Since Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion - and not for the heads he opened with a baseball bat - the choice to lock him up in Alcatraz was probably unjustified. He belonged to the first batch of prisoners who entered the newly built prison, but not among the ranks of criminals who should be in such a high-security detention center. But everyone knew who he was, and everyone knew that he had been "typically" convicted of tax evasion, since they couldn't catch him for all his other crimes.
According to the author of the book "Get Capone:The Secret Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster", the famous gangster fell victim to the communication games of the then government. The choice to close in Alcatraz was made on such terms, so that the rulers "can show off their new prison and justify its cost." What better than to send the country's most notorious gangster?”.
For the first time in a normal cell
Of course, Capone was no one new to the prison environment, he had done his stint before, only here, there were no discounts. He had a cell the same as everyone else and no preferential treatment like the one we remember from Goodfellas or Escobar in Narcos.
No private cell, no home-cooked food, no phone calls to friends or "home" visits from other mobsters like Lucky Luciano , none of what Chicago's Cook County Jail had offered him, were here. No silk underwear, no well-tailored suits, no radio, none of the things one former inmate claimed he enjoyed while in Atlanta's federal prison. That is, in the prisons where he was from May 4, 1932 until he was transferred to Alcatraz on August 22, 1934, almost two years later.
And despite the fact that in those years he was undeniably a celebrity, with whom you would definitely want to be on good terms - and not for fear of him cracking you up in a tweet - Capone he did the same jobs that all the other prisoners did. He mopped the corridors, swept the floors, worked his shifts in the prison laundries, just like everyone else. The only difference he had from the rest was that he was not beaten by the guards.
As one of his former prisoners said in a newspaper of the time, "he has no more privileges than the rest, except that he is not beaten or thrown into the dungeon. He has too much political influence for something like this to happen to him".
not everything has a price
From the first moment he set foot on the "Rock" - "Rock" they called Alcatraz - it is understood that he tried to bribe the warden, but Johnson did not take kindly to him.
In his memoirs, he would later write that he remembers Capone waiting in line with the other prisoners and having trouble recognizing him at first. Although he was constantly talking, and telling witticisms to the other prisoners, he made no impression on Johnson. When he got in front of him and tried to show his commanding position among the other prisoners, the warden brought him down sharply, giving him his number, "AZ", and sending him back in line. No matter how many times he tried from then on to claim more privileges because of his name, he failed.
reading, self-improvement and gardening
Capone's education had stopped when he was expelled from - correspondingly ours - 1st Gymnasium. A teacher slapped him, he hit back so she said goodbye to the school. The prison, therefore, again gave him the opportunity to find time for reading.
One of his many biographers noted that Capone's selections from the prison library indicated a man interested in self-improvement, including books on the proper use of language, as well as books on music and gardening. He also subscribed to 87 newspapers and magazines. Not bad at all.
But there is one book from his list that stands out. This is Life Begins at 40, a 1932 bestseller written by Walter Pitkin.
"Each new day brings to the fore some new thing that adds joy to our lives after forty," the book said. "Work becomes easier and shorter. The game is getting richer. Free time is extended. The evening of life is brighter, warmer, full of song…”. If we consider that Capone was 36 years old when he went to prison and was about to serve an 11-year sentence, then we could say that "Life Begins at 40" gave him something to look forward to, a hope, a perspective. It makes sense for him to prefer it.
"Baby, I can play over 500 songs"
Shortly after arriving at Alcatraz, Capone had the idea of forming a musical group with other inmates. He lobbied for nearly a year until the warden relented and allowed him to form a band, but one he could press every day, for no more than 20 minutes.
Does that mean he knew music, that he knew how to play an instrument? Of course not, he had no idea. In prison he learned to play and specifically to scratch the banjo. As one of his biographers notes, Bergrin “had never before played this or any other instrument, nor was there any evidence that he knew how to read sheet music. But showing great patience, he familiarized himself with the basic elements of music theory and finally managed to be able to play some simple tunes, singing softly".
Another famous gangster of the time, George Kelly, with many bank robberies and kidnappings under his belt, played drums in the band.
Capone would at some point give up the banjo and start playing another instrument, similar to the mandolin, only slightly larger, the mandola. And he would be more than useful when, in 1936, a fellow inmate attacked him with a blade and he, using the instrument as a club, managed to fend him off until the guards intervened.
Compassion was second nature to "Marked" - yes, he was the original - so it wasn't long before he began to be praised for his musical abilities. In a letter to his son he claimed to know how to play over 500 different songs. "Baby, he wrote, there's no song I can't play." He even wrote a piece of his own, in slow motion - he preferred those anyway - with the title "Madonna Mia," a song he dedicated to his wife.
Except that he spent a few days in the hospital for a minor wound inflicted on him with a pair of scissors by a fellow inmate while they were waiting for a haircut, his days passed peacefully.
Syphilis and the premature end
While in prison, Capone began to show symptoms of syphilis, a disease he apparently carried for years before going behind bars.
In 1938 he would leave Alcatraz and be transferred to a prison in Southern California to serve out the remainder of his sentence. In November 1939 he will be released and will die on January 25, 1947, at home from complications of syphilis, at the age of 48.