Al Capone Quotes

“the strongest tendency of human nature was “the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.”
― Deirdre Bair, Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

“If Capone frequented even a tenth of the places that he’s said to have, the notorious mobster hardly would have had time to build his Chicago crime empire, let alone run the thing.”
― Deirdre Bair, Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

“The question remains: When did he graduate from person to myth, and from myth to legend? The legends may not be true, but they are definitely real to the world at large.”
― Deirdre Bair, Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

“Prohibition had long been repealed (1933), but in a strange congruence Andrew J. Volstead, the Minnesota congressman who gave his name to the act, died on January 20, 1947, just five days before the outlaw who arguably profited most from it.”
― Deirdre Bair, Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

“In recent years, a story has surfaced of how he dressed up in a Santa suit, but “that never, ever happened,” said the granddaughter who was always present for Christmas. “Papa was never dressed like that in his life.”
― Deirdre Bair, Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

“On August 1, 1933, Cummings submitted a proposal to the Justice Department, saying he dreamed of a “special prison” for the most notorious prisoners in the country, a place so remote that they would not be able to communicate with family, friends, or business associates, where they would be isolated as if “on an island, or in Alaska.”
― Deirdre Bair, Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

“The name of the Treasury agent Eliot Ness meant little then, but it was he who ordered wiretaps on the house as well as on Ralph’s suite at the Western Hotel (as the Hawthorne had recently been renamed).”
― Deirdre Bair, Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

“Rewards proliferated: The Chicago Association of Commerce offered $50,000 for the arrest and conviction of the killers. Independent citizens banded together and raised $10,000. The city council and the state’s attorney each put up $20,000. And still, nothing could be pinned on Al Capone. Allegations of guilt abounded, but none proved provable, and no arrests were made.”
― Deirdre Bair, Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

“O’Brien asked everything, from soft questions such as the correct spelling of his name (Al didn’t know if i or e was the correct ending and said he preferred “Capone”) to hard ones such as if he really gave a banquet for Albert Anselmi and John Scalise before he beat them to death with a baseball bat.”
― Deirdre Bair, Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

“The kindest slur Italians routinely faced was to be called garlic eaters, but the usual remarks were far uglier.”
― Deirdre Bair, Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

“Where does the life of the boy end and the life as a legend begin? Most likely for Al Capone, it happened somewhere between working for Johnny Torrio and working for Frankie Yale, and his marriage to the pretty Irish girl who said to anyone who would listen that he broke her heart but she loved him anyway.”
― Deirdre Bair, Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend

“... how Al rescued Mrs. Maria Adamo’s stolen washtub and used it as a weapon in a fight with an Irish gang that disrespected Italian women.”
― Deirdre Bair, Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend