10 Fun Facts about Al Capone

1. True or false: Al Capone lobbied to get dating on milk so consumers would know if the milk was fresh or not before purchasing.

   • True
   • False

   True. According to the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy Alphonse Capone prison card, "Capone provided food to the poor and lobbied for dating on milk cartons."

2. True or false: Al Capone was born in Chicago.

   • True
   • False

   False. Al Capone was born in New York City.

3. Gennifer Choldenko (author of Al Capone Does My Shirts and Al Capone Shines My Shoes) and the world-famous gangster Al Capone share:

   • a birthday in January
   • the childhood nickname "Snot-Nose"
   • a fascination with diamond pinkie rings
   • ownership of bullet-proof Cadillacs

   According to the book: Famous Dead People, Al Capone and his Gang by Alan MacDonald, "At school Al got called 'Snot-Nose' or 'Macaroni' by his Irish-American schoolmates." These were derogatory terms used against Italian-Americans. Choldenko was given the nickname "Snot-Nose" by her cousin Jody Cattell. Choldenko is mostly Irish. Go figure.

4. True or false: Al Capone lived with his mom his whole life.

   • True
   • False

   False. Famous Dead People, Al Capone and his Gang by Alan MacDonald contains the following line: "But did you know he lived with his mom all his life?" However, he definitely didn't live with his mom during the time he was in prison. So the real answer is false.

5. True or false: As a teen, Al Capone spent hours in front of a mirror trying to learn to imitate a puff adder.

   • True
   • False

   True. Mobsters during the gangster era spent a great deal of time cultivating what was called "the look." Robert J. Shoenberg wrote in Mr. Capone: The Real—and Complete—Story of Al Capone, "Like most gangsters he (Capone) had been taught, young, and had assiduously practiced ever since, the knack of staring a victim out of countenance. It meant emulating the puff adder, swelling the neck muscles and widening the eyes in a fixed stare that said: 'I'm not fooling now; give in before I have to whack you.' Fledgling gangsters might practice The Look before mirrors to invest it with maximum menace. Capone had it pat.'

6. True or false: Al Capone taught his son, Sonny, to be a mobster gang boss just like Al.

   • True
   • False

   False. Actually, Al may have wanted Sonny to be a doctor or a lawyer. In Letters from Alcatraz by Michael Esslinger, in a letter from Al Capone to his son dated February 17, 1938, Al wrote: "I sure am proud of you and pray night and day and mornings that our God above will always take good care of you and lead you on to your future to be a healthy and happy and successful one. Yes, my dear Son, you sure are heading on the road that will make your future a happy one and successful ..." Sonny did, in fact, go straight. According to the meticulous research of Esslinger, Sonny "lived his life as an upstanding citizen and later changed his surname to avoid any so-called crime associations synonymous with the Capone name."

7. Pick one. You knew Al Capone wanted to get rid of you when:

   • He rented an apartment near your place.
   • He sent you a note with one bullet hole in the upper right corner.
   • His wife, Mae, gave you one yellow rose.
   • He sent you to the store for a box of raisins.

   Robert J. Shoenberg wrote in Mr. Capone, The Real—and Complete—Story of Al Capone, "In what had become a trademark Capone prelude to murder, men applied for rooms across the street ...".

8. Pick one. During Al Capone's many prison stays he was written up for:

   • Having too many pairs of underwear.
   • Keeping rolls of money in the carved out handle of his tennis racquet.
   • Making his bed too often.
   • All of the above.

   This question is a bit misleading. Al did make all of these errors during one or more of his prison stays, but it's not clear he was always written up for them. In the case of the guards listening to radio in his cell, for example, there wasn't anyone to write him up because the guards in that prison (not Alcatraz) were all in cahoots with Capone. As Robert J. Shoenberg wrote in Mr. Capone, The Real—and Complete—Story of Al Capone, "Even the prison's disciplinary reports suggested privilege ... one guard wrote him up for having too much underwear ... a clue to his power could be found in a recess carved in his tennis racket's handle. He might have a couple of thousand dollars secreted there at any given time."