“Al Capone was viewed by the authorities in the USA as public enemy number one”. Do all the sources and your own knowledge of US society in the 1920’s and 1930’s support this view?
Holly Freeland
Centre number:
Candidate number:
Didcot Girls School
Al Capone wasn’t public enemy number one. He was just selling illegal alcohol, which was seen as him just supplying public demand. This is shown in source H, where Al Capone quotes “I make my money by supplying popular demand”. This backs up the fact that the public supported Al Capone. He also states “If I break the law, my customers are as guilty as I am”. This implies that he’s supplying the alcohol to public because it’s in demand, and by buying his illegal alcohol it makes the public equally as awful as him. Some people thought of Al Capone as Robin Hood because he helped people in need. An example of this is when Al Capone helped a man in Chicago who owned a dry cleaning shop. He used the man’s dry cleaning shop as head quarters for selling alcohol. In return Al Capone sold the man alcohol for twelve dollars a gallon and allowed him to sell it on for eighteen dollars a gallon. This also shows that Al Capone was a charitable man. Some members of the public admired him. We know this from source I, which shows Al Capone on the front cover of the times magazine, the biggest, most famous magazine in America at the time. It shows him in a positive light. In the picture he is smartly dressed and smiling which makes him look approachable and harmless. The slogan below his name reads “a pink apron, a pan of spaghetti”. The ‘pan of spaghetti’ tells us about his heritage and the ‘pink apron’ illustrates his almost feminine side. It also shows a friendly, homely image of Al Capone. The fact that he was on the cover of a magazine shows the public were intrigued by him.
