Al capone's early years
Al Capone was born in Brooklyn on January 17th, 1899 into a big family. His parents came from Italy six years before he was born. At the age of twelve, he was expelled from school for hitting a female teacher. He then met Johnny Torrio, and that's when he began the life of a criminal. While he was with Torrio, he got in a fight in a saloon and got his left cheek slashed with a knife or a razor, and was nicknamed "Scarface." Johnny Torrio was a member of the "Five Points Gang" in Brooklyn, until he headed across the river to a leadership position alongside gangster Frank Yale. His uncle later called him into Chicago to help run a brothel business. He later sent for Al Capone to help him in Chicago. When Johnny Torrio retired, he gave the control of the Chicago mafia to Capone.
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The prohibition era, speakeasies, and illegal alcohol
In 1920, the eighteenth amendment was put into action, beginning Prohibition. The Prohibition era was a time when the sale, production, and consumption of alcohol was illegal and banned. The reason they put Prohibition into effect in the United States was to lower crime and corruption, lower taxes, and improve health, but it actually had the reverse effect. After Prohibition was put into effect, people were making it and selling it illegally. Mob bosses made a lot of money off of it. Because of this, a lot of criminals noticed that they could get wealthy by producing and selling alcohol illegally, which led them to creating illegal breweries and speakeasies. A speakeasy is essentially an "underground" and secretive liquor store, or a night club. These were thriving during the Prohibition era since alcohol was not as easy to find... people paid a lot of money for it. Al Capone's and other criminal organizations made a lot of money making illegal breweries and speakeasies during the Prohibition Era. Police were a part of these illegal organizations, and they were paid off by the criminals to look the other way.
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