Original Gangsters

Original Gangsters

In 1919 Al "Scarface" Capone left New York city to join Chicago's southside gang led by Johnny Torrio and Big Jim Colosimo. At only 20 years old, young Capone learned a lot from his mentor Johnny Torrio and quickly moved up the ranks to enforcer and within seven years Capone would become boss of a 120 million dollar enterprise thanks to the illegal bootleg trade brought on by the government's passing of the 18th Amendment prohibition act of the roaring twenties. During this period 700 people were killed in Chicago's gang war that pitted Al Capone's southside gang against Bugs Moran's northside gang for control of the cities vice empire. But no gangland killing was more famous than the St. Valentine's Day Massacre where seven of Bugs Moran's gang were gunned down by Al Capone's enforcers. In 1931 Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison and would later die of cardiac arrest brought on by his long battle with Syphilis in 1947.

In 1931 Salvatore "Lucky" Luciano became the undisputed crime boss of New York city after arranging the assasinations of two of New York's most powerful crime bosses. Later with the help of Meyer Lansky and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegal, Luciano would transform the mob into a national enterprise known as "La Cosa Nostra". A model that still stands today. However, in 1936, he was

sentenced to 30 years in prison, but was released after 10 years and deported back to Italy where he died of a heart attack in 1962.

The 1930's ushered in the era of the bank robber and none are more famous than John Dillinger who was officially named the nation's first Public Enemy No. 1 on June 22, 1934. Some of Dillinger's gang included Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd and Homer Van Meter all who met violent deaths at the hands of the government's new weapon against crime, the FBI's "G-men". Other crime icons of the time included Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow who both were ambushed and gunned down in a hail of bullets near Gibsland, Louisiana in 1934 and George "Machine gun" Kelly who died in prison in 1954 of a heart attack after serving 21 years in Alcatraz and Leavenworth prison. .