Al Capone - Chicago

9 Pages 2163 Words

dren, did some sewing work for extra income needed by this large immigrant family. Nothing in Capone’s childhood can be blamed for the violent career he had ahead of him, no physical abuse, nothing of the sort. He attended school with all the other children of the neighborhood, at P.S. 7, and this is were his violent outbreaks began. In these days the teachers were primarily sixteen to twenty years and were usually trained by the nuns to use strict discipline and even physical punishment. Al handled his early years quite well and carried a B average through the sixth grade. He dropped out of school the following year after a physical confrontation with a teacher resulted in a beating by the schools principle. At about the same time as his exit of the school system, his family moved to a new neighborhood on Garfield Place.
It’s here where Capone first became acquainted with Johnny Torrio, a person who would alter Al’s life forever. At the time Torrio was running The James Street Gang, a group of tough teens who acted as somewhat of a feeder program for the larger Five Points Gang. It was easy for Torrio to recruit teens into his gang because very few schools in the area had the funding or attractions to keep kids off the streets after school, or during the school day for that matter. The kid’s in the gang all looked up to Torrio as a leader and someone they wanted to model themselves after. Capone earned most of his money by running errands for Torrio and eventually Al earned his trust. Torrio took young Al under his wing and taught him the in’s and out’s of being the head of such an ...