Capone’s Ideal Woman

Andrew Ward
Aug 29, 2017 · 1 min read

Capone was always trying to overturn the public’s expectation that he lacked refinement. Here I have him trying to surprise everyone by naming his favorite movie star.

“You’d think my favorite movie broad would be a vamp or a tramp like Theda Bara, Jean Harlow, Mae West. But I knew too many tough-talking floozies like that. They was a dime a dozen and a pain in the ass.

You wanna know the one I got a hard-on for now? Jean Arthur. Not my type, you say? But to me she’s table-grade. Her eyes. That neck. That voice. I been sweet on her since Fu Manchu. One time I was watching one of her movies, and one of my boys says something about she got no tits. So I get up and deck him before he knows for what.”

Excerpted from I, Capone: The Memoirs of Al Capone. Copyright© 2017 by Andrew Ward. All rights reserved.

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Author of nine books, the latest: I, Capone. Former Contributing Editor at The Atlantic, Columnist at Washington Post, Commentator on All Things Considered.

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