AL
CAPONE
Alphonse
Gabriel Capone was born in the borough of Brooklyn
in New York on January 17, 1899. His parents were Italian immigrants
Gabriele Capone and Teresa Capone. His father was a barber
and his mother was a seamstress,
both born in Angri,
a town in the Province
of Salerno.
Gabriele
and Teresa had nine children. Capone showed promise as a student, but
had trouble with the rules at his strict parochial Catholic
school. His schooling ended at the age of 14,
after he was expelled for hitting a female teacher in the face. He
worked at odd jobs around Brooklyn, including a candy store and a
bowling
alley. During this time, Capone was influenced by gangster Johnny
Torrio, whom he came to regard as a mentor.
In
the beginning, he was employed and mentored by fellow racketeer
Frankie
Yale, a bartender
in a Coney
Island dance hall and saloon called the
Harvard Inn. Capone inadvertently insulted a woman while working the
door at a Brooklyn night club and was slashed by her brother Frank
Gallucio. The wounds led to the nickname that Capone loathed:
"Scarface". Yale insisted that Capone apologize to
Gallucio, and later Capone hired him as a bodyguard. When
photographed, Capone hid the scarred left side of his face, saying
that the injuries were war wounds. Capone was called "Snorky",
a term for a sharp dresser, by his closest friends.
Capone married Mae Josephine Coughlin on December 30, 1918 at age
19. She was Irish Catholic and, earlier that month, had given birth
to their son Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone. Capone was
under the age of 21, so his parents had to consent to the marriage in
writing.
At
about 20 years of age, Capone left New York for Chicago
at the invitation of Johnny
Torrio. Capone began in Chicago as a bouncer
in a brothel, where he contracted syphilis.
Before being sent to Alcatraz Prison in 1934 for a tax evasion
conviction, he had amassed a personal fortune estimated at $100
million as the head of the infamous crime syndicate.
Capone was convicted and was sentenced to eleven years in federal
prison in November 1931, fined $50,000 plus $7,692 for court costs,
and was held liable for $215,000 plus interest due on his back taxes.
Capone
was sent to Atlanta
U.S. Penitentiary in May 1932, aged 33. Upon
his arrival at Atlanta, the 250-pound (110 kg) Capone was
officially diagnosed with syphilis
and gonorrhoea.
After
Capone was released from prison, he was referred to Johns
Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore
for the treatment of paresis
(caused by late-stage syphilis). Capone spent the last years of his
life at his mansion in Palm Island, Florida. On January 21, 1947,
Capone had a stroke.
He regained consciousness and started to improve, but contracted
pneumonia.
He suffered a fatal cardiac
arrest the next day. On January 25, 1947, Al
Capone died in his home, surrounded by his family; he wаs
buried аt Mount
Carmel Cemetery in Hillside,
Illinois.
TEXT
COMPREHENSION
01-Al
Capone got the scar that spawned his nickname “scarface” in
_______________.
a)New
York b)Chicago c)Atlanta d)Baltimore e)Hillside
02-Check
the correct altenative according to the text:
a)Johnny
Torrio was a relative of Al Capone
c)Al
Capone was a Italian immigrant
d)After
release, Al Capone slowly deteriorated
e)Al
Capone met Frank Yale in Chicago
03-Al
Capone passed away because of a
a)heart
failure b)stroke c)syphilis d)pneumonia e)gonorrhea
04-Who
bred the scar on Al Capone’s face?
a)Frank Yale
b)Teresa c)Albert Francis d)Johnny Torrio e)Frank
Gallucio
05-Al
Capone died in
a)Miami
Beach b)New York c)California d)Italy e)Atlanta
