Al Capone biography Al Capone (a.k.a. 'Scarface'), one of the
most famous American gangsters, rose to infamy as the leader of
the Chicago mafia during the Prohibition era. Before being sent
to Alcatraz Prison in 1931 from a tax evasion conviction, he had
amassed a personal fortune estimated at $100 million dollars and
was responsible for countless murders. Many New York gangsters
in the early 20th Century came from impoverished backgrounds,
but this was not the case for the legendary Al Capone. Far from
being a poor immigrant from Italy who turned to crime to make a
living, Capone was from a respectable, professional family. His
father, Gabriele, was one of thousands of Italians who arrived
in New York in 1894. He was thirty years old, educated and from
Naples, where he had earned a living as a barber. His wife
Teresina (Teresa) was pregnant and already bringing up two sons,
two-year-old son Vincenzo and infant son Raffaele. The family
moved to a poor Brooklyn tenement where Alphonse Capone was born
on Januar