Also known as “Scarface”, he was the most flamboyant and widely publicized criminal of the Prohibition era. In 1925 he took over Chicago’s south side gang from Johnny Torrio, and dominated the city’s underworld, dealing in bootleg liquor, extortion, prostitution, and other rackets, and controlling the corrupt administration of Major Bill Thompson. His war on other syndicates, culminating in the St Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929 against Bugs Moran’s gang, went unchecked until his indictment for federal income tax evasion in 1931 led to a prison sentence. Physically and mentally broken by syphilis, he was released in 1939.