Capone during the

Al Capone during the Great Depression

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Al Capone during the Great Depression

Al Capone was one of the most notorious individuals within the United States who was a master of playing around the law and not getting caught. His criminal activities are recorded from 1919 to 1931, and this was the period of the great depression. Therefore, to some extent, he took advantage of this period to engage in criminal activities and earn a lot of money and other benefits he never deserved. Al Capone’s nickname was Scarface, a name he got at the Harvard Inn and later made valid by his brother, who slashed him across the face, making a permanent mark; thus, he was referred to as Scarface. Even though he was involved in many criminal activities, people loved him, which was contrary to the usual social behavior towards a criminal. This paper discusses the life of al Capone concerning crime, the great depression, and the love he got from the public, which is often deemed inappropriate.

Firstly the great depression affected the United States of America in considerable ways. It is referred to as the great depression since that was the only time the global GDP fell by 15%. It began on October 29, 1999, with the black Tuesday whereby the United States stock markets crashed, and this became world news. The great depression had devastating effects on both individuals and the government. Therefore, it can be deduced that the effects the great depression had on individuals and the general society provided an excellent opportunity for people like al Capone to come up and go on with their activities in an almost unnoticeable manner. This was because the government was fully occupied trying to find ways to bring up the sinking economy. It can also be attributed to the financial systems damage that al Capone never used a bank but used cash to avoid being tracked down in all his dealings.

Al Capone was born in 1899 in Brooklyn by his parents, who were both immigrants in the search for a better life. From the background of Capone, there was not a single indication that he could become a criminal since his background was impoverished and his parents lived a simple immigrant’s life. He studied at Brooklyn elementary school, and when a teacher disciplined him, he hit back then the principal caned him, and from that time on, he never went back to school. He met Johnny Torrio in Brooklyn, and they developed a relationship such that even after Torrio left Brooklyn, they still communicated. Torrio had been running a gambling operation, and he introduced Capone to a gangster named Frankie Yale. This was the beginning of Capone’s illegal business and criminal activities.

Capone married at the age of 19, and in the desire to be better, he moved t Baltimore with his wife and kid, where he was involved in the gambling and prostitution business. During this time, he was arrested. However, Torrio helped him to get out. He was also involved in political victimization since the person who wanted to be elected was to develop strict laws against them, and he wanted a person who would favor them. In 1924, even some people were shot and killed in the process of trying to convince them to vote for a specific person.

Even though Capone was doing illegal business, he was very generous, and the public liked him, primarily because of this. He was considered to work on the side of the people, and therefore he was loved, and the government could not easily convict him of a crime due to his lack of a trial in terms of financial expenditure.

In conclusion, even though Capone was doing illegal and unlawful, he was loved due to his relations with the public, which included generosity and the art of being charming. However, later he was convicted for 11 years because of tax evasion; he remains a very significant and complex figure among the Americans.

Bibliography

“Al Capone.” n.d. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Accessed October 15, 2021. https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases//al-capone.

‌ “The 1920s.” n.d. Web.archive.org. Accessed October 15, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20111004184642/htp://www.irclibrary.org/sebastianlibrary/george/1920.html.

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