He promised to reveal the secret of the mafioso to the audience
Al Capone went down in history as the creator of organized crime, wrapped in a certain gangster romanticism that filmmakers like to emphasize. Several dozen films were made about the “extremely brutal” mafia king Al Capone, in which famous actors Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and others played the main roles.
Even many years after the death of the mafia boss, people’s interest does not subside. According to writer Deirdre Bair, author of Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend, the reason for such wild popularity is not talent, inventions or merit, but a criminal past. Al Capone had as much influence on the US mafia as Coco Chanel had on the world of fashion.
The world’s most famous gangster led an organization that made millions of US dollars every year through crime. The buckles and rings of the leader’s belts were encrusted with diamonds. He spent thousands of dollars on costumes alone. The leader of the gangsters ordered a Cadillac armored car specially made for him at the factory.
Organized hundreds of contract killings. Among them – St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, when on February 14, 1929 Al Capone’s henchmen shot the fighters of the rival Irish gang “Bugs Moran”.
In his autobiography, A Man of Honor, Joseph Bonanno writes that the grim word “Capone” means “castrated chicken” in Italian.
According to rumors, a few years before his death, Al Capone hid a huge amount of money, but due to dementia, he could not remember where. His lawyer denied such speculation, and family members lived quite modestly. However, the stories about the hidden wealth have not disappeared.
The wave of new speculation was caused by the renovation of the Lexington Hotel in Chicago in 1986, which was one of the hideouts of the Capone crime family in the 1930s. The owner of the hotel agreed to demolish the wall of the hideout on live television. One Chicago television channel promised viewers to reveal the mystery of the mobster and show a room full of the bones of his murdered victims, thus attracting 30 million. US dollar investment. But when the wall was finally pulled down two hours later, nothing was found in the “storage room” except for a few empty bottles. It was one of the biggest failures in American television history.
Therefore, even after that, the rumors about the hidden treasure were not dispelled.
In 2019, a Chicago restaurant owner discovered a secret vault in the basement of his building that once belonged to Capone’s gang. Since then, not a word has been heard about its discovery.
In her book Uncle Al Capone: The Untold Story from Inside His Family, the mob boss’ niece Deirdre Marie Capone writes that she knew the vault would be empty when she was invited to appear on the TV show.
According to the author of the book, but this did not mean that there was no hidden money. Capone even financed the “only successful escape from Alcatraz” by Roy Gardener, who was in cell 110, according to denofgeek.com.
He forgot where he put his money due to his progressive illness
“I put money in a lot of different banks and I had safe deposit box keys and passwords that I used,” his niece and goddaughter, Deirdre Marie Capone, quotes her uncle as saying in the book. – I also put the money in a box and buried it. But when I went to dig it up some time later, I couldn’t find it. Then I thought I buried it in another place, but when I looked, she wasn’t there either.”
According to the publication, the author of the book writes that she tried everything to help him remember. She hired a hypnotist, forced people to dig yards in Al Capone’s properties in Miami. But the niece is convinced that the uncle’s memory loss was not caused by syphilis, but by what those doctors at Alcatraz prison did to him.
In the same year, the mafia boss’s niece claimed to the British newspaper “Daily Mail” that Capone had hidden more than 100 million US dollars, which he forgot about due to his advanced illness. According to the publication, even more than 60 years after his death, there will still be those looking for the mafia kingpin’s fortune.
Capone’s wealth began when the 20th century. In the 1920s, he became the head of organized crime in Chicago. This consortium, known as The Outfit, had sources of income ranging from illegal alcohol sales to prostitution.
But Capone did not spare money for himself: he bought luxury hotel apartments and houses in Chicago, Florida. He liked to live large, so he squandered bills left and right.
In the mid-1920s, Capone could earn $60 million a year. However, he never filed a federal income tax return, claiming no taxable income. First Assistant US Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt put everything in place. She sued a certain Manley Sullivan for not paying his taxes, according to thevintagenews.com.
On May 16, 1927 The US Supreme Court ruled that income “from the illegal trade in alcoholic beverages must be subject to income tax.” Board of Revenue Special Agent Frank Wilson indicted Capone on 22 counts of federal income tax evasion. Despite the fact that the statute of limitations had already expired on the claim filed by the Tax Office.
According to some estimates, this amount reached about 100 million. US dollars. Now it is almost 1.5 billion.
According to a report obtained by Business News Daily, by mid-1926, Capone’s empire was making approximately $50 million a month. US dollars from illegal alcoholic beverages, 25 million US dollars from gambling and about 10 million US dollars from the distribution of illegal substances and prostitution.
