AL CAPONE:
PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE
THE PUBLIC ON CAPONE
Capone's popularity was surprisingly high for someone who was involved in such organized crime. The public saw him as a Robin Hood who helped the poor. Indeed, he did help many people with his actions -- but that's not to say he didn't harm many others. After the St. Valentines' Day Massacre, in which his gang members were involved, his popularity quickly fell. Soon after, he was convicted, not for his illegal business with alcohol or the massacre, but for failing to pay his taxes and he quickly disappeared from the public's eyes.
MAYOR VOWS NEW WAR ON CAPONES
This article, printed on a Chicago newspaper on September 20, reveals the public opinion towards Al Capone toward the end of the 1920s.
In this article, John Cerny, the mayor of Chicago, decides to "drive the rejuvenated Capone gang out of town," establishing him as a character important enough for the mayor to personally get involved in his whereabouts.
This article is important, and thus was included to be in this museum, because it clearly reveals how the public, especially the mayor, feels about Capone. They dislike him enough to want to chase him out of town. This makes the 1920s roaring because it's amazing how the mayor concentrated his efforts into chasing one person out a town.
SHARING THE LOOT
This article, accompanied by a political cartoon, portrays Uncle Sam, the personification of the American government, as somebody who only captures criminals, or tries to capture criminals if they've evaded paying their taxes to the government.
This article was written after Al Capone was put on trial for not paying his taxes during the 1920s when he was making a profit of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. This article emphasizes how the taxes he forgot to pay, not the crimes he committed in the 1920s, are what got the government involved. This provides insight as to how crime was handled in the '20s.
"Sharing the Loot" was included in this exhibit in order to provide a look on how the public viewed the way Capone was convicted. It showed how the public had begun to see the harm in some of his actions and how they wondered why his taxes, not his crimes, were the reason he got convicted. It probably made them wonder if this was true for all criminals.
This definitely makes the 1920s roaring because it makes you question the style of government back then and see how the people were affected by what happened to Capone.
CAPONE IS PRISON LIBRARIAN AMID
WEEK-LONG SILENCES
This is an article about Capone's stay in Alcatraz, a famous prison in San Antonio. This article was written after Capone was convicted, in the early 1930s, and this article describes Alcatraz and what Capone is suffering.
This is a contrast to the previous article "Mayor Vows New War on Capone" in which the public looked at Capone with awe and saw him as their most powerful enemy. In this article, Capone is reduced to "prison librarian," a man who is now weak and powerless, completely unlike how he was before.
This article was chosen to be part of the virtual exhibit because it described about Al Capone's future and his life after his infamous years as the public's worst enemy. This makes the 1920s roaring because in just a couple of years, such drastic change occurred in not only in Al Capone's life, but also in the public and their view of Al Capone.