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How Did Al Capone Influence Crime

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Alphonse Capone was most notoriously known for being the head of a profitable crime syndicate known as the “Chicago Outfits” during the prohibition era in the 1920’s. Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1899. It was the acquaintances he met in Brooklyn that would contribute immensely to his future business operations. Capone eventually made Brooklyn his stomping grounds for the beginning of a life in crime.

As a teenager, he left school early after an incident and never returned and it was around this time that Capone was introduced to Johnny Torrio, one of the most successful gangsters on the East Coast of America who would later prove to be Capone’s biggest influence in his life of crime. Torrio was running a gambling operation near Capone’s home when Capone began running small errands for him.Torrio viewed Capone as a valuable asset as he was skilled with numbers and his bookkeeping helped Torrio run his operations smoothly. He immediately recruited Capone into his notorious gang “The James Street Boys”. Although Torrio left Brooklyn …show more content…

In the few years he spent as head of the gang he managed to reach a certain pedestal of power where no gangster had ever been placed before.The gang easily controlled the liquor trade on the southside of Chicago, furthermore he controlled the majority of Chicago's “loose” industries, such as, speakeasies,brothels, distilleries and gambling houses and his crime syndicate easily reigned in around $100 million a year, with bootlegging being the most profitable. Capone also made use of the tunnels of Moose Jaw ride to“Soo-Line” railroad north to Moose Jaw in Canada to beat the “heat” of prohibition in the States. Al Capone was unapologetic for how he made his fortune. He believed he was doing the public a favour stating: “Ninety percent of the people of Cook County drink and gamble and my offense has been to furnish them with those

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