The Capone Effect (Analysis)
Ruthless and murderous, Al Capone is known as the nation’s most famous mobster. He has murdered numerous people in his career as a mob boss. Al Capone’s increase in criminal activity began in Chicago and eventually gained headlines throughout the United States. His crime organization was built upon crime schemes and alcohol smuggling. Alcohol smuggling was the most important to his organization because it kept his criminal activity up and running. Over time the products of smuggling changed so that the person that owns the organization can get money and power. Compared to Capone’s era, today’s crime organizations are stronger and larger than they used to be. From both then and now, smuggling has been a huge factor in criminal activity in the United States and especially in Chicago. Smuggling is a huge problem today due to the fact that the police do not focus on investigating these operations as much as they should. Because of Al Capone, major crime organizations still exist today, proving even though the product is different, criminal activity is a serious problem in Chicago.
Al Capone started from nothing, and ended up as the biggest mob boss in Chicago and throughout the United States. Born in Brooklyn in 1899, Capone started his notorious career by quitting the 6th grade; by doing this, Capone possessed free time and recklessness, leading him to join his local street gang (“FBI”). In his local street gang, led by Johnny Torrio, Capone became murderous to gain power and notoriety and thus his reputation began. Like all great criminals start, he did cheap and small jobs to make an easy buck, all for the sake of survival. As he grew up, Capone began to realize that the matter of control was too much in Brooklyn, but the crime scene of Chicago caught Capone’s attention. Capone joined his friend Johnny Torrio in Chicago and became lieutenant in the Colosimo mob (“FBI”). February 14, 1929 marked the event of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, which brought the attention of how powerful and strong Capone was as a leader and a criminal (“FBI”). “As the profits from beer and "alky-cooking" [illicit distilling] rolled in, young Capone acquired more finesse-particularly finesse in the management of politics and politicians” ("Alcohol and Al Capone"). The constant selling of alcohol not only helped with earning money, but let him gain power within politics, an even bigger step in developing a legal and undetected crime organization. With the movement and power, Capone had in Chicago, he gained the reputation he would have today. The start of Al Capone’s own crime spree also follows the path that many crime organizations follow today, in which take simple or unchallenging crimes and eventually exploited them to major levels. Overall, the effects of Al Capone and how he came to power are only an important factor to consider with his crime organizations, but crime organizations today.
Al Capone’s criminal organization was built upon crime schemes and alcohol smuggling. All of his work was organized in properties he owned. He was a very intelligent and wealthy man. “Capone controlled the majority of Chicago's vice industry, including speakeasies, bookie joints, brothels, horse and race tracks, gambling houses and distilleries”(“Al Capone”). In other words, Al Capone owned all kinds of businesses that had the ability to maintain and control his criminal activity. Additionally, these businesses help funded the activities and the crime sprees that involved Capone’s crime organization. With the format and the crime scheming Capone had, he was able to further advance the crimes and organizations. These techniques of formations and rulership are also used in gangs in the present and have been a reliable way for the gangs to control and commit crimes undetected. With the techniques used by Al Capone to keep his criminal organization surviving, it brought down various techniques keeping gangs today alive.
Al Capone had an important role in the smuggling operation to keep his criminal activities going. With Capone’s smuggling operation, he “continued to expand his bootlegging empire…. he met the immense demand for alcohol (almost all adults drank bootleg alcohol during Prohibition) with an equally large supply” ("Al Capone - Background Information.”). In order to meet his supply, Capone gave all the adults that needed alcohol their needs, he was able to find a constant demand and make/expand his empire through the art of smuggling. Additionally, Capone used Canadian Scotch whisky from Frankie Yale, an old partner, and maintained a constant supply to fulfill their own orders ("Al Capone - Background Information."). Not only did Capone have a constant supply of alcohol from Canadian criminals, but Capone also managed to get all types of alcohol with Chicago being good distance to the border of Canada, Capone and his organization easily made millions from this. The smuggling operation was the most influential technique Capone used to gain power. This technique, however, is still used today as the reason Capone used it: money and power. Through smuggling, Capone was able to reach new levels of power as well as influence future generations to do the same.
Throughout time and history, the smuggling has changed and evolved, but the technique continues to be used for the same reasons it was during Capone’s time: power and money. After the prohibition, the method of smuggling didn’t go away, mostly due to the fact that other drugs had taken over the market. From the time of Al Capone being alcohol being most demanded, to all types of drugs in the streets of today being marijuana and heavier substances like cocaine, the method of smuggling didn’t shrink after Capone, it grew. The drug market in the U.S is the most wealthy and powerful ones in the entire world, and with the attraction of wealth comes the increasing numbers of drug traffickers to the States (“Drug Trafficking in the United States”). With this idea, drug traffickers would most likely take areas in which trade is already widely establish and is additionally, and in the U.S the states are Florida, New York, and Illinois. And in the years, we see technological advancement, so be it being cars, planes, and boats; furthermore, the increase of technology demonstrates shows how much the simple idea Capone had in Chicago had impacted life here today. With the change of smuggling, we see the advancement of Capone’s technique, and how his technique still last even today, though it might not be from the Canadian borders it was first obtained by Capone, it is still visible through the streets of modern day Chicago. It might not be Capone’s fault for smuggling in general, but it sure has the impact that smuggling was widely introduced in Chicago by him.
In Chicago today, the crime organizations are not only far more developed and advanced comparing it to the time of Capone, but also much more violent. Chicago has become much more violent for, “The crime stats tell us that we were safer under Capone than Emmanuel. In January 1929 there were 26 killings. Forty-two people were killed in Chicago last month, the most in January since 2002” (Bartin). In this statistic, it is visible that the amount of violence and crime in Chicago has skyrocketed, and not only that, but the violence only gets worse. There were twice as much killings now than during the time of Capone. But where is all the mass genocide of Chicago residents coming from? It’s from the gangs that surround both the city and its stereotypes. Only today do the gangs have sufficient structure and organization that Capone provided them, and with these things violence and control is a common sight in the streets of Chicago. With the power struggle, the number of bodies also rise, and the deaths all have Capone to thank, for he introduced the most powerful way to gain control, smuggling.
Looking from past to present, smuggling in general has been and still is a major support for criminal activities in both the Unites States and especially in Chicago. Smuggling still an unbelievable problem in Chicago, for no one knows exactly how much business is made through smuggling, but one can only infer that the number is beyond the millions. In the Chicago Tribune, Carlos Sadovi states in his report “Gang members charged with gun, drug trafficking” that in a drug bust, “More than a dozen men affiliated with a street gang have been charged in federal court with gun and drug trafficking near the Altgeld Gardens public housing complex on the South Side”. The quote presented demonstrates close to home and under the radar the operations really are. Additionally, this quote gives us an idea of the current smuggling trade of today and what is used. But what makes this case so important? It isnt the focus on drugs (though that is quite important when it comes to dealing in Chicago) but the focus is more on firearms. In Capone’s time, there wasn’t need for any type of firearm because it was sold locally without as much restriction as we see in today’s time. But with this smuggling of firearms, we see the reason in which why so many people die, the struggle of power between gangs forces them to gain more illegal substances and fight over other gangs with the firearms gathered from smuggling; moreover, having the effect of the hundreds of deaths associated with Chicago. With smuggling being such a huge problem still in Chicago, it is clear that the methods used by Al Capone were otherwise very long lasting and influential to the crime sprees and criminal organizations of today. In the end, smuggling has turned into the key focus of gangs today, even today, Capone effects the world of violence.
In the police world of the CPD, the matter of smuggling has not been taken hard enough to cripple criminal organizations and their smuggling operations. “While it is difficult to say how often crime complaints are not officially recorded, the Police Department is conscious of the potential problem, trying to ferret out unreported crimes through audits of emergency calls and of any resulting paperwork” (Al Baker pg.1). In this statement by Baker, the truth is that not even the own Police department know a good number to estimate of drug and smuggling operations in the region, and that would only lead to more and more murder by the day. Can the police really help stop this if they can’t keep track of it? But how can the police destroy what Capone made possible almost a hundred years ago? Capone had started the operation of drugs in Chicago, the smuggling business became a major selling point for new drug traffickers, the improvements helped gain a faster and more influential crime organization, and crime and power lust became a huge problem in the world today. Sure it wasn’t the intent for Capone to cause the murder we shave around us in the streets of Chicago, but the matter is that the introduction of smuggling Capone had brought to Chicago began the crime spree everyone in Chicago knows, and the murder stereotypes we carry with us for Capone’s actions. So to destroy something as big as Capone’s legacy, the police can’t simply be relaxed on the issue, the only way of taking down that murder is to go head first into the smuggling operations in which Capone started so long ago. Overall, modern crime in Chicago is not a priority to the police; therefore, we are called the “murder capital”.
Work Cited
"Al Capone." Al Capone. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1616.html>.
"Al Capone." Al Capone. The Newberry Library, 04. Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2214.html>.
"Alcohol and Al Capone." Alcohol and Al Capone. Virginia Edu, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
<http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/ALLEN/ch10.html>.
"Al Capone - Background Information." Al Capone - Background Information. N.p., n.d. Web.
30 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.umich.edu/~eng217/student_projects/nkazmers/capone1.html>.
"Al Capone." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.history.com/topics/al-capone>.
"Al Capone." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/miami/peopleevents/pande01.html>.
Ap. "No Booze for You! Prohibition Exhibit Documents Dry Era." USA Today. Gannett, 04 Nov.
2012. Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2012/11/04/prohibition-museum-exhibit-american-spirits/1679809/>.
Bruns. "Al Capone Interview." N.p., n.d. Web.
<https://archive.org/details/MrBrunsAlCaponeInterview>.
"CAPONE CONVICTED OF DODGING TAXES; MAY GET 17 YEARS." Nytimes.N.p., n.d.
Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1017.html>.
FBI. FBI, 21 May 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/al-capone>.
"History Files - Al Capone." History Files - Al Capone. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.chicagohs.org/history/capone/cpn3.html>.
"In Tijuana, Searching for Al Capone." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 06
Feb. 2015.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/in-tijuana-searching-for-al-capone/2014/12/31/bebb4c30-7fc1-11e4-81fd-8c4814dfa9d7_story.html>.
"Map of Chicago's Gangland, 1931." Map of Chicago's Gangland, 1931. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan.
2015. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/11538.html
Meisner, Jason. "Charges: Jail Guard Smuggled Pot in Sub Sandwiches."Chicagotribune.com.
N.p., 2015. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. <http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-cook-jail-marijuana-smuggling-met-20141021-story.html>.
"The Trial of Al Capone:Contempt of Court Decision (1931)." The Trial of Al Capone:Contempt
of Court Decision (1931). N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
<http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/capone/caponecontempt.html>.
Al Capone started from nothing, and ended up as the biggest mob boss in Chicago and throughout the United States. Born in Brooklyn in 1899, Capone started his notorious career by quitting the 6th grade; by doing this, Capone possessed free time and recklessness, leading him to join his local street gang (“FBI”). In his local street gang, led by Johnny Torrio, Capone became murderous to gain power and notoriety and thus his reputation began. Like all great criminals start, he did cheap and small jobs to make an easy buck, all for the sake of survival. As he grew up, Capone began to realize that the matter of control was too much in Brooklyn, but the crime scene of Chicago caught Capone’s attention. Capone joined his friend Johnny Torrio in Chicago and became lieutenant in the Colosimo mob (“FBI”). February 14, 1929 marked the event of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, which brought the attention of how powerful and strong Capone was as a leader and a criminal (“FBI”). “As the profits from beer and "alky-cooking" [illicit distilling] rolled in, young Capone acquired more finesse-particularly finesse in the management of politics and politicians” ("Alcohol and Al Capone"). The constant selling of alcohol not only helped with earning money, but let him gain power within politics, an even bigger step in developing a legal and undetected crime organization. With the movement and power, Capone had in Chicago, he gained the reputation he would have today. The start of Al Capone’s own crime spree also follows the path that many crime organizations follow today, in which take simple or unchallenging crimes and eventually exploited them to major levels. Overall, the effects of Al Capone and how he came to power are only an important factor to consider with his crime organizations, but crime organizations today.
Al Capone’s criminal organization was built upon crime schemes and alcohol smuggling. All of his work was organized in properties he owned. He was a very intelligent and wealthy man. “Capone controlled the majority of Chicago's vice industry, including speakeasies, bookie joints, brothels, horse and race tracks, gambling houses and distilleries”(“Al Capone”). In other words, Al Capone owned all kinds of businesses that had the ability to maintain and control his criminal activity. Additionally, these businesses help funded the activities and the crime sprees that involved Capone’s crime organization. With the format and the crime scheming Capone had, he was able to further advance the crimes and organizations. These techniques of formations and rulership are also used in gangs in the present and have been a reliable way for the gangs to control and commit crimes undetected. With the techniques used by Al Capone to keep his criminal organization surviving, it brought down various techniques keeping gangs today alive.
Al Capone had an important role in the smuggling operation to keep his criminal activities going. With Capone’s smuggling operation, he “continued to expand his bootlegging empire…. he met the immense demand for alcohol (almost all adults drank bootleg alcohol during Prohibition) with an equally large supply” ("Al Capone - Background Information.”). In order to meet his supply, Capone gave all the adults that needed alcohol their needs, he was able to find a constant demand and make/expand his empire through the art of smuggling. Additionally, Capone used Canadian Scotch whisky from Frankie Yale, an old partner, and maintained a constant supply to fulfill their own orders ("Al Capone - Background Information."). Not only did Capone have a constant supply of alcohol from Canadian criminals, but Capone also managed to get all types of alcohol with Chicago being good distance to the border of Canada, Capone and his organization easily made millions from this. The smuggling operation was the most influential technique Capone used to gain power. This technique, however, is still used today as the reason Capone used it: money and power. Through smuggling, Capone was able to reach new levels of power as well as influence future generations to do the same.
Throughout time and history, the smuggling has changed and evolved, but the technique continues to be used for the same reasons it was during Capone’s time: power and money. After the prohibition, the method of smuggling didn’t go away, mostly due to the fact that other drugs had taken over the market. From the time of Al Capone being alcohol being most demanded, to all types of drugs in the streets of today being marijuana and heavier substances like cocaine, the method of smuggling didn’t shrink after Capone, it grew. The drug market in the U.S is the most wealthy and powerful ones in the entire world, and with the attraction of wealth comes the increasing numbers of drug traffickers to the States (“Drug Trafficking in the United States”). With this idea, drug traffickers would most likely take areas in which trade is already widely establish and is additionally, and in the U.S the states are Florida, New York, and Illinois. And in the years, we see technological advancement, so be it being cars, planes, and boats; furthermore, the increase of technology demonstrates shows how much the simple idea Capone had in Chicago had impacted life here today. With the change of smuggling, we see the advancement of Capone’s technique, and how his technique still last even today, though it might not be from the Canadian borders it was first obtained by Capone, it is still visible through the streets of modern day Chicago. It might not be Capone’s fault for smuggling in general, but it sure has the impact that smuggling was widely introduced in Chicago by him.
In Chicago today, the crime organizations are not only far more developed and advanced comparing it to the time of Capone, but also much more violent. Chicago has become much more violent for, “The crime stats tell us that we were safer under Capone than Emmanuel. In January 1929 there were 26 killings. Forty-two people were killed in Chicago last month, the most in January since 2002” (Bartin). In this statistic, it is visible that the amount of violence and crime in Chicago has skyrocketed, and not only that, but the violence only gets worse. There were twice as much killings now than during the time of Capone. But where is all the mass genocide of Chicago residents coming from? It’s from the gangs that surround both the city and its stereotypes. Only today do the gangs have sufficient structure and organization that Capone provided them, and with these things violence and control is a common sight in the streets of Chicago. With the power struggle, the number of bodies also rise, and the deaths all have Capone to thank, for he introduced the most powerful way to gain control, smuggling.
Looking from past to present, smuggling in general has been and still is a major support for criminal activities in both the Unites States and especially in Chicago. Smuggling still an unbelievable problem in Chicago, for no one knows exactly how much business is made through smuggling, but one can only infer that the number is beyond the millions. In the Chicago Tribune, Carlos Sadovi states in his report “Gang members charged with gun, drug trafficking” that in a drug bust, “More than a dozen men affiliated with a street gang have been charged in federal court with gun and drug trafficking near the Altgeld Gardens public housing complex on the South Side”. The quote presented demonstrates close to home and under the radar the operations really are. Additionally, this quote gives us an idea of the current smuggling trade of today and what is used. But what makes this case so important? It isnt the focus on drugs (though that is quite important when it comes to dealing in Chicago) but the focus is more on firearms. In Capone’s time, there wasn’t need for any type of firearm because it was sold locally without as much restriction as we see in today’s time. But with this smuggling of firearms, we see the reason in which why so many people die, the struggle of power between gangs forces them to gain more illegal substances and fight over other gangs with the firearms gathered from smuggling; moreover, having the effect of the hundreds of deaths associated with Chicago. With smuggling being such a huge problem still in Chicago, it is clear that the methods used by Al Capone were otherwise very long lasting and influential to the crime sprees and criminal organizations of today. In the end, smuggling has turned into the key focus of gangs today, even today, Capone effects the world of violence.
In the police world of the CPD, the matter of smuggling has not been taken hard enough to cripple criminal organizations and their smuggling operations. “While it is difficult to say how often crime complaints are not officially recorded, the Police Department is conscious of the potential problem, trying to ferret out unreported crimes through audits of emergency calls and of any resulting paperwork” (Al Baker pg.1). In this statement by Baker, the truth is that not even the own Police department know a good number to estimate of drug and smuggling operations in the region, and that would only lead to more and more murder by the day. Can the police really help stop this if they can’t keep track of it? But how can the police destroy what Capone made possible almost a hundred years ago? Capone had started the operation of drugs in Chicago, the smuggling business became a major selling point for new drug traffickers, the improvements helped gain a faster and more influential crime organization, and crime and power lust became a huge problem in the world today. Sure it wasn’t the intent for Capone to cause the murder we shave around us in the streets of Chicago, but the matter is that the introduction of smuggling Capone had brought to Chicago began the crime spree everyone in Chicago knows, and the murder stereotypes we carry with us for Capone’s actions. So to destroy something as big as Capone’s legacy, the police can’t simply be relaxed on the issue, the only way of taking down that murder is to go head first into the smuggling operations in which Capone started so long ago. Overall, modern crime in Chicago is not a priority to the police; therefore, we are called the “murder capital”.
Work Cited
"Al Capone." Al Capone. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1616.html>.
"Al Capone." Al Capone. The Newberry Library, 04. Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2214.html>.
"Alcohol and Al Capone." Alcohol and Al Capone. Virginia Edu, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
<http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/ALLEN/ch10.html>.
"Al Capone - Background Information." Al Capone - Background Information. N.p., n.d. Web.
30 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.umich.edu/~eng217/student_projects/nkazmers/capone1.html>.
"Al Capone." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.history.com/topics/al-capone>.
"Al Capone." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/miami/peopleevents/pande01.html>.
Ap. "No Booze for You! Prohibition Exhibit Documents Dry Era." USA Today. Gannett, 04 Nov.
2012. Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2012/11/04/prohibition-museum-exhibit-american-spirits/1679809/>.
Bruns. "Al Capone Interview." N.p., n.d. Web.
<https://archive.org/details/MrBrunsAlCaponeInterview>.
"CAPONE CONVICTED OF DODGING TAXES; MAY GET 17 YEARS." Nytimes.N.p., n.d.
Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1017.html>.
FBI. FBI, 21 May 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/al-capone>.
"History Files - Al Capone." History Files - Al Capone. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.chicagohs.org/history/capone/cpn3.html>.
"In Tijuana, Searching for Al Capone." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 06
Feb. 2015.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/in-tijuana-searching-for-al-capone/2014/12/31/bebb4c30-7fc1-11e4-81fd-8c4814dfa9d7_story.html>.
"Map of Chicago's Gangland, 1931." Map of Chicago's Gangland, 1931. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan.
2015. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/11538.html
Meisner, Jason. "Charges: Jail Guard Smuggled Pot in Sub Sandwiches."Chicagotribune.com.
N.p., 2015. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. <http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-cook-jail-marijuana-smuggling-met-20141021-story.html>.
"The Trial of Al Capone:Contempt of Court Decision (1931)." The Trial of Al Capone:Contempt
of Court Decision (1931). N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
<http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/capone/caponecontempt.html>.