
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enemy number one. Al Capone's rise to infamy
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began long before he became the face of Chicago
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crime. Rooted in the rough streets of Brooklyn,
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where a single violent encounter earned him the
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nickname Scarface. That title, which he famously
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despised, serves as the perfect entry point into
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a life that was as much about carefully constructed
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myth as it was about brutal reality. We often
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see him as this caricature of the roaring 20s.
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But the actual mechanics of his ascent and his
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strange connections to places like Ontario reveal
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a much more calculating figure. To understand
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how a kid for Brooklyn ends up controlling the
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liquor flow of the American Midwest, we have
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to look at the environment that produced him.
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It really starts in the Navy Yard section of
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Brooklyn at the turn of the century. Born in
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1899 to Neapolitan immigrants, Alphonse Capone
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didn't actually grow up in a criminal household.
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His father, Gabrielle, was a barber, and his
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mother, Teresina, was a seamstress. They were,
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by all accounts, a hard -working, law -abiding
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family. But the Brooklyn streets at that time
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were a different story. According to biographies
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like the one by Diederbeer, Capone was a bright
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student until about the sixth grade. That's when
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things fractured. He allegedly struck a female
00:01:48.849 --> 00:01:52.170
teacher. got hit back by the principal, and basically
00:01:52.170 --> 00:01:54.170
walked out of the school system forever at age
00:01:54.170 --> 00:01:57.349
14. That transition from a stable home to the
00:01:57.349 --> 00:02:00.069
street gangs is where the transformation begins.
00:02:02.129 --> 00:02:04.409
The gang names from that era sound almost like
00:02:04.409 --> 00:02:06.829
something out of a comic book. The Junior 40
00:02:06.829 --> 00:02:09.610
Thieves, the Brooklyn Rippers, and eventually
00:02:09.610 --> 00:02:12.330
the James Street Boys. It seems like a natural
00:02:12.330 --> 00:02:15.229
progression of escalation. You start with petty
00:02:15.229 --> 00:02:18.610
vandalism and move toward organized racketeering.
00:02:18.759 --> 00:02:20.879
It's during this Brooklyn period that he meets
00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:23.699
the man who would essentially build him, Johnny
00:02:23.699 --> 00:02:27.139
Torrio. Torrio wasn't just another street thug.
00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:30.199
He was known as the Fox because he was a strategist.
00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:33.120
He saw potential in Capone, but before they could
00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:35.740
move their operation to Chicago, there's that
00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:40.819
pivotal moment at the Harvard Inn in 1917. The
00:02:40.819 --> 00:02:42.979
Harvard Inn was a saloon and brothel in Coney
00:02:42.979 --> 00:02:45.879
Island owned by Frankie Yale, another mentor
00:02:45.879 --> 00:02:48.960
of Capone's. Capone was working the door as a
00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:52.520
bouncer and waiting tables. One night, a man
00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:55.139
named Frank Galucio came in with his sister,
00:02:55.439 --> 00:02:58.979
Lena. Capone, who was about 18 at the time, made
00:02:58.979 --> 00:03:01.960
a crude comment to Lena, something about her
00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:04.759
having a nice backside, though the phrasing varies
00:03:04.759 --> 00:03:07.539
depending on the source. Galucio didn't take
00:03:07.539 --> 00:03:10.960
it lightly. He pulled a knife or a razor and
00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:13.699
slashed Capone across the left cheek three times.
00:03:13.930 --> 00:03:17.349
Those wounds required 80 stitches and left the
00:03:17.349 --> 00:03:19.449
permanent scars that gave him the nickname he
00:03:19.449 --> 00:03:21.930
loathed. He would later tell people they were
00:03:21.930 --> 00:03:24.469
war wounds from his time with the Lost Battalion
00:03:24.469 --> 00:03:27.409
in France, but records show he never actually
00:03:27.409 --> 00:03:30.969
served in the military. There's a persistent
00:03:30.969 --> 00:03:33.310
question about whether he ever sought revenge
00:03:33.310 --> 00:03:35.990
for those scars. In the world of the Five Points
00:03:35.990 --> 00:03:39.909
Gang, you'd expect a violent retaliation, but
00:03:39.909 --> 00:03:42.960
the resolution was strangely professional. Instead
00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:46.520
of ordering a hit on Gal Lucio, Capone was reportedly
00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:49.319
forced by his bosses to apologize for insulting
00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:52.259
the woman. There's a rumor Gal Lucio had strong
00:03:52.259 --> 00:03:55.219
connections in the underworld. The irony is that
00:03:55.219 --> 00:03:58.280
years later, once Capone was the king of Chicago,
00:03:58.780 --> 00:04:01.419
he actually hired Frank Gal Lucio as a bodyguard.
00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:04.400
It's a fascinating power move. By putting the
00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:06.840
man who scarred him on the payroll, he wasn't
00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:09.620
just showing forgiveness. He was demonstrating
00:04:09.620 --> 00:04:12.889
absolute dominance. He took the one man who had
00:04:12.889 --> 00:04:16.110
physically bested him and turned him into a subordinate.
00:04:18.050 --> 00:04:21.389
That move to Chicago in 1919 was a turning point.
00:04:21.829 --> 00:04:23.850
Torrio had already gone out there to work for
00:04:23.850 --> 00:04:27.449
Big Jim Colossimo, who ran a massive vice empire.
00:04:27.970 --> 00:04:30.050
Capone followed because things were getting too
00:04:30.050 --> 00:04:32.850
hot for him in New York after a run in with the
00:04:32.850 --> 00:04:35.589
Irish White Hand Gang. When he arrived in Chicago,
00:04:35.990 --> 00:04:39.199
he started a place called the Four Deuces. It
00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:41.560
was a four -story building that functioned as
00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:44.779
a microcosm of their entire business model. A
00:04:44.779 --> 00:04:47.240
saloon on the first floor, gambling on the second,
00:04:47.699 --> 00:04:50.199
a brothel on the third, and Torrio's offices
00:04:50.199 --> 00:04:53.379
on the fourth. When Prohibition hit in 1920,
00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:56.480
the infrastructure was already there to capitalize
00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:01.259
on the sudden illegality of alcohol. Prohibition
00:05:01.259 --> 00:05:04.800
turned these local racketeers into national CEOs.
00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:07.699
But there is a specific piece of the Capone puzzle
00:05:07.699 --> 00:05:10.160
that often gets overlooked in American histories.
00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:12.899
And that's his connection to Guelph, Ontario,
00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:15.540
that there's been a lot of debate among historians
00:05:15.540 --> 00:05:17.639
about how often he actually crossed the border.
00:05:17.980 --> 00:05:20.500
But the local legends in Guelph are incredibly
00:05:20.500 --> 00:05:23.680
persistent. The city was nicknamed Little Chicago
00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:26.220
during the 20s. The central piece of evidence
00:05:26.220 --> 00:05:29.439
usually cited is the Sleeman Brewery. The Sleeman
00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:32.120
family was caught smuggling beer into the U .S.
00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:35.529
in 1933. which resulted in a 50 -year ban on
00:05:35.529 --> 00:05:39.110
the brewing beer. John W. Sleeman has even stated
00:05:39.110 --> 00:05:41.629
that his family lore confirms they were supplying
00:05:41.629 --> 00:05:46.930
Capone's organization. The geography makes sense.
00:05:47.189 --> 00:05:50.170
Guelph was a railway hub, and it was far enough
00:05:50.170 --> 00:05:52.589
from the border to avoid the immediate scrutiny
00:05:52.589 --> 00:05:55.370
that places like Windsor or Niagara Falls faced.
00:05:55.910 --> 00:05:58.230
There are stories of Capone staying at the King
00:05:58.230 --> 00:06:01.170
Edward Hotel or visiting the Sleeman family to
00:06:01.170 --> 00:06:04.160
negotiate shipments. Some historians, like Michael
00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:07.160
Matchett, argue that the primary contact in Canada
00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:10.500
was actually Rocco Perry, the so -called king
00:06:10.500 --> 00:06:13.420
of the bootleggers in Hamilton. Perry was essentially
00:06:13.420 --> 00:06:16.259
the Canadian version of Capone. Even if Capone
00:06:16.259 --> 00:06:18.439
wasn't personally walking the streets of Guelph
00:06:18.439 --> 00:06:21.279
every week, his logistics network definitely
00:06:21.279 --> 00:06:24.240
ran through that part of Ontario. The green door
00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:27.060
in Guelph is still pointed out by locals as a
00:06:27.060 --> 00:06:29.579
spot where these transactions allegedly occurred.
00:06:31.259 --> 00:06:35.660
It highlights how prohibition created this international
00:06:35.660 --> 00:06:39.060
shadow economy. But as the profits grew, so did
00:06:39.060 --> 00:06:41.899
the violence leading to the St. Valentine's Day
00:06:41.899 --> 00:06:45.779
Massacre in 1929. This is the event that really
00:06:45.779 --> 00:06:48.500
broke his relationship with the public. It wasn't
00:06:48.500 --> 00:06:51.600
just a gang hit. It was a military style execution
00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:54.399
in broad daylight. The goal was to eliminate
00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:57.240
George Bugs Moran, the head of the North Side
00:06:57.240 --> 00:06:59.740
Gang, who had been hijacking Capone's liquor
00:06:59.740 --> 00:07:02.660
shipments and trying to assassinate his associates.
00:07:03.259 --> 00:07:05.759
Capone's plan involved four men, two of them
00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:08.680
dressed as police officers, raiding a garage
00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:14.139
at 2122 North Clark Street. The technical precision
00:07:14.139 --> 00:07:17.439
of that hit was terrifying that Moran's men thought
00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:20.240
it was a routine police raid, so they lined up
00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:22.759
against the wall without a fight. The attackers
00:07:22.759 --> 00:07:25.759
then used Thompson sub -machine guns to fire
00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:29.180
70 rounds into seven men. The brutal detail that
00:07:29.180 --> 00:07:31.860
usually sticks out is that the attackers marched
00:07:31.860 --> 00:07:35.019
the two men in civilian clothes out of the building
00:07:35.019 --> 00:07:37.579
with their hands up as if they were being arrested
00:07:37.579 --> 00:07:40.379
by the two officers. This fooled the neighbors
00:07:40.379 --> 00:07:43.139
into thinking the situation was under control.
00:07:43.579 --> 00:07:46.680
The tragic irony is that Bugs Moran wasn't even
00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:49.279
there. He saw the police car arriving, thought
00:07:49.279 --> 00:07:52.660
it was a bust, and kept driving. He survived,
00:07:52.860 --> 00:07:57.209
but his gang was effectively broken. Capone had
00:07:57.209 --> 00:08:00.050
a perfect alibi, of course. He was at his home
00:08:00.050 --> 00:08:02.949
in Palm Island, Florida, at the time of the shooting.
00:08:03.370 --> 00:08:05.430
He even made sure to be seen by local authorities
00:08:05.430 --> 00:08:08.509
there. But the massacre backfired. Before the
00:08:08.509 --> 00:08:11.029
shooting, Capone was seen by many as a sort of
00:08:11.029 --> 00:08:14.089
colorful folk hero, a man giving the people the
00:08:14.089 --> 00:08:16.730
beer the government tried to take away. After
00:08:16.730 --> 00:08:19.149
seven men were found slaughtered in a garage,
00:08:19.509 --> 00:08:22.329
the public enemy number one label started to
00:08:22.329 --> 00:08:25.639
stick. This brings us to the soup kitchens. In
00:08:25.639 --> 00:08:28.220
1931, at the height of the Great Depression,
00:08:28.660 --> 00:08:31.000
he opened a kitchen that served thousands of
00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.899
meals a day. Was that a genuine attempt to help
00:08:33.899 --> 00:08:37.039
his fellow citizens, or was it a desperate PR
00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:41.419
move to salvage his reputation? It was almost
00:08:41.419 --> 00:08:44.679
certainly both, but heavily weighted toward ego
00:08:44.679 --> 00:08:48.340
and optics. By 1930, the federal government,
00:08:48.659 --> 00:08:51.440
under orders from President Herbert Hoover, was
00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:55.320
closing in on him. The soup kitchen at 935 South
00:08:55.320 --> 00:08:57.820
State Street was a massive operation, serving
00:08:57.820 --> 00:09:00.879
breakfast, lunch, and dinner to the unemployed.
00:09:01.340 --> 00:09:03.379
It was one of the few places where no questions
00:09:03.379 --> 00:09:06.080
were asked and no one had to prove their poverty.
00:09:06.500 --> 00:09:08.960
For the people who were starving, the motivation
00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:11.539
didn't matter. They were getting fed. But for
00:09:11.539 --> 00:09:14.200
Capone, it was a way to say to the public, look,
00:09:14.519 --> 00:09:16.820
the government is letting you starve, but the
00:09:16.820 --> 00:09:19.200
so -called gangster is the one putting bread
00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:23.860
on your table. It's a classic move in the playbook
00:09:23.860 --> 00:09:27.259
of organized crime, the social bandit archetype.
00:09:27.559 --> 00:09:29.639
If you can embed yourself into the community
00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:33.120
as a benefactor, the community is less likely
00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:36.759
to cooperate with the police. However, even the
00:09:36.759 --> 00:09:39.220
charity had a dark side. There were reports during
00:09:39.220 --> 00:09:42.399
the trial of Daniel Ceratella, a Capone associate,
00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:44.740
that some of the food served in the kitchen,
00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:47.580
like donated ducks, had actually been extorted
00:09:47.580 --> 00:09:50.539
from local businesses. He was essentially forcing
00:09:50.539 --> 00:09:53.259
legitimate companies to fund his philanthropy.
00:09:53.860 --> 00:09:56.039
It wasn't Robin Hood stealing from the rich to
00:09:56.039 --> 00:09:58.679
give to the poor. It was a billionaire mobster
00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:03.379
using his muscle to buy a better image. That
00:10:03.379 --> 00:10:05.659
image couldn't save him from the Treasury Department.
00:10:06.139 --> 00:10:08.659
It's one of the great anticlimaxes of history
00:10:08.659 --> 00:10:11.460
that the man linked to hundreds of murders was
00:10:11.460 --> 00:10:14.049
finally brought down by accountants. Because
00:10:14.049 --> 00:10:17.250
he never filed a tax return, the IRS was able
00:10:17.250 --> 00:10:20.350
to track his massive expenditures, custom suits,
00:10:20.610 --> 00:10:23.269
the Florida mansion, the armor Cadillac, and
00:10:23.269 --> 00:10:25.389
prove that he had income he wasn't reporting.
00:10:25.889 --> 00:10:29.610
In 1931, he was convicted of tax evasion and
00:10:29.610 --> 00:10:32.029
eventually sent to Alcatraz. That's where the
00:10:32.029 --> 00:10:35.250
story takes a very dark turn, as the syphilis
00:10:35.250 --> 00:10:37.769
he had contracted as a young man in the Brooklyn
00:10:37.769 --> 00:10:42.259
brothels began to ravage his brain. It's a stark
00:10:42.259 --> 00:10:44.960
contrast to the man who once sat at the center
00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:47.960
of the world's most sophisticated criminal network.
00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:51.659
By the time he was released in 1939, he had the
00:10:51.659 --> 00:10:54.559
mental capacity of child. The man who orchestrated
00:10:54.559 --> 00:10:57.580
the St. Valentine's Day massacre and negotiated
00:10:57.580 --> 00:11:00.500
beer deals in Guelph was reduced to fishing in
00:11:00.500 --> 00:11:03.259
his swimming pool in Florida. It's a reminder
00:11:03.259 --> 00:11:05.919
that the empire he built was entirely dependent
00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:08.620
on a sharp, calculating mind that eventually
00:11:08.620 --> 00:11:11.919
betrayed him. His legacy isn't just about the
00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:14.259
crime. It's about how he showed that a criminal
00:11:14.259 --> 00:11:16.759
organization could be run with the efficiency
00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:19.919
of a Fortune 500 company, provided you have the
00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:24.419
right leverage and the right myths. The cultural
00:11:24.419 --> 00:11:28.039
footprint he left is massive. He defined the
00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:30.620
visual language of the American gangster. The
00:11:30.620 --> 00:11:34.159
fedora, the cigar, the pinstriped suit. But the
00:11:34.159 --> 00:11:36.639
reality of his childhood in Brooklyn and those
00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:39.700
early mentors like Torrio show that he didn't
00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:42.379
just emerge from a vacuum, that he was a product
00:11:42.379 --> 00:11:45.139
of an era where the law was at odds with public
00:11:45.139 --> 00:11:47.740
desire, and he was smart enough to step into
00:11:47.740 --> 00:11:51.179
that gap. Whether he was a monster or a misunderstood
00:11:51.179 --> 00:11:53.759
businessman depends entirely on which part of
00:11:53.759 --> 00:11:56.259
his life you choose to focus on. But you can't
00:11:56.259 --> 00:11:58.779
deny he changed the structure of American crime
00:11:58.779 --> 00:12:04.639
forever. His story remains a complex weave of
00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:08.429
genuine charity. extreme violence, and international
00:12:08.429 --> 00:12:11.190
logistics that stretch from the streets of Chicago
00:12:11.190 --> 00:12:14.269
all the way into the breweries of Ontario. If
00:12:14.269 --> 00:12:16.350
you found this look into the mechanics of the
00:12:16.350 --> 00:12:19.590
Capone Empire insightful, consider sharing this
00:12:19.590 --> 00:12:22.049
episode with someone who enjoys a deeper dive
00:12:22.049 --> 00:12:26.309
into the shadows of history. And that's the way
00:12:26.309 --> 00:12:26.990
I heard it.
