Al Capon Research Paper

The Prohibition Era was between 1920 and 1933. During this time, all alcohol was illegal to possess, produce, or distribute due to the 18th Amendment of the United States Constitution. This caused many people to start smuggling alcohol, or to start creating secret underground bars called “Speakeasies”. During the Prohibition, many mobs, or gangs as we would call them today, were formed and fighting over alcohol and territory. The mobs of Chicago during the Prohibition Era had many notorious leaders, such as Al Capone and Dean O’Bannon. Arguably the most notorious mobster in Chicago, Al Capone, AKA “Scarface”, was an Italian immigrant who arrived in Chicago during the start of prohibition in 1920. When he arrived, he was mentored by Johnny …show more content…
Born on July 8, 1892 near Maroa, IL, Dean was an Irish-American man who decided to move to the North Side neighborhood in Chicago after his mother’s death in 1900. During his time in the North Side, he became a bootlegger at the start of the Prohibition. As time went on he became the leader of the North Side Gang, and wanted peace with the South Side Gang. Johnny Torrio, the leader of the South Side, decided to make a deal letting the North Side keep their parts of town, and also giving them a little bit of area controlled by the South Side. The peace deal was broken when the Genna brothers West Side gang moved into O’Banion’s territory. Dean O’Banion refused to give up a debt he owed at a casino called The Ship. which outraged the Genna brothers. The South Side Gang were allies with the Genna brothers, thus creating an all out war that would affect all of Chicago. The “disagreements” between the gangs became known as the “Beer Wars”. Finally, after Al Capone took over the South Side, a Torrio associate met up with O’Banion in his flower shop, a front for his mob activities. The Torrio associate, Frankie Yale, had two unknown gunmen with him, that shot Dean O’Banion multiple times, killing him. His funeral was one of the largest that anyone from that time could remember. Many people including Al Capone and members of other gangs showed up to pay their respects. This finally put an end to one …show more content…
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota on the 21st of August in 1893, he became a criminal at a young age. Deciding to “escape”, George Moran went to Chicago and joined the North Side Gang under Dean O’Banion. After Dean O’Banion’s death, George Moran played a large role in the mob violence of Chicago, killing many members of Al Capone’s South Side Gang. Under Moran’s rule, the North Side Gang ambushed all the alcohol supplies from the South Side Gang that they could get their hands on. During an under-the-table alcohol deal between a “neutral” source, George “Bugs” Moran sighted a suspicious car before the deal had started, and left the scene. That was the move that saved George Moran’s life. After he left, his North Side Gang members were all shot repeatedly and killed. The South Side Gang had set up the fake deal to get rid of the North Side Gang once and for all, and named it the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”. George “Bugs” Moran survived until the end of the prohibition. He laid low, just barely keeping his empire running. After everything had died down, and the Mafia was on its knees, Moran had to go back to his crimes before the mob: robbery, extortion, and fraud. In 1939, he was arrested for conspiring to make $62,000 worth of American Express Checks. He escaped on bond, but was later recaptured in 1943. By the mid 1940s, he was more broke than he ever was, and had to resort to robberies again. After an