The Martyred Brother
The third son of Gabriele and Teresina Capone, and the handsomest, was Frank Capone. The portraits painted by his family and his brothers’ biographers are contradictory. His sister Mafalda dismissed him as a reckless, trigger-happy womanizer and incompetent fixer who persuaded Al and Torrio to grease the palms of the useless contacts he made in city government. He is sometimes quoted as advising Al that the best way to settle a disagreement was with a gun.
Historians, however, generally characterize him as Al’s equal if not his superior: a shrewd, charming, and fearless mobster who seemed likelier than his little brother to eventually rule the Organization. He certainly looked the part. He dressed like a Levee sport, rivaling even Big Jim Colosimo as a clothes horse. Handsome, dapper, with a gift for gab, he was irresistible to women, and to the rest of the family’s despair apparently saw no reason to marry and settle down.
In the spring of 1924, Frank joined his brothers in guaranteeing what amounted to the mayoral election of a Torrio ally. His efforts at fixing the contest jibe with the family’s memory of him. He raided the opposition’s offices, beat up rival candidates and their supporters, kidnapped others, menaced journalists, and stuffed ballot boxes in what became such a blatantly brutal and corrupt election that some outraged citizens were able to persuade Chicago cops to come to Cicero and put a halt to the Capones’ machinations.
The first to arrive were plainclothes detectives whom Frank mistook for rival gang members. As they disembarked from their unmarked cars, Frank drew his pistol but was immediately shot to death by the advancing police.
Al saw to it that Frank’s was the largest gangland funeral to date, after which his mother, already grieving after the inexplicable disappearance of her oldest son Vincenzo, demanded that Al send her back to Italy to pray for Frank’s soul. But by the Organization’s lights, Frank Capone had not died in vain; Torrio’s man won the election hands down.
Copyright © 2019 by Andrew Ward. All rights reserved.
