Al Capone - Don

The Man Who Would Be Don

About age ten my big brother and I traveled with our father to some long-gone neighborhood theater showing a movie my father wanted us to see, Little Caesar.  The movie was made in 1931; our viewing would have been about 1953.  Gangster movies were a big deal from the 1920’s until at least the 1950’s.  The inspiration for these films and their popularity came honestly.  All through the 20’s & 30’s newspapers were filled with the real life “exploits” of bad guys like Alphonse Gabriel Capone ("Big Al" -- on whom the movie may or may not be based).

Big Al Capone was by far the best known character of the 1920's Prohibition era.  Big Al controlled what is best described as his “fiefdom” of South Chicago.  He controlled it with a combination of avarice, women, and singing his own praises.  Unlike others in the 'business' Al made himself a flamboyant public figure known throughout Chicago.  He was a popular media celebrity; bigger than life, and was considered “one of us” by “working-stiffs” who saw his defiance of “the man” as the reason he was successful.

As with any lord of any fiefdom, he demanded fidelity and received love from admirers which he was incapable of returning with loyalty.  Truly he was lord and master of all he surveyed, as long as he contained his endeavors to what could be run out of Chicago’s Lexington Hotel.

As with Little Caesar, Big Al Capone was not as big a deal as he thought himself to be.  When all was said and done he was a "Capo", a mob captain who ran a gang if thugs who adored and answered to him.  His fiefdom was limited by mob agreement to south of Michigan Street.  Al was always quietly underwritten by, paid tribute to, and owed his soul to the mob.  Outside Chicago’s south-side was foreign territory, entered at great risk.  Al’s downfall began when his lust for riches and renown overcame his limitations.

Big Al never made it to “Don” status.  Don being rank used in the Mafia for a made-member of the crime Family with major social status and influence in the organization (think Don Corleone of "Godfather" movie).  In fact, it is highly doubtful Al would even have been considered for elevation to mob “Commission” which was (for all we know still is) the highest level of the America Mafia.  The Commission included only the Don heading each of the crime Families.

Big Al would not have been particularly successful on the Commission, anyhow.  Such an accountable position as Don requires high intelligence, attention to detail, lots of reading, and strong sense of history.  Big Al, to be sure, was “street smart” and understood his business, but he would have been easily manipulated by other Dons if he had been suddenly and unexpectedly added to the Commission.

As it often is with Capos and Dons, Big Al was not brought down by his life of public and documented crimes.  Rather, he was toppled from his pedestal by tax cheating, creative bookkeeping, spending and 'borrowing' more than his declared income justified.  Thus be it ever for the man who would be Don.

LEGAL STUFF DISCLAIMER: Any Resemblance to or Inference of any Living Capo who Would be Don is Surely Incidental -- more or less.