Chicago

Many events were happening in Chicago in 1919 and problems swept the streets of a reconstructed city. "By mid 1919, production had already begun to decline and unemployment along with it" (Grossman). World War I had ended and soldiers were returning home. It was perfecting timing to take over the streets of Chicago. Torrio and Capone were able to succeed in their master plan to take over the city. People were anxious for jobs and entertainment was a luxury. However, "On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, providing for the enforcement of the eighteen amendment to the constitution that prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States" (Grossman). The Act opened the door of trouble for Capone and Torrio, but opened the window to fortune.

Faith or destiny played a role later that year when Torrio's boss, Big Jim Colosimo, was eliminated by Yale or Capone ("Capone, Al 833"). With Colosimo dead Torrio was the boss now, and if Colosimo had lived, Capone would have never achieved Torrio's operations. Later, Capone introduced two of his brothers to the business, Frank and Ralph (Iorizza 33). These are important facts because instead of his family being against what he was doing, they joined him. If his family would had advised him to aspire a different career, his life could had been different. Moeller writes in his book, "Sutherland's main idea was that people become criminals when the number of messages they hear favor criminality out weight the number of messages they hear oppose criminality" (30). The attitude his brothers had over Capone's organization encouraged him to continue the life style he was living. According to Dr. Schneiders, "Attitudes vary considerably with environmental factors like locality and group membership" (280). The people they dealt with and the environment they came from could have affected their life style. After all, three children of the family were criminals. They knew that they could not accomplish all they had by attending school, so why not take the advantages life presented them.

Later, Torrio moved to Cicero because he thought it would be easier to take over. Soon Capone and Torrio manipulated Cicero with help of other leaders. "Controlling the elections was crucial to their owning the town, lock, stock, and barrel" (Iorizza 33). Torrio was, so powerful by then that, "The low-key Torrio quickly emerged as a leader of a fairly orderly syndicate that included at least a dozen neighborhoods gangs" (Helmer and Bilek 17). Gangs were the instrument that assisted him to consummate his master plans. Another reason why Capone and Torrio were able to succeed was because Chicago's government system lacked integrity, since people were ambitious for money and power, they did anything to achieve it. They bought politicians, so it would be easier pursue their businesses and in one election it cost them Frankie Capone's life (Iorizza 33). Capone left it alone persuaded by Torrio, and Capone's anger would be buried in him waiting to explode. His brother death was a very important turning point in his life. According to the cathartic hypothesis, drive builds up and if is not let out slowly, eventually an aggressive outburst would occur (Moller 27). With Capone's temper and if this hypothesis was true, Capone would be lethal. Capone was blinded by power or fortune, not even the death of his brother made him realize that he was endangering his family's lives.

Capone's family Al Capone's wife