Al Capone

15 Pages 3767 Words

ggle to advance in America in a slum-like apartment near the naval yards of New York with little luxury but a start on moving onwards and upwards. The family began to enjoy the fruits of success that saw Gabriele owning his own barbershop and the family residing in the apartment upstairs in a cultural area of Brooklyn. These early interactions with a multinational neighborhood are widely speculated to have broadened him to other cultures and races, which would ultimately benefit him in his future dealings and syndicates. Al enrolled in the New York public school system at the age of five and proved to be an above average student maintaining a B average throughout most all of his enrollment. The school system of his day was prejudiced to a point against Italian immigrants offering them little assistance towards the ultimate goal of fitting into the mainstream of American life; teachers were ill prepared and fistfights were common amongst students and teachers (Bergreen-2). Al’s patience for school rapidly declined at the age of fourteen as his grades dropped and he received expulsion for hitting a teacher. This was not uncommon as boys often left school to assume a job or an apprenticeship at this age. Shortly after, the family made their most important move yet, a move that would impact the life of Al Capone and the United States forever.
The Capone’s new residence on Garfield Place turned out to be a few blocks away from the gang headquarters of Johnny Torrio, a hugely successful racketeer and mob kingpin. Al began running errands for Torrio like many other boys in the neighborhood but quickly gained the trust and approval of the touted mobster. Bergreen describes Torrio’s affect on the young Capone in the following, “the importance of leading an outwardly respectable life, to segregate his career from his home life, as if maintaining a peaceful, conventional domestic setting somehow excused or legitimized the venality of...