Al Capone

American gangster (1899–1947)

Alphonse Gabriel Capone (17 January 189925 January 1947), popularly known as Al "Scarface" Capone, was a famous American gangster in the 1920s and 1930s.

I have spent the best years of my life giving people the lighter pleasures, helping them have a good time, and all I get is abuse, the existence of a hunted man.

Quotes

edit
 
Do I do business with Canadian racketeers? I don't even know what street Canada is on.
 
This American system of ours ... call it Americanism, call it capitalism, call it what you like, gives to each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it.
  • I have spent the best years of my life giving people the lighter pleasures, helping them have a good time, and all I get is abuse, the existence of a hunted man.
    • As quoted in How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936) by Dale Carnegie,
  • Do I do business with Canadian racketeers? I don't even know what street Canada is on.
    • As quoted in Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada (2009) by Stephen Schneider, chapter Five, p. 206
  • Don't get the idea that I'm one of these goddamn radicals. Don't get the idea that I'm knocking the American system.
    • As quoted in In Time of Trouble (1956) by Claud Cockburn
  • This is virgin territory out here for whorehouses.
    • Referring to suburban Chicago, as quoted in The Bootleggers and Their Era (1961) by Kenneth Alsop
  • This American system of ours ... call it Americanism, call it capitalism, call it what you like, gives to each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it.
    • Interview with Claud Cockburn, as quoted in “Mr. Capone, Philosopher,” Cockburn Sums Up (1981)
  • I've been accused of every death except the casualty list of the World War.
    • The Bootleggers


Disputed

edit
edit
  •   Encyclopedic article on Al Capone on Wikipedia
  •   Media related to Al Capone on Wikimedia Commons