Al Capone (1899-1947), American gangster, 17 June 1931. 'Al Capone sent to prison. This picture shows the Bertillon photographs of Capone made by the US Dept of Justice. His rogue's gallery number is C 28169'. (Photo by Daily Herald Archive/National Science & Media Museum/SSPL via Getty Images)

On this day in 1931, Al Capone was found guilty of tax evasion. The gangster, who had reportedly boasted, “They can't collect legal taxes from illegal money,” was sentenced to 11 years in prison for failing to file tax returns.

Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899 to Italian immigrants. His parents, Gabriele Capone and Teresa Raiola, found working-class jobs and settled into their new lives. Capone, however, had trouble fitting in and was expelled from school at age 14 for hitting a teacher.

After he left school, Capone tried his hand at odd jobs, but nothing stuck. Capone eventually turned to a friend, Johnny “The Fox” Torrio, who was just getting started building an empire. Torrio would go on to be called “the father of American gangsterdom” by Elmer Irey, the first chief of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Enforcement Branch, now referred to as the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, or IRS-CI.

Torrio introduced Capone to Frankie Yale—and his first real taste of the underworld. Yale, who owned several clubs where patrons could go to drink, gamble, and pay for sex, gave Capone a job as a bouncer and bartender. While at work, Capone, who wasn't known for being even-tempered, got into a fight. During the melee, he was slashed across his left cheek three times with a knife, leaving a permanent scar and earning the nickname “Scarface.”Supposedly, the fight was over a girl.

At age 18, Capone met and married Mae Coughlin. Soon after, the couple had their first child, Albert Francis “Sonny” Capone. Sonny's birth briefly gave Capone pause to consider making an honest living. The family moved to Baltimore, where Capone intended to become a bookkeeper—working the numbers on the right side of the law.

But Capone couldn't resist the allure of the gangster life. When Torrio asked Capone to move to Chicago to help run his mob empire, it was an offer that Capone couldn't refuse.

The dark side quickly caught up to Torrio. In 1925 he barely survived an assassination attempt by rival mobsters Hymie “The Pole” Weiss, Vincent “The Schemer” Drucci and George “Bugs” Moran. After spending three weeks in the hospital and even more time........

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