Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars | 449 ratings

Price: 19.69

Last update: 10-08-2024


About this item

From a National Book Award-winning biographer, the first complete life of legendary gangster Al Capone to be produced with the cooperation of his family, who provided the author with exclusive access to personal testimony and archival documents.

From his heyday to the present moment, Al Capone - Public Enemy Number One - has gripped popular imagination. Rising from humble Brooklyn roots, Capone went on to become the most infamous gangster in American history. At the height of Prohibition, his multimillion-dollar Chicago bootlegging, prostitution, and gambling operation dominated the organized-crime scene. His competition with rival gangs was brutally violent, a long-running war that crested with the shocking St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929. Law enforcement and the media elite seemed powerless to stop the growth of his empire. And then the fall: a legal noose tightened by the FBI, a conviction on tax evasion, Alcatraz. After his release he returned to his family in Miami a much diminished man, living quietly until the ravages of his neurosyphilis took their final toll. But the slick mobster persona endures, immortalized in countless novels and movies.

The true flesh-and-blood man behind the legend has long remained a mystery. Unscrupulous newspaper accounts and Capone's own tall tales perpetuated his mystique, but through dogged research Deirdre Bair debunks the most outrageous of these myths. With the help of Capone's descendants, she discovers his essential humanity, uncovering a complex character that was flawed and sometimes cruel but also capable of nobility. And while revealing the private Al Capone, a genuine family man as remembered by those who knew him best, Bair relates how his descendants have borne his weighty legacy.

Rigorous and intimate, Al Capone provides new answers to the enduring questions about this fascinating figure, who was equal parts charismatic gangster, devoted patriarch, and calculating monster.


Top reviews from the United States

Theodor Itten
5.0 out of 5 stars Works of Crime, Love and Life
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2016
This new Deirdre Bair book, excellently written as we come to expect from this seasoned author, will be the cause of letters of complaints. Again there are nights without sleep ahead, since her writing on Al Capone in all its facets is so elegantly alluring, sagaciously seductive and impossible to put down, even when ones eyelids react to sleepiness. Well, let the left sleep while the right reads on and vice versa. I am through once and already back to Al’s early Brooklyn days. Being ranked up by his crime and living style mentor Johnny Torrio to take the ladder up to the top charge of Chicago’s Outfit business, I feel the latter to be guilty of serious behindology. It was he, relaxing in Brooklyn still, who suggested to Capone (p.188) to use his personal tax lawyer, L.P. Mattingly, who’s actions were in a very large way responsible, for Al Capone’s final fall down. Maybe Torrio did want to get rid of his general, as Al did pull most of the strings in Chicago. As a 30 year old street wise come-hither, who trusted his idol nearly blindly, not to bother, as Bair finely writes, about looking more careful into the tax evasion issue, which Mattingly so unprofessionally mixed up in Al’s unfavour. This good intentioned path finally led to years in prison in Alcatraz The atrocious bad treatment of his illness syphilis, reduced his life shorter than need be. Bair’s writing is so grand; I can be in the story for hours, without realising, that I am reading this life. She writes on four levels: Family history as truly recovered as can be (she is the first biographer, invited by the family to have inner access); Crime history of the USA and Chicago in particular; Trial story and history of the law, including alcohol prohibition; and finally a dense and enlightening metalogue, to them loose ends. With a beautiful language, this prolific writer, succinctly depicts family experience and immigration, puts a description of the horrific crime activities and delivers a tremendous analysis of her findings from within the family and the social cultural legends round Al. Finally The Legacy Chapter, is densely illuminating, about the various intricacies, which she had to deal with, while researching this seventh book of hers. She weaves this tapestry of family relationships - true, fancied and hilariously lied about - into a coherent whole. Once again, Deirdre Bair has shown us what a formidable writer artist she is, and the fact that Nan A. Talese publishes this championed writer, is like a knighthood she deserves.
Theodor Itten: Psychotherapist, Sankt Gallen Switzerland
jknowles77
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2024
The author obviously did her research! I would strongly recommend this book if you're looking for a Capone biography. I got it used but it arrived in good condition and on time
Richard Jessup
4.0 out of 5 stars Well written.
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2020
Surprisingly interesting for a book about a man who has been done quite often. In chronological order for the most part - author tells you when a time line jump is coming. Well written in a way that is sympathetic to Al's family. Less about the Alcatraz period than I would have liked, but it was covered briefly. Good read. Worth the time.
Frank P Bucaro
5.0 out of 5 stars Really loved this book
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2017
I have read the vast majority of the books on Capone as well as having 25 years of personal research on the man and his family. Without question this is a wonderful fact based book all the way! No other book references actual living decedents of the Capone family as this book does. I love how the author cites all her sources in the back of the book, and wether she agrees, disagrees, or can positively ascertain between the facts and myths.
LaBellePersonne
3.0 out of 5 stars Much too lengthy
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2019
If this book had been cut down by at least 100 pages, it would have been much better. As it was, at times it tended to ramble, go into lengthy details that were not needed, and repeat various things.

I did learn some information about Capone I did not know, and it gave very good insight into the man--who he was, how he behaved, how he dressed, and the two very distinct sides to his personality and character.
J. Hershey
5.0 out of 5 stars Great effort!
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2017
An exceptionally difficult book project. The author was not wanting for material, her difficulty was in winnowing. The cross-checking and seemingly endless rabbit trails would have daunted all but the very best of investigative pursuits. Bravo on a job very well done!

Why is Al Capone anti-ozymandian? Why are people ineluctably drawn to his legend? To view, to study, perhaps covertly to touch? I expect that if Al Capone had no family dynamic of redemptive redux, of unconditional family acceptance, an acceptance that is beyond forgiveness, the legend would have faded. It is such family bonds that make the public yearn and remember. In support of this thesis, I offer consideration of the persistence of the Godfather movies and their lyrics. And, going back a bit further, “Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"
Scott Evenson
5.0 out of 5 stars An honest, well-researched account of an amazing subject!
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2016
Thorough, fair account of a man who was dubbed "Public Enemy No. 1". Author does an excellent job of separating fact from fiction. While there was plenty of bad, not only with the book's subject character but with those who pursued him and covered him as well, the author also convincingly presents the not-so-bad side of a character whose real life remains a mystery in many ways.
L. Bailes/Sally Bennett
4.0 out of 5 stars i enjoyed tis book because it gave a new perspective on ...
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2017
i have read probably all books on Al Capone, past and present. i enjoyed tis book because it gave a new perspective on his life. it came from a different place and tere were certain facts and antidotes that i had not heard before. very entertaining and informative.

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