July 7, 2025 • 42 mins
From bootlegging king to Public Enemy No. 1, Al Capone ruled Chicago’s underworld with an iron fist — and a Tommy gun.
In this episode of Macabre: A Dark History Podcast, we explore the violent rise of Capone’s empire, his cunning business moves, and the bloody massacres that solidified his legacy in American crime history.
But the higher you climb, the harder you fall. Discover how tax evasion, betrayal, and paranoia led to the downfall of the man who defined organized crime in the Roaring Twenties.
Was Capone a ruthless monster, a folk anti-hero, or something in between?
Join us as we unravel the myth and the man behind the fedora.
Can't get enough of MACABRE? Does your dark heart crave more? Hit that SPOTIFY SUBSCRIBE button so you don't miss out on bonus episodes, ad free listening and MACABRE After DARK shenanigans!
SPOTIFY Subscribers get early access and bonus episodes. Patreon members get ad free content, early access and exclusive bonus episodes and more!
Send in your stories for a future listener episode!
Email us at thatssomacabre@gmail.com
Join our private Facebook Group at : MacabrePodcast
Get Macabre Exclusive Merch @ www.gothiccthreads.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
When the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out.
They'll eat your gods and spit them out.
And when your bones begin to rot, the worms remain, but you
do not. So don't ever laugh as the
hearse goes by. There's someday you'll be next
(00:21):
in life. And when death brings his cold
despair, ask yourself, will anyone?
This episode of Macabre is brought to you by our friends at
Gothic Threads, the official merch partner of the show that's
Gothic with two CS. Because they're all about thick
(00:42):
thighs and culty vibes, our friends at Gothic Threads have
conjured up exclusive macabre gear just for you.
We're talking branded teas, corpse whiskey, glasses, and
even candles to light your seance while you binge your
favorite episodes. Each piece is crafted for our
fellow friends who like their history haunted, they're fashion
(01:03):
fearless and their energy just alittle unholy.
Snag your exclusive macabre merch now at gothicthreads.com
before it disappears into the shadows.
That's GOTHICC threads.com. If you want to check that out,
(01:23):
go to the Gothic website, which is just gothicthreads.com.
Again, Gothic is spelled with two CS, and the very first
collection is ours. We're fancy and we're special,
and we have everything from logoteas to some cool corpse whiskey
(01:45):
glasses. Which are a hot item.
Oh yeah. We did give access to our
Patreon members and our private Facebook group first, so that
seems to be the Hot Ticket, the corpse whiskey glasses and the
branded Tees and our monster metal Tees Throwback to season.
One. Oh yeah.
Oh yeah. So yeah, if you end up
(02:08):
purchasing a piece of merch, we want to see it.
We want to see you wear your macabre stuff in macabre places.
So send us an e-mail with a photo if you don't care if we
share. We would just love to see that.
So yes And yeah, spread the wordwith apparel now, yeah.
(02:30):
We used to say shout it from therooftops and whisper to your
babies, but now wear it. Just wear it, Yeah.
He'll be like, where'd you get? Where'd you get that cool shirt?
I'll tell you. But yeah, so that's announcement
#1 and then announcement #2 is we're changing this season up a
(02:52):
little bit. We're still going to do our
alphabet episodes, but we're also going to bring you what we
call, thanks to Blair, our macabre feature episodes.
And those are going to be stories that we can't
necessarily tell within a singleepisode.
So there will be more content, there'll be a little bit
different style, more narrative,little bit of ambiance, music
(03:15):
and sound effects and fun stuff like that.
So we can really immerse you in the world of Macomb.
So I look forward to that comingvery soon.
Yes, let us know what you think and if you don't like it, yell
at me. We'll send us an e-mail.
Yes, send us an e-mail. We're always open to feedback.
So, you know, if something isn'tworking, we'll we'll change it
(03:36):
up because we love you and we want you to keep listening.
Heck yeah. But with that being said, and
without further ado, I'm going to take a drink of my drinky
drink. Yes.
In the Spirit. Of today's.
Episode. Halle's starting it off right
this season is good topic to start with.
So the letter A for our first episode is for Al Capone.
(04:01):
You're. Ready for some hype notes?
Oh, heck yeah. OK, well, today we're going back
to the time of flappers, fedorasand forbidden booze, Back to a
city soaked in jazz and blood. We're stepping into the smoky
underbelly of the Prohibition era Chicago, where the name Al
(04:21):
Capone wasn't just feared, it was legend.
They called him Scarface. He was a man with a smirk who
could disarm reporters. He had fists that command armies
and a name that turns Chicago into a battlefield.
As I said today, the letter A isfor Al motherfucking Capone.
(04:43):
Yes, well, let's set the stage, listeners. close your eyes.
Not if you're driving or operating heavy machinery, of
course. Keep those eyes open.
But if you're at a place where you can close your eyes, then
close your eyes and picture it. It's 1920.
(05:03):
The Great War is over. America is buzzing with a new
kind of energy. Cities are expanding,
skyscrapers are getting taller, women are voting and cutting
their hair short, and jazz is blaring from the Victrolas.
And there is a palpable electricity in the air,
literally and metaphorically. But with all that progress comes
(05:27):
tension. The government, in a brilliant
stroke of moral panic because people were having too much fun,
decided that the real threat to America was alcohol.
As I take a sip of mine. And on January 17th, 1920, the
(05:50):
18th Amendment goes into effect and the Prohibition era begins.
Bars are shut down. Liquor is banned.
America's moral compass supposedly gets a reset.
Well, it didn't. The country exploded into
organized chaos. I'm talking bootlegging, rum
(06:12):
running, speakeasies hidden behind Barber shops, whiskey and
milk bottles, gin and bathtubs. And the people were drinking
more than ever. And this is where our gangster
friends enter the scene. Prohibition created an entire
shadow economy. It made men like Capone into
(06:32):
kings. And nowhere burned brighter or
bloodier than Chicago. We have to take it back now to
the very beginning to understandAl Capone's roots, where he came
from and how he came to be the legend that we know him today.
Long before that he was the Kingof Chicago and Co founder of the
(06:55):
notorious Chicago Outfit. Al Capone was known just as
Alfons, born January 17th, 1899 in Brooklyn, NY.
His parents were Italian immigrants, honest, hard
working. His father Gabriel was a highly
educated Barber. His Mother, Teresa, was a
seamstress. The couple lived with their nine
(07:18):
children in one cramped tenementnear the naval yard.
Oh, yeah. And I think he was like #4 of
the 9 #4 So he's come in the middle, got that middle child
syndrome, maybe, maybe just a little bit.
Not only that, but I mentioned that they live near the naval
(07:40):
yard. So that also had a little bit of
influence on the things that a young Alphonse would have seen,
including sailors drinking a lotof booze and hanging around with
some ladies of the night. So he got a taste for kind of
what that underbelly looked likeat a very early age.
Now, his family was known and they were considered very
(08:05):
respectable, but they were poor,a little Alphonse.
He started making trouble very early in his life.
He had a temper. And as you do, I mean, he was
living in Brooklyn. He was the middle child,
probably had a lot of like, inner family conflict, too.
(08:29):
He didn't like playing by the rules.
And how did that play out when he was a teenager?
Well, he was actually kicked outof Catholic school at the age of
14 for punching a female teacherin the face.
And at that time, these were nuns we're talking about, right?
Yeah. Well, so that was his last time
(08:53):
ever attending school. He was expelled.
What happened? What do you mean?
Like why did he punch her in theface?
Like what led to that? I don't.
Know I mean one can only speculate but I would imagine
since he didn't like the rules and structure and being told
(09:13):
what to do he probably just got pissed off and he was aggressive
and like I. Wonder if he just did something
in class and they got out the ruler kind of deal, and then he
was just like, all right, well, you did this to me.
Yeah, I could see that. And I think he was like a
sizable kid at that age, too, you know what I mean?
And all the pictures, you see him as an adult.
(09:35):
I mean, he seems short, but like, he's stocky, you know what
I mean? Yeah.
So I'm sure he was probably throwing some big fists at the
age of 14, but yeah. So he got kicked out of.
School and for the next couple of years he basically took it to
the streets. He did odd jobs.
He actually worked in a candy store at one time and was like a
(09:57):
pin boy at the bowling alley. He even played a little semi
professional baseball. So there's a fun fact for you,
little Nugget. That's.
Crazy. Who knows what he could have
been if he would have just stayed with it.
Yeah, seriously. Oh my God.
But he didn't really like doing those odd jobs, and so he
(10:20):
decided he was just going to join a couple of gangs.
See how that played out. So he ended up joining a gang
called the Junior 40 Thieves andthen the Bowery Boys.
And eventually the more powerfulgang at the time was called the
Five Point Gang out of lower Manhattan.
These were the names that were straight out of gangs in New
(10:41):
York Fever Dream. I mean, everybody knew these
gangs. Yeah.
The streets were his teachers now, and violence was the
curriculum. And then came the infamous Scar.
Working as a bouncer at the Harvard Inn in Coney Island
Dancehall and Saloon, Capone insulted a woman at the bar.
(11:02):
Apparently he was hitting on her, trying to get her to go out
with him on a date, and she justwasn't into it.
She was not having it. He kept pushing.
She denied him. He apparently made a comment
about her having a really nice butt and then he liked her butt.
That didn't go over well with her.
(11:24):
And also her brother was standing nearby and he didn't
take Kylie to that either. So her brother Frank Galluccio
confronted Capone. Capone didn't back down and
Coluccio didn't like the fact that he didn't back down.
So we pulled out a knife and he slashed Capone's face three
times, leaving a deep scar because he basically cut him
(11:48):
from cheek to jaw on the side ofhis face.
After 80 stitches, the wounds healed, but the scar would stay
with him forever. And so would the nickname
Scarface, which I think it's a pretty badass nickname.
Uh huh. I mean, it says something, you
(12:11):
know, that's a, that's a battle scar for sure.
But Capone actually hated it. He did his best at hide the scar
from the public. And you've seen a lot of photos
of him. What he would do is basically
just turn his face to the opposite side so that it didn't
show up in the photos. He lied about it.
(12:32):
He said it was a war wound and Capone preferred a different
nickname, which is really funny.His friends gave him the
nickname Snorky, which Snorky is1920s gang slang for a sharp
dresser, but the world seemed toprefer the nickname Scarface.
(12:53):
Yeah, I mean, Scarface is way more intimidating.
Snorky's like a cartoon character for kids.
That's what it's like. I could just imagine the little
like sea creature or something, right?
But. But yeah, like Snoopy's brother,
Snorky. Well, at this point, Capone was
(13:19):
making a name for himself in more ways than one, and his
talent was not going unnoticed either.
He was young, brutal, and very willing to get his hands dirty.
That's when he caught the attention of Johnny Torrio, an
Italian mobster who was buildingsomething big in Chicago.
Torrio invited Capone to join him, and in 1919, Al packed his
(13:43):
bags and left New York behind. It was then that Al became
Johnny Torrio's bodyguard. So this is this is the start of
things. Yeah.
And Chicago in 1920 and then the20s era was wild.
I'm sure you can imagine. It was like Gangs of the New
(14:07):
York meets the Wild West, dippedin gin and soaked in blood.
It was the perfect storm. And Torio was at the center of
all of it. But Capone wasn't just his
bodyguard. He became Torio's enforcer.
Who? He was running the brothels, he
managed the speakeasies, and he was collecting debts.
(14:32):
And he wasn't afraid to make an example of anyone who crossed
the line. And I'm sure you can let your
imagination run on what all of that means.
By 19/23 he was already suspected in several murders but
was never actually convicted. It's a known fact that Capone
(14:55):
had the support of the mayor andthe Chicago Police Department.
In 1924, things in Chicago started to change.
The political climate took a shift and Capone moved his
operation to Cicero. Not long after, a new mayor was
up for election in Cicero and this guy had the bright idea to
(15:18):
clean things up. That was his whole mission and
campaign. He was going to end corruption.
Well, this threatened Torrio's operation.
Capone and Torrio countered by running an intimidation campaign
on the day of the election and worked it out to get their own
(15:39):
guy elected. Threats and violence ensued and
the rest is history. It worked.
That's insane. Can you imagine having that much
power and influence? Right.
And I mean, that's the nature ofthe mob and the cartel.
The more money you have, the more power and control you have
(16:00):
and the more at risk your life is every single second of every
single day. But you know, money, drugs,
women. So trade off I guess.
Yeah. Well, in 1925 everything changed
for Capone. His boss, Torio was ambushed
(16:21):
outside of his home by a rival gang and was nearly killed.
Torio survived the attack, but the message was clear it was
time for Torio to get out of Chicago.
Torio basically just handed his entire empire over to his most
trusted guy, who just happened to be Al Capone.
(16:42):
And overnight, at just 26 years old, Scarface became a boss.
That's insane. That also just blows my mind.
Yeah. Yeah.
I still don't know what I'm doing with my life.
And at 26, he was like running the whole city of Chicago right
(17:03):
in this massive. Empire during a crazy time.
During a really crazy time, yeah.
That's so insane. So to give you an idea of what
Capone's operations looks like, he expanded the Chicago Outfit
with a bootlegging network that ran all the way to Canada.
(17:26):
He had a network of over 10,000 speakeasies, 10,000 speakeasies.
He had control over entire liquor supply chains from
distilleries to delivery trucks.He oversaw gambling dens.
He ran the brothels. Some say that's how he got
(17:47):
syphilis, and he managed bookies.
He was making big. It's estimated that Capone
earned about $60 million a year selling illegal liquor.
Holy crap. And he ran what's was known as
(18:08):
the Chicago Outfit from 1925 to 1931.
Now, I will mention, unlike the Five Families of New York, this
is a fact I did not know. The Five Families of New York
operated under the rules of the American Mafia Commission.
(18:28):
The Chicago. Outfit was independent and it
didn't follow traditional Cosa Nostra hierarchy.
And I'm going to explain to you what that means because I was
like, what? Yeah.
I know I'm like what so? What is?
Kosher Nostra hierarchy. Think the godfather.
OK, so one there is a boss. Who is the boss?
(18:50):
That's going to be your Don, your godfather, your capo de
tutti copy the head of the family.
The boss makes all the decisionsand gets a cut of every
operation, commands absolute loyalty and rarely gets involved
in the criminal activity using like intermediaries to avoid
(19:11):
attention. Chicago Outfit was different
because it did not follow that structure.
It often cooperated with the East Coast families but ran its
own show. Notable differences between the
two styles are in the Chicago Outfit it was a no Sicilian only
rule, meaning the New York gangsyou had to be of a certain
(19:36):
descent, right? The Chicago Outfit included
Irish, Jewish and other ethnic criminals, so all criminals of
all ethnicities were welcome. It had.
Deep political ties. The outfit had its tentacles, as
I mentioned in like politics, law enforcement and also the
(19:57):
unions, so there was a lot of protection.
It also had national reach. It controlled rackets not just
in Chicago, but also in Las Vegas, Florida, Kansas City and
Hollywood. That's crazy.
So it was massive. Yeah, quite the outreach.
(20:18):
Yeah, now let's talk. About Capone's list of crimes.
Now, of course, you know, I'm not going to be able to cover
all of them, not going to build a cover all the places he had
out and all the things that he did.
But I'm going to. Run through a list.
(20:40):
And at the end, we're also goingto cover some morsels that I
picked up for this episode that I wanted to save till the end.
And then Blair, if you have anything that you're like, oh,
yeah, I know this thing. We'll talk about that at the
end. I like that.
So Capone was connected to at least 200 murders.
He employed over 600 men in his outfit, one of the largest
(21:03):
private armies in America, and was basically untouchable.
Why and how? Well, he was smart.
And he had a shit ton of money he paid off judges, mayors,
police. Chiefs.
You name it. Alleged allegedly his budget for
hush money and all of that was millions of dollars every year
(21:26):
in bribe money to just keep the law on his side.
That's crazy. And if.
Bribery didn't work? Well, he resorted to good old
fashioned intimidation. I'm talking vanishing witnesses.
Trials fell apart because he wasbullying the jury members and
trying to pay them off. And if bribery or intimidation
(21:49):
didn't work, then he resorted toviolence.
Rival gangs like the Northside Gang, run by Bugs Moran, were
constantly targeted. Capone.
Even introduce what was known asthe Chicago way.
You send one of ours to the hospital, we send one of yours
to the morgue. So just a matter of like
(22:09):
escalating violence, you mess with us, it's going to be 10
times worse for you. His.
Enforcer Jack Machine Gun Mcgurnorchestrated hits with
terrifying efficiency. Capone's.
Influence spread nationwide. He had operations as I mentioned
in Cicero, Miami, Detroit, even connections in Canada for
(22:31):
smuggling booze as part of his. Chain he even.
Dabbled in politics. One of his greatest victories
was getting the mayor of Chicago, Big Bill Thompson
elected. A man who promised to keep the
wet lifestyle alive. Now, as far as the public image
(22:52):
goes, I think This is why Al Capone is a fascinating
character in history, right one.He's a criminal, but he wanted
to be famous. He liked being in the limelight.
He. Often gave interviews, he
flashed smiles for the cameras. He wore expensive suits worth
(23:14):
about $7000 in today's money. He donated.
To charities, he even opened up soup kitchens during the Great
Depression. So the public really looked at
him as kind of like a modern dayRobin Hood.
And he knew how to play the press.
But. Behind those colorful tailored
(23:37):
suits and smirking photographs, we have to remember that Al
Capone was still a fucking monster.
Yeah. Yeah.
He beat people with baseball bats.
He ordered executions at birthday parties.
There were whispers that he allegedly had a man fed to
alligators. I have gone.
(23:58):
Through. And yeah, I don't, I think,
well, that would make sense. Yeah, since he had connections
in Florida. I don't, you know, I didn't know
if that was true or if it's justone of those mob myths, but that
would make sense. And.
No one doubted that he ruled Chicago with terror, and
somehow, even with all that, thepublic just really liked him and
(24:22):
looked at him as a legend. That's so great now.
Oh yeah, Chrism will do it. Honey will do it, all that.
But eventually that changed on February 14th, 1929.
His public. Image was changed forever
(24:43):
because of this one event, and you'll probably know which one
I'm talking about, but seven menfrom rival gangs were lured into
a garage on N Clark St. His main target, Bugs Moran out
of the North Side gang, wasn't even present for the massacre.
The attack may have been motivated by the fact that some
expensive whiskey that was beingillegally imported from Canada
(25:07):
via the Detroit River had been hijacked while it was being
transported to Cook County, Illinois, and he blamed Bugs
Moran and his gang for this hijacking.
So here's how. This went down.
Two men in. Police uniforms walk into the
garage on N Clark St. The seven men think it's just
(25:28):
like a normal bust. And they line up against the
wall and they're just standing there waiting, and that's when
the bullets start flying. It's a total ambush, 70 rounds
from Tommy. Guns Pierce through flesh and
when it's over, blood pools around lifeless bodies.
And no charges were ever filed against Capone.
(25:52):
He had a rock solid alibi. A sunny vacation in Florida.
Oh my gosh, but. Yeah, everyone kind of knew he
was responsible, if you know what I mean.
Even if they couldn't prove it, they're like, yeah, he, he did
it. He definitely did it.
Yeah. Capone.
(26:13):
Tried to save his image by donating to charity, opening the
soup kitchen as I mentioned during the depression.
But this point it was too late. The public's opinion had turned
against Al Capone and that's when he became Public Enemy #1.
So this is. Really the beginning of the end.
There were many attempts on Al Capone's life, but none were
(26:36):
successful. He seemed untouchable by his
enemies, but there was one enemythat he could not escape, the US
government. Yeah, he got away with so much.
He got away. With so much and the thing that
takes him down is like they weresmart, you know, they were smart
in in the way they approach this.
(26:58):
They didn't go. To Capone for the murders, they
went after his money, even moneyearned illegally, was subject to
tax by the US government. It was Frank.
Wilson, an IRS accountant who noticed something odd.
Capone was living like a king, but he never filed taxes.
(27:19):
So in 1931, Capone was indicted on 22 counts of tax evasion.
And the. Trial was a complete circus.
Reporters were camped outside the courtroom.
Capone, being the showman that he was, tried bribing the jury,
but the judge ended up swapping the jury out at the very last
(27:41):
minutes. So this was.
Well played on the government side and also the legal side of
things. Yeah, seriously.
So. The verdict?
Guilty on five accounts. So they only got him on five
accounts of tax evasion. But it that was enough and that
(28:02):
conviction came through. On October 17th of 1931, the
government charged Capone with evasion of $215,000 in taxes on
a total income of just over $1,000,000 during a five year
period. He was sentenced to 11 years in
federal prison. Fined $50,000 + 7692 dollars for
(28:25):
court costs. It was held liable for the
215,000 plus interest due on hisback taxes.
You ain't coming back from that,no.
So fun. Fact, Al Capone spent a brief
period of time incarcerated at the infamous Eastern State
(28:45):
Penitentiary in Philadelphia in 1929 after an arrest for
carrying a concealed weapon of all things.
So just a few years before his tax conviction, he just spent a
little stint there. And for our ghost hunting
listeners, you'll recognize thatname of the prison.
It's been featured on just aboutevery ghost hunting show
(29:07):
imaginable, and for good reason.Some people say that Capone's
present, even though it was short lived, can still be felt
there now. After his tax evasion conviction
in 1934 at the young age of 33, Capone was sent to Atlanta
(29:28):
prison, but due to some issues with corruption there, they had
to move him somewhere else. So.
They moved him to Alcatraz, where he would finish out his
time, and Alcatraz didn't care who he was.
Unlike other prison times, Capone had no visitors, no
(29:50):
press, no special favors. He cleaned toilets, he scrubbed
floors and he spent a lot of time talking to himself.
At this. Point His mind was already
deteriorating from late stage syphilis and he was beginning to
crumble. He was.
Hallucinating on the regular, growing more paranoid and
(30:14):
confused as time went on. And this got so bad that
eventually they saw him like he was not a threat to the public
anymore because his health was just so bad.
They're like, if, if we let him out, there's there's no way he's
going to be able to do the things that he used to be able
(30:34):
to do, right? So.
He was released in 1939 for quote good behavior, but more
likely due to his failing healthand mental state, and what was
left of Al Capone was just a shell of his former self.
He was sent to. Baltimore Hospital for a brief
time before returning to his home in Florida.
(30:58):
Al Capone. Spent his final years decaying
in Miami and his mansion, surrounded by fear, paranoia and
silence. And on January 25th of 1947, Al
Capone died of cardiac arrest. He was only 48 years old.
That's. Insane.
(31:18):
Yeah, what a life. Yeah, especially.
Since he spent a good chunk of it in such ill health there at
the end like. Oh yeah, some of.
The stories that you hear about.From his prison days when they
were really starting to realize oh, he's got syphilitic
(31:39):
insanity, yeah, there's some crazy stuff.
And he would talk to like old friends that were killed that he
had in the mob. And yeah, it would it crazy kind
of makes. You wonder if they weren't
actually there, right? Right.
Maybe he was seeing, yeah, maybehe was seeing some stuff that
(32:01):
you don't, you can't normally see.
You know, maybe your syphilitic brain allows you to tap into
some. Different.
Wavelengths or something. But yeah, I think it was like
they were haunting him, essentially, and he was being,
you know, terrorized and stuff. Karma, man.
(32:22):
Yeah, yeah. Well, I.
Have a couple morsels for you that I wanted to save till till
the end. Our first morsel is that Al
Capone had a custom Cadillac built A1928-V8 sedan and it was
built with reinforced armor. This thing had 3000 lbs of steel
(32:46):
plates and bulletproof glass. How does it?
Even move for. I mean, AV 8's got a pretty
strong engine, pretty good pole.That's the only way it could
probably do was it had to be AV 8.
He also had holes cut into the sides of the car so that him and
his guys could put their guns through it to shoot at people if
(33:10):
they came under attack, which was pretty impressive the custom
vehicle at that time, right? Considering.
It was 1928. It's pretty pretty bad ass.
Maybe that was. The The invention for tanks for
World War 2. It it.
Basically was a tank. It did, yeah.
It did say it was basically likea tank the way that it was
(33:31):
designed. That's crazy.
Our next morsel is kind of funny.
So this. One's about drunk golf and
apparently Al Capone and his guys like to go golfing and get
shit faced while they were out there and they always carried
their guns inside their golf bags, which isn't the best idea.
(33:56):
Who do you think? About logistics.
So. In September of 1928, he was out
swinging clubs with some of his gangster buddies and they were
all drunk and he was digging around in his golf bag to try to
find this one particular club that he wanted to use.
He accidentally grabbed his revolver and fired a shot US and
(34:19):
got a self-inflicted gun gunshotwound.
Oh my. Gosh.
He had. He had to be.
Rushed to the hospital and he was checked in under a fake
name. L Geary.
Because, you know, gangsters gotto keep a low profile or someone
might come in and try to finish the job.
But yeah, got drunk and shot himself on the golf course.
(34:41):
Oh my God, I don't think. Any of his, I don't know if his
enemies ever shot him. I don't know if that was like a
thing. Yeah, that happened because he
like escaped, you know, attemptsall the time, right?
And it's just. Ironic that he shot himself.
Trying to grab a Golf Club whichgosh.
(35:04):
Now, this one is also ironic. So I told you he came from a big
family, right? Yeah.
So 1. Of his older brothers, James
Capone was actually a prohibition agent.
Really. Yeah, so his story's kind of
wild because he went off to fight in World War One, He was
(35:26):
older, and then he came back to live in the Midwest, changed his
name completely to Richard Hart,and then became the Marshall of
his town. He led a bunch of Prohibition
raids as a prohibition agent, soyou could basically say that the
two brothers went down very different paths, yes.
(35:49):
Seriously. Oh my God.
So I thought that was interesting.
I did not know that, no SO. Did they ever cross paths?
I don't know. His brother was living in the
Midwest. Probably not.
I would imagine he probably stayed local.
And the fact that he changed hisname tells me that he probably
(36:10):
wanted no association with that because you have to remember
Capone, he got his start early. I mean, he was in gangs when he
was a teenager and. Yeah.
So yeah, I think he's just like,no, I don't want any association
with that, right? Feel like that's, that's my
(36:32):
brother. That's not me.
Yeah. Now, this last story blew my
mind when I heard it. And when I heard it the first
time, I was like, is this real? And I looked it up and yeah, it
is real. And maybe listeners, you know of
this. But anyways, have you ever heard
of the name? Easy Eddie it sounds?
(36:53):
Familiar, but I have like nothing to go off of with it.
OK. Well.
I chose to leave it out of the episode because I wanted to save
this story for the end because this is wild.
All. Right.
So who was easy? Eddie?
Edward. J Easy Eddie O'Hara was a lawyer
(37:13):
who initially worked for Al Capone in Chicago.
He basically. Was the guy that kept Capone out
of trouble for years. But at some point he realized he
couldn't keep up the ruse and hebecame disillusioned.
And in the early 1930s, Easy Eddie was one of the guys that
(37:33):
secretly helped the federal prosecutors build a case against
Capone to lead to his convictionfor the tax evasion.
Well, that's not. Necessarily the interesting
part. It is interesting, but got to
give a little background on thisguy.
So. As you can imagine, Capone, when
he found out about this, was nothappy.
(37:54):
And in 1939, a week before Capone was released from
Alcatraz, Eddie was gunned down while driving in a suburban
Chicago area, likely as mob retribution now.
Whether? Or not Capone was in the mental
state to even order a hit. I don't know, but I think
probably just. People who?
(38:16):
Were familiar and connected. Probably were after this guy for
a while and just wouldn't let itgo until he was dead.
Now. This is where the story gets
really interesting because I'm going to tell you about Eddie's
oldest son. Eddie's oldest.
Son was named Butch O'Hare. He was.
(38:37):
A Lieutenant Commander. And.
Became a decorated U.S. Navy fighter pilot in World War
2. On.
February 20th, 1942. Returning to his ship low on
fuel, he spotted a squadron of Japanese planes headed straight
for the fleet. Alone.
(38:59):
He bravely attacked them, shooting down 5 aircraft and
earning the Navy's first fighterace and Medal of Honor.
Tragically, he died less than two years later in combat at
just 29 years old. This guy.
Was a fucking hero, the son of Eddie O'Hare, Al Capone's
attorney turned federal witness,and in honor of Butch's heroic
(39:23):
act, Chicago's Orchard Field renamed the airfield to O'Hare
International Airport in 1949. That's crazy, I didn't know
that. Yeah, I guess when you go to the
airport there's a whole section where you can read about his
story and stuff. So next.
(39:43):
Time. You're flying through O'Hare.
See if you can find it. You know, if you have time and
you're not running like a crazy person to get to your flight
like usual, but just a little fun fact about that is you know
this hero, this war hero was theson of a.
Someone. Who was employed by a very
notorious gangster. And my understanding is that he
(40:07):
didn't want to be like his father.
Like he knew about his father's history and like he wanted to
be. He wanted to take a different
path and leave a legacy and do good in the world.
So good on him. Yeah, good on him.
Mad respect. Well.
Before we wrap up today, I've got a few final words just about
(40:31):
the story in general. Capone didn't invent organized
crime, but you could argue that he branded it.
Oh yeah. He turned the.
Mob boss into a cultural icon and blurred the lines between
celebrity and criminal, for which he ultimately paid the
price. And still his legend lives on.
(40:51):
His story has been retold in films, TV shows, books, even rap
lyrics. Al Capone became a symbol of
power and of corruption. His empire was built on booze,
blood and fear. And it all ended because he
didn't pay his taxes. So macabre public service
announcement? Pay your motherfucking taxes.
(41:16):
Seriously. Do it.
And yeah, so listeners, I just want to say thank you for
joining us for our first episodeof Season 3 on the Rise and Ruin
of Al Capone. If you enjoyed this episode,
please leave us a rating and review.
It really helps to get the word out about the show.
(41:36):
If you feel like you don't want to be alone on this dark ride,
share the show with your fellow dark history lovers and keep
listening to Macabre, a dark history podcast.
Wherever you listen to your podcast.
Heck yeah. We're excited to be back.
We're excited to hang with you guys once more.
(41:58):
Season 3 baby, here we go. I.
When the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out.
They'll eat your gods and spit them out.
And when your bones begin to rot, the worms remain, but you
do not. So don't ever laugh as the
hearse goes by. There's someday you'll be next
(00:21):
in life. And when death brings his cold
despair, ask yourself, will anyone?
This episode of Macabre is brought to you by our friends at
Gothic Threads, the official merch partner of the show that's
Gothic with two CS. Because they're all about thick
(00:42):
thighs and culty vibes, our friends at Gothic Threads have
conjured up exclusive macabre gear just for you.
We're talking branded teas, corpse whiskey, glasses, and
even candles to light your seance while you binge your
favorite episodes. Each piece is crafted for our
fellow friends who like their history haunted, they're fashion
(01:03):
fearless and their energy just alittle unholy.
Snag your exclusive macabre merch now at gothicthreads.com
before it disappears into the shadows.
That's GOTHICC threads.com. If you want to check that out,
(01:23):
go to the Gothic website, which is just gothicthreads.com.
Again, Gothic is spelled with two CS, and the very first
collection is ours. We're fancy and we're special,
and we have everything from logoteas to some cool corpse whiskey
(01:45):
glasses. Which are a hot item.
Oh yeah. We did give access to our
Patreon members and our private Facebook group first, so that
seems to be the Hot Ticket, the corpse whiskey glasses and the
branded Tees and our monster metal Tees Throwback to season.
One. Oh yeah.
Oh yeah. So yeah, if you end up
(02:08):
purchasing a piece of merch, we want to see it.
We want to see you wear your macabre stuff in macabre places.
So send us an e-mail with a photo if you don't care if we
share. We would just love to see that.
So yes And yeah, spread the wordwith apparel now, yeah.
(02:30):
We used to say shout it from therooftops and whisper to your
babies, but now wear it. Just wear it, Yeah.
He'll be like, where'd you get? Where'd you get that cool shirt?
I'll tell you. But yeah, so that's announcement
#1 and then announcement #2 is we're changing this season up a
(02:52):
little bit. We're still going to do our
alphabet episodes, but we're also going to bring you what we
call, thanks to Blair, our macabre feature episodes.
And those are going to be stories that we can't
necessarily tell within a singleepisode.
So there will be more content, there'll be a little bit
different style, more narrative,little bit of ambiance, music
(03:15):
and sound effects and fun stuff like that.
So we can really immerse you in the world of Macomb.
So I look forward to that comingvery soon.
Yes, let us know what you think and if you don't like it, yell
at me. We'll send us an e-mail.
Yes, send us an e-mail. We're always open to feedback.
So, you know, if something isn'tworking, we'll we'll change it
(03:36):
up because we love you and we want you to keep listening.
Heck yeah. But with that being said, and
without further ado, I'm going to take a drink of my drinky
drink. Yes.
In the Spirit. Of today's.
Episode. Halle's starting it off right
this season is good topic to start with.
So the letter A for our first episode is for Al Capone.
(04:01):
You're. Ready for some hype notes?
Oh, heck yeah. OK, well, today we're going back
to the time of flappers, fedorasand forbidden booze, Back to a
city soaked in jazz and blood. We're stepping into the smoky
underbelly of the Prohibition era Chicago, where the name Al
(04:21):
Capone wasn't just feared, it was legend.
They called him Scarface. He was a man with a smirk who
could disarm reporters. He had fists that command armies
and a name that turns Chicago into a battlefield.
As I said today, the letter A isfor Al motherfucking Capone.
(04:43):
Yes, well, let's set the stage, listeners. close your eyes.
Not if you're driving or operating heavy machinery, of
course. Keep those eyes open.
But if you're at a place where you can close your eyes, then
close your eyes and picture it. It's 1920.
(05:03):
The Great War is over. America is buzzing with a new
kind of energy. Cities are expanding,
skyscrapers are getting taller, women are voting and cutting
their hair short, and jazz is blaring from the Victrolas.
And there is a palpable electricity in the air,
literally and metaphorically. But with all that progress comes
(05:27):
tension. The government, in a brilliant
stroke of moral panic because people were having too much fun,
decided that the real threat to America was alcohol.
As I take a sip of mine. And on January 17th, 1920, the
(05:50):
18th Amendment goes into effect and the Prohibition era begins.
Bars are shut down. Liquor is banned.
America's moral compass supposedly gets a reset.
Well, it didn't. The country exploded into
organized chaos. I'm talking bootlegging, rum
(06:12):
running, speakeasies hidden behind Barber shops, whiskey and
milk bottles, gin and bathtubs. And the people were drinking
more than ever. And this is where our gangster
friends enter the scene. Prohibition created an entire
shadow economy. It made men like Capone into
(06:32):
kings. And nowhere burned brighter or
bloodier than Chicago. We have to take it back now to
the very beginning to understandAl Capone's roots, where he came
from and how he came to be the legend that we know him today.
Long before that he was the Kingof Chicago and Co founder of the
(06:55):
notorious Chicago Outfit. Al Capone was known just as
Alfons, born January 17th, 1899 in Brooklyn, NY.
His parents were Italian immigrants, honest, hard
working. His father Gabriel was a highly
educated Barber. His Mother, Teresa, was a
seamstress. The couple lived with their nine
(07:18):
children in one cramped tenementnear the naval yard.
Oh, yeah. And I think he was like #4 of
the 9 #4 So he's come in the middle, got that middle child
syndrome, maybe, maybe just a little bit.
Not only that, but I mentioned that they live near the naval
(07:40):
yard. So that also had a little bit of
influence on the things that a young Alphonse would have seen,
including sailors drinking a lotof booze and hanging around with
some ladies of the night. So he got a taste for kind of
what that underbelly looked likeat a very early age.
Now, his family was known and they were considered very
(08:05):
respectable, but they were poor,a little Alphonse.
He started making trouble very early in his life.
He had a temper. And as you do, I mean, he was
living in Brooklyn. He was the middle child,
probably had a lot of like, inner family conflict, too.
(08:29):
He didn't like playing by the rules.
And how did that play out when he was a teenager?
Well, he was actually kicked outof Catholic school at the age of
14 for punching a female teacherin the face.
And at that time, these were nuns we're talking about, right?
Yeah. Well, so that was his last time
(08:53):
ever attending school. He was expelled.
What happened? What do you mean?
Like why did he punch her in theface?
Like what led to that? I don't.
Know I mean one can only speculate but I would imagine
since he didn't like the rules and structure and being told
(09:13):
what to do he probably just got pissed off and he was aggressive
and like I. Wonder if he just did something
in class and they got out the ruler kind of deal, and then he
was just like, all right, well, you did this to me.
Yeah, I could see that. And I think he was like a
sizable kid at that age, too, you know what I mean?
And all the pictures, you see him as an adult.
(09:35):
I mean, he seems short, but like, he's stocky, you know what
I mean? Yeah.
So I'm sure he was probably throwing some big fists at the
age of 14, but yeah. So he got kicked out of.
School and for the next couple of years he basically took it to
the streets. He did odd jobs.
He actually worked in a candy store at one time and was like a
(09:57):
pin boy at the bowling alley. He even played a little semi
professional baseball. So there's a fun fact for you,
little Nugget. That's.
Crazy. Who knows what he could have
been if he would have just stayed with it.
Yeah, seriously. Oh my God.
But he didn't really like doing those odd jobs, and so he
(10:20):
decided he was just going to join a couple of gangs.
See how that played out. So he ended up joining a gang
called the Junior 40 Thieves andthen the Bowery Boys.
And eventually the more powerfulgang at the time was called the
Five Point Gang out of lower Manhattan.
These were the names that were straight out of gangs in New
(10:41):
York Fever Dream. I mean, everybody knew these
gangs. Yeah.
The streets were his teachers now, and violence was the
curriculum. And then came the infamous Scar.
Working as a bouncer at the Harvard Inn in Coney Island
Dancehall and Saloon, Capone insulted a woman at the bar.
(11:02):
Apparently he was hitting on her, trying to get her to go out
with him on a date, and she justwasn't into it.
She was not having it. He kept pushing.
She denied him. He apparently made a comment
about her having a really nice butt and then he liked her butt.
That didn't go over well with her.
(11:24):
And also her brother was standing nearby and he didn't
take Kylie to that either. So her brother Frank Galluccio
confronted Capone. Capone didn't back down and
Coluccio didn't like the fact that he didn't back down.
So we pulled out a knife and he slashed Capone's face three
times, leaving a deep scar because he basically cut him
(11:48):
from cheek to jaw on the side ofhis face.
After 80 stitches, the wounds healed, but the scar would stay
with him forever. And so would the nickname
Scarface, which I think it's a pretty badass nickname.
Uh huh. I mean, it says something, you
(12:11):
know, that's a, that's a battle scar for sure.
But Capone actually hated it. He did his best at hide the scar
from the public. And you've seen a lot of photos
of him. What he would do is basically
just turn his face to the opposite side so that it didn't
show up in the photos. He lied about it.
(12:32):
He said it was a war wound and Capone preferred a different
nickname, which is really funny.His friends gave him the
nickname Snorky, which Snorky is1920s gang slang for a sharp
dresser, but the world seemed toprefer the nickname Scarface.
(12:53):
Yeah, I mean, Scarface is way more intimidating.
Snorky's like a cartoon character for kids.
That's what it's like. I could just imagine the little
like sea creature or something, right?
But. But yeah, like Snoopy's brother,
Snorky. Well, at this point, Capone was
(13:19):
making a name for himself in more ways than one, and his
talent was not going unnoticed either.
He was young, brutal, and very willing to get his hands dirty.
That's when he caught the attention of Johnny Torrio, an
Italian mobster who was buildingsomething big in Chicago.
Torrio invited Capone to join him, and in 1919, Al packed his
(13:43):
bags and left New York behind. It was then that Al became
Johnny Torrio's bodyguard. So this is this is the start of
things. Yeah.
And Chicago in 1920 and then the20s era was wild.
I'm sure you can imagine. It was like Gangs of the New
(14:07):
York meets the Wild West, dippedin gin and soaked in blood.
It was the perfect storm. And Torio was at the center of
all of it. But Capone wasn't just his
bodyguard. He became Torio's enforcer.
Who? He was running the brothels, he
managed the speakeasies, and he was collecting debts.
(14:32):
And he wasn't afraid to make an example of anyone who crossed
the line. And I'm sure you can let your
imagination run on what all of that means.
By 19/23 he was already suspected in several murders but
was never actually convicted. It's a known fact that Capone
(14:55):
had the support of the mayor andthe Chicago Police Department.
In 1924, things in Chicago started to change.
The political climate took a shift and Capone moved his
operation to Cicero. Not long after, a new mayor was
up for election in Cicero and this guy had the bright idea to
(15:18):
clean things up. That was his whole mission and
campaign. He was going to end corruption.
Well, this threatened Torrio's operation.
Capone and Torrio countered by running an intimidation campaign
on the day of the election and worked it out to get their own
(15:39):
guy elected. Threats and violence ensued and
the rest is history. It worked.
That's insane. Can you imagine having that much
power and influence? Right.
And I mean, that's the nature ofthe mob and the cartel.
The more money you have, the more power and control you have
(16:00):
and the more at risk your life is every single second of every
single day. But you know, money, drugs,
women. So trade off I guess.
Yeah. Well, in 1925 everything changed
for Capone. His boss, Torio was ambushed
(16:21):
outside of his home by a rival gang and was nearly killed.
Torio survived the attack, but the message was clear it was
time for Torio to get out of Chicago.
Torio basically just handed his entire empire over to his most
trusted guy, who just happened to be Al Capone.
(16:42):
And overnight, at just 26 years old, Scarface became a boss.
That's insane. That also just blows my mind.
Yeah. Yeah.
I still don't know what I'm doing with my life.
And at 26, he was like running the whole city of Chicago right
(17:03):
in this massive. Empire during a crazy time.
During a really crazy time, yeah.
That's so insane. So to give you an idea of what
Capone's operations looks like, he expanded the Chicago Outfit
with a bootlegging network that ran all the way to Canada.
(17:26):
He had a network of over 10,000 speakeasies, 10,000 speakeasies.
He had control over entire liquor supply chains from
distilleries to delivery trucks.He oversaw gambling dens.
He ran the brothels. Some say that's how he got
(17:47):
syphilis, and he managed bookies.
He was making big. It's estimated that Capone
earned about $60 million a year selling illegal liquor.
Holy crap. And he ran what's was known as
(18:08):
the Chicago Outfit from 1925 to 1931.
Now, I will mention, unlike the Five Families of New York, this
is a fact I did not know. The Five Families of New York
operated under the rules of the American Mafia Commission.
(18:28):
The Chicago. Outfit was independent and it
didn't follow traditional Cosa Nostra hierarchy.
And I'm going to explain to you what that means because I was
like, what? Yeah.
I know I'm like what so? What is?
Kosher Nostra hierarchy. Think the godfather.
OK, so one there is a boss. Who is the boss?
(18:50):
That's going to be your Don, your godfather, your capo de
tutti copy the head of the family.
The boss makes all the decisionsand gets a cut of every
operation, commands absolute loyalty and rarely gets involved
in the criminal activity using like intermediaries to avoid
(19:11):
attention. Chicago Outfit was different
because it did not follow that structure.
It often cooperated with the East Coast families but ran its
own show. Notable differences between the
two styles are in the Chicago Outfit it was a no Sicilian only
rule, meaning the New York gangsyou had to be of a certain
(19:36):
descent, right? The Chicago Outfit included
Irish, Jewish and other ethnic criminals, so all criminals of
all ethnicities were welcome. It had.
Deep political ties. The outfit had its tentacles, as
I mentioned in like politics, law enforcement and also the
(19:57):
unions, so there was a lot of protection.
It also had national reach. It controlled rackets not just
in Chicago, but also in Las Vegas, Florida, Kansas City and
Hollywood. That's crazy.
So it was massive. Yeah, quite the outreach.
(20:18):
Yeah, now let's talk. About Capone's list of crimes.
Now, of course, you know, I'm not going to be able to cover
all of them, not going to build a cover all the places he had
out and all the things that he did.
But I'm going to. Run through a list.
(20:40):
And at the end, we're also goingto cover some morsels that I
picked up for this episode that I wanted to save till the end.
And then Blair, if you have anything that you're like, oh,
yeah, I know this thing. We'll talk about that at the
end. I like that.
So Capone was connected to at least 200 murders.
He employed over 600 men in his outfit, one of the largest
(21:03):
private armies in America, and was basically untouchable.
Why and how? Well, he was smart.
And he had a shit ton of money he paid off judges, mayors,
police. Chiefs.
You name it. Alleged allegedly his budget for
hush money and all of that was millions of dollars every year
(21:26):
in bribe money to just keep the law on his side.
That's crazy. And if.
Bribery didn't work? Well, he resorted to good old
fashioned intimidation. I'm talking vanishing witnesses.
Trials fell apart because he wasbullying the jury members and
trying to pay them off. And if bribery or intimidation
(21:49):
didn't work, then he resorted toviolence.
Rival gangs like the Northside Gang, run by Bugs Moran, were
constantly targeted. Capone.
Even introduce what was known asthe Chicago way.
You send one of ours to the hospital, we send one of yours
to the morgue. So just a matter of like
(22:09):
escalating violence, you mess with us, it's going to be 10
times worse for you. His.
Enforcer Jack Machine Gun Mcgurnorchestrated hits with
terrifying efficiency. Capone's.
Influence spread nationwide. He had operations as I mentioned
in Cicero, Miami, Detroit, even connections in Canada for
(22:31):
smuggling booze as part of his. Chain he even.
Dabbled in politics. One of his greatest victories
was getting the mayor of Chicago, Big Bill Thompson
elected. A man who promised to keep the
wet lifestyle alive. Now, as far as the public image
(22:52):
goes, I think This is why Al Capone is a fascinating
character in history, right one.He's a criminal, but he wanted
to be famous. He liked being in the limelight.
He. Often gave interviews, he
flashed smiles for the cameras. He wore expensive suits worth
(23:14):
about $7000 in today's money. He donated.
To charities, he even opened up soup kitchens during the Great
Depression. So the public really looked at
him as kind of like a modern dayRobin Hood.
And he knew how to play the press.
But. Behind those colorful tailored
(23:37):
suits and smirking photographs, we have to remember that Al
Capone was still a fucking monster.
Yeah. Yeah.
He beat people with baseball bats.
He ordered executions at birthday parties.
There were whispers that he allegedly had a man fed to
alligators. I have gone.
(23:58):
Through. And yeah, I don't, I think,
well, that would make sense. Yeah, since he had connections
in Florida. I don't, you know, I didn't know
if that was true or if it's justone of those mob myths, but that
would make sense. And.
No one doubted that he ruled Chicago with terror, and
somehow, even with all that, thepublic just really liked him and
(24:22):
looked at him as a legend. That's so great now.
Oh yeah, Chrism will do it. Honey will do it, all that.
But eventually that changed on February 14th, 1929.
His public. Image was changed forever
(24:43):
because of this one event, and you'll probably know which one
I'm talking about, but seven menfrom rival gangs were lured into
a garage on N Clark St. His main target, Bugs Moran out
of the North Side gang, wasn't even present for the massacre.
The attack may have been motivated by the fact that some
expensive whiskey that was beingillegally imported from Canada
(25:07):
via the Detroit River had been hijacked while it was being
transported to Cook County, Illinois, and he blamed Bugs
Moran and his gang for this hijacking.
So here's how. This went down.
Two men in. Police uniforms walk into the
garage on N Clark St. The seven men think it's just
(25:28):
like a normal bust. And they line up against the
wall and they're just standing there waiting, and that's when
the bullets start flying. It's a total ambush, 70 rounds
from Tommy. Guns Pierce through flesh and
when it's over, blood pools around lifeless bodies.
And no charges were ever filed against Capone.
(25:52):
He had a rock solid alibi. A sunny vacation in Florida.
Oh my gosh, but. Yeah, everyone kind of knew he
was responsible, if you know what I mean.
Even if they couldn't prove it, they're like, yeah, he, he did
it. He definitely did it.
Yeah. Capone.
(26:13):
Tried to save his image by donating to charity, opening the
soup kitchen as I mentioned during the depression.
But this point it was too late. The public's opinion had turned
against Al Capone and that's when he became Public Enemy #1.
So this is. Really the beginning of the end.
There were many attempts on Al Capone's life, but none were
(26:36):
successful. He seemed untouchable by his
enemies, but there was one enemythat he could not escape, the US
government. Yeah, he got away with so much.
He got away. With so much and the thing that
takes him down is like they weresmart, you know, they were smart
in in the way they approach this.
(26:58):
They didn't go. To Capone for the murders, they
went after his money, even moneyearned illegally, was subject to
tax by the US government. It was Frank.
Wilson, an IRS accountant who noticed something odd.
Capone was living like a king, but he never filed taxes.
(27:19):
So in 1931, Capone was indicted on 22 counts of tax evasion.
And the. Trial was a complete circus.
Reporters were camped outside the courtroom.
Capone, being the showman that he was, tried bribing the jury,
but the judge ended up swapping the jury out at the very last
(27:41):
minutes. So this was.
Well played on the government side and also the legal side of
things. Yeah, seriously.
So. The verdict?
Guilty on five accounts. So they only got him on five
accounts of tax evasion. But it that was enough and that
(28:02):
conviction came through. On October 17th of 1931, the
government charged Capone with evasion of $215,000 in taxes on
a total income of just over $1,000,000 during a five year
period. He was sentenced to 11 years in
federal prison. Fined $50,000 + 7692 dollars for
(28:25):
court costs. It was held liable for the
215,000 plus interest due on hisback taxes.
You ain't coming back from that,no.
So fun. Fact, Al Capone spent a brief
period of time incarcerated at the infamous Eastern State
(28:45):
Penitentiary in Philadelphia in 1929 after an arrest for
carrying a concealed weapon of all things.
So just a few years before his tax conviction, he just spent a
little stint there. And for our ghost hunting
listeners, you'll recognize thatname of the prison.
It's been featured on just aboutevery ghost hunting show
(29:07):
imaginable, and for good reason.Some people say that Capone's
present, even though it was short lived, can still be felt
there now. After his tax evasion conviction
in 1934 at the young age of 33, Capone was sent to Atlanta
(29:28):
prison, but due to some issues with corruption there, they had
to move him somewhere else. So.
They moved him to Alcatraz, where he would finish out his
time, and Alcatraz didn't care who he was.
Unlike other prison times, Capone had no visitors, no
(29:50):
press, no special favors. He cleaned toilets, he scrubbed
floors and he spent a lot of time talking to himself.
At this. Point His mind was already
deteriorating from late stage syphilis and he was beginning to
crumble. He was.
Hallucinating on the regular, growing more paranoid and
(30:14):
confused as time went on. And this got so bad that
eventually they saw him like he was not a threat to the public
anymore because his health was just so bad.
They're like, if, if we let him out, there's there's no way he's
going to be able to do the things that he used to be able
(30:34):
to do, right? So.
He was released in 1939 for quote good behavior, but more
likely due to his failing healthand mental state, and what was
left of Al Capone was just a shell of his former self.
He was sent to. Baltimore Hospital for a brief
time before returning to his home in Florida.
(30:58):
Al Capone. Spent his final years decaying
in Miami and his mansion, surrounded by fear, paranoia and
silence. And on January 25th of 1947, Al
Capone died of cardiac arrest. He was only 48 years old.
That's. Insane.
(31:18):
Yeah, what a life. Yeah, especially.
Since he spent a good chunk of it in such ill health there at
the end like. Oh yeah, some of.
The stories that you hear about.From his prison days when they
were really starting to realize oh, he's got syphilitic
(31:39):
insanity, yeah, there's some crazy stuff.
And he would talk to like old friends that were killed that he
had in the mob. And yeah, it would it crazy kind
of makes. You wonder if they weren't
actually there, right? Right.
Maybe he was seeing, yeah, maybehe was seeing some stuff that
(32:01):
you don't, you can't normally see.
You know, maybe your syphilitic brain allows you to tap into
some. Different.
Wavelengths or something. But yeah, I think it was like
they were haunting him, essentially, and he was being,
you know, terrorized and stuff. Karma, man.
(32:22):
Yeah, yeah. Well, I.
Have a couple morsels for you that I wanted to save till till
the end. Our first morsel is that Al
Capone had a custom Cadillac built A1928-V8 sedan and it was
built with reinforced armor. This thing had 3000 lbs of steel
(32:46):
plates and bulletproof glass. How does it?
Even move for. I mean, AV 8's got a pretty
strong engine, pretty good pole.That's the only way it could
probably do was it had to be AV 8.
He also had holes cut into the sides of the car so that him and
his guys could put their guns through it to shoot at people if
(33:10):
they came under attack, which was pretty impressive the custom
vehicle at that time, right? Considering.
It was 1928. It's pretty pretty bad ass.
Maybe that was. The The invention for tanks for
World War 2. It it.
Basically was a tank. It did, yeah.
It did say it was basically likea tank the way that it was
(33:31):
designed. That's crazy.
Our next morsel is kind of funny.
So this. One's about drunk golf and
apparently Al Capone and his guys like to go golfing and get
shit faced while they were out there and they always carried
their guns inside their golf bags, which isn't the best idea.
(33:56):
Who do you think? About logistics.
So. In September of 1928, he was out
swinging clubs with some of his gangster buddies and they were
all drunk and he was digging around in his golf bag to try to
find this one particular club that he wanted to use.
He accidentally grabbed his revolver and fired a shot US and
(34:19):
got a self-inflicted gun gunshotwound.
Oh my. Gosh.
He had. He had to be.
Rushed to the hospital and he was checked in under a fake
name. L Geary.
Because, you know, gangsters gotto keep a low profile or someone
might come in and try to finish the job.
But yeah, got drunk and shot himself on the golf course.
(34:41):
Oh my God, I don't think. Any of his, I don't know if his
enemies ever shot him. I don't know if that was like a
thing. Yeah, that happened because he
like escaped, you know, attemptsall the time, right?
And it's just. Ironic that he shot himself.
Trying to grab a Golf Club whichgosh.
(35:04):
Now, this one is also ironic. So I told you he came from a big
family, right? Yeah.
So 1. Of his older brothers, James
Capone was actually a prohibition agent.
Really. Yeah, so his story's kind of
wild because he went off to fight in World War One, He was
(35:26):
older, and then he came back to live in the Midwest, changed his
name completely to Richard Hart,and then became the Marshall of
his town. He led a bunch of Prohibition
raids as a prohibition agent, soyou could basically say that the
two brothers went down very different paths, yes.
(35:49):
Seriously. Oh my God.
So I thought that was interesting.
I did not know that, no SO. Did they ever cross paths?
I don't know. His brother was living in the
Midwest. Probably not.
I would imagine he probably stayed local.
And the fact that he changed hisname tells me that he probably
(36:10):
wanted no association with that because you have to remember
Capone, he got his start early. I mean, he was in gangs when he
was a teenager and. Yeah.
So yeah, I think he's just like,no, I don't want any association
with that, right? Feel like that's, that's my
(36:32):
brother. That's not me.
Yeah. Now, this last story blew my
mind when I heard it. And when I heard it the first
time, I was like, is this real? And I looked it up and yeah, it
is real. And maybe listeners, you know of
this. But anyways, have you ever heard
of the name? Easy Eddie it sounds?
(36:53):
Familiar, but I have like nothing to go off of with it.
OK. Well.
I chose to leave it out of the episode because I wanted to save
this story for the end because this is wild.
All. Right.
So who was easy? Eddie?
Edward. J Easy Eddie O'Hara was a lawyer
(37:13):
who initially worked for Al Capone in Chicago.
He basically. Was the guy that kept Capone out
of trouble for years. But at some point he realized he
couldn't keep up the ruse and hebecame disillusioned.
And in the early 1930s, Easy Eddie was one of the guys that
(37:33):
secretly helped the federal prosecutors build a case against
Capone to lead to his convictionfor the tax evasion.
Well, that's not. Necessarily the interesting
part. It is interesting, but got to
give a little background on thisguy.
So. As you can imagine, Capone, when
he found out about this, was nothappy.
(37:54):
And in 1939, a week before Capone was released from
Alcatraz, Eddie was gunned down while driving in a suburban
Chicago area, likely as mob retribution now.
Whether? Or not Capone was in the mental
state to even order a hit. I don't know, but I think
probably just. People who?
(38:16):
Were familiar and connected. Probably were after this guy for
a while and just wouldn't let itgo until he was dead.
Now. This is where the story gets
really interesting because I'm going to tell you about Eddie's
oldest son. Eddie's oldest.
Son was named Butch O'Hare. He was.
(38:37):
A Lieutenant Commander. And.
Became a decorated U.S. Navy fighter pilot in World War
2. On.
February 20th, 1942. Returning to his ship low on
fuel, he spotted a squadron of Japanese planes headed straight
for the fleet. Alone.
(38:59):
He bravely attacked them, shooting down 5 aircraft and
earning the Navy's first fighterace and Medal of Honor.
Tragically, he died less than two years later in combat at
just 29 years old. This guy.
Was a fucking hero, the son of Eddie O'Hare, Al Capone's
attorney turned federal witness,and in honor of Butch's heroic
(39:23):
act, Chicago's Orchard Field renamed the airfield to O'Hare
International Airport in 1949. That's crazy, I didn't know
that. Yeah, I guess when you go to the
airport there's a whole section where you can read about his
story and stuff. So next.
(39:43):
Time. You're flying through O'Hare.
See if you can find it. You know, if you have time and
you're not running like a crazy person to get to your flight
like usual, but just a little fun fact about that is you know
this hero, this war hero was theson of a.
Someone. Who was employed by a very
notorious gangster. And my understanding is that he
(40:07):
didn't want to be like his father.
Like he knew about his father's history and like he wanted to
be. He wanted to take a different
path and leave a legacy and do good in the world.
So good on him. Yeah, good on him.
Mad respect. Well.
Before we wrap up today, I've got a few final words just about
(40:31):
the story in general. Capone didn't invent organized
crime, but you could argue that he branded it.
Oh yeah. He turned the.
Mob boss into a cultural icon and blurred the lines between
celebrity and criminal, for which he ultimately paid the
price. And still his legend lives on.
(40:51):
His story has been retold in films, TV shows, books, even rap
lyrics. Al Capone became a symbol of
power and of corruption. His empire was built on booze,
blood and fear. And it all ended because he
didn't pay his taxes. So macabre public service
announcement? Pay your motherfucking taxes.
(41:16):
Seriously. Do it.
And yeah, so listeners, I just want to say thank you for
joining us for our first episodeof Season 3 on the Rise and Ruin
of Al Capone. If you enjoyed this episode,
please leave us a rating and review.
It really helps to get the word out about the show.
(41:36):
If you feel like you don't want to be alone on this dark ride,
share the show with your fellow dark history lovers and keep
listening to Macabre, a dark history podcast.
Wherever you listen to your podcast.
Heck yeah. We're excited to be back.
We're excited to hang with you guys once more.
(41:58):
Season 3 baby, here we go. I.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.