Al Capone

Capone was born on January 17th, 1899, in Brooklyn, N.Y. He attended school until the sixth grade. His nickname, Scarface, was the result of a knife attack by a brother of a girl Capone had insulted that left three scars on his face. Capone joined the James Street Gang, headed by Johnny Torrio. In 1920 Torrio asked Capone to go to Chicago to work for his uncle, Big Jim Colosimo, Head of the cityås largest prostitution and gambling ring. Later that year when Prohibition became a law, Torrio discovered that bootlegging would lead to a great and prosperous business. His uncle, however, wanted no part in such potentially dangerous endeavors.

Colosimo was murdered and Torrio and Capone took over his empire, to which they had added bootlegging. After Torrio was gunned down and almost killed by a rival gang, he retired from the underworld.

At the age of 26, Capone was managing more than 1,000 employees with a payroll of more than 300,000 a week and demanding their loya...