Fonzo Biographical starring as the notorious gangster Al Capone.

Fonzo is an upcoming biographical crime film written, directed and edited by Josh Trank, with Tom Hardy starring as the notorious gangster Al Capone.

The film centers on Al Capone after his 10 year stint in prison as he wrestles with dementia.

      Cast

• Tom Hardy as Al Capone
• Linda Cardellini as Mae Capone
• Jack Lowden as FBI Agent Crawford
• Matt Dillon as Johnny
• Noel Fisher as Junior
• Kyle MacLachlan as Karlock
• Kathrine Narducci as Rosie Capone
• Tilda Del Toro as Mona Lisa
• Mason Guccione as Tony

 

Al Capone in 1930
Born	Alphonse Gabriel Capone January 17, 1899 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	January 25, 1947 (aged 48) Palm Island, Florida, U.S.
Cause of death	Pneumonia
Resting place	Mount Carmel Cemetery[1] Hillside, Illinois, U.S.
Other names	Scarface, Big Al, Big Boy, Public Enemy No. 1
Occupation	Gangster, bootlegger, racketeer, boss of Chicago Outfit
Height	5′ 10½” (1.79 m)
Spouse(s)	Mae Coughlin (m. 1918–1947)
Children	Albert Francis “Sonny” Capone (1918–2004)
Criminal charge	Tax evasion
Penalty	11-year sentence in Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary and Alcatraz
Signature

Alphonse Gabriel Capone January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname “Scarface“, was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. His seven-year reign as crime boss ended when he was 33.

Capone was born in New York City, to Italian immigrants. He was a Five Points Gang member who became a bouncer in organized crime premises such as brothels. In his early twenties, he moved to Chicago and became a bodyguard and trusted factotum for Johnny Torrio, head of a criminal syndicate that illegally supplied alcohol—the forerunner of the Outfit—and was politically protected through the Unione Siciliana. A conflict with the North Side Gang was instrumental in Capone’s rise and fall. Torrio went into retirement after North Side gunmen almost killed him, handing control to Capone. Capone expanded the bootlegging business through increasingly violent means, but his mutually profitable relationships with mayor William Hale Thompson and the city’s police meant he seemed safe from law enforcement.

Capone apparently reveled in attention, such as the cheers from spectators when he appeared at ball games. He made donations to various charities and was viewed by many as “modern-day Robin Hood”. However, the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, in which seven gang rivals were murdered in broad daylight, damaged Chicago’s and Capone’s image, leading influential citizens to demand government action and newspapers to dub Capone “Public Enemy No. 1”.

The federal authorities became intent on jailing Capone and prosecuted him in 1931 for tax evasion, which was at that time a federal crime; the prosecution was a novel strategy. During a highly publicized case, the judge admitted as evidence Capone’s admissions of his income and unpaid taxes during prior (and ultimately abortive) negotiations to pay the government taxes he owed. He was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. After conviction, he replaced his defense team with experts in tax law, and his grounds for appeal were strengthened by a Supreme Court ruling, but his appeal ultimately failed. Capone showed signs of syphilitic dementia early in his sentence and became increasingly debilitated before being released after eight years of incarceration. On January 25, 1947, Capone died of cardiac arrest after suffering a stroke.

Alphonse Gabriel “Al” Capone with his mother, Teresa

Al Capone was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on January 17, 1899.^[4] His parents were Italian immigrants Gabriele Capone (1865–1920) and Teresa Capone (née Raiola; 1867–1952). His father was a barber and his mother was a seamstress, both born in Angri, a town in the Province of Salerno.

Gabriele and Teresa had nine children: Alphonse “Al” Capone; Vincenzo Capone, who later changed his name to Richard Hart and became a Prohibition agent in Homer, Nebraska; Raffaele James Capone, AKA Ralph “Bottles” Capone, who took charge of his brother’s beverage industry; Salvatore “Frank” Capone, Ermina Capone, who died at the age of one, Ermino “John” Capone, Albert Capone, Matthew Capone, and Mafalda Capone (who married John J. Maritote). Ralph and Frank worked with him in his criminal empire. Frank did so until his death on April 1, 1924. Ralph ran the bottling companies (both legal and illegal) early on, and was also the front man for the Chicago Outfit for some time until he was imprisoned for tax evasion in 1932.

Capone initially became involved with small-time gangs that included the Junior Forty Thieves and the Bowery Boys. He then joined the Brooklyn Rippers, and then the powerful Five Points Gang based in Lower Manhattan. During this time, he was employed and mentored by fellow racketeer Frankie Yale, a bartender in a Coney Island dance hall and saloon called the Harvard Inn. Capone inadvertently insulted a woman while working the door at a Brooklyn night club and was slashed by her brother Frank Gallucio. The wounds led to the nickname “Scarface” which Capone loathed. When he was photographed, he hid the scarred left side of his face, saying that the injuries were war wounds. He was called “Snorky” by his closest friends, a term for a sharp dresser.

Capone married Mae Josephine Coughlin at age 19 on December 30, 1918. She was Irish Catholic and earlier that month had given birth to their son Albert Francis “Sonny” Capone. Capone was under the age of 21, and his parents had to consent in writing to the marriage.By all accounts, the two had a happy marriage despite his gang life.

Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre

The entrance of Al Capone’s mansion in Miami, Florida, located in 93 Palm Avenue. Capone bought the estate in 1927 and lived there until his death in 1947. It is believed that Capone plotted the infamous February 14, 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre while living in the mansion.

 

Capone was widely assumed to have been responsible for ordering the 1929 Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre in an attempt to eliminate Bugs Moran, head of the North Side Gang. Moran was the last survivor of the North Side gunmen; his succession had come about because his similarly aggressive predecessors Vincent Drucci and Hymie Weiss had been killed in the violence that followed the murder of original leader Dean O’Banion.

To monitor their targets’ habits and movements, Capone’s men rented an apartment across from the trucking warehouse and garage at 2122 North Clark Street, which served as Moran’s headquarters. On the morning of Thursday, February 14, 1929,Capone’s lookouts signaled gunmen disguised as police officers to initiate a “police raid”. The faux police lined the seven victims along a wall and signaled for accomplices armed with machine guns and shotguns. Photos of the slain victims shocked the public and damaged Capone’s reputation. Within days, Capone received a summons to testify before a Chicago grand jury on charges of federal Prohibition violations, but he claimed to be too unwell to attend.

Capone was primarily known for ordering other men to do his dirty work for him. One story, however, has Capone, having discovered that three of his men—Scalise, Anselmi, and Giunta—were conspiring against him with a rival gangster, Joe Aiello, reportedly arranging for the conspirators to dine with him and his bodyguards. After a night of drinking, Capone beat the men with a baseball bat and then ordered his bodyguards to shoot them, a scene that was included in the 1987 film The Untouchables. According to Deidre Bair, the story was first reported by author Walter Noble Burns in his 1931 book The One-way Ride: The red trail of Chicago gangland from prohibition to Jake Lingle.Bair, along with writers and historians such as William Elliot Hazelgrove, have questioned the veracity of the claim.Bair questioned why “three trained killers could sit quietly and let this happen”, while Hazelgrove stated that Capone would have been “hard pressed to beat three men to death with a baseball bat” and that he would have instead let an enforcer perform the murders. Hazelgrove further notes that Capone’s location at the time was unknown and that while he was known to have attended a meeting during this time, he did not bring a baseball bat with him.

Capone’s FBI criminal record in 1932, showing most of his criminal charges were discharged/dismissed

Cell 181 in Alcatraz where Capone was imprisoned

After Capone was released from prison, he was referred to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for the treatment of paresis (caused by late-stage syphilis). Hopkins refused to admit him based solely on his reputation, but Union Memorial Hospital accepted him. Capone was grateful for the compassionate care that he received and donated two Japanese weeping cherry trees to Union Memorial Hospital in 1939. A very sickly Capone left Baltimore on March 20, 1940, after a few weeks inpatient and a few weeks outpatient, for Palm Island, Florida.

In 1946, his physician and a Baltimore psychiatrist performed examinations and concluded that Capone had the mentality of a 12-year-old child. Capone spent the last years of his life at his mansion in Palm Island, Florida, spending time with his wife and grandchildren.On January 21, 1947, Capone had a stroke. He regained consciousness and started to improve, but contracted pneumonia. He suffered a cardiac arrest on January 22. On January 25, Capone died in his home, surrounded by his family.^[3][98] He wаs originally buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Chicago). In 1950, Capone’s remains, along with those of his father and brother Salvatore, were moved to Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.

Al Capone’s death certificate January 25, 1947

Grave of Al Capone in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Hillside, Illinois

Victims

According to Guy Murchie Jr, from the Chicago Daily Tribune, 33 people died as a consequence of Al Capone.

Num	Victim	Date of death	Reason
1	Joe Howard	May 7, 1923	Tried hijacking Capone-Torrio beer and was a braggart.
2	Dean O’Banion	November 10, 1924	Ran North Side liquor business and declared, “To hell with the Sicilians!”
3	Thomas Duffy	April 27, 1926	Suspected of treachery by Capone.
4	James J. Doherty
5	William H. McSwiggin		Happened to be with Duffy and Doherty that night.
6	Earl Hymie Weiss	October 11, 1926	O’Banion’s successor on the North Side and out to get Capone.
7	John Costenaro	January 7, 1927	Planning to testify against Capone in a conspiracy trial.
8	Santo Celebron
9	Antonio Torchio	May 25, 1927	Imported from New York to kill Capone
10	Frank Hitchcock	July 27, 1927	Bootlegger enemy that Johnny Patton wanted out of the way.
11	Anthony K. Russo	August 11, 1927	Imported from St. Louis to kill Capone.
12	Vincent Spicuzza
13	Samuel Valente	September 24, 1927	Imported from Cleveland to kill Capone.
14	Harry Fuller	January 18, 1928	Hijacked Capone’s beer and liquor
	Joseph Cagiando
16	Joseph Fasso
17	“Diamond Joe” Esposito	March 21, 1928	Did not want to support Capone on election day.
18	Ben Newmark	April 23, 1928	Tried to organize a rival gang; bodyguard of Capone tried to conceal his own treachery by carrying out the murder of Newmark.
19	Francesco Uale (Frank Yale)	July 1, 1928	Double-crossed Capone when serving as rum-running manager.
20	Frank Gusenberg	February 14, 1929	Were in the Moran gang hangout during the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
21	Pete Gusenberg
22	John May
23	Al Weinshank
24	James Clark
25	Adam Heyer
26	Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer
27	Albert Anselmi	May 8, 1929	Would assist Joseph Giunta in assassinating Capone.
28	John Scalise
29	Joseph Giunta (Juno)		Was planning on assassinating Capone.
30	Frankie Marlow	June 24, 1929	Refused to pay a debt of $250,000.
31	Julius Rosenheim	February 1, 1930	Informant to the police and newspapers on Capone’s activities.
32	Jack Zuta	August 1, 1930	Spied on and double-crossed Capone.
33	Joe Aiello	October 23, 1930	Rival gang leader and ally of Bugs Moran.

Literature

• Capone is featured in a segment of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather as an ally of New York mob boss Salvatore Maranzano in which he sends two “button men” at the mob boss’ request to kill Don Vito Corleone; arriving in New York, the two men are intercepted and brutally killed by Luca Brasi, after which Don Corleone sends a message to Capone warning him not to interfere again, and Capone apparently capitulates.
• Capone appears in Hergé’s comic book Tintin in America, one of only two real-life characters in the entire The Adventures of Tintin series.
• A reincarnated Capone is a major character in science fiction author Peter F. Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn Trilogy.
• Capone’s grandniece Deirdre Marie Capone wrote a book titled Uncle Al Capone: The Untold Story from Inside His Family.
• Al Capone is the inspiration for the central character of Tony Camonte in Armitage Trail’s novel Scarface (1929),which was adapted into the 1932 film. The novel was later adapted again in 1983 with the central character of Tony Montana.
• Jack Bilbo claimed to have been a bodyguard for Capone in his book Carrying a Gun for Al Capone (1932).
• Al Capone is mentioned and met by the main character Moose in the book Al Capone Does My Shirts.

Film and television

Capone has been portrayed on screen by:

• Rod Steiger in Al Capone (1959).
• Neville Brand in the TV series The Untouchables and again in the movie The George Raft Story (1961).
• José Calvo in Due mafiosi contro Al Capone (1966).
• Jason Robards in The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967).
• Ben Gazzara in Capone (1975).
• Robert De Niro in The Untouchables (1987).
• Ray Sharkey in The Revenge of Al Capone (1989)
• Eric Roberts in The Lost Capone (1990)
• Bernie Gigliotti in The Babe (1992), in a brief scene in a Chicago nightclub during which Capone and his mentor Johnny Torrio, played by Guy Barile, meet the film’s main character Babe Ruth, portrayed by John Goodman.
• William Forsythe in The Untouchables (1993–1994)
• William Devane in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Season 2, Episode 7: “That Old Gang of Mine” (1994)
• F. Murray Abraham in Dillinger and Capone (1995).
• Anthony LaPaglia in Road to Perdition (2002), in a deleted scene.
• Julian Littman in Al’s Lads (2002)
• Jon Bernthal in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009).
• Stephen Graham in Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014)
• Isaac Keoughan in Legends of Tomorrow (2016)
• Michael Kotsohilis in The Making of the Mob: Chicago (2016)
• Cameron Gharaee in Timeless (2017)
• Tom Hardy in Fonzo (?)

Actors playing characters based on Capone include:

• Wallace Beery as Louis ‘Louie’ Scorpio in The Secret Six (1931).
• Ricardo Cortez as Goldie Gorio in Bad Company (1931).
• Paul Lukas as Big Fellow Maskal in City Streets (1931).
• Edward Arnold as Duke Morgan in Okay, America! (1932).
• Jean Hersholt as Samuel ‘Sam’ Belmonte in The Beast of the City (1932).
• Paul Muni as Antonio ‘Tony’ Camonte in Scarface (1932).
• C. Henry Gordon as Nick Diamond in Gabriel Over the White House (1933).
• John Litel as ‘Gat’ Brady in Alcatraz Island (1937).
• Barry Sullivan as Shubunka in The Gangster (1947)
• Edward G. Robinson as Johnny Rocco in Key Largo (1948).
• Ralph Volkie as Big Fellow in The Undercover Man (1949).
• Edmond O’Brien as Fran McCarg in Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955).
• B.S. Pully as Big Jule, an intimidating, gun-toting mobster from “East Cicero, Illinois” in the film adaptation of Guys and Dolls (1955), reprising the role that Pully had originated in the Broadway musical.
• Lee J. Cobb as Rico Angelo in Party Girl (1958).
• George Raft as Spats Colombo and Nehemiah Persoff as Little Bonaparte in Some Like It Hot (1959).
• Cameron Mitchell as Boss Rojeck in My Favorite Year (1982)
• Harvey Atkin as “Al Koopone” (King Koopa) in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show episode The Unzappables (1989)
• Al Pacino as Alphonse “Big Boy” Caprice in Dick Tracy (1990).

              The Untouchables

Cast

• Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness –Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent, famous for his efforts to bring down Al Capone and enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois, and the leader of a famous team of law enforcement agents from Chicago, nicknamed The Untouchables. His co-authorship of a popular autobiography, The Untouchables, which was released shortly after his death, launched several television and motion picture portrayals that established Ness’ posthumous fame as an incorruptible crime fighter.
• Sean Connery as Jimmy Malone
• Andy García as George Stone/Giuseppe Petri
• Robert De Niro as Al Capone
• Charles Martin Smith as Oscar Wallace
• Patricia Clarkson as Catherine Ness
• Billy Drago as Frank Nitti –Francesco Raffaele Nitto (January 27, 1886 – March 19, 1943), commonly known as Frank Nitti, and nicknamed “The Enforcer”, was an Italian-American gangster. One of Al Capone’s top henchmen, Nitti was in charge of all money flowing through the operation. Nitti later succeeded Capone as boss of the Chicago Outfit.
• Richard Bradford as Chief Mike Dorsett
• Jack Kehoe as Walter Payne
• Brad Sullivan as George
• Del Close as Roy Alderman
• Vito D’Ambrosio as Bowtie Driver
• Clifton James as District Attorney (uncredited)
• Don Patrick Harvey as Officer Preseuski

Francesco Raffaele Nitto
Born	January 27, 1886 Angri, province of Salerno, Campania, Italy
Died	March 19, 1943 (aged 57) North Riverside, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Organized crime
Spouse(s)	Rosa “Rose” Levitt Nitto (1918–1928; divorced) Anna Ronga Nitto (1928–1940; her death) Ursula Sue Nitto (1940–1940; her death) Annette Caravetta Nitto (1942–1943; his death)
Criminal charge	Tax evasion
Penalty	18-month sentence

Eliot Ness
Born	April 19, 1903 Chicago, Illinois. U.S.
Died	May 16, 1957 (aged 54) Coudersport, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Police career
Department	Bureau of Prohibition Cleveland Division of Police
Rank	Chief Investigator of the Prohibition Bureau for Chicago in 1934 Director for Public Safety for Cleveland, Ohio

During Prohibition in 1930, reigning crime kingpin Al Capone has nearly the whole city of Chicago under his control and supplies illegal liquor. Bureau of Prohibition agent Eliot Ness is assigned to stop Capone, but his first attempt at a liquor raid fails due to corrupt policemen tipping Capone off. He has a chance meeting with Irish-American veteran officer Jimmy Malone, who is fed up with the rampant corruption and offers to help Ness, suggesting that they find a man from the police academy who has not come under Capone’s influence. They recruit Italian-Americantrainee George Stone (AKA Giuseppe Petri) for his superior marksmanship and intelligence. Joined by accountant Oscar Wallace, assigned to Ness from Washington, D.C., they conduct a successful raid on a Capone liquor cache and start to gain positive publicity, with the press dubbing them “The Untouchables.” Capone later kills the henchman in charge of the cache as a warning to his other men.

Wallace discovers that Capone has not filed an income tax return for some years and suggests that the team try to build a tax evasion case against him, since he is well-insulated from his other crimes. An alderman offers Ness a bribe to drop his investigation, but Ness angrily refuses it and throws him out of the office. When Capone gunman Frank Nitti threatens Ness’ family, Ness has his wife and daughter moved to a safe house. His team flies to the Canada–United States border to intercept an incoming liquor shipment, aided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, killing several gangsters and capturing George, a Capone bookkeeper. Malone then shoots a gangster through the mouth (not revealing the man is already dead) to scare George into agreeing to testify against Capone.

Wallace prepares to escort George from the Chicago police station to a safe house, but they are shot and killed by Nitti, who has infiltrated the station. Ness confronts Capone and his men over the deaths, but Malone intervenes to save him from being killed and urges him to persuade the district attorney not to dismiss the charges against Capone. Realizing that police chief Mike Dorsett sold out Wallace and George, Malone forces him to reveal the whereabouts of Walter Payne, Capone’s chief bookkeeper. That night, a knife-wielding thug sneaks into Malone’s apartment; Malone chases him out with a shotgun, but falls victim to Nitti’s Tommy gun ambush. Ness and Stone arrive at the apartment; before dying, Malone tells them which train Payne will take out of town.

At Union Station, Ness and Stone find Payne guarded by several gangsters. A gunfight breaks out on the lobby steps, resulting in all the gangsters being killed and Payne being taken alive. As Payne testifies at Capone’s trial, explaining the untaxed cash flows throughout the syndicate, Ness notices that Capone seems unusually relaxed and also spots Nitti carrying a gun under his jacket. Ness has the bailiff remove Nitti and searches him outside the courtroom; though he has the mayor’s permission to carry the weapon, Ness finds a matchbook in Nitti’s pocket containing Malone’s address and realizes that Nitti killed Malone. Nitti shoots the bailiff and flees to the courthouse roof. Ness gives chase and in the ensuing confrontation, Nitti mocks the way Malone died and remarks that he will escape justice, prompting Ness to push him off the roof to his death.

Stone gives Ness a list, taken from Nitti’s jacket, that shows bribes paid to the jurors. When the judge refuses to consider it as evidence of jury tampering, Ness bluffs him into thinking that his name is in Payne’s ledger of payoffs. The judge subsequently orders that the jury be switched with one in another courtroom, prompting Capone’s lawyer to enter a guilty plea without Capone’s consent; despite Capone’s protests, he is sentenced to eleven years in prison. Ness closes up his office and gives Malone’s St. Jude medallion and callbox key to Stone as a farewell gift. As Ness leaves the police station, a reporter mentions a rumor that Prohibition may soon be repealed and asks what Ness will do if that happens. Ness replies, “I think I’ll have a drink.”