Capne's Chicago Empire wes a better earner than Ford's

Chicago, also know as the windy city is remembered for its stockyards and highly successful meatpacking industry which economic circumstances has now moved out of the city and placed much further west. Related, but in deeply ironic sense, to the meatpacking industry was the gangland wars that brought Chicago great notoriety in the days of prohibition. A government that made the sale of alcohol unlawful opened up an industry determined to set out to sell it to those who wanted it, and there was no shortage of takers! It was the era of Alphonsus "scar face" Capone who was himself not a native of Chicago at all. He was born in Brooklyn in New York in 1899. However, his association with the city has meant that Chicago and Capone will be linked throughout the years. Capone quit school at the age of 12 and then held down a series of dubious jobs before coming to work for gangland boss, Frankie Yale. Yale owned a pub of sorts, and it was here that Al worked as a barman and bouncer. It was also in Yale's bar that earned his nickname, "scar face". He intimated tat the morals of one of his lady customer's were not as good as they might have been, which caused the lady great offence. She called her brother to eke revenge, and hence the scars. In 1919 Capone moved to Chicago because of growing police pressure in NYC. There was plenty of room for his talents in the blooming Business Empire of John Torrio. As prohibition ensured that there had to be outlets galore for the illegal booze and where better to serve it than in dubious saloons, gambling houses and brothels. When Torrio stooped a bullet, it was "scar face" himself who inherited the business empire. He was if nothing else a very able business man and soon the gang had earnings in excess of $100,000,000 per year which exceeded that of the Ford Motor Company. However, Capone made an enemy of his one time proponent and business partner Chicago Mayor, William Hale Thomson. Thomson hired a new police chief whose job it was to drive the gangland leader out of the Illinois City. Capone moved to Palm Beach in Florida, and it was from there he masterminded the notorious St.Valentine's Day Massacre. Many wanted to kill Capone but no one succeeded. Instead he was indicted on income tax evasion charges and sent to prison for 10 years in 1931.He ended up in Alcatraz where he started to exhibit the symptoms of syphilitic dementia that was later to kill him. Interested in this subject? Try this link for more of the same