1. Al Capone
The Untouchables

2. Gangs There have been gangs in America since the late 18th century.
The first gangs in New York were Irish
As the 19th century wore on, more immigrants came to America and created their own gangs.
The gangs were for protection and covered specific territories and ran the illegal activities and offered protection and ran extortion rings.

3. Gangs
By the end of the 19th century, gang activity was dominated by Italians, the Irish and Jews in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.
The Five Points area of New York was one of the most infamous areas with high levels of gang activity.
So many immigrants were involved in crime because of poverty, disenfranchisement and horrible living conditions in their neighborhoods.
Young men who weren’t well educated and came from difficult upbringings were more easily drawn into gang activity.

4. Al Capone
Al Capone was born in a New York that was heavily affected by crime and where poor immigrants were forced into difficult lives.
At the age of 14, Capone started a fist fight with a teacher and was thrown out of school.
He then joined two local gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves.
He held odd jobs but when he was about

5. Organized Crime in Chicago
Chicago was a corrupt city from early on, as we already know.
In the late 19th century the Italian Black Hand moved in from New York.
The group was known for their violent extortion.
The other gangsters were not organized until they banded against them.

6. Organized Crime in Chicago
‘Big Jim’ Colosimo was a leader in the Chicago crime circles.
He ran prostitution and gambling rings.
He began to be threatened by the Black Hand, and brought in help.

7. Organized Crime in Chicago
He brought in Johnny Torrio, his nephew from New York’s notorious Five Points District in 1918.
He was a successful criminal in Brooklyn, running illegal numbers, loan sharking, and bookmaking operations.
He brought one of his underlings with him, Al Capone, who was wanted on a murder charge in New York.

8. Organized Crime in Chicago
Torrio and his men quickly began killing off members of the other organization.
They were able to weaken the Black Hand, but not totally eliminate them.
In 1920, when prohibition came into effect, Torrio and Capone realized there was a lot of money to be made selling illegal liquor, but Big Jim Colosimo was happy with the prostitution ring and didn’t want to break into a new area.

9. Johnny Torrio
Big Jim met an untimely demise, and Johnny Torrio took over.
Al had been working a legitimate job as a bookkeeper, but went to work for Torrio and quickly became his #2 man.

10. Al Capone
He quickly gained power and wealth running prostitution, extortion, numbers, racketeering and bootlegging.
He had rivals on the North Side of town, Dion O’Banion and Hymie Weiss.
Both were killed, as were most of Capone’s rivals. Both were probably killed by one of Capone’s henchmen.

11. Al Capone
Capone was beginning to havve problems running his businesses in the open in Chicago, so he moved his operations to a suburb, Cicero, Illinois. There he forced a hostile take over of the city.
He had the elections of 1924 managed by thugs who threatened voters at polling places, and threatened the mayor he had chosen to run Cicero, punching him and knocking him down the city hall steps in front of a crowd.
He also killed the district attorney who investigated the fraudulent elections

12. Al Capone
In 1925, Johnny Torrio was shot and nearly killed in an assassination attempt so he went back to Italy and left Capone in charge.
Capone set up the mayor of Chicago, Big Bill Thompson, with a constant stream of bribes, so he was allowed to do pretty much whatever he wanted until the 30s

13. St. Valentine’s Day massacre
One event showed everyone what he was really like.
He had been accused of murder before, but nothing had ever been pinned on him until this.
His men dressed as cops and opened fire on a group of rival gangsters, shooting 7 men with over 150 bullets.
The event was so awful, people started to fight his control.

14. Al Capone
Al Capone is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people directly, and thousands indirectly.
He ran gambling, prostitution, drugs, and other illegal enterprises.
He was violent, cruel and corrupt.