Al (Scarface) Capone was the biggest mob boss of his time. He was America’s first celebrity gangster, when he ruled Chicago during Prohibition in the Roaring 20s. He also had quite the body count on his resume. In honor of the new movie Capone, starring Tom Hardy and chronicling his final year of life, his mind ravaged by syphilis yet still being hounded by the FBI as he withered away on his Palm Island estate in Miami, here is a breakdown of all the hits the federal government laid at his feet. The Al Capone Murder Timeline (1920-1929) May 11, 1920 – Chicago mob boss James (Big Jim) Colosimo is gunned down outside his office in a coup launched by Capone’s mentor and Colosimo’s underboss Johnny (The Fox) Torrio. The Torrio-Capone Gang becomes known as the South Side Gang. May 7, 1923 – Hijacker Joe Howard is killed for knocking off a truckload of South Side Gang booze. September 7, 1923 — North Side Gang soldier Jerry O’Connor is killed for interfering with South Side Gang beer shipments. November 10, 1924 – North Side Gang boss Dean O’Banion is shot to death inside his headquarters, Schofield’s Flowers, inciting the Windy City bootlegging wars. April 27, 1926 – North Side Gang soldiers, Tommy (Red) Duffy & Jimmy Doherty and state’s attorney Billy McSwiggin, are slain as they exit the Pony Inn in Cicero after a night of drinking. August 20, 1926 — Chicago gangster Joe (The Cavalier) Nerone is slain for trying to muscle in on Capone’s Chicago Heights bootlegging territory. October 11, 1926 – North Side Gang boss Earl (Hymie) Weiss and his bodyguard Patrick (Paddy) Murray are gunned down returning to Schofield’s Flowers from visiting an associate’s murder trial. January 5, 1927 — Chicago hotelier Theodore (Teddy the Greek) Anton, the owner of Capone’s headquarters, the Hawthorne Hotel in Cicero, is found dead in a shallow grave in Burnham, Illinois, weeks after he disappeared. Anton was refusing to let Capone keep using his establishment as his nerve center and its smoke shop as a betting parlor. Capone moved his base of operations to the Lexington Hotel on Michigan Avenue. January 7, 1927 – South Side Gang soldiers Johnny Costenaro and Santo Celebron are killed for preparing to testify against Capone in a conspiracy trial. March 14, 1927 — Chicago gangster Alphonse Fiore is killed for attempting to assassinate Capone on vacation in Hot Springs, Arkansas. May 25, 1927 – New York hit man Antonio Torchio is murdered after being brought to Chicago by North Side Gang leaders to carry out a contract on Capone. July 27, 1927 – Rival bootlegger Frank Hitchcock is killed for getting into a beef with a Capone ally. August 11, 1927 – St. Louis hitmen Anthony Russo and Vincent Spicuzza are murdered after being brought to Chicago by North Side Gang allies to carry out a contract on Capone. Russo and Spicuzzi had been members of St. Louis’ Green Ones Gang but had splintered off and formed their own murder for hire troop. Future Cleveland mafia Don James (Jack White) Licavoli, a native of St. Louis who had moved to Detroit, was with the pair when they were clipped but survived the hit. September 24, 1927 – Cleveland hit man Sam Valente is murdered after being brought to Chicago by North Side Gang leaders to carry out a contract on Capone. He is hatcheted to death and left in a field in Stickney, Illinois. January 18, 1928 – Hijackers Harry Fuller, Joey Cagiando and Joey Fasso are gunned down for knocking off a truckload of South Side Gang booze. March 21, 1928 – Chicago gangster Joseph (Diamond Joe) Esposito is killed following a falling out with Capone. April 23, 1928 – South Side Gang soldier Ben Newmark is killed by Capone bodyguards after Newmark attempts to breakoff and start his own bootlegging organization. July 1, 1928 – New York gangster Francesco (Frankie Yale) Uale, a one-time Capone employer, friend and hired gun, is machine gunned to death in Brooklyn inside his custom-made Lincoln with armor plating. Yale gave Capone his first job in the rackets and had bumped off Big Jim Colosimo and Dean O’Banion on contract from the South Side Gang. The pair fell out after Yale was caught hijacking whiskey shipments headed for Chicago that he himself sold Capone himself. February 14, 1929 – The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: North Side Gang soldiers, the Gussenberg brothers (Frank & Pete), John May, Al Weinshank, Adam Heyer, James Clark and Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer are machine gunned to death inside a North Side Gang garage hangout in what effectively ended the South Side Gang-North Side Gang War. The slaughter’s intended victim, North Side Gang boss George (Bugs) Moran avoided the bloodshed but stood down in the feud after the massacre, ceding his territory to Capone. May 8, 1929 – South Side Gang soldiers, John Scalise, Albert Anselmi and Joe (Hop Toad) Guinta are bludgeoned to death with baseball bats for plotting to overthrow Capone and dumped in a ditch in Hammond, Indiana, right across the Illinois border. Scalise and Anselmi were Capone’s top hitmen and known on the streets of the Windy City as the “Murder Twins.” June 24, 1929 – Chicago gangland figure Gandolfo (Frankie Marlow) Curto is killed for refusing to pay a $250,000 debt to the South Side Gang. February 1, 1930 – Chicago racketeer Julius Rosenheim is slain for informing on Capone. August 1, 1930 – Mob accountant Jack Zuta, who worked for Capone before jumping to the North Side Gang, is murdered inside a Delafield, Wisconsin roadhouse on the run from the law and Capone. October 23, 1930 – Chicago mobster Joe Aiello, a longtime Capone rival, is killed getting into a taxi outside a safehouse by a gunman in a neighboring apartment building. Aiello had plotted several unsuccessful assassinations of Capone and Capone’s closest lieutenants. October 18, 1931 — Chicago mob figure Matthew (Fat Matt) Kolb is shot to death inside his Morton Grove, Illinois roadhouse and backdoor casino. Kolb ran bootlegging turf on Chicago’s Northwest side. November 8, 1939 – Chicago race track mogul Edward (Easy Eddie) O’Hare, who cooperated against Capone years earlier as a way of getting his son admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy, is gunned down behind the wheel of his car leaving one of his tracks on the week of Capone’s release from prison on tax evasion charges.
