There have been a lot of things written and said about Al Capone in newspapers and magazine articles, books, and movies that is completely untrue. One of the most common fictions is that like many gangsters of that era, he was born in Italy. Absolutely not true. This amazing criminal was strictly domestic, taking the Italian criminal society and fashioning it into a modern American criminal enterprise.Certainly many Italian immigrants, like immigrants of all nationalities, frequently came to the New World with very few assets. Many of these immigrants were peasants trying to escape the lack of opportunity in Italy. When they came to the American port cities they often ended up as laborers because of the inability to speak and write English and their lack of professional skills. This was not the case with the family of Al Capone.Gabriele Capone was one of 43,000 Italians who arrived in the U.S. in 1893, from Naples, Italy. He was a barber by trade and could read and write his native language. Gabriele, who was thirty years old, brought with him his pregnant twenty-seven-year-old wife Teresina, his two-year-old son Vincenzo and his infant son Raffaele. Unlike many Italian immigrants he did not owe anyone for his passage over. His plan was to do whatever work was necessary until he could open his own barbershop. Along with thousands of other Italians, the Capone family moved to Brooklyn near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Gabriele's ability to read and write allowed him to get a job in a grocery store until he was able to open his barbershop. Her fourth son and the first to be born and conceived in the New World was born January 17, 1899. His name was Alphonse, also known as Al. Al came from a large family and was the fourth oldest of nine children. As a child, Capone was very wise when it came to living on the streets of New York. He had a clever mind when it came to street smarts. As far as school goes, Al was near illiterate. Edu...
