Other sources claim that she contracted syphilis from Al, which caused each subsequent try for another child to end in miscarriage or stillbirth. From a young age, Sonny showed signs of being hard of hearing. This supposedly was because Mae had transmitted syphilis to him as well.
According to records, Capone was indeed diagnosed with syphilis during his imprisonment at Alcatraz in the early 1930s. Syphilis, a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum, can have severe consequences if left untreated.
Gangster Scarface Al Capone's son -- Alphonse Albert Francis Capone Jr. was born on Dec. 4, 1918 in Chicago to parents Al Capone and Mae Coughlin with congenital syphilis, a serious mastoid infection.
Capone showed signs of neurosyphilis early in his sentence and became increasingly debilitated before being released after almost eight years of incarceration. In 1947, he died of cardiac arrest after a stroke.
Though it's inspired by a true story, you shouldn't believe everything you see in Capone. That's because this take on the notorious gangster follows the final year of his life, and digs into the frenzied mind of a man who was incapacitated by neurosyphilis.
What Do We Know About Al Capone's Wife, Mae Capone?
Was Al Capone IQ?
EIG: When Capone got to the penitentiary in Atlanta, they ran a series of standard tests. They interviewed him about his life. They took an IQ test, found that he had a 95 IQ.
Yes, Capone contracted neurosyphilis, which led to his mental deterioration, and after being released from prison in 1939, he eventually ended up living with his family at his mansion in Palm Island, Florida, where he died at the age of 48 in 1947.
Sonny Capone tried to distance himself from his father's legacy, changing his name and living a quiet life in California. Al Capone's descendants are still alive today, with his great-grandchildren occasionally auctioning off his estate in recent years.
Unfortunately for Capone, he had a weakness: he was fond of the finer things in life and wanted to flaunt his wealth. He was famous for living a life of luxury in Chicago's Lexington hotel, where he could often be seen drinking fine wines and wearing the best suits that money could buy.
Famous painters Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gaugin and Edouard Manet are known to have died from syphilis as well as classic authors Oscar Wilde and Guy de Maupassant Charles Baudelaire. Infamous gangster Al Capone eventually succumbed to syphilis as well.
Shortly after his release, Capone moved to Palm Island, Florida, where he would reside for the rest of his life. In 1942, he was one of the first Americans to receive the antibiotic penicillin as treatment for syphilis after the drug began to be mass-produced.
After Al's passing in 1947, Mae's life became reclusive and solitary. She sold their mansion, retreated from public view, and lived quietly until her passing in Florida on April 6, 1986.
Syphilis is simple to cure when it's found and treated in its early stages. The preferred treatment at all stages is penicillin. This antibiotic medicine can kill the bacteria that causes syphilis.
Frank Galluccio, also known as “Frankie Yale,” was the man responsible for leaving a permanent scar on Al Capone's face. The incident took place on September 6, 1917, at the Harvard Inn, a popular brothel and saloon in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
Late stages of syphilis can cause tumors, blindness, and paralysis. It can damage your nervous system, brain and other organs, and may even kill you. Syphilis is easily curable with antibiotics in the early stages. If you get treatment late, it will still cure the infection and stop future damage to your body.
"Hymie" Weiss (born Henryk Wojciechowski; January 25, 1898 – October 11, 1926), was a Polish-American mob boss who became a leader of the Prohibition-era North Side Gang and a bitter rival of Al Capone. He was known as "the only man Al Capone feared".
Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone while enforcing Prohibition in Chicago. He was leader of a team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables, handpicked for their incorruptibility.
Capone's ability to operate these establishments with impunity stemmed from a combination of his political ties and a profound fear of reprisal. Capone's ascension had come at the tremendous loss of human life. Turf wars between Chicago gangs had caused roughly 700 gang-related deaths from 1920 to 1930.
Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 17, 1899. His parents were Italian immigrants who arrived in the United States in 1893. His father, Gabriele, was a barber and his mother, Teresa, was a seamstress.
Al Capone's wealth was not inherited by anyone as it was seized by the US government during his prosecution for tax evasion and other crimes. After his conviction, Capone's property and assets were auctioned off to pay for his outstanding taxes and fines, and the remaining balance was forfeited to the government.
“Scarface” Al Capone may have picked up some dialect Italian from hearing it at home—his parents were Neapolitan immigrants—but his daily language was the English of the Brooklyn slums where he grew up.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesLegend has it that the Chicago gangster spent his final years searching for a fortune that he'd buried in Florida but then lost — and because he couldn't find it, we may never know the truth about Al Capone's net worth.
You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun. You can get further with a kind word and a gun, than you can with just a kind word.
