On this day in 1931, Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion. He later received a sentence of 11 years in federal prison.
Alphonse Capone was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1899. At 14 years old, he was expelled from school and joined a gang. After a few years cutting his teeth in the criminal world, he moved to Chicago to help run a criminal syndicate’s booze-smuggling, gambling, and prostitution businesses. They made money hand over fist thanks to the 1920 imposition of prohibition, which sent their alcohol-smuggling profits skyward.
After the organization’s don retired following a failed assassination attempt, Capone took the reins. He wasn’t afraid to use violence to get his way, often squeezing out competitors through public shootouts, murders, and threats. By 1930, Capone was at the top of the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list.
It took a special task force at the FBI to pin the gangster down. Federal agent Elliott Ness led a team of officers who weren’t susceptible to the bribes and intimidation Capone had used to stay out of prison (despite being the subject of a very public manhunt).
Capone, ironically, wasn’t charged for crimes related to the violence he was responsible for. Instead, he was booked on tax evasion charges and served time in Atlanta before being transferred to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco. He got out in 1939 for good behavior and died eight years later.
For more on Capone, check out these articles from the FBI and the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.
