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00:00Al Capone the most notorious gangster in history it's no stretch to say that during most of the
00:091920s he had an almost total grip on the city of Chicago his criminal empire encompassed
00:18gambling prostitution and bootlegging fueling a campaign of violence the likes of which the
00:25United States has never seen before or since but who was the real Al Capone in this episode I've
00:34traveled to Chicago to reveal Al Capone the man I'll uncover his unlikely gateway into a life of
00:42crime discover how his wife and son coped with having a gangster boss in the family and reveal
00:48how Al successfully curated his public image until one event brought the whole thing crashing
00:55down Al Capone had a huge appetite for women and a huge appetite for sex it was just really any
01:02woman anytime anywhere Al was game the four deuces Club this was a great place had bar on the first
01:10floor gambling on the second and girls on the third and the fourth floor you get a few belts in you
01:16they take anything of value from you and then throw your body underneath the L tracks right behind the
01:21four deuces Club he provided soup kitchens for the homeless he bought milk for all the school
01:28children in Chicago but ultimately it doesn't detract from the way Capone made his money was he really a
01:35one-dimensional ruthless criminal or will a look behind closed doors reveal another side to him did the
01:44grandiose public personality mask a man with far more unexpected interests and how did his bootlegging fuel
01:53Chicago's jazz age this is the private life of Al Capone
02:14Al Capone was born in New York City in 1899 to Italian immigrants Gabriel and Teresa his father was a barber and his mother a seamstress
02:29they brought Al up to better himself through hard work and education and he did prove to be a fast learner but he was also a brawler and during sixth grade a fight with his teacher
02:44Al Capone was born in New York City in 1899 to Italian immigrants Gabriel and Teresa his father was a barber and his mother a seamstress
02:50Al Capone did prove to be a fast learner but he was also a brawler and during sixth grade a fight with his teacher led to him leaving school for good
02:57Al Capone was undoubtedly a very clever child and apparently very good with numbers but he preferred life on the streets to life in the classroom and he seems to have balked at rules and any attempt by teachers to control him and on one occasion
03:08a female teacher struck him and he struck her back and that was basically the end of his education
03:29his father tried to put him back on the straight and narrow by setting him up with a shoe shining business but despite the best
03:37the best of intentions this proved to be Al's gateway into the world of crime
03:44it was while shining shoes that Al observed a gang extorting protection payments from local businesses and it inspired him to try the same thing
03:55albeit on a smaller scale he took protection money from the other shoe shine boys and employed two of his older cousins as heavies
04:06Al's cousins were bigger than him but crucially not particularly intelligent employing people stronger
04:13but less clever than himself was to be a model he would follow for the rest of his life but more significantly
04:20right now his exploits brought him to the notice of Frankie Yale and Johnny Torrio
04:25Johnny Torrio
04:30Johnny Torrio and Frankie Yale were two Italian immigrants who settled in New York City and Torrio was a racketeer basically engaged in extortion and Yale was basically a gangster and a hitman and these two individuals were going to play a key role in the rise of Al Capone
04:48Torrio in particular saw potential in the young Al Capone and started using him to run money Capone's natural ability when it came to numbers saw him rise to the top of the pile
05:05and Torrio and Torrio soon gave him an insight into more and more of his other businesses from prostitution to extortion
05:12Capone's responsibilities came to encompass visiting Torrio's brothels and collecting the money they earned and he may well have started using the prostitutes himself
05:24with women and sex available to him he indulged from a young age
05:31Al Capone had a huge appetite for women and a huge appetite for sex he wasn't especially particular about whether these women were prostitutes or not it was just really any woman anytime anywhere Al was game
05:49but towards the end of 1917 while working as a laborer in a box factory he met a young woman who was working in the timekeeping department she was called Mary Josephine Coughlin better known as May and she would go on to become one of the most important women in Al Capone's life
06:11On the face of it May and Al had nothing in common she was a cool calm collective woman two years Capone senior he a young tearaway who was always getting into one scrape or another she lived in a lovely terraced house on a nice street he lived above his father's barber shop in an area little better than a slum
06:39She was of an Irish background she was of an Irish background he of Italian descent so it shouldn't have worked but despite their obvious differences they became very close
06:52Al and Al and May's relationship very early on was quite scandalously sexual and the best place that they could go was back to the box factory so they would find somewhere in the deepest darkest recesses of the box factory and go to it
07:14Capone would take May to dances and do everything he could to impress her but he had an additional reason for turning on the charm
07:25In his side job at the Harvard Inn on Coney Island he had an altercation with a gangster Frank Galluccio something Al would never forget
07:35Al made rather a crude comment to Frank about his sister and Frank didn't take it well he responded by slashing Al across the face
07:43With a blade this left out with permanent scars that earned him the nickname scar face
07:48Despite his tough man image
07:52Al Capone absolutely hated the scars on his face and you know he'd give the unscarred profile
07:59When he was being photographed and even resorted to having his face powdered in order to hide these kind of unsightly
08:07The unsightly evidence of his previous street fights
08:10But whatever his own insecurities May fell very much in love with Al scars and all much to the disdain of her mother who thought him totally unsuitable due to his Italian background
08:25Despite this May fell pregnant and on December the 4th 1918 gave birth to Albert nicknamed Sonny and almost a month later Alan May got married
08:37May's mother regarded Italians as she put it quote unquote coloured
08:43You know Italian people often call things like garlic eaters and that's kind of the milder end
08:49I mean they were called a lot worse than that
08:50But eventually Al Capone gets his way
08:52He married May
08:53But May's mother never really accepted it
08:56So Capone had a legitimate job
09:04A loving wife
09:05And a new baby
09:06But on the other hand
09:08He was a small time crook
09:10In the criminal underworld
09:12Of Torrio and Yale
09:14So which way was he going to go?
09:17Well
09:18In November 1919
09:20His father died
09:21And so he found himself
09:23The man of the house
09:25With a family to provide for
09:27Crime
09:28Simply paid better
09:30Johnny Torrio and Frankie Yale took Al on full time
09:38But Torrio then moved to Chicago because it was larger than Brooklyn
09:42So there were more opportunities to make money
09:45And a new source of illegal income was just opening up
09:50In January 1920
09:55The 18th Amendment came into force
09:58Which made the production, transportation and sale of alcohol illegal
10:03Ushering in the era of prohibition
10:07But as you might imagine
10:08People still wanted a drink
10:10All that was needed was for someone to supply it
10:14The heavy hitters of organised crime stepped in
10:17It's ironic that prohibition
10:22With all its moral motives
10:24That it was going to improve American people
10:26What it actually did
10:27Was gave a huge opportunity to organise crime
10:30Because as the name organised crime suggests
10:33They could organise criminal activities
10:35Better than anybody else
10:37So you ended up with floating warehouses
10:39These ships that were essentially liquor stores
10:42Giant liquor stores
10:44Off the coast
10:45You know beyond three miles
10:46So they could operate legally
10:48And the distribution of the liquor
10:50And the production
10:51Was all run by organised crime
10:53So the result of prohibition
10:55Was it put a lot of money
10:56Into a lot of bad people's pockets
10:58The police searched out every place
11:02Where hooch was being made
11:03And they carted it away
11:04They also carted away racketeers and rum runners
11:08To jails all across the country
11:10Capone worked for Frankie Yale in New York
11:14Until an incident forced him to relocate
11:17To the city of Chicago
11:18And work for Torrio
11:19Capone's rise in Chicago would become meteoric
11:23But to find out more about his early years
11:26I'm meeting Craig Alton
11:28Who runs Capone-themed tours of the city
11:31So Al was forced to move here to Chicago
11:39He got into a little trouble in Brooklyn, New York
11:41The Italian mob had asked him to rough up
11:44An Irish guy who'd been reneging on paying back a betting debt
11:48Al beats the guy almost to death
11:50And now the Irish mob wants the Italian mob
11:54To hand Al over for vengeance
11:56Unfortunately he had no choice
11:58He had a new wife and a baby
12:00He had to get out of Dodge
12:01And the only person that he knew outside of New York
12:05Was Johnny the Fox Torrio
12:07Papa Johnny to him
12:09And Johnny was working here
12:11At Colosimo's Cafe
12:13For his uncle, Big Jim Colosimo
12:15This was the classiest nightclub in Chicago
12:18It ran all the way to the end of the block
12:20The front gates actually stood here
12:22The entrance
12:23And actually had a mechanical floor
12:25That came out of the basement
12:27With a live jazz band on it
12:29And all the dancers
12:30Enrico Caruso, Zazu Pitts, Charlie Chaplin
12:34Sophie Tucker, Mae West
12:35All the big names of the 20s
12:37Would come to Colosimo's Cafe
12:39To be seen by all the other big names
12:41Gosh, what a break for Al
12:43This is the place to be, isn't it?
12:44It was a classy place
12:45Yeah
12:46And he, of course, came here to be bodyguard
12:48For Colosimo himself
12:50He was having problems with a group called the Black Hand
12:53This was a Sicilian extortion ring
12:55He would pay them off
12:57They would want more
12:57Pay them off, want more
12:59And finally, Colosimo asked Johnny Torrio, his nephew
13:03To go ahead and just pay them off once and be done
13:06Johnny goes there and kills all of them
13:08And now he needs a bodyguard
13:10Colosimo needs a steady bodyguard
13:12So this was a good first job for Al in Chicago
13:15It was a great first job, you know
13:17He was a fancy dresser
13:18And this was the part
13:19On the other hand, in his spare time
13:21He also worked as a bartender and a bouncer
13:23At one of Colosimo's clubs
13:25Called the Four Deuces
13:27Which was right down the street here
13:28So as well as being a bodyguard
13:40Al takes another job
13:41Yes, he can make a few extra bucks
13:43Working here at the Four Deuces Club
13:45This was a great place
13:47It had bar on the first floor
13:50Gambling on the second
13:51And girls on the third and the fourth floor
13:53So Al would stand out in front here
13:56You know, he was always a fancy dresser
13:57He had a big gravelly voice
13:59And he would rope guys into the place
14:01Come on in, come on in
14:02Hey, your first drink is on me
14:04Come on in, come on in
14:05And sure enough, you know, they'd slip you a drink
14:07With a couple of drops of knockout drops, you know
14:09You'd get a few belts in you
14:11They'd take anything of value from you
14:14And then throw your body underneath the L tracks
14:16Right behind the Four Deuces Club
14:17It was the fastest way to get their money
14:20And make room for the next sucker coming through the door
14:22Despite being married to May
14:28He proved unable to resist the charms of the women he encountered
14:32Al Capone was not faithful to May
14:35And he even had an affair with a 15-year-old prostitute of Greek descent
14:41And made her dye her hair blonde
14:44Because he had a thing about blonde women
14:45May found out about this
14:47And to make a point
14:48She turned up a Sunday lunch at Al Capone's mother's house
14:52With her hair dyed blonde
14:54And Capone just seems to have said
14:56Oh, that looks nice
14:57You know, a kind of nonchalant response
14:59But May, curiously, kept her hair dyed blonde for the rest of her life
15:04Whatever was going on while Al was at work
15:09He was a family man
15:10And providing for them drove everything he did
15:13Prohibition-era Chicago was proving incredibly fruitful
15:18As the gangs came up with more and more novel ways
15:21To smuggle booze to the people who wanted it
15:24So, of course, one of the questions that everyone wants to know
15:29How did you get beer during Prohibition?
15:32You know, big, heavy commodities that were hard to get around
15:36Easily recognizable
15:37You put a barrel of beer in the back of a Model T Ford
15:41And, you know, the whole thing would go down the street like this
15:44So here's how they got away with it
15:46Beautiful places here, like the old Schoenhofen Brewery
15:49When Prohibition goes into effect
15:511,700 workers were out of a job
15:54This was a huge complex
15:55The sixth largest brewery in the nation at the time
15:58During Prohibition
16:01They got a permit from the U.S. government
16:03To produce a near beer
16:04Technically, it was beer made the old-fashioned way
16:07They simply boiled off the alcohol
16:09Until it was less than one-half of one percent
16:13Capone would have them put it into barrels
16:16And then take those barrels and ship them to all of his speakeasies across Chicago
16:20Get it inside the speakeasy
16:22And then once all the doors were locked
16:24His guys would come by later in the day
16:26Usually with veterinarian syringes
16:29For horse or for cattle
16:31They would fill that up with 180-proof pure alcohol
16:35And then right through the bung
16:36They would inject it to give it the punch that the guys were buying it for
16:40And literally, he used this method all the way through the 1920s
16:44Because it was never illegal until it was inside and already locked up
16:47It was a perfect way to get around it
16:49That's very clever
16:50You've got to hand it to him
16:51It was a good, easy way to do it
16:53Eventually, Al had earned enough money to move his family to join him in Chicago
17:02And in 1923, he purchased a property on Prairie Avenue
17:07Registered, of course, under May and his mother's names
17:11They made a few improvements to the place
17:14If you notice, there are bars on all the lower windows
17:16And some of the windows later on were taken out and replaced with bricks
17:21Because the nature's feather was still too easy to get in
17:24Al's mother had the entire top floor to herself
17:27And then the second floor was Al and his wife, May
17:31Al spent very little time here, to be honest with you
17:34And eventually, he would end up living in the hotels downtown
17:37Did Al Capone's family ever see anything other than this very closeted existence here
17:46Very separate from his other world?
17:49I would have to imagine that everyone knew
17:52Even Sonny, the young child, would have realized that every time he left the house with his father
17:57An entire entourage of men protected them everywhere they went
18:02When they would come over on Sunday dinner
18:05Him, his brother Ralph, Frank in the early days
18:08They'd all come
18:09And originally, there was two sets of stanchions there where Vaz's sack
18:15There was a bodyguard at each one of those places
18:17Throughout the entire time that Al was here
18:19After they were finished eating, those bodyguards would go in
18:23They'd have their meal at the same table
18:25And other guys would take their place, keeping an eye out
18:27But, you know, you would have to know something was up
18:30By the fact that just to have dinner at your own house
18:33You had bodyguards out in front protecting it
18:35Prohibition ushered in a period of violence
18:43Gang wars and Tommy guns were the byword of the day
18:46Speakeasies sprang up all over the land
18:48And the police had to seek them out
18:50As the speakeasies were being targeted by Chicago's Mayor William Dever
18:55Johnny Torrio ordered Al and his brothers to move all their brothels, speakeasies and gambling dens
19:02To the Chicago suburb of Cicero
19:04Where Al paid off the local Republican council members
19:08And let his brother Frank handle the legwork
19:11In 1924 at the primary elections
19:15The Democrats mounted a serious challenge
19:18So Frank unleashed a wave of terror on the city
19:21Even placing gangsters with shotguns at polling stations
19:25To make sure people voted correctly
19:28The Chicago Police Department decided to intervene
19:31And sent 70 plain-clothed officers to Cicero
19:35In order to stem the violence
19:37Although this had little effect on the election
19:39It had a massive one on Al
19:42At one polling station
19:43A patrol car spotted one of Al's known associates
19:47Charlie Vachetti
19:48A man they didn't recognise
19:50And Al's brother Frank
19:52What was to unfold would turn Al's world upside down
19:56Franco, Vachetti and the other fella
20:04Are standing here in front of the hotel
20:05When a big car pulls up
20:07It's an unmarked squad car
20:09In those days they didn't really look too different than anybody else's
20:12Four guys step out
20:14And sure enough shots are fired
20:16Frank was the first one killed
20:19Frank Capone was killed
20:20And when he went down
20:22He had three shots out of his pistol
20:24That had been fired
20:25Charles Vachetti ran down this block here
20:28Into an open field
20:29Eventually dropped his gun and surrendered
20:31The other fella was wounded
20:33And picked up in the hospital later on
20:35So this was huge
20:37You know, being Al's younger brother
20:40They were very close
20:41The funeral was held at the home
20:43On South Prairie Avenue
20:45Al's mother, you could just imagine
20:47You know, she was absolutely a wreck
20:49150 cars were in front of the casket at the funeral
20:54$20,000 in flowers
20:57And all these people, of course, in the old days
21:00Always circled by your house
21:01You could just imagine
21:03A car after car after car after car
21:05For 15, 20, 30, 40 minutes
21:07As the whole neighbourhood watched
21:09In front of the Capone mansion there
21:10Capone's political puppets had won the election
21:19But victory had come at a terrible price
21:22Frank's death was unexpected and devastating
21:25It made headlines in the city of Chicago
21:28But Al himself was not really in the public eye
21:32All that was about to change
21:34Towards the end of 1925
21:39Johnny Torrio retired
21:41And left control of the outfit to his protégé
21:45Al Capone
21:46Al moved his headquarters back
21:48To the heart of Chicago
21:50And set about building his empire
21:53And he was building on fertile ground
21:56Prohibition hadn't lessened people's desire for a drink
22:00It had turned it into an exciting form of rebellion
22:04And drinking was coupled with an equally rebellious form of music
22:09Jazz
22:10In the great cities
22:12Nightlife had become elaborate and expensive
22:15And the manners of the time were free and easy
22:18As the world's foremost jazz musicians
22:24Gravitated towards the speakeasies and clubs of Chicago
22:28Al Capone found himself one of the country's principal patrons of the jazz scene
22:33Jazz's predominantly African-American musicians
22:37Didn't sit well with some in racially segregated America
22:41But Al, perhaps due to his own immigrant background
22:45Couldn't care less
22:46Black or white
22:47He simply wanted the best entertainment for the visitors to his clubs
22:52Prohibitioner America was still heavily segregated
22:56But Capone was above all a businessman
22:58Artists like Louis Armstrong were active in Chicago at the time
23:02And Capone was very happy to have them in his clubs
23:04Because it made good business sense for him
23:06Capone seems to have had something of a progressive streak
23:11He seems to have treated African-American musicians on equal terms
23:16And so much so that he was even known apparently as Robin Hood
23:20By some in the black community
23:22And was regarded as something of a patron of the jazz age
23:26Capone had really hit the big time
23:31And began to pay great attention to the way in which he was perceived by the public
23:36Working with friend and journalist Harry Reid
23:39The pair fashioned Capone's public image
23:41So that he was seen not as a gangster
23:43But as a businessman
23:45Harry Reid gave Al Capone PR tips
23:49He was like a kind of a spin doctor to the gangster
23:52And Capone took the advice
23:54You know, he talked to the press but avoided politics
23:56He went to baseball games
23:59And stood there taking the evasion of the crowd
24:01And he'd turn up at City Hall
24:03You know, acting as if he was an elected politician
24:06Even though he was nothing of the sort
24:07And on his way he'd be giving racing tips to people in the streets
24:11And of course even giving them advice on fights he knew were rigged
24:15And the sort of commutative result of this
24:18Was that Capone was regarded by people in Chicago
24:22As something of a working class hero
24:25You know, that he was one of them
24:27That he'd made it
24:28And so they liked him
24:29Al became something of a celebrity
24:37And the whole world talked about him
24:40He would flaunt his wealth
24:42By festooning himself
24:44With diamonds and jewellery
24:47And would order a dozen custom made suits at a time
24:51Costing nearly $70,000
24:53When it came to the colour of his clothing
24:57He would wear lime green
24:59Yellow
25:00Lavender
25:02Nothing seemed beyond the boundaries of taste
25:06He was a gift to the eager newspaper paparazzi
25:10Capone was a real showman
25:14And he loved to flaunt his wealth
25:15He was really attracted, for example, to diamonds
25:18He had an extraordinarily large diamond pinky ring
25:21He also had diamonds on his belt buckle
25:23Even in his house, his billiard table and pool queues
25:26Were diamond studded
25:28Clothes were not the only thing Al spent money on
25:34His gambling became the stuff of legend
25:37He would bet on the usual things like horse racing
25:40But there were stories that he would even drop $100,000
25:45On a single throw of a dice
25:47His gambling extended to golf
25:50A sport that became a real passion of his
25:53He nearly always won
25:55But that could have had more to do with the fact
25:57That people were fearful of what would happen
26:00If they beat him
26:01Al Capone shows us that playing golf
26:04Carrying a gun and drinking heavily
26:07Is not necessarily a good combination
26:09I mean, on one occasion
26:10He slammed his golf equipment down angrily
26:13Managed to have the gun fire
26:16And it hit him in the scrotum
26:19Which, according to later government records
26:22And I think we can say
26:23That that's not the hole-in-one he was planning that day
26:26He was a guy who wanted people to like him
26:29Even as a child, you know, people did like him
26:32He would go out of his way that you liked him
26:35On the other hand, as we'd say in Chicago
26:38If that liked you, he took care of you
26:40If he didn't like you, he took care of you
26:43So he was that kind of a person
26:45In private, Al had some more unexpected passions
27:06Of course, he was a great lover of jazz
27:09But what he really loved was the opera
27:12He would attend performances flanked by his bodyguards
27:16And follow along on the score
27:18He also bought an expensive grand piano
27:22And tried to teach himself to play
27:24Before giving up and sticking with the mandolin
27:27You might not expect this
27:40For somebody who was involved in organised crime
27:44Who was thought to be quite a kind of brutal, brutish type of man
27:49But Al Capone had a real interest in music
27:53And he was really interested in opera
27:55He was really, really dedicated to this art form
28:00To the point that he would actually attend the opera
28:04With copies of the score
28:06Following studiously along, surrounded by his bodyguards
28:10Al was a hit with the public
28:16And his organisation was growing rapidly
28:19By 1926, the outfit's gross income
28:23Was nearly $1.5 billion per year in today's money
28:27But in his private life, things weren't so simple
28:31May was diagnosed with syphilis
28:39Which she'd probably caught from Al himself
28:42Who refused to be tested
28:44On top of that, their child Sonny
28:47A rather frail boy with poor hearing
28:49Who always seemed to have one illness or another
28:52Was being bullied at school
28:54Capone, the man who could order deaths on a whim
28:58Found himself powerless to help
29:01So he was a man who, you know, murdered people
29:08At the drop of a hat
29:09Didn't think anything of it
29:10And yet he had this very intense, loving relationship
29:17With his son
29:18Who he wanted to protect
29:20Sort of from the truth of what he was doing
29:23But also from the world
29:25Because he saw Sonny as very vulnerable
29:28He was hard of hearing
29:30He was partially deaf
29:32And Al, it was like Al channeled all of the love that he had
29:38Into this boy and into his relationship with this child
29:42But because his professional life was one encounter after another with rival gangs
29:51He didn't see much of him
29:53In fact, Al spent much of the second half of the 1920s in one hotel or another
29:59And as with his family home, security was at the forefront of his mind
30:04This is where the Metropole Hotel once stood
30:10Famous for being Capone's headquarters
30:14It's said that he took so much of the building that his daily rental bill exceeded $20,000
30:21His eight bodyguards, known as a double-walled fortress of meat
30:29Were always by his side
30:31Whether at the hotel or driving through the streets of Chicago
30:35Al had a vast car collection
30:38And many of them had been modified to suit his lifestyle
30:41Most famously, his 1928 Cadillac had been completely redone
30:45It had been fully lead-lined to make it bulletproof
30:48And it had glass that was an inch and a half thick
30:51Overall, it weighed three and a half tons
30:53Nevertheless, the engine had been souped up
30:56So he could do 110 miles an hour to get away from people
30:58Inside, he'd even had the first police radio installed in a car
31:03So he could monitor anyone chasing him
31:05And other modifications included a strengthened bumper
31:08In case he needed to mow anyone over on making his escapes
31:11In 1928, he moved his HQ to the Lexington Hotel
31:18Where his security turned it into Chicago's answer to Fort Knox
31:23Capone's real headquarters was on the fourth and fifth floor of the Lexington Hotel
31:28Which he'd had completely kitted out just for him and his crew
31:32There was a special lift to take people up to his private area
31:36He'd had chairs specially built with bulletproof reinforced backs
31:39There were traps, there were escape tunnels
31:42This was the command HQ for the Capone crime syndicate
31:46It's no exaggeration to say that Capone murdered his way to the top
31:52You know, murder was part of his business strategy
31:54And so when you murder people, people want to murder you too
31:58And the sort of people he murdered were definitely going to come after him
32:03So he was constantly aware of his security
32:06Constantly knowing that he could never drop his guard
32:09So he was always surrounded by this entourage of heavies
32:13While he lived under constant fear of his safety
32:21The rewards were certainly worth it
32:24By 1929, when Al was 30
32:27His personal net worth was over $550 million in today's money
32:34To find out why he was so successful
32:36I'm meeting his biographer Jonathan Ige
32:39At one of Capone's old haunts
32:42The Green Mill
32:43Al Capone, by this stage, he's something of a folk hero
32:50Because he'd given the people what they wanted
32:54This is prohibition
32:55And the alcohol's flowing thanks to Al
32:57Capone was a legend in his own time
33:00To use the cliché
33:01He was celebrated and he fascinated people because he broke the law
33:07And because the law was so unpopular
33:09All of the morals were kind of tossed on their heads
33:12Here's a guy who says, I'm breaking the law
33:15But I'm giving the people what they want
33:16The law banning alcohol was incredibly unpopular
33:19So somebody who breaks that law can be popular
33:23For all his faults, Al Capone built up a huge business empire
33:29Was he there for quite a clever man
33:32I think he was very smart about certain things
33:35I think his great brilliance was actually in marketing and publicity
33:39He knew how to sell himself
33:41And that's why he's the most famous criminal of his time
33:44And maybe the most famous criminal in American history
33:46Because he understood that celebrity was a powerful tool for a businessman
33:51Something we all understand today
33:52Something even politicians are recognizing
33:55Our president is a former television celebrity
33:58Capone understood in the same way that someone like Donald Trump does
34:02That fame can help make you bulletproof
34:06And fame can help sell whatever products you're trying to sell
34:10In his case he was trying to sell booze
34:11But he was also trying to improve his image
34:13He wanted to be seen as a legitimate businessman
34:16So he was likable
34:19He was able to survive in this business a long time
34:21Keep it going because he was smart about bribing public officials
34:25He was smart about delegating the violent acts
34:27He was definitely no dummy
34:29But in February 1929
34:35He was to go too far
34:37When one hit designed to take out rival gangster Bugs Moran
34:41Would undo all that good publicity
34:44And expose him for what he really was
34:46That event would become known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
34:52Capone now wanted to seize control of his bootlegging activities
34:57And the way he conceived of doing that
35:00Was to launch a fake police raid
35:03Where Capone's operatives dressed as police officers
35:06And lined up some of Moran's people against a wall
35:09Notionally to search them
35:11But at a signal machine gun fire was released
35:14They were all killed
35:16Chicago and Prohibition era America
35:19Were used to a degree of gangster violence
35:22Associated with Prohibition and the illegal trade around it
35:25But the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
35:27Plumbed a new depth
35:29And to a large degree
35:30Started to turn the American public
35:32Against Capone and his like
35:33It played out on the front page of newspapers
35:40With these horrible shots of blood spilling
35:42From these men's heads
35:43And the government began to really push
35:46To try to do something about this violence
35:51That was sweeping the cities of our country
35:53That's when Capone's image began to change
35:55And the government played a big part
35:57In changing that image
35:58What was the turning point?
36:03How did they finally get him?
36:05Well, the Valentine's Day Massacre raised the stakes
36:08The government really felt like
36:10They had to make an example of Al Capone
36:13They had to send a message
36:14That this kind of violence
36:15Was not going to be accepted anymore
36:17And President Herbert Hoover decided
36:19That the best way to do that
36:21Was to use Capone
36:22To go after Capone
36:23Send a message
36:24Because he was the most famous criminal in America
36:26Maybe in the world
36:27If you can take down Capone
36:29You send a message to all Americans
36:31That Prohibition is going to be enforced
36:33The laws are the laws
36:34And nobody is going to get away with crime anymore
36:37So he became obsessed with getting Capone
36:39But nailing Al Capone was not going to be easy
36:44He kept his hands scrupulously untainted from his crimes
36:48And people feared the consequences of testifying against him
36:52And so he failed to take this new threat seriously
36:55But one woman was determined to find a way
36:59Mabel Walker-Willibrand was a truly extraordinary lady
37:03She started life as a school teacher
37:06But through studying in night school
37:08She taught herself law
37:09Got qualified as a lawyer
37:11Became a prosecutor
37:12And ended up as the assistant attorney general
37:14She was the one who realised
37:16That it was never going to be possible
37:18To prosecute Capone
37:19For his bootlegging and his prohibition crimes
37:22Because nobody would testify against him
37:24So instead she turned to the fact
37:26That he was always flashing his money
37:27This was something he clearly had a lot of
37:30So she went against him for income tax evasion
37:33And that's how she got him
37:34Capone had always used a mixture of terror and charm
37:39In order to get his way
37:41And also had judges, politicians, police on his payroll
37:45And I don't think he fully appreciated
37:47That the tide was starting to turn
37:50There was a determination to get rid of Capone
37:53I just don't think he saw that happening
37:55And we can see that in 1930
37:57When the charges around his tax affairs begin to arise
38:01He goes off to Palm Island
38:03He has a banquet for high society Miamians
38:06He has a kid's party for his son's friends
38:09And the whole mood music suggests
38:12Capone just didn't see the disaster that was coming his way
38:16Capone's lawyer Mattingly
38:19Made a very serious tactical mistake
38:21Which is that he admitted
38:23How much money Capone owed in tax
38:26And offered to pay it back
38:27But once the sum was out there
38:29It was a noose around Capone's neck
38:32At the trial in October 1931
38:38Capone was only convicted of five counts
38:41But it was enough to see him handed an 11-year sentence
38:45By the end of the month
38:47He was shipped off to Cook County Jail
38:49From there he went to the Atlanta Penitentiary
38:52But he was suspected of continuing to run the outfit from prison
38:57And so in August 1934
38:59Capone was transferred to the recently opened federal facility of Alcatraz
39:06Capone didn't lose sleep about investigations against him
39:11And nor trials because he knew he could close them down
39:13So when Mabel's trial against him finally succeeded
39:18He was in deep shock and bewildered that somebody had managed to bring him down
39:23I think it's fair to say Al Capone had a miserable four and a half years on the rock
39:30As it was called, Alcatraz
39:32I mean visiting hours were very short
39:34He was a very sociable man
39:36He wanted to see his family
39:37Didn't get to see them very much
39:39And he didn't exactly hit it off with the other prisoners
39:42I mean there's an incident where he's stabbed with a pair of barbershears
39:46And the only thing he's got to defend himself with is his own banjo from his band
39:50And to cap it all, he's going down with syphilis
39:53And it's eating into him
39:55And it's reducing him really to the sad, pathetic individual
39:58That he'd become at the end of his life
40:00As fools from grace go
40:07This was a pretty spectacular one
40:10The man who had ruled Chicago
40:13Now found himself living in a nine by five feet concrete cell
40:18As he admitted to his prison warden
40:21It looks like Alcatraz has finally got me licked
40:25In 1936, he was stabbed by a fellow inmate
40:30And while the incident left him with only minor wounds
40:33It served as a grim reminder of just how far he'd fallen
40:38Two years later, he had a serious mental breakdown
40:42In January 1939, he completed his term at Alcatraz
40:51And after 11 months at the Federal Correction Institution at Terminal Island
40:56He was paroled
40:57After which he retreated to his Palm Island villa in Miami Beach
41:02While there, he was visited by family and old associates
41:06Under the watchful eye of the FBI
41:08But due to his syphilis, he was not particularly lucid
41:13And would ramble at length about communists
41:16And his old rival, Bugs Moran
41:18Capone was eventually released from Alcatraz into hospital
41:22And from there, he was sent home to die
41:25He had very serious syphilitic dementia
41:28Doctors examining him at the time
41:30Said he had the mental age of a 12-year-old
41:32In 1945, Al Capone became one of the first civilians
41:40To be treated for syphilis with penicillin
41:43But it was too late
41:45His health declined still further
41:47And on January 25, 1947
41:51A week after his 48th birthday
41:54He suffered a stroke and cardiac arrest
41:57And died
41:58But with Al's death, a legend was born
42:06He would become immortalised in film and television
42:09Which would, to an extent, glamourise him
42:12And the times in which he lived
42:14You get the impression, really, that Chicago
42:19Is rather conflicted about the legacy of Capone
42:23I mean, a former mayor, Richard Daly
42:25Went out of his way to demolish buildings
42:28That had anything to do with Capone
42:29And you won't find a plaque
42:31Commemorating the St Valentine's Day massacre
42:34For obvious reasons
42:35But nevertheless, the gangster tours continue
42:39The memorabilia is for sale
42:40So no matter how much the city
42:42Would like to cut its link with Capone
42:44He's there, omnipresent
42:46And yet, as the sun sets over Chicago
42:52One can still imagine being here in the 1920s
42:56As the musicians tuned up in the city's speakeasies
43:00The illegal liquor started to flow
43:02And another evening of the jazz age started to swing
43:06Perhaps there were also more mob killings
43:09As another wave of violence hit the streets
43:12In a city that really had two sides to it in the 1920s
43:16The same could be said of the man
43:23Who really ruled this city at that time
43:25Al Capone
43:26On the one hand, there was the ruthless gangster
43:30Who held Chicago in his grip
43:32And ordered deaths on a whim
43:34On the other, there was the charming, gracious
43:38Robin Hood figure
43:40Who supported black musicians
43:42And was a loving and tender husband and father
43:46When you look at that side of him
43:49It's easy to forget
43:51That while he doted on his own son
43:53There were other sons
43:54Whose fathers didn't come home
43:57Because of Al Capone
43:58Thank you