60 Fun Facts About Al Capone

In which New York borough was Al Capone born in 1899?

His parents were immigrants from Angri, a small town near Naples.

What was Capone's famous nickname, which he loathed?

His close friends called him Snorky, a term for a sharp dresser.

How did Capone get the scars on his face?

He later claimed the injuries were war wounds and hid the left side of his face from cameras.

Which powerful Lower Manhattan outfit did the teenage Capone join?

He was mentored there by Frankie Yale, who ran the Harvard Inn on Coney Island.

What was Capone's father's trade?

His mother was a seamstress.

Why was Capone expelled from school at 14?

He then worked in a candy store and a bowling alley and played semi-pro baseball.

Which one of Capone's brothers became a Prohibition agent in Nebraska under a different name?

Ralph 'Bottles' Capone ran the bottling companies and was jailed for tax evasion in 1932.

Who was the mentor who brought Capone to Chicago in 1919?

Torrio had himself been imported by crime boss Big Jim Colosimo.

What was Capone's first job in Chicago?

It is thought to be where he contracted the syphilis that eventually destroyed his mind.

How old was Capone when Torrio retired and handed him control of the organisation in 1925?

Torrio quit after North Side gunmen shot him several times.

Whose murder in his flower shop in November 1924 set off the war with the North Side Gang?

Torrio arranged the killing, and Weiss took over the North Siders vowing revenge.

In which Illinois town did Capone base himself after taking over its elections?

His headquarters was the Hawthorne Inn.

What did North Side gunmen do at the Hawthorne Inn on 20 September 1926?

Capone was unhurt and called for a truce that went nowhere.

Asked if he knew Rocco Perri, the northern neighbour's top bootlegger, what did Capone say?

The RCMP says there is no evidence he ever set foot on Canadian soil.

From which brewing family did Capone buy his Palm Island mansion in 1928?

He paid Clarence Busch $40,000 for the 10,000-square-foot house.

How did rival Joe Aiello try to kill Capone at his favourite restaurant?

The chef told Capone, who had Aiello's bakery shot up with 200 bullets.

What bounty did Aiello eventually offer to anyone who killed Capone?

At least ten gunmen tried to collect on the reward and ended up dead.

Which Chicago mayor, elected in 1927, allegedly took a $250,000 contribution from Capone?

He campaigned on not enforcing Prohibition.

What was the 'Pineapple Primary' of April 1928?

At least fifteen people died; lawyer Octavius Granady was chased and shot.

Where was Capone when the St Valentine's Day Massacre took place in 1929?

He was still widely assumed to have ordered it.

How many people were killed in the St Valentine's Day Massacre?

The gunmen were disguised as police officers staging a raid.

Who was the intended target of the massacre, who was not among the dead?

He was the last survivor of the North Side gunmen.

At what address did the massacre take place?

The garage served as Moran's headquarters; Capone's men had rented a flat across the road to watch it.

Capone allegedly beat three treacherous lieutenants with what before having them shot?

Some biographers doubt the story; others think the Outfit spread it to burnish his reputation.

Which newspaper publisher met Hoover in March 1929 to demand federal action against Capone?

Hoover directed all federal agencies to concentrate on Capone and his allies.

Who dubbed the incorruptible Prohibition agents 'Untouchables'?

Charles Schwarz coined it; the squad included Eliot Ness.

For what offence was Capone jailed for a year in Philadelphia in 1929?

He served it in Eastern State Penitentiary and came out to find himself Public Enemy No. 1.

Which unofficial body's list first named Capone 'Public Enemy #1' in 1930?

It came a week after his release from prison in Philadelphia.

Which Supreme Court case of 1927 confirmed that illegally earned income was taxable?

Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt is credited with the tax-evasion tactic.

What key piece of evidence sank Capone at his tax trial?

The lawyer had admitted income of $100,000 for 1928 and 1929 while trying to negotiate a settlement.

Which judge refused to honour Capone's plea bargain and presided over his tax trial?

He had already jailed Capone's brother Ralph for tax evasion.

On how many counts of tax evasion was Capone convicted in October 1931?

He had been indicted on 22 counts and 5,000 Volstead Act violations.

How long was Capone's federal prison sentence?

He was also fined $50,000 and held liable for $215,000 in back taxes plus interest.

What did Capone's defence lawyers argue had happened to essentially all his income?

Gambling losses can only be set against gambling winnings, and his spending betrayed him anyway.

To which prison was Capone first sent in May 1932?

Suspicions he was getting special treatment there helped justify his move to Alcatraz in 1934.

Which instrument did Capone play in the Alcatraz prison band, the Rock Islanders?

He also arranged the song Madonna Mia as a tribute to his wife Mae.

What disease eroded Capone's mind in prison, formally diagnosed in 1938?

He spent his last year at Alcatraz confused in the hospital section.

Which Baltimore hospital refused to treat Capone after his release in 1939?

Union Memorial took him in, and he donated two Japanese weeping cherry trees in thanks.

Capone was among the first American patients treated with which new drug in 1942?

It was too late to reverse the brain damage but slowed the disease.

According to a 1946 examination, Capone had the mentality of a child of what age?

He spent his last years at Palm Island with his wife and grandchildren.

What was the immediate cause of Capone's death in January 1947?

He died at his Palm Island mansion surrounded by family, aged 48.

Who took over the Chicago Outfit after Capone went to prison?

Nitti had also just finished a sentence for tax evasion.

What did Capone sponsor in Chicago during the Depression to improve his image?

Many viewed him as a modern-day Robin Hood, and crowds cheered him at ball games.

Which TV host opened Capone's walled-off vault at the Lexington Hotel live in 1986?

Thirty million people watched it turn out to be empty apart from debris.

What did the vault contain?

It remains the highest-rated syndicated special in history.

Eliot Ness's parents, who ran a Chicago bakery, were immigrants from which country?

Ness was born in the Roseland neighbourhood in 1903.

Capone's parents were both born in Angri, a small town outside which Italian city?

The family emigrated in 1893 via the port of Fiume and settled at 95 Navy Street by the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

What sport did the young Capone play semi-professionally from 1916 to 1918?

He also worked in a candy store and a bowling alley before falling under Johnny Torrio's influence.

What was the nickname of Capone's brother Ralph, who ran the gang's bottling businesses?

Ralph fronted the Chicago Outfit until he too was jailed for tax evasion in 1932.

How old was Capone when he married Mae Coughlin in December 1918?

Being under 21, he needed his parents' written consent; their son Albert 'Sonny' had been born earlier that month.

In which month and year was Capone transferred from Atlanta to the newly opened Alcatraz?

He arrived with 66 other federal prisoners at what wire reports were already calling the 'American Devil's Island'.

Which song did Capone transcribe and arrange at Alcatraz as a tribute to his wife?

He was stabbed and superficially wounded by inmate James Lucas in June 1936, but good behaviour let him play in the prison band.

What did a grateful Capone donate to Baltimore's Union Memorial Hospital after treatment in 1939?

Union Memorial took him in after Johns Hopkins refused because of his reputation.

Some historians think Capone ordered the 1939 murder of which informant, whose son gave Chicago's airport its name?

O'Hare had helped federal prosecutors convict Capone of tax evasion; he was killed a week before Capone's release.

In 1950 Capone's remains were moved to which cemetery in Hillside, Illinois?

He was first buried at Mount Olivet in Chicago after a private funeral; his father and brother Frank were moved with him.

Who played Capone in Brian De Palma's 1987 film The Untouchables?

It was the fourth De Niro–De Palma collaboration; Sean Connery won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as the veteran Irish cop.

Which composer wrote the Oscar-nominated score for The Untouchables (1987)?

The Grammy-winning score sits alongside period music by Duke Ellington in the film.

Which actor plays Capone-inspired gangster Tony Camonte in Howard Hawks's 1932 film Scarface?

Ben Hecht wrote the script in 11 days for producer Howard Hughes, and the film depicts a version of the St Valentine's Day Massacre.

Which actor played a dementia-stricken Capone in the 2020 film Capone, first announced as 'Fonzo'?

Josh Trank's film went straight to premium video-on-demand in May 2020 because of the pandemic.

To which Brooklyn street did Capone's family move when he was 11?

They had first lived at 95 Navy Street in the Brooklyn Navy Yard after arriving in 1893.