History UsefulNotes / AlCapone

'''Alphonse Gabriel Capone''' (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) was one of the first iconic American gangsters of the 20th century. He was the fourth son of first-generation Neapolitan immigrants. Born in New York City on January 17, 1899, Al dropped out of school and let himself be caught up in street gangs, and as an adult brought himself to the attention of racketeers Frankie Yale and Johnny Torrio. Torrio subsequently invited Capone to join him as a partner when he took over the businesses of Chicago crime lord "Big Jim" Colosimo and expanded his operations to take advantage of the lucrative career of bootlegging created by the passing of 18th Amendment in the United States, banning the manufacture, importation, and sale of alcoholic drinks.

'''Alphonse Gabriel Capone''' was one of the first iconic American gangsters of the 20th century. He was the fourth son of first-generation Neapolitan immigrants. Born in New York City, Al dropped out of school and let himself be caught up in street gangs, and as an adult brought himself to the attention of racketeers Frankie Yale and Johnny Torrio. Torrio subsequently invited Capone to join him as a partner when he took over the businesses of Chicago crime lord "Big Jim" Colosimo and expanded his operations to take advantage of the lucrative career of bootlegging created by the passing of 18th Amendment in the United States, banning the manufacture, importation, and sale of alcoholic drinks.

* ''[[Film/BillAndTed Bill and Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure]]'': Capone is one of the many historical figures featured in this [[NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] game.

* ''Series/DeadliestWarrior'': A foil for UsefulNotes/JesseJames in the second season. [[spoiler: He loses.]]

* ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory'' pits him against {{Blackbeard}}.

* ''[[Franchise/{{Tintin}} Tintin in America]]'', where he serves as the BigBad. He's the only real person character in the entire series.

* ''Series/TheUntouchables'': The villain of two television shows and [[Film/TheUntouchables a film]], all of the same name.

* Capone has been the subject of two theatrical-release biopics: Al Capone, starring Rod Steiger as the Big Fella, and Capone, with Ben Gazzara as Scarface. He appears as a character in literally dozens of other movies, TV shows, and other media set in the period. Some of the more notable appearances include:

[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Al_Capone_9921.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:''"Hell, it's a business... All I do is supply a public demand. I do it in the best and least harmful way I can. I can't change the conditions. I just meet them without backing up."'']]

[[caption-width-right:250:"You can get much farther with [[ShameIfSomethingHappened a kind word and a gun]] than you can with a kind word alone."]]

* ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum: Battle Of The Smithsonian'' has an animated photo of him recruited by Kahmunrah, along with wax statues of Napoleon and Ivan the Terrible.

* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'': He first appears as a young thug trying to expand his share in the business. Over the course of five seasons, we see him becoming the crime boss of Chicago.

Capone finally went to trial in 1931 and, after his attempt to fix the jury failed, he was [[JusticeByOtherLegalMeans convicted as a tax cheat]]. He was imprisoned at Alcatraz Island in San Francisico. During his imprisonment, a latent case of syphilis he had developed finally hit the tertiary stage, and the damage to his nervous system completely destroyed him. He was released in 1939 and died eight years later.

* ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts: From the New World'': In this PlayStation2 RPG, Capone has a [[MegaNeko giant talking cat]] [[DrunkenMaster martial artist]] under his employ.

* ''The Untouchables of Eliot Mouse'': a family-oriented animated series by BRB Internaciónal (of DavidTheGnome fame) set in a version of Earth populated by cats and mice, and featuring a feline version named "Al Catone" ([[PunnyName get it?]]) who operates in "Cheesecago", is pursued by the Eliot "Mouse" of the title and has "Dog" Moran and his gang as his main rivals.

Capone finally went to trial in 1931 and, after his attempt to fix the jury failed, he was [[JusticeByOtherLegalMeans convicted as a tax cheat]]. During his imprisonment, a latent case of syphilis he had developed finally hit the tertiary stage, and the damage to his nervous system completely destroyed him. He was released in 1939 and died eight years later.

!!Tropes related to Al Capone:

* AfraidOfNeedles: This was why Capone refused treatment for the syphilis that eventually killed him.
* AppealToForce: Reportedly once claimed "You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word."
* ArchEnemy: "Bugs" Moran, leader of the North Side Gang and Chicago's ''second'' greatest gangster. More murderous and ruthless than Capone ("Bugs" was underworld slang for AxCrazy), but tended to put his pride ahead of sensible decisions and had a serious case of ChronicBackstabbingDisorder when it came to Capone's repeated attempts to strike truces with him, until Capone expressed his displeasure in the form of the St. Valentines Day Massacre.
** In popular myth, Prohibition agent Eliot Ness and Series/TheUntouchables were this too.
* BatterUp: He apparently beat three disloyal minions to death with a baseball bat.
* BlackSheep: From the point of view of Al, his brother James was one -- he travelled west, changed his name from James Vicenzo Capone to Richard James Hart, and became a Prohibition Agent, earning the nickname of "Two-Gun" Hart. When the newspapers somehow found out his relationship to Public Enemy #1, he and his family moved further west and he joined the BIA as a reservation policeman in Idaho, where he arrested at least 20 wanted killers. The two remained in contact despite their differences, and Hart introduced his children to their "Uncle Al."
* BrooklynRage
* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: He made no secret of his enjoyment of the power and luxury his crime brought him.
* DirtyCop: Several served his organization. The sentence "I own the police" is usually attributed to him.
* TheDon
* EmbarrassingNickname: Scarface. He was apparently embarrassed by the scars, hiding them in photographs and claiming they were war wounds.
* EvilMentor: Frankie Yale first, then followed by Johnny Torrio.
* FluffyTheTerrible: Worked with a group of notoriously violent bootleggers called "The Purple Gang."
* FriendToAllChildren[=/=]WouldntHurtAChild: One of the (surprisingly many) good things about him. In addition, [[MafiaPrincess his son]] Albert Francis aka "Sonny" most certainly [[GiveHimANormalLife did not follow in his father's footsteps]].
* {{Gangsterland}}: One of the first names everybody associates with the trope.
* GenreSavvy: He knew all about the crack prohibition agent time, IzzyAndMoe, and when they decided to target him, Al was ready for them. Namely, he had private detectives tail them throughout Chicago to make sure they would never get an opportunity to get into disguise and sneak into his businesses.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: [[http://www.biography.com/imported/images/Biography/Images/Profiles/C/Al-Capone-9237536-1-402.jpg He tried to pass off his facial scars as war wounds, but they were from a knife fight in his youth]].
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: It is believed he caught syphilis from one of his brothels. This would eventually turn him into an empty shell of a man later in his life.
* IntimidatingRevenueService: Underestimating it was his undoing. Tax evasion was his only conviction, nothing else would stick, since he had such good lawyers/intimidation that none of the more "serious" charges would stand up to court scrutiny.
* JustOneLittleMistake: After a lifetime of crime, he got nailed for ''[[JusticeByOtherLegalMeans tax evasion]]''.
* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub: He used laundries as a front for his dealings (hence the idiom "money laundering"). He was also officially an antique dealer.
* LuxuryPrisonSuite: After he finally went to jail.
* MamaDidntRaiseNoCriminal: Capone's mother always denied that her son was a ruthless gangster. In her own words: "Al is a good boy".
* MistakenNationality: After his death some American newspapers tried to pass off that he was born in Italy. In reality Capone was of Italian descent, but born on American soil.
* TheMobBossIsScarier: One of the trope codifiers, at least in the US.
* MobWar: Against the Irish North Side Gang, culminating in the infamous Valentine's Day Massacre.
* MoreDakka: His name is nearly synonymous with the Thompson Submachine Gun, aka "The Chicago Typewriter."
* NastyParty: In 1929, Al Capone learned that three men intended to betray him. He invited them to a lavish banquet, and once they'd eaten and drunk their fill ordered his bodyguards to tie the men to their chairs. Capone worked all three over with a [[BatterUp baseball bat]], before finally ordering his guards to shoot the would-be betrayers and dump the remains.
* NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters: During TheGreatDepression he [[PetTheDog set up soup lines in Chicago]].
* NiceHat: Wore a huge white hat.
* PetTheDog: Had several of these moments.
* PhonyVeteran: At times, he passed his prominent facial scars off as old war wounds, but he never served in the military.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: Al liked to carry a [[http://a57.foxnews.com/global.fncstatic.com/static/managed/img/U.S./660/371/al-capones-gun.gif Colt Police Positive]] as his WeaponOfChoice.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney
* SmokingIsCool: Iconic cigar smoker.
* TheVirus: It's been proposed that part of his ruthless, ragging personality was caused by him suffering from third stage syphilis, which had no treatment at the time. His son Albert Francis Capone was born with congenital syphilis as well due to this.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: He moved to Chicago from his hometown Brooklyn because he was being investigated for murder.

* BlackSheep: From the point of view of Al, his brother James was one -- he travelled west, changed his name from James Vicenzo Capone to Richard James Hart, and became a Prohibition Agent, earning the nickname of "Two-Gun" Hart. When the newspapers somehow found out his relationship to Public Enemy #1, he and his family moved further west and he joined the BIA as a reservation policeman in Idaho, where he arrested at least 20 wanted killers.

One of the first iconic American gangsters of the 20th century.

'''Alphonse Gabriel Capone''' was the fourth son of first-generation Neapolitan immigrants. Born in New York City, Al dropped out of school and let himself be caught up in street gangs, and as an adult brought himself to the attention of racketeers Frankie Yale and Johnny Torrio. Torrio subsequently invited Capone to join him as a partner when he took over the businesses of Chicago crime lord "Big Jim" Colosimo and expanded his operations to take advantage of the lucrative career of bootlegging created by the passing of 18th Amendment in the United States, banning the manufacture, importation, and sale of alcoholic drinks.

Things started going downhill again when Capone had seven rival gangsters killed in the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, bringing him unwanted national attention (though, that said, there is some speculation that he was innocent of that particular crime). The Federal government finally stepped in, assigning Prohibition enforcer Eliot Ness to do some damage against Capone with his handpicked team of incorruptible agents nicknamed The Untouchables, while investigations into his massive secret income for the purpose of tax evasion charges were underway.

* NiceHat

* ''Series/DeadliestWarrior'': A foil for JesseJames in the second season. [[spoiler: He loses.]]

* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'': As a young thug trying to expand his share in the business.

* ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJones''

* BatterUp: Beat three disloyal minions with a baseball bat.

* FriendToAllChildren[=/=]WouldntHurtAChild: One of the (surprisingly many) good things about him.

* FriendToAllChildren[=/=]WouldntHurtAChild

Torrio and Capone established a monopoly for illegal activities in the nearby town of Cicero, but still were caught up in a mild turf war against Irish-American bootlegger Dion O'Banion. When O'Banion was murdered, all hell broke loose amongst the gangs in Chicago as his subordinates sought revenge and Torrio, a pacifist who narrowly survived an assassination attempt during the events, opted to abandon Chicago and leave all his operations to Capone.