Capone: The Man and the Era

They just don't make crooks like they used to. The legendary figures of the Roaring Twenties and Depressing Thirties continue to fascinate us today. They tend to fit into two groups: the lone wolf robbers such as Dillinger or Bonnie and Clyde, or the gangsters. Among the gangsters, none were more famous than Al Capone. Of course, legend and reality tend to often conflict with each other, and Laurence Bergreen's highly readable biography Capone separates the fact from the fiction. Capone was the son of Italian immigrants who lived an impoverished existence in Brooklyn. There were not a lot of options for a youngster like Capone, who would soon get involved with minor league criminality. It would take an eventual move to Chicago (following his mentor, Johnny Torrio) before Capone would became a major crime figure, one who'd pretty much control the city for several years. The grand irony for Capone was that he'd not be brought down because of his bootlegging or murders, but the more mundane crime of income tax evasion (and even that may have not done him in if he'd had better lawyers). Bergreen portrays Capone as a complex individual, neither fully bad or good, but a hero to some and a villain to others. There were a lot of factors that made Capone the way he was, including a virulent anti-Italian feeling that vilified anyone with that descent, the vast hypocrisies of Prohibition and a police and press force that was inherently corrupt. More than anything, however, was the syphilis (exacerbated by a cocaine addiction) that would lead to mood swings that at first helped give him the aggressiveness he needed to succeed but would soon enough destroy him. Capone would be in his twenties when he reigned supreme. By his early thirties, he'd be in prison and he'd be dead before he was fifty (a relatively long life for a man with his career, but almost all the last decade-and-a-half would be hellish for him). The key events that Capone is most noted for are detailed in this book, including the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and Capone's infamous baseball bat assault. Bergreen, however, goes beyond just Capone to detail the lives of the folks around him, from his family to his associates (such as the infamous Frank Nitti) to his pursuers (most notably Eliot Ness, who was better at publicity stunts than actually stopping Capone). Bergreen also describes the world Capone occupied, particularly the Chicago that would be the center of his activities. Capone the book is a pretty comprehensive biography and tops 600 pages plus notes and an index. From my previous experience with Bergreen (with a book about Magellan), I knew he was a good writer and Capone shows the first book wasn't a fluke. If you want to know the truth behind the legend (and it's nothing like The Untouchables), Capone is an entertaining and illuminating read.

This is a great novel. "Not so hot" in the sense that the author almost discredits Capone for how he really was. This is the first indepth reading about Capone, but it is very detailed. I am telling you , if you want to read only one book about Capone, then read this one. You will never have to read another book about him because this one is jammed packed. His life from start to finish. This book will change how you view Big Al, and show just how the media has glorified Al and the Untouchables. It has great tidbits about Torrio, Ness, Yale and anyone else involved in Capone and that era. I definitely recommend it. It is a long read though and can get tedious after a while. I suggest if you are anything like me, to read it in halves. The book is broken into 2 parts basically. The rise and the descent. No complaints on this one.

if you're an Al fan,you're going to read this anyway no matter if it's one or five stars.When things break down as did America during the Volstead Act,a vacuum exists and a law of nature,"nature abhors a vacuum".Someone or something is going to fill it legal or illegal,in this case it was Capone.You could either sell clean booze,brewed properly or as in the case of the Chicago mobsters,clean booze and dirty booze.That is beer and whiskey products brewed properly and mixed with pure alcohol to give it more life.The customer comes back more drunk and susceptible to more errors in judgement and a chance to fleece him or her even more.It is amazing to seehow large were the "bootlegging" operations hiring master brewers from Europe and employing hundreds or (thousands)? of people.It almost seems like the beer and alcoholic beverage industry has a momentum of its own that goes beyond the issues of the legality or illegality of it.Capone compares himself to an amusement park providing the American adult of the roaring 20's with entertainment.That includes the shootouts and gang wars,real life rootin-tootin cowboy shootin'.As American as apple pie and steroids.The press eats it up. The cops don't say too much as long as the mobsters only kill each other.As a matter of fact from reading this book there were so many police and newspaper people on Capones payroll that its a wonder the IRS was ever able to capture Al.He really had great PR running a soup kitchen and loads of other charities.Real drama like a shakespeare play.And don't forget Al was a family man,kids and mass every Sunday,as well as a major community financier,even if it was mob money.Indeed sometimes the machine gunnings and violence seem like a minor glitch,like nature correcting itself.Mobster movies always have to concentrate on the violence because it wouldn't play in the theatre to have a soft spoken guy making a spaghetti dinner for his family and friends.Unless somebody ended up in the pot.Al comes off in this book a perfect gentleman and warm until "crossed" then sneaky and deadly,(really deadly)!!like a true sociopath.This book is more than a biography of Capone,it captures the chaos of the roaring twenties and the depression,with America trying to figure out who and what it is after the Great War.When moral purists,like the kind who tried to "dumb down" America with the Volstead Act,get ahold of government,this is what can happen.An important book,this one. The book is divided into 2 parts,Al's rise and then his demise when the syphillus he contracted in his late teens took over his thought processes in his late twenties.This caused major errors in judgements and all the other racketeers tried to band together, even ones from other major cities,and finally strip Al of his power. Capone however was able to circumnavigate around even these to show himself "KING" of the mobsters.Just when you think Al is finished he comes back even more influential.The IRS trial was really well dealt

This book deserves better than it has gotten; I am surprised by the vehemence of some of the reviewers' reactions to it. It offers a broad, interesting, historical view of turn of the century New York, then Chicago, early 20th century politics, prohibition, the hero-worship of the Roaring 20's, the mafia, the FBI, syphillis, Alcatraz -- a whole Ragtime-like panorama. It is entertaining and instructive. Those who pan it appear to have a problem with the somewhat sympathetic portrayal of a morally objectionable person or quibble over arcane facts.Having lived in Lansing, Michigan and spent time in the northwoods of Wisconsin, where Al Capone summered, I can say that the legend of Al Capone is still very much alive in those two locations; he rivals George Washington for having supposedly slept or shot up more places than anyone else. The author captures this aspect of Capone's life, as well as his charismatic, sympathetic Robin Hood-like persona which humanized him and endeared him to a portion of the masses.I wa not bothered by the diversions of attention to Al Capone's brother, Two Gun Hart and his supposed nemisis, Eliot Ness, and found them interesting and germane to Capone's life story. I had not heard of the brother before but was aware that post-Capone, Ness ended up as a police official in Cleveland. Nor was I bothered by what some call an overly-sympathetic portrayal of Capone; he has aspects that frankly are sympathetic.What strikes me as most interesting about the author's portrayal of Al Capone is that he shows how Capone -- certainly not stupid, and trained as a bookkeeper -- was the first man to apply systematic business and financial practices to the running of the mob, and increased its bottom line. He also was either more politically astute than those gangsters who came before -- although at times, just as crude in his methods -- or was lucky enough to have blatantly corrupt, receptive mayors in Chicago and Cicero when he came to power. The author does a good job of showing how the federal government wanted to get Al Capone in the worst way and finally figured out how to do it with the Income Tax Code. The book lays out the dogged determination and methods of the agents who persevered to nail him. In the end, given the author's somewhat sympathetic portrait of Capone, you feel sorry that he got caught, and even sorrier to learn of how he was treated by fellow inmates at Alcatraz. Most biographers seem to gravitate toward either abhorring or loving their subjects and this author is no exception, tending toward the latter. I recommend this book. Unless you are a Capone fanatic and know all there is to know about him already, the factual presentation will not put you off. I frankly did not know if I was reading the truth or not, but it seemed like it, and it was interesting and I thought, reasonably well-written. I am curious if there is any difference in the texts or otherwise in t

This is an important reference for Chicago lovers. The book is full of geographical, biographical, and historical detail on one of Chicago's most noteworthy and notorious eras. The personality of Capone unifies the story line. All the legendary people and events are placed in their context: Johny Torrio, Eliot Ness, Joe E. Brown, Bugs Moran, the St Valentines Day Massacre, the income tax evasion trials, the Four Deuces, and on and on.