Al Capone Death — How Did Al Capone Die?

On this day in 1947 the world would mark the passing of one of the most notorious mobsters to have ever lived. At the age of 48 The Big Shot suffered a stroke but managed to improve from it (this was just 4 days after he celebrated his 48th birthday). However, after managing to regain consciousness from the stroke he contracted pneumonia; on the 25th January — four days after the stroke — he suffered a fatal cardiac arrest.

Al headed up the Chicago Outfit during a violent time in the mob’s history, having taken the reins from Johnny Torrio in 1925 after Torrio was nearly killed in an assassination attempt. He remained at the front of the Outfit until he was finally convicted on tax evasion charges in 1931, and upon being sent to Atlanta’s U.S. Penitentiary, Capone would fast lose a battle to ill health.

The Last 15 Years of Al Capone

Almost immediately after his arrival at Atlanta Penitentiary he was diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhoea, and he was also suffering from cocaine withdrawal. The syphilis diagnosis was the most significant — in the era before penicillin, untreated syphilis progressed through stages and the final stage, neurosyphilis, caused catastrophic damage to the brain and nervous system. Capone had almost certainly contracted the disease years earlier but had never received proper treatment.

He was no longer the man he used to be but that didn’t matter to many inmates serving time with Capone — they were said to bully the former Outfit boss. His cellmate Red Rudlinsky, who had previously been associated with the Outfit, ended up becoming a bodyguard for Capone. It was so bad that the authorities eventually moved Capone to Alcatraz.

By now neurosyphilis had taken hold and his mental state began to weaken. Confused and disorientated, he ended up serving the final year of his sentence in the prison hospital, eventually being released in early January 1939. The prison time wasn’t over though — he still had to serve time for contempt of court, for which he was transferred to California and spent the next ten months at the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island. Al Capone was finally a free man in November 1939.

The years that followed were spent between hospital treatment for paresis and his Palm Island mansion, where he was cared for by his devoted wife Mae. Paresis is a neuropsychiatric disorder caused by late-stage syphilis, and its effects became fully apparent in 1946 when a psychiatrist concluded that Al Capone had the mental age of a 12-year-old. The most feared gangster in America had been reduced to a shadow of himself — confused, childlike, and entirely removed from the criminal world he had once dominated.

The Final Days — January 1947

On January 19, 1947 — just two days after his 48th birthday — Capone suffered a stroke at Palm Island. He partially recovered over the following days but on January 24 developed pneumonia. His family gathered around him. On the morning of January 25, 1947, Al Capone died of cardiac arrest. His physician listed the immediate cause as cardiac arrest, with the underlying cause as bronchopneumonia complicated by neurosyphilis.

He was initially buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago before being reinterred at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois, where he lies today alongside his parents and brother.

The Legacy of Al Capone

During his time as boss of the Chicago Outfit, Al Capone was involved in some of the most notorious events in American criminal history. Capone is one of the most infamous American gangsters of the 20th century and has been the subject of countless articles, books and films. His personality and character have been used as the model for fictional crime lords ever since his death. The stereotypical image of a mobster wearing a blue pinstriped suit and tilted fedora is based directly on photographs of Capone himself.

From the assassination of Big Jim Colosimo, Dean O’Banion, Hymie Weiss, Frankie Yale and of course the notorious St Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929, Capone left his mark on the world. Over 30 victims were attributed to him in a four-year period.

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