Al Capone Portrait
America has a certain fascination with outlaws: Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and Bonnie and Clyde, for example. In the 1920s, violent gangsters led a wave of crime in Chicago and "Scarface" Al Capone was one of their most notorious leaders.
These were the days of Prohibition, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution banning the sale of liquor. Capone and other gangsters made fortunes bootlegging, smuggling, and distributing illegal liquor. They bribed a number of police officials to ignore their activities.
The gangsters turned Chicago into a crime capital, where they lived in high style, going around town in fashionable clothes and cars and frequenting nightclubs that featured illegal gambling.
On Valentine’s Day in 1929, seven members of Capone’s rival gang were machine-gunned to death in a Chicago beer warehouse. The attackers dressed in police uniforms, which drew a roar of outrage from the city’s police commissioner, who declared a war on the criminals. While not officially charged, Capone was believed responsible for this St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
As depicted in the movie "The Untouchables," the war on gangsters was finally — if temporarily — won. In 1931, Capone was convicted for tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison.