Mafia/Gangsters

Al Capone is America's best known gangster and the single greatest symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s Prohibition era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal activities that lent Chicago its reputation as a lawless city.Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York. Baptized "Alphonsus Capone," he grew up in a rough neighborhood and was a member of two "kid gangs," the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors. Although he was bright, Capone quit school in the sixth grade at age fourteen. Between scams he was a clerk in a candy store, a pinboy in a bowling alley, and a cutter in a book bindery. He became part of the notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan and worked in gangster Frankie Yale's Brooklyn dive, the Harvard Inn, as a bouncer and bartender. While working at the Inn, Capone received his infamous facial scars and the resulting nickname "Scarface" when he insulted a patron and was attacked by her brother.

Giacomo Colosimo emigrated from Calabria, Italy, arriving in Chicago in the 1890s. Giacomo, or Jim, was at first a pickpocket, a pimp, and a Black Hand extortionist, while working the occasional honest job as a street sweeper. When he became a foreman, he was noticed by "Hinky Dink" Kenna and "Bathhouse" John Coughlin, First Ward aldermen. He worked for them as a Democratic precinct captain and thug, collecting tribute for the corrupt aldermen.

In 1902 "Big Jim" married Victoria Moresco, a madam and much older than Colosimo. They opened a second whorehouse and soon gained control of several others. Big Jim organized a white slavery ring, where young girls would be lured to the city with promises of good jobs, imprisoned, raped, and, their spirits broken, sold to other whorehouse keepers. Within a few years Big Jim owned 200 brothels, and was also involved in gambling, extortion, and numerous other criminal activities.

Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci had the shortest tenure of any of Chicago’s North Side gang leaders. An Italian, he headed a gang that was dominated by Irish, German and Polish criminals. A mob rarity, he was given a 21-gun salute at his funeral. But most notably, he may have been the only mob boss ever to be killed by a law enforcement officer.

The leaders of the North Side Gang during the 1920s were Dion O’Bannion, Earl "Hymie" Weiss, Drucci, and George "Bugs" Moran. Of the four, Drucci was said to be the least known and least influential. The "Schemer" got his nickname from his ability to come up with hare-brained, "hits, heists and kidnappings." Early in his criminal career he gained a reputation for breaking into public pay phones. Laurence Bergreen, in his book, Capone: The Man and the Era, describes Drucci: "He had a streak of recklessness and daring, and he looked the part of a gangster – tough, dark, and menacing, his expression frozen in a tragic mask topped by wild unkempt hair (and) a face to haunt the dreams of his enemies."