Al Capone Organized Crime Essay

As a media outlet, newspaper started as a source for current information on local news, including crime such as organized crime families and their illegal businesses. Early on in the development of these illegal dealings, newspapers printed pieces condemning the radical roles of the mobsters, specifically calling upon the Christian Church to condemn and convert these horrible beings (“Organized Crime” 2). The public’s eye was tainted as mobsters gained power, but towards the end of the decade, governmental control attempted to sweep the control away from these intimidating men. Specifically in 1929 Philadelphia, one judge called upon the media and public to seek and call out the organized crime members and police officers who associated with those men in order to clear the city of “these bad men” (Special to The New,York Times. 15). This shows the strange effect public information has on cultural standing. During the time when there was the most published on the

Al Capone, for example, led a full life with a supportive family and was subsequently able to financially support that family due to his thriving business. Although Capone was eventually diagnosed with syphilis, he stayed a constant point of stability and a fulfilled sense of life they had always known him to be. Those who knew Al Capone felt a kind of kinship that came with his treatment of others, as exemplified by one of his defence attorney, Albert Funk, who described Capone as “the kind of man who never fails a friend. He was loved by his followers. Open-handed, generous, a man a bookmaker would trust with a ten-thousand-dollar bet.” (Linder 19). Because of Capone incredible popularity among those who knew him personally, it became harder and harder for the public to believe the kind husband, son, and father Capone was compared to his brutal criminal