Ralph Capone

Ralph "Bottles" Capone Sr. (January 12, 1894-November 22, 1974) was a Chicago mobster and an older brother of Al Capone. Ralph got the nickname "Bottles" from his involvement in the beverage industry.

Born "Raffaele James Capone", Ralph Capone was brought to Chicago by his brother Al and placed in charge of the Chicago Outfit's bottling plants during Prohibition. The Outfit was attempting to monopolize non-alcoholic beverages and soft drinks (specifically ginger ale and soda water, commonly used in mixed drinks) during this period when the sale of alcohol was banned. Ralph made large profits for the Outfit and became the dominant soft drink vendor other than Coca-Cola during the 1933 World's Fair. In April 1930, Ralph was included in Frank J. Loesch's "public enemies" list.

Following Al's conviction for tax evasion in 1931, Ralph remained with the Outfit. He hosted several high-level Outfit conferences from Al's residence in Palm Island, Florida. As the manager of Chicago's "Cotton Club", Ralph was reportedly involved in syndicate gambling and vice districts. In 1935, Ralph was convicted of tax evasion [http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/capone/arrest_21.html] .

In many ways, Ralph was a front man for the Outfit. Authorities once described him as an "elder statesman" of the Outfit. In 1950, the United Press described Ralph as "…in his own right … one of the overlords of the national syndicate which controls gambling, vice, and other rackets". In actuality, Ralph held relatively little power in the Outfit and the National Crime Syndicate. This finally became evident during his testimony before the U.S. Senate Kefauver Committee in 1950. His nephew Alphonse Capone Jr. later changed his notorious name to Ralph but was called "Sonny" by his Capone relatives. The Chicago Outfit which at the time was run by Sam Giancana was taking care of Sonny financially, as they would the widows of Chicago Oufit members. He was trying to start a restaurant called Sonny's Grotto in Miami Beach, Florida. It was agreed that Sonny would still receive his usual stipend, but the request for $24,000 was turned down by Sam Giancana while it was agreed upon by Murray Humphreys, Gussie Alex and Frank Ferraro. The restaurant would later go bankrupt. A month after Ralph's Senate testimony, his nephew, Ralph Capone, Jr. committed suicide by swallowing cold tablets and vodka.

On November 22, 1974, Ralph Capone Sr. died of natural causes in Hurley, Wisconsin. He was cremated at Park Hill Cemetery in Bloomington, Illinois.

In popular culture

Ralph Capone is portrayed by Ed O'Ross in the 1987 film "The Verne Miller Story" and by Titus Welliver in the 1990 television movie "The Lost Capone".

Further reading

*Binder, John. The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7385-2326-7
*Enright, Laura L. "Chicago's Most Wanted: The Top Ten Book of Murderous Mobsters, Midway Monsters, and Windy City Oddities". Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books Inc., 2005. ISBN 1-57488-785-8
*Iorizzo, Luciano J. "Al Capone: a biography". Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2005. ISBN 0-313-32317-8
*Johnson, Curt and R. Craig Sautter. "The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone". New York: Da Capo Press, 1994. ISBN 0-306-80821-8
*Kobler, John. "Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone". New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81285-1
*Pasley, Fred D. "Al Capone: The Biography of a Self-Made Man". Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Co., 2004. ISBN 1-4179-0878-5
*Schoenberg, Robert J. "Mr. Capone". New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. ISBN 0-688-12838-6

References

*Sifakis, Carl. "The Mafia Encyclopedia". New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
*Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001. ISBN 0-8160-4040-0

External links

* [http://www.carpenoctem.tv/mafia/rcapone.html Seize the Night: Ralph Capone]
* [http://crimemagazine.com/brothers_capone.htm The Brothers Capone] by Allan May
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6943812 Ralph Capone] at Find-A-Grave