10/17/2024
Today is Thursday, Oct. 17, the 291st day of 2024. There are 75 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On October 17, 1931, gangster Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion, marking the decline of one of the most notorious criminals of the 1920s and 1930s. He was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and fined $50,000.
Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899 to Italian immigrants. He was expelled from school at the age of 14, joined a gang, and earned the nickname "Scarface" after being cut across the cheek during a fight. By 1920, Capone had moved to Chicago, where he began assisting crime boss Johnny Torrio with illegal enterprises, such as alcohol smuggling, gambling, and prostitution.
Torrio retired in 1925 after an attempted assassination, and Capone, known for his cunning and brutality, took charge of the organization. Prohibition, which forbade the brewing and distribution of alcohol from 1920 to 1933, proved extremely lucrative for bootleggers and gangsters like Capone, who made millions from his underground activities.
By 1930, Capone was at the top of the FBI’s "Most Wanted" list but managed to avoid long periods in jail until 1931 by bribing city officials, intimidating witnesses, and maintaining various hideouts. He became Chicago’s crime kingpin by eliminating competitors through gangland battles and killings, including the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929, during which Capone’s men murdered seven rivals. This event elevated Capone’s notoriety to a national level.
Among Capone’s adversaries was federal agent Elliot Ness, who led a team known as "The Untouchables," as they could not be corrupted. Ness and his team consistently disrupted Capone’s bootlegging operations, but it was tax-evasion charges that ultimately caught up with him and led to his imprisonment in 1931.
Capone began his sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, but due to accusations of manipulating the system and receiving special treatment, he was transferred to the maximum-security facility on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. He was released early in 1939 for good behavior, having spent his final year in prison in a hospital due to syphilis.
Plagued by health problems for the remainder of his life, Capone died in 1947 at the age of 48 at his home on Palm Island, Florida.
Also on this date:
In 1777, British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, New York, at a turning point of the Revolutionary War.
In 1933, Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from N**i Germany.
In 1967, Puyi, the last emperor of China, died in Beijing at age 61.
In 1979, Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1989, an earthquake measuring 6.9 in magnitude struck northern California, killing 63 people and causing up to $10 billion worth of damage.
In 2018, residents of the Florida Panhandle community of Mexico Beach who had fled Hurricane Michael a week earlier returned to find houses, businesses, and campers ripped to shreds; the storm had killed at least 59 people and caused more than $25 billion in damage in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia.
