Even till today, the public can’t really get enough of the gangster era of the notorious twenties in the USA. Chicago especially was a gangster haven where it’s most famous figure of the time was Al Capone. As Gangster no 1, Capone is the subject of history, studies, movies and scores of articles on the internet. His was a fascinating life of booze, prohibition, crime, murder and lavish luxury. But Just as those elements stereotyped the gangster’s life; there is another side of Al Capone that people don’t know. His last days which were extremely tragic and marked with suffering.
You see! Al Capone died of multiple complications caused by syphilis which also affected his brain. He died, a delusional frail and confused man not even a fraction of his former intimidating self. His health declined to the point of turning him into the equivalent of a 12 year old child. Read on how Al Capone died of syphilis which destroyed his brain.
Al or Alphonse Capone was also known as Scarface in the gangster world presumably the inspiration behind the Al Pacino movie, “Scarface”. He lived in Chicago with his brother Ralph and for both, life was dance halls, casinos and plenty of socializing even with the wrong sort of women. A prostitute a day was common for Al and brother Ralph who first contracted gonorrhea. Venereal disease was rampantly sweeping Chicago affecting almost 10% of the population.
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It was not surprise that Capone too went on to contract syphilis which embarrassed him deeply. He wouldn’t tell his doctors how he got it. He revealed to his doctors that he had earlier got fever and sores which went away so he presumed he was cured. What he didn’t know was that the type of syphilis he contracted may have not show external symptoms but it had retracted into his body and was slowly attacking his brain.
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Whether or not his wife Mae also acquired the disease from him isn’t known but Capone’s son Albert Francis “Sonny” Capone was born in 1918 with congenital syphilis. As a sickly child, Sonny also contracted an infection that left him deaf in one ear.
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Capone was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was sent to the Atlanta US Penitentiary in May 1932. When he entered Prison, he was diagnosed with Syphilis and Gonorrhea as well as a cocaine perforated Septum. In jail, Capone was treated well where he stitched shoes. He was also known as a weak and frail man who suffered bullying in jail. Authorities soon decided to send Capone to the maximum security prison Alcatraz fearing that he may file a habeas corpus to get out of jail citing a court appearance.
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By 1934, and in Alcatraz, Capone was slowly but surely losing mind. He became erratic, moody and depressed because of loneliness. He was always paranoid and feared for his life. His fears were not unfounded because he was even stabbed by an inmate and hospitalized.
Capone had also become delusional and held conversations with God. He found it difficult to walk and speak easily. In 1938, he had to be put into the mental ward at Alcatraz where he also got into a bizarre fight with another inmate where they continued to throw feces at each other. One inmate recalled how Capone would confine himself to his cell and keep making his bunk over and over again. Authorities were by now concerned about his steady decline. He was soon released to another facility at the famous Terminal Island.
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Capone though mentally unstable, behaved well and regularly went to church. He was released from Alcatraz early for good behavior and set to a facility at Terminal Island in California. On November 16, 1939, He was officially released and sent home to his own estate in Miami Florida.
During his time at Terminal Island and in the last months at Alcatraz he underwent different treatments that attempted to cure him. He was given various injections like bismuth, malaria and tryparsamide in hopes that inducing fever would cure the syphilis but nothing worked. He now suffered form neurosyphilis making him thoroughly delusional and confused. Al Capone died of Syphilis that ultimately took control of his brain.
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Capone lived the rest if his life at home in Miami and was taken care of by his wife Mae. He underwent treatment at Union memorial Hospital Baltimore under the care of the best syphilis expert in the country Doctor Joseph Moore. During the early forties, Capone also went on various vacations with his family across the USA and that contributed too much of his decline. Doctor Moore even once expressed his concern in a letter to a colleague saying that Capone should be kept away in a mental institution as he could be penalized for his outbursts against strangers. He was also in dire need of a male nurse to control him.
His health deteriorated further and he often had seizures. Dr Moore was able to procure penicillin for him that became available at the time but the syphilis had eaten too far into his brain.
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In 1941, Capone’s mental age was considered that of a 12 year old boy. He had retied to live in Palm Beach Miami where he would be spending the rest of his days till his death in 1947. It was rumored that he would roam in his pajamas and keep looking at fish in a nearby pond. However, it was well known that he took regular walks with his grandchildren to look at and chase butterflies.
His mental state had thoroughly deteriorated and he would be holding several conversations in a day with imaginary people. He would also hallucinate about his gangster days and about friends and enemies some of whom he himself had killed.
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Capone was suffering from delirium and incoherence in the days preceding his death. However much as he liked roaming about in his PJ’s his family kept him confined to his compound and the house. The reason for doing this was that Capone in his delusional state may just about give away secrets about the outfit in Chicago, especially since he was prone to having conversations with people he had killed.
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Although Al Capone died of Syphilis, his final cause of death was attributed to heart failure. Capone died on 25th January 1947. He was only 48. Six days before his death, he had a stroke but soon after he regained consciousness and even started to improve in health but then contracted pneumonia. His doctor confirmed he had died from a heart attack which was mentioned in his obituaries. Syphilis was never mentioned.
Capone’s funeral was held in Chicago and attended only by friends and family. He was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery but later when his mother died in 1952, his body was removed and buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery. Although rumors at the time were rampant that he died of syphilis because he never really received proper health care in prison, the family never made such things an issue and preferred to let the matter be buried with Capone.
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In case you feel that he had what was coming and don’t exactly feel remorse for Capone, well here’s a fact that not many know about Capone who actually did something good in life too. Realizing the effects the depression was having on Americas, Capone established a soup kitchen in downtown Chicago.
Capone actually fulfilled a need that the American government should have done. He established the first soup kitchen in 1931. The location was on 9th and State Street and it became immensely popular. Within a short while his soup kitchen was churning out 120,000 meals a day and even created job opportunities for out of work people.
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