Al Capone’s Golden Years: The Final Chapter Of The Chicago Mob’s Scarface

Al (Scarface) Capone is with little question the most iconic American mob boss of the 20th Century, the nation’s first celebrity and tabloid gangster who was born in New York, but crafted his enormous legacy in the underworld in Chicago at the peak of Prohibition Era, where he ran roughshod through his enemies and made fast friends with the media and the public for his grandiose, high-profile ways.

Almost everyone has heard the story of Capone’s rise & fall, it’s been told in endless movies, tv shows, books, newspaper articles and comics. Oscar-winning actor Robert DeNiro’s portrayal of Capone matching wits with the ultimate illegal-booze buster Elliot Ness, played by Kevin Costner, in 1987’s film The Untouchables is a timeless classic. But what became of good ‘ole Scarface when he was no longer on top – as in the final 16 years of his life?

AL CAPONE LATTER-LIFE TIMELINE

October 17, 1931 – Capone found guilty by jury of federal tax evasion in Chicago

October 18, 1931 – Capone rival Matt Kolb gunned down in then-rural Morton Grove, Illinois roadhouse

October 24, 1931 – Capone sentenced to 10 years in prison, taken into custody

April 11, 1932 – Capone arrives in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, eventually ending up serving a majority of his sentence at Alcatraz in San Francisco.

April 14, 1932 – Capone diagnosed with syphilis during routine physical

February 2, 1937 – The FBI officially closes five-year investigation into Capone smuggling U.S. currency into AFP without bringing any charges

January 6, 1939 – Capone leaves Alcatraz for Terminal Island near Los Angeles, placed in prison hospital readies for release

November 8, 1939 – Capone’s former attorney and govt. cooperator Edward (Easy Eddie) O’Hare killed in drive-by two shotgun blasts on Ogden Ave driving east towards a meeting in the Loop

November 13, 1939 – Capone discharged from Terminal Island, boards train eastbound, gets off at St. Louis, Missouri

November 16, 1939 – Capone driven by federal marshals to Gettysburg, Virginia where he meets his wife, brothers and doctors at a clandestine dirt road 12 miles outside town

November 17, 1939 – Capone checks into Union Memorial Hospital for treatment

January 8, 1940 – Capone released from hospital, rents home in Mount Washington outside Baltimore to continue treatment at Union Memorial

March 19, 1940 – Capone concludes his treatment at Union Memorial

March 20, 1940 – Capone arrives at his compound on Palm Island in Florida and lives there with his wife, son, brother in-law and sister in-law for the remainder of his days, summering back in the Midwest in Wisconsin

December 30, 1941 – Capone marries off his only boy Sonny in a ceremony in Miami Beach at St. Patrick’s Church

January 21, 1947 – Capone suffers a stroke at his Palm Island estate and is hospitalized

January 25, 1947 – Capone dies at 48 of a heart attack and pneumonia

February 4, 1947 – Capone is buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery on the southside of Chicago

Capone’s suspected hit list while free – murders he either ordered or carried out :

James (Big Jim) Colosimo (May 11,1920)

Joe Howard (May 7,1923)

Dion O’Bannion (November 10, 1924)

Tommy Duffy, Jimmy Doherty, Billy McSwiggin (April 27, 1926)

Earl (Hymie) Weiss (October 11, 1926)

John Costenaro & Santo Celebron (January 7, 1927)

Antonio Torichio (May 25, 1927)

Frank Hitchcock (July 27, 1927)

Anthony Russo & Vince Spicuzza (August 11, 1927)

Sam Valente (September 24, 1927)

Harry Fuller, Joe Cagiando, & Joe Fasso (January 18, 1928)

Joseph (Diamond Joe) Esposito (March 21, 1928)

Ben Newmark (April 23, 1928)

Frankie Yale (July 1,1928)

Frank Gussenberg, Pete Gussenberg, John May, James Clark, Adam Heyer, Al Weinshank, Reinhardt Schwimmer (February 14, 1929 – The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre)

Joe Guinta, Albert Anselmi & John Scalise (May 8, 1929)

Frank Marlow (June 24, 1929)

Julius Rosenheim (February 1, 1930)

Jack Zuta (August 1, 1930)

Joe Aeillo (October 23, 1930)

Matt Kolb (October 18, 1931)