The History And Inside Scoop of The Mafia

When you think of New York, many trade marks come to mind. The Statue of Liberty, is among the most popular. However, since the 19th century, The Irish Mafia has been exploding immigrants from the Old Country. The arrival of the Irish Mafia had the local business owners running scared. Their domination had become very powerful. No racketeering was too small for the Irish Mafia.

The Irish Mafia made a big name for themselves, literally, with names like, “ One Lung, The Killer and Mad Dog.” The women, flashy clothes and drinking days were just getting started. The Irish Mob had begun to influence many of the United States biggest cities. In 1974 a gang known as The K&K gang, robbed a Philadelphia bank. The members were of Irish decent, and later became known for their involvement in loan sharking, thievery and gambling across the State.

In the early 1980’s when drugs had begun p a role in the Mafia, over thirty K&K members were taken into police custody. Nonetheless, the gang still continued to dominate and grow. The gang’s leader, Ray Matorno was gunned down, after bringing over a dozen hit men, in order to remove the Italian Mafia’s hold over Philadelphia.

St. John’s cemetery is a Historical trademark, when it comes to New York and it’s ties to The Mafia Gangsters. Millions of names are displayed. Many suffered from a blow to the head, but the tombs could never silence the history laying beneath it all. The legends of the Irish along with The Italian Mafia, speak for themselves. The blood shed at the hand of the Mafia Bosses, and it’s members cannot be erased, and a visit to St. John’s Cemetery is unlike any Gangster Movie of all time.

Their names brought fear to the public, to businessmen and crooks alike. From their early school days the twins caused havoc, terror and mayhem in the East End of London. They rebelled together against authority of any kind, Ronald being a paranoid schizophrenic who didn’t give a damn for anyone or anything. They worked as a team and if you were their target the best thing you could do would be to emigrate. As they grew, their reputations grew with them and they finally became the heads of organised crime in the East End of London during the 1950’s and 60’s. They organised armed robberies, protection rackets, violent assaults, gangland killings and torture. They were nightclub owners having top entertainers on their billboards. Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra performed in their club. They mixed with politicians and the celebrities of the time. They were feared by other gang members, dealing out swift retribution to anyone who got in their way. They were criminals who laughed at authority and dared the powers that be to try to tame them.

The British Army tried to tame them in 1952 when they were called up to serve their country in National Service, two years of compulsory service for any man over the age of eighteen years. The Army had no chance! They were a nightmare. They deserted as soon as they had the chance. There was no way they were going to stay in the Army. While they were free, a policeman tried to arrest them and got himself badly beaten up. That was the first time they went absent without leave, there were numerous other occasions when they ran for it. When they did get caught again they were held prisoner in the Tower of London, being two of the last prisoners sent there. Their next stop was the Military Prison in Somerset, Shepton Mallet, where they were to be court martialled. Sentenced to a jail term in their Brigade depot in Canterbury, they started to cause havoc as soon as they got there. They fought the staff like demented devils, emptied slop buckets over a guard, threw boiling tea over another, set their bedding alight and stole handcuffs which they used to handcuff a guard to their cell bars. They escaped from Canterbury by breaking a large flower vase over a guard’s head, and went on the run again. They were caught after committing crimes and this time the Army gave up on them and they were both thrown out of the service with a dishonourable discharge.Back home in the East End the twins took over a snooker and billiard hall and started on their career of protection and extortion, gathering together a gang of villains, petty crooks and thugs. The rationing of scarce commodities was still in force and the black market in goods and food was a money spinner for them. When rationing ended in the mid fifties, they had to look for other means of making a living. Gambling was becoming a major industry so they started a gambling club in the West End of London. Ron was becoming unstable as he dreamt of the firm taking over gangland and in 1956 he was jailed for three years for comitting grievous bodily harm. Two years into his sentence he was certified as being insane. Later, Reg was jailed for organising a protection racket and Ron was left in charge of the businesses. While Reg was in jail, Ronald took over a night club in Knightsbridge, in the West End of London, increasing the twins’ empire.

The Kray and the Richardson gangs had a showdown at the Richardsons’ club, probably over territory, and George Cornell a Richardson ally called Ronnie Kray a “fat poof”. This signalled war and a Kray member, Richard Hart, was murdered. Ronnie took revenge by killing George Cornell in The Blind Beggar public house Whitechapel Road. He just walked into the pub and shot him. No one came forward as a witness.

In 1965 the Kray gang assisted Frank ‘The mad Axeman’ Mitchell’s escape from Dartmoor prison, but Mitchell became increasingly violent and unstable so he disappeared. The Kray twins were later acquitted of his murder and his body was never recovered.

Ronald instructed Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie to murder a man called Leslie Payne, giving Jack a hundred pounds deposit with and the promise of a further four hundred when the job was done. For some reason Jack failed to do it and as Reginald accepted McVitie’s excuses, he let him keep £50. Ronald was incensed and told Jack to come over for a party. There Reginald, egged on by Ronald, murdered him. McVitie’s was another body never recovered.

The end of their careers came when the Krays got a man called Alan Cooper to blow someone up aand Cooper recruited Paul Elvey, a radio engineer to buy explosives and make the bomb. Elvey was arrested, and when Detective Superintendent Nipper Read’s team interviewed him, Elvey confessed, and Cooper became implicated in three attempted murders. Cooper agreed to give evidence against the Krays.

On 8 May 1968, the Krays and 15 other members of their gang were arrested. Many witnesses came forward now that the Krays’ reign of intimidation was over, and it was relatively easy to gain a conviction. The Krays and 14 others were convicted. One of the firm members that provided a lot of the information to the police was arrested yet only for a short period. Out of the 17 official firm members, 16 were arrested and convicted. The judge, Mr Justice Melford Stevenson told the gang, “In my view, society has earned a rest from your activities.” Both the Krays were sentenced to life with no parole for 30 years for the murders of Cornell and McVitie, the longest sentences ever passed at the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court, London) for murder.

Ronnie remained in Broadmoor Mental Hospital until his death on 17 March 1995, but Reggie was released from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2000, eight weeks before his death in October from cancer.

            The 1920s, (also known as the “Roaring 20s” or the “Jazz Age”) was a revolutionary era in the United States. People lost consciousness of traditional values, and women broke free from the typical house-wife positions to find jobs. The attitudes and behavior of the people were reflected by the reckless and careless society. This was the era of freedom and nontraditional values; these were the 1920s.                                             Living life in the 1920s was entirely based on your social status. Your social status was based on what kind of car, house, clothes, and friends you had. The highest factor of measuring your status was what car you had. One must-have car for the rich was the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. Its brilliant design and features were like no other cars during that era. The most successful in the country were the only people to have these cars, because their prices were ridiculous (Posthumus 48). “When traveling in the car, it was necessary to take a couple spare tires, plenty of blankets, and you should be wearing your oldest clothes. Tires in the 20’s did not have the ability to handle all the dirt roads, and it wasn’t unusual to get a few flat tires. You need blankets to put on the back seat to try to soften the bumpy ride and use when sleeping because motels were rare back then”(Blocksma 50).                        Even though people wore ragged clothes on the road, that has no relevance as to how people dressed during the 20’s. Women adopted a new style of fashion and more casual beliefs. The style of clothing was drastically changed. Hairstyles were becoming shorter and less “covering.” In 1925, the Archbishop of Naples pointed a blaming finger at short skirts. He believed that they were the cause for an Italian earthquake. Also, women gained more liberty when electric self-starting ignitions were created. After that, there was no need for a man to help hand-crank the car to start it up. Living standards were at an all-time high (ProQuest).  The Roaring ‘20s brought about a growing economic boom to the United States. Our nation was transitioning from rural life and an agricultural based economy into an urban life and an industrial economy. People were producing and consuming more products than ever before. They were not afraid to spend money, until the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, which changed the standards of living forever.                                                                                                It has been eight decades since the “Jazz Age,” and much has changed since then. Daily life in the 1920s is a dramatic difference when compared to the Twenty-first Century. The greatest difference would be the daily life of children. Only in the 1920s were laws finally made to force children to go to school and receive an education. Before these laws, you could decide whether or not you wanted to go to school. Creating this law prevented the further growth of child labor in the country. Another contrast is the time spent on activities. Even without the invention of television and computers yet, children were rarely bored. Many spent their time listening to the newly invented radio or collecting things like; string, stamps, marbles, baseball cards, pressed flowers, paper dolls, postcards, and bottle caps (Blocksma 46). Nowadays, people are spending countless hours watching TV and using computers. School life was also different. Since ballpoint pens hadn’t been invented yet, students had to use quill pens.                                 Not only did children have such a dramatic difference than the Twenty-first century, but the women did also. The 1920’s had created “The New Woman”; strong, independent, and accomplished. The new woman gained more rights with the passage of the suffrage amendment in 1920 (Baughman 269). Females had advanced in the workforce as more companies began to hire women for office jobs. According to Margaret Deland, the new woman “has gone to college, and when she graduates she is going to earn her own living. She declines to be dependent upon a father and mother amply able to support her. She will do settlement work; she won’t go to church; she has views upon marriage and the birth-rate . . .  she occupies herself passionately, with everything, except the things that used to occupy the minds of girls.” These women were called “flappers”                                        In 1919, the 19th amendment prohibited the consumption and production of alcohol. This was a nightmare to the labor force, as the main source of relief after a long day of work was alcohol. Some people learned that the selling of illegal alcohol could be turned into a job. It was good profit, but since many bootleggers never took the time to decontaminate their products since there were no health inspectors. Some bootleggers purposely poisoned their drinks to give a stronger “kick”. This special “kick” led to the thousands of deaths in the United States during prohibition. “In 1928 in New York City, a batch of liquor containing wood alcohol killed twenty five men in three days. In 1930, an estimated fifteen thousand people drank liquor containing the extract of Jamaican ginger, a cheap ingredient that was almost 90 percent alcohol. The result was an epidemic of “jake paralysis,” which one journalist described: “The feet of the paralyzed ones drop forward from the ankle so that the toes point downward… The calves of his legs, after two or three weeks, begin to soften and hang down; the muscles between thumbs and index fingers shrivel away” (Yancey 56-60).                                                                                                           Though the consumption of alcohol was prohibited, some people found new places to slip back into their drunken days. These new places were called speakeasies. They were illegal bars with music and all kinds of entertainment. They were set up behind locked doors in basements, attics, warehouses, and apartment houses.  Many were raided by police, but people usually found other speakeasies to go to during the weekends (Yancey 61-62).                                                                                                      These speakeasies were run by bootleggers (people who made or imported alcohol illegally). The most famous bootlegger was Al Capone. He was involved with gangs almost all his life. When prohibition took effect, Al Capone made money by smuggling and selling alcohol. He was known for bribing government officials. Capone and his gang members killed anyone in their way, especially other rival gangs. Despite his illegal occupation, many people saw him as the modern day “Robin Hood,” because he gave a nice sum of money away to charities.                     Ever since the economic boom started in the early 20s, people were more laid-back and ready to have some fun. Money spent on leisurely activities such as movies, dances, and sports rose by 300 percent. Sales for just about everything at least doubled. People started going to movie theaters. They began going to sporting events. These days were full of jazz music by black musicians. Exuberant new dances from the black tradition were incorporated into the dances. People created new fads that included: flagpole sitting, goldfish swallowing, crossword puzzles, and dance marathons (Baughman 261). Since airplanes were recently invented, whenever anyone heard an airplane close by everyone would run outside to watch it go by until it was out of sight. They were living their lives to the fullest and doing whatever pleased them.                                                                                  From the age of prohibition to the stock market crash, the 1920s were a reckless era. It was the rising and crashing of an economy. It was an entire generation lived within itself. Some people suffered while others partied all night. Crime rates soared through the roof. Traditional values were lost and forgotten. This was the careless lifestyle of the 1920s.

Works Cited

Baughman, Judith S. “Lifestyles and Social Trends.” American Decades 1920-1929. Farmington Hills, MI, 1995. Print.
Blocksma, Mary. Ticket to the Twenties: A TimeTraveler’s Guide. Boston: Little, Brown, 1993.     Print.
Burg, David F. “Pasttimes and Pleasures.” The Great Depression: An Eyewitness to History. 9-     12. Print.
Posthumus, Cyril. Vintage Cars. New York: Hamlyn, 1973. Print.
            ProQuest LLC. “The Roaring ‘20’s.” Historical Newspapers 21 Dec. 2010: n. pag. ProQuest Historical Newspapers – Graphical. Web. 21 Dec. 2010. .
            “The Roaring Twenties.” ThinkQuest. N.p., 2000. Web. 21 Dec. 2010.        .
Time-Life Books. The Jazz Age the 20s. Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1998. Print.
            Yancey, Diane. Life During the Roaring Twenties. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2002. Print.

William Michael “Billy” Bulger, led a life of luxury. He was a Democrat, who was one of the most powerful men in Massachusetts, as the President of its Senate and University. He is highly educated, extremely intelligent and clearly influential man who had earned a triple eagle in his studies.

One of the only men who could challenge his authority was James Bulger, his elder brother, who became one of Bostons most powerful underworld leaders.

James Bulger

James Joseph “Whitey” Bulger, led a life of crime – just like his younger brother, James was gifted. Whereas his brother seemingly sought legal power, and achieved it, James got involved with gangs in the 1950s onwards. He committed many criminals acts, from murder to drug experimentation and trafficking; the FBI and CIA took notice of his activities. When the Feds arrested James, he was considered so dangerous that they transferred him to one of the most famous prisons in America: Alcatraz. Upon his release from Alcatraz he had only developed his network of mobster buddies. Using his new contacts, he catapulted himself to the top as a successful mob boss.

‘Collaboration’

In court, James mouthed the words “Hi” and William smiled back. Allegedly, the two brothers were communicating with one another despite their polar opposite lifestyles. At one point during James exile from Boston, it is believed that William called his brother via a public phone, because he did not want the Feds to track the call back to James.

So the question is, was there any collaboration between the two men? Did William use James to exert pressure on his political opponents? To what extent was William complicit in James crimes? And was James using his ‘contact’ (hint: relatives) to exert pressure on his criminal rivals?

All ‘evidence’ seems to suggest that William is a criminal, only far more clever than his brother. What do you think?

Even more fascinating is the extent to which the FBI themselves were involved. I just found a video on YouTube about James “Whitey” Bulger.

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If you are still a virgin at twenty one, you must be really proud of it, sometimes relationships break up because one of you is not ready to jump into the sac, but that is fine.  If your partner can’t understand and respect your wishes,  it is obvious love is not enough.

You got to consider the negative though that would be of a one night stand, and your partner has to see this from your side too, your decision is that you don’t want to have sex because, it will spoil your reputation or you will fall pregnant, and off-course contract STD.

The biggest concern about teens, they are naive, and feel they can do any thing, young as they are, what can go wrong?   You should treasure yourself, and have enough dignity pride and self worth to make informed decisions that you are comfortable with, and not to keep the attention of someone who is totally selfish. Teens should wake up,  there is more to life than just sleeping around.

Sometimes girls are branded to be whores, after having sex for the first time, with one night stands you got to take responsibility, to your actions, this should be a mutual decision, but unfortunately the streets are riddled with boys who will do eactly what they want to.  A guy should respect a girl and keep his ego in  a tight can, rather than letting it flap about  all over the place.  What may look,  nice can turn out to be a horrible experience.

What really  can get to me is when I see the way girls allow themselves to be degraded by boys, and the girls will do whatever they can just to be okay in that guy’s eyes.  

So what are parents teaching their children?

A special bond between two people  should be respected and educated by the consequences, parents have  a right to know of their children no matter where or when.

Girls and boys become sexually active but there must be a time and place for every thing, you can’t pretend this doesn’t exist, but you do have high morals and values, and  should learn of this through families and friends.

Crazy Joe gained street credibility when rumors started flying ascertaining that he killed crime boss Albert Anastasia as he sat in a barber’s chair in Manhattan in 1957. then in the 60’s The Gallo brothers went to war with Profaci after Profaci ordered Joe Gallo and his brothers, Albert and Larry to kill a gambler who had refused to give Profaci $50,000 as a  Tribute .The brothers, who knew and liked the gambler, agreed, to do the job only with the assurance from Profaci that they would get a split the gambler’s rackets. After the killing was done, Joseph Profaci backed down on his promise. The Gallo brothers then killed some of Profaci’s people and kidnapped several of his top bosses. However, the war came to a quick end in 1969 when Profaci died of natural  causes and Crazy Joe was convicted of extortion and sentenced to prison.

 While Crazy Joe was in prison, Joseph Colombo took over the crime organization. Also, as Joe sat in prison, his brother Larry Gallo Died of cancer.

Joseph Colombo

 When Joe was released from prison in 1971, he started fightingthe new boss Joe Colombo and the renamed Colombo family.  During his stay in prison, Joe Gallo had been recruiting African-Americans to reinforce his crew. Gallo was one of the first mobsters to realise there would be a shift of power in the Harlem rackets from the Italian Mafia to African-American gangs. While in prison, Gallo had made connections with African-American gang members such as The now infamous Nicky Barnes. 

Nicky Barnes

 It has been speculated that Crazy Joe Gallo orchestrated the killing of Joseph Colombo.  Colombo was shot three times in the head on June 28, 1971 by an African-American posing as a photographer named Jerome Johnson, while Colombo was at an Italian America festival In New York City. The shooter was killed by Colombo’s men and police identified him as Jerome Johnson a known associate of Crazy Joe Gallo.

Jerome Johnson

After the Colombo killing, Gallo began to grab control over certain mob operations. This didn’t sit well with a number of number of organized crime members. On April 7, 1972, Crazy Joe Gallo was with  his newlywed wife of 3 weeks Sina Essary, her daughter Lisa, His sister Carmella and his bodyguard Peter “Pete the Greek” Diapoulas were celebrating Joe’s birthday at Umberto’s Clam House on Mulberry st in little Italy Section of Manhattan.

Umberto’s Clam House

Witnesses said two gunmen burst in through the back door of the resturaunt and opened fire with .32 and .38 caliber revolvers. Crazy Joe was hit five times as he toppled a large butcher block table to sheild his family. He then ran out the front door drawing his assailants outside with him. He collapsed in front of the Clam House and later that day died in the emergency room at the Hospital 

Joe Gallo

 Date of birth: April 7, 1929

Date of death: April 7, 1972

 Profession: Mafioso

 Nationality: Italian, American

 Cause of death: Murder

Alphonse Gabriel Capone, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 17 January, 1899, one of nine children. His father, Gabriel, was a barber, whilst his mother, Teresina, worked as a seamstress. Though times were hard with so many mouths to feed the Capone’s were a respectable family. It was to be the case, however, that some of the children were to turn out better than others.

Young Al dropped out of school at the age of 14 preferring to earn a living doing a series of menial jobs. He also around this time joined the notorious Five Points Gang. As an aggressive burly teenager handy with his fists he soon came to the attention of the gangs leader Johnny Torrio, who found him a job working at the Harvard Inn as a doorman and chucker-out for the racketeer Frankie Yale. It was while working at the Harvard Inn that he received the distinctive facial markings that were to earn him his nickname of “Scarface. One night he insulted a woman little knowing that her brother who was also present was the gangster Frank Gallucio. When Gallucio confronted Capone about the affront to his sister’s honour a fight broke out. In the ensuing melee Capone was slashed three times on the left side of his face. He was later forced to apologise to Gallucio by Frankie Yale. Not one to bear a grudge, Capone later employed Gallucio as his bodyguard. Actually, he secretly admired anyone who could best him in a fist fight. 

In December, 1918, when not yet 20 years of age, Capone married Mae Josephine Coughlin, who had earlier given birth to their son Albert.

On 16 January, 1920, the 18th Amendment (also known as the Volstead Act) outlawing the production, import, transportation, and sale of alcohol was passed. Prohibition, as it became known, was to offer a great opportunity to make riches beyond their wildest dreams for any gangster willing to take the risk. Johnny Torrio was one ready to seize his chance. He had been asked by his uncle “Big Jim” Colosimo, the leading Chicago gangster, to help him resolve a violent dispute with the local Black Hand. Torrio asked Capone to join him.

Over the next few months leading members of the Black Hand turned up dead. Capone was suspected of being responsible for at least two of the murders but this was never proved. Colosimo, now believing that his position was secure in a series of heated exchanges with Torrio refused his demands to become involved in bootlegging. He had built his fortune on illegal gambling and prostitution and was determined to ensure that it remained that way. Not long after he was gunned down in his own cafe, probably by Frankie Yale on Torrio’s orders. Following the murder of his uncle, Torrio took over his criminal empire and immediately focused its intentions on the lucrative bootlegging business.

By now, Capone had become one of Torrio’s most trusted associates. On 7 May, 1923, he killed Joseph L Howard, a small time crook with a big mouth. He had become involved in a physical altercation with a friend of Torrio’s, Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik. Torrio despatched Capone to resolve the dispute. The argument soon became heated and when Howard accused Capone of being a pimp, which was true, Al shot him six times, four times in the face.

So reliable was Capone that in 1924, Torrio entrusted him with the task of ensuring that the district of Cicero elected his man as Mayor. Ballot papers were handed over on the threat of violence and Capone thugs were in attendance at every polling station to ensure that people voted the right way. The new puppet-Mayor was elected by an overwhelming majority. When he decided to assert his new authority by promising to run the hoodlums out of town, Capone greeted him in full view of the public and proceeded to knock him down the town hall steps. He proved less of a problem after that.

In November, 1924, Torrio ordered the murder of the Chicago Outfit’s great rival the North Side Gang’s leader, Dion O’ Bannion. The gunning down of O’Bannion in his flower shop was to be the cause of a five year gangland feud that was to culminate in the St Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Despite O’Bannion’s death the territorial issues that divided the two gangs remained, and the North Sider’s were determined to avenge their leaders death. In early 1925, Torrio was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt. Badly shaken by his brush with death he retired to Italy handing over the organisation to Capone. This change in the hierarchy of the Chicago Outfit did little to end the feud, however. The new leaders of the North Side Gang Hymie Weiss and Bugs Moran were no friends of Capone’s, particularly Moran.

Al Capone established his headquarters at the Lexington Hotel which later became almost his own personal fortress. By 1926, his criminal empire had an annual turnover of $100 million. With his huge wealth he bought political power having lawmen, lawmakers, and even Chicago’s Mayor “Big Bill” Thompson on the payroll. He also courted the press and with his flamboyant clothes, fedora hat, and large cigar soon became one of the most photographed men in America, though only from the right side. His new-found celebrity status caused envy and resentment amongst not only his enemies but also his friends. It also bought the unwanted attention of the Authorities.

George “Bugs” Moran

On 20 September, 1926, Capone was lunching in the dining room of the Hawthorne Hotel  when a motorcade of ten cars drove past firing their sub-machine guns at the diners who hit the deck. It transpired that they were only firing blanks. After the initial shock the diners brushed themselves down and resumed their meals. A few minutes later the motorcade returned and this time they weren’t firing blanks. This was just the latest attempt by Moran to kill Capone. The dummy-run shooting had been an attempt to lure Capone out of the hotel. No one was killed but several bystanders were wounded. Capone paid for their medical bills.

This incident convinced Capone to increase his security. From now on he would have guards with him 24 hours a day. For a man who had always been convinced that he could take care of himself this was a personal humiliation. He also reinforced his cadillac and had the windows fitted with bullet-proof glass, and established a series of safe-houses and in 1928 bought a luxury retreat on Palm Island, Florida.

Despite focusing on his own personal security Capone was not slow to retaliate. Just week after the attack at the Hawthorne Hotel, Heymie Weiss was gunned down and killed, and Moran’s dog track was burned down. Moran responded by launching a series of arson attacks on Capone owned nightclubs.

The North Side Gang’s continuing intrusions upon Capone’s business and their murder of two Presidents of the Outfit controlled Unione Siciliane were just the latest of a series of outrages, as he saw them, committed by Bugs Moran and his band of hoodlums. Both Pasquiliano Lolordo and Antonio Lombardo had been close personal friends of Capone’s. He was a very emotional man who was capable of both great brutality and great generosity, the murder of his friends affected him deeply. There was no doubt that Moran’s attacks upon Capone were deeply personal. Yet another failed attempt by Moran to murder one of Capone’s chief enforcers Jack McGurn, proved the final straw. He would take out Moran once and for all.

On 13 February, 1929, Capone had someone in Detroit contact Moran to inform him that a special shipment of hijacked Canadian whiskey would be delivered to the garage at 2122  North Clark Street, Chicago, that served as his main transportation depot. A delighted Moran promised that he would be there the following morning to meet it.

Moran did indeed drive to the garage the following day as arranged but stopped short when he saw a police squad car parked nearby. He was late and believing that he had stumbled upon a police raid decided to have a coffee at a nearby cafe. In the meantime, those inside the garage, James Clark, Moran’s brother-in-law, Adam Heyer, Pete Gusenberg, Frank Gusenberg, Al Weinshank, Reinhardt Schwimmer, who just liked to hang out with gangsters, and Johnny May with his German shepherd dog Highball, were lined up against the wall by two uniformed police officers. Believing that it was just another shakedown they did as they were ordered. Not long after three men entered and opened fire with Thompson sub-machine guns. Riddled with bullets six of the seven men died instantly. Only Frank Gusenberg survived but not for long. The police found him barely alive and he was rushed to hospital. When he was asked who had shot him he replied, ” No one shot me.” He died that night. The only survivor of the St Valentine’s Day Massacre was Highball.

.

The police were baffled but popular suspicion soon fell on Al Capone. When questioned by the press on the matter he responded, “ Only Bug’s Moran kills like that.” Though he joked in private that it was his special Valentine Card to a much loved and cherished friend.

Despite the St Valentine’s Day Massacre being a huge news story and serving as a re-affirmation of Capone’s power it had failed in its objective. Bugs Moran was still alive and he was not a man to back down. Capone was becoming increasingly paranoid and he believed that Moran had been tipped-off. His suspicions fell on three of the men who had almost certainly been involved in the massacre, Albert Anselmi, John Scalise (known as “the murder twins” they had been involved in the O’Bannion murder) and Joe Giunta. Word had got through to Capone that they had been talking to Moran and were conspiring with another Mob Boss Joe Aiello to depose him as head of the Chicago Outfit. On 7 May, 1929, he invited them to a banquet. Halfway through the feast he ordered them to be restrained then accusing them of betraying him he battered all three senseless with a baseball bat before shooting them dead.

On 30 October, 1929, Black Tuesday, Wall Street crashed. The sudden economic downtown and catastrophic consequences that would result little effected Capone’s bootlegging operation but it did devastate the working people of Chicago. He was one of the first men to establish soup kitchens and provide the destitute with clothes and places where they could shelter from the cold.  

Despite his apparent generosity to the newly-destitute and poor of Chicago the brutality of the St Valentine’s Day Massacre had severely dented his reputation. The press no longer treated him as a colourful Robin Hood character and his folk-hero status among the people was greatly diminished. In 1929, the Prohibition Bureau agent Eliot Ness began an investigation into Capone’s business activities. Ness was an incorruptible man in a corrupt city and many illegal stills and breweries were closed due to his activities but he could get nothing to stick on Capone. It was to be the former accountant and agent of the Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Frank J Wilson, who would bring Capone down. In October, 1931, Al Capone was charged with tax evasion. At first he tried to do a plea deal with the Federal Authorities but when the Trial Judge refused to be bound by any plea deal when it came to sentencing, Capone changed his plea to not guilty and instead tried to bribe the jury. When Ness discovered this he changed the jury at the last moment. Even so, Capone did not believe that any jury in Chicago would convict him. In this at least, he was to be proved wrong. On 17 October, he was found guilty and given the maximum sentence available, eleven years imprisonment. His suit to appeal the verdict was denied.

At first, Capone tried to continue to run his criminal franchise from his prison cell at Atlanta State Penitentiary but when he was moved to Alcatraz this became impossible. He had contracted syphilis as a young man and whilst he was in prison it began to take its toll and his health began to deteriorate rapidly. In January, 1939, he was moved from Alcatraz to a hospital and on 16 November he was paroled.

He no longer wielded any power within the Chicago Outfit he had brought to prominence and he had decined mentally and physically to such an extent that many of those he met who had known him from before hardly recognised him. He lived out his remaining years in his Florida home surrounded by family. Often unaware of where he was he would rant about foreigners and communists and sometimes shrink in fear insisting that Bugs Moran was coming to get him, even though Moran was incarcerated in Ohio State Prison.

Following a stroke, Al Capone died of a heart attack on 24 January, 1947, aged 48. His funeral was attended by all the leading mobsters of the day, even though he had long ago become yesterdays man.            

Is this a novel idea…or what?

BY MIS-INFORMING EVERY BOY AND GIRL

THAT THEY MUST ALWAYS BE BRAVE AND TRUE

BUT WHEN YOU SNITCH THAT CAN’T BE YOU

AND BY MIS-INFORMING ALL THEIR MINDS

THE CRIMINALS HAVE ATTEMPTED TO BUY THE TIME

TO SAFELY CARRY OUT THEIR CRIMINAL INTENT

SUBVERTING FAIRNESS AND JUSTICE-TO SEND THEM HELL BENT

TOPSY TURVY, PLACE THE IR-RESPONSIBLE IN CHARGE

AND THOSE OF ILL-REPUTE CAN BE LIVING LARGE

A SNITCH IS A SNITCH, IS A BETRAYING KISS

AND TO BE ONE MIGHT JUST BE A DEATH WISH

IS THE MESSAGE DELIVERED BY THE DOGS

AND THE MEANS BY WHICH THEY AVOID THE ‘PIGS’ AND ‘HOGS’

BUT JUSTICE IS BLIND AND LEAVES A CALLING CARD

FOR JUSTICE IS THE HARDEST OF THE HARD

WOTCHA GONNA DO WHEN IT COMES FOR YOU?

CAUSE TOPSY TURVY, A SNITCH CAN BE AMAZING AND GOOD

AND THE BRAVEST HEART OF HEARTS IN ANY NEIGHBORHOOD

CAUSE ITS A:

(S)INGLE HANDED

(N)ON NEGOTIABLE

(I)NITIATIVE

(T)O

(C)HASTISE

(H)ATE-MAKERS, (H)ALF DOERS, AND (H)OODLUMS

S.N.I.T.C.H.

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Oh repeat offender

Why do you persist

To act as if kindness does not exist

Why do you commit these crimes

Even in the best of times

Know you not the error of your ways

The risks you take, not unlike a maze

Where the safety you seek, after the dirty deed is done

Can be a battle not always won

Know you not  that if you do the crime

Eventually you must do the time

What motivates your cryptic mind

To brave a risk to which others are blind

Why dare to dream that you can get away

From the Justice that will seek you out some day

Ah…but I see the answer in your eye

It answers fully these questions why

You say you are the possessor of a sharper mind

That you provide the evidence time after time

When you sneak around the Justice created by man

Claiming you can win the race to the top again and again

By braving the path cowards refuse to take

By ignoring Justice for gains sake

For it takes a clever mind to outwit

All the lambs (devoured) which you the wolf has bit

And that is why you commit these crimes

Because you and your friends (all the playaz) have divined

That you possess the most clever minds

To gain new advantages or secure new wealth

Without the work which life has dealt

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia