Al Capone has been made out to be a different person than he actually was. He was exploited in the wrong ways by the media. Many people think he was born in Italy, which is completely untrue. People have a completely altered image of who Al Capone was. .
The Capone's family was not a poor family. Gabrielle came over to America in 1894. He had skills as a barber, and could read and write his native language. He brought his 27-year-old wife, son, and infant son with him. He moved with his family to Brooklyn.
Since Gabrielle could read and write, he maintained a job at a grocery store until he could start his own barbershop. The first child they had was born in the New World Jan 7th, 1899. His name was Alphonse. .
Many people are under the impression that Al had bad parents. They were not bad parents at all; in fact, the Capone's were a quiet, conventional family. Gabrielle never hit the children and would talk and preach to them a lot, too. He was as nice to his kids as any average father would be today. They were a law-abiding, unremarkable family. .
Gabrielle became an American in 1906. But just because Gabrielle was American didn't mean he was going to name his kids American names. Within the family, the kids were called by their Italian names, but in the outside world, they adopted American names. Alphonse became Al. .
"Life in the sector where Al lived his first ten years was harsh, but never drab, never stagnant. Hordes of ragged children gave the streets an explosive vitality as they played stickball, dodged traffic, brawled and bawled, while their mothers, dark heavy-thighed women, bustled to and fro balancing on their heads baskets laden with supplies for the day's meals. Fruit and vegetable carts, standing wheel to wheel, made a bright, fragrant clutter along the curb. The fire escapes that formed an iron lacework across the faces of the squat tenements shook and shuddered as the El trains roared by close behind on Myrtle Avenue.
