rough draft

Al Capone
Al Capone is America’s best known gangster and the greatest symbol of the rebellion against law in the Prohibition Era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal activities that sent Chicago its nickname the “Lawless City.” He was born January 17,1899 in the rough streets of Brooklyn, New York. In his early days he was part of two “kid gangs” one called The Brooklyn Rippers and the other called Forty Thieves Juniors. Even though Al was one of the brightest in his class he dropped out of school in the sixth grade at the age of fourteen. Between gangs he was at his hustle to earn as much money as he possibly could by being a clerk in a candy store, a pin boy at a bowling alley, and a cutter in a book bindery. Growing up with eight other siblings , life was tough for his parents to afford . His father Gabriel, just a barber at a nearby barbershop and mother, just a seamstress they couldn’t afford all that life could give. At this time, Capone was influenced by fellow mobster Johnny Torrio were he promised him the world. Capone fell into his little promise and led a bad life. He took part of the Notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan were he worked as a bouncer for peer gangster Frankie Yale. One day an argument aroused and that is were he received the famous scars on the left side of his face and became the infamous “Scarface.” In 1918, at the age of 19 he met a girl named Mary “ Mea “ Coughlin at a dance. They started dating and that same year she gave birth to their first born Albert “Sonny” Capone on December 4. That same year they got married on the 30th of December.
Al Capone lived in an Era where everything was at tumult, many gangs where basically owning the cities and the government couldn’t do anything about it.Eventhough, there were many other mobsters other than Capone, they didn’t achieve what Al did. When the cops did get involved in the gangs they caught most of them for the simple fact they weren’t as smart as Al. Cops couldn’t find any “dirt” on Al so they convicted him on his taxes. The historical problem that was risen during that era was mainly just gang violence. The way Al Capone contributed to this dispute or problem was by joining various gangs and increasing the rate of violence in Chicago. This encouraged many other “small” gangs to rebel against their cities and gain control just as the other gangs did in Chicago. What caused Al to actually become part of a gang was one that he lived in a rough neighborhood where gangs was what everybody knew and second, Johnny Torrio the man that influenced him to become a gang member just because he knew Al could become so much more. The only reason Al actually took Johnny’s advice was because he was young and just wanted the money that he knew no other laborious job could give. Al achieved key change by almost controlling all of Chicago’s drug income and big businesses .
Many people feared him and a lot of young kids wanted to be him. Everybody knew the amount of control that he had compared to themselves therefore nobody testified against him when the cops actually did get him in court. Al had most of the cops on his side so there weren’t many cops that you could actually call “good” or “straight“. Al motivated so many other gangsters and people in general to rebel to get what they want .Growing up in a rough neighborhood, Al barely had anything so he mainly toward his focuses on the kids that are living in the same type of predicament that he did.
The people that lived his young lifestyle mainly took Al’s mobster and money getting ways as encouragement.
An important date that Capone is known for is The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre which happened February 14, 1929.This is an important date for Capone because this is when seven of Capone’s rivals were massacred in a garage. All of the evidence pointed at Capone and his henchmen, especially Llewellyn Morris Humphreys (Murray The Hump) and Jack “Machine Gun” McGurn. Everybody had the suspicion that McGurn was actually the one that led the whole operation. The talents that Capone used to manipulate people into believing that he really wasn’t the bad guy was his persuasive way of speech, and definitely the amount of power he had and a lot of people are timid of someone that has more power than they do. The long term change that Al Capone had on our history is the many gangs that are still going on in our modern day world .He really opened up the gang life to many people and many movies have contributed to him like “Scarface.” Many people have seen that movie but don’t know it is actually based on a real person.In modern day I have noticed that many teens look up to the movie scarface just for the simple fact that he got whatever he wanted by drug dealing and without an education .A long term change that happened because of Al’s actions where that much of today’s famous cities still have a high violence rate and most of that percentage is from gang violence for instance: Brooklyn, NY , Philadelphia, PA , Baltimore, MA and many other cities across the U.S.
Al Capone relates to the NHD theme "The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies" because he is an individual that has shaped American gangs by his dispicable actions but without those actions our modern American life would have no gratifying point of view of a stereotypical 1920’s American gangster. We should care about this person today because he is one of the few famous gangsters that have effected American history in ways of the amount of violence that has gone on in past days.With his and a few others they have created a era of their own which is called the Prohibition Era. Capone is a celebrity of his own because of his many anonymous crimes and with the help of countless semi-fictional films that have been produced and based on his lifestyle. What Capone left behind is a standard principle of what being a gangster is. Capone contributed to the standard principle of what being a gangster is by showing how a gangster is supposed to act and respect a person of higher class.