Teresina Capone: Cause Of Death, Facts About Al Capone’s Mother

Teresina Capone is a mother who is best recognized for her celebrity son, Al Capone. Teresina’s son Al Capone is also known by the nickname “Scarface”. He was notable as an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. His seven-year reign as a crime boss ended when he went to prison at the age of 33.

Teresina Capone: Bio Summary

Who Is Teresina Capone?

Teresina Capone was born on 28 December 1867 in Angri, Provincia di Salerno, Campania, Italy. Her actual name is Teresina Raiola Capone. She was a seamstress by profession. She was married to Gabriele Capone (1865–1920), who was a barber by profession.

Teresina Capone and her husband Gabriele Capone were both born in Angri, a small commune outside of Naples in the Province of Salerno. They immigrated to the United States in 1893 by ship, first going through Fiume (modern-day Rijeka, Croatia), a port city in what was then Austria-Hungary.

They eventually settled at 95 Navy Street, in the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn, New York City. Teresina’s husband Gabriele Capone worked at a nearby barber shop at 29 Park Avenue. They relocated again to 38 Garfield Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Teresina Capone and Gabriele Capone are the parents of Al Capone, Umberto Capone, Frank Capone, Ralph Capone, Richard James Hart, Matthew Capone, Mafalda Capone, Ermina Capone, and John Capone. The first child originally named James Vincenzo Capone changed his name to Richard James Hart and became a Prohibition agent in Homer, Nebraska.

Teresina and Gabriele’s child Raffaele James Capone, also known as Ralph “Bottles” Capone, was an Italian-American Chicago mobster. He was nicknamed “Bottles” not from his involvement in the Capone bootlegging empire, but from his running the legitimate non-alcoholic beverage and bottling operations in Chicago.

Teresina and Gabriele’s children, Ralph and Frank worked with their brother Al Capone in his criminal empire. Frank did so until his death on April 1, 1924. Ralph ran the bottling companies (both legal and illegal) early on and was also the front man for the Chicago Outfit for some time until he was imprisoned for tax evasion in 1932.

Teresina Capone reportedly changed her name to Teresa, also spelled Theresa. She changed her name after her husband gained American citizenship.

Teresina Capone Dies At Age 84

At the age of 84 years, Teresina Capone died. She died on the 29th of November 1952. She died in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA. She was interred at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. The actual cause of her death is still a mystery.

Teresina Capone’s Son Al Capone Was A Gangster

Teresina Capone’s son Alphonse Gabriel Capone also known as Al Capone or Scarface became a gangster. Al Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in New York City, the U.S. He dropped out of school at age 14, after getting expelled for hitting a female teacher in the face. Al Capone did odd jobs around Brooklyn, including a candy store and a bowling alley.

Al Capone played semi-professional baseball from the year 1916 to 1918. He was influenced by gangster Johnny Torrio, whom he came to regard as a mentor. On December 30, 1918, when he was 19 years old, he decided to get married to Mae Josephine Coughlin. He became involved with small-time gangs that included the Junior Forty Thieves and the Bowery Boys.

Al Capone joined the Brooklyn Rippers, and then the powerful Five Points Gang based in Lower Manhattan. He attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. His seven-year reign as a crime boss ended when he went to prison at the age of 33. He relocated to Chicago and that was in his early twenties.

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Al Capone became a bodyguard and trusted factotum for Johnny Torrio, head of a criminal syndicate that illegally supplied alcohol—the forerunner of the Outfit—and was politically protected through the Unione Siciliana. A conflict with the North Side Gang was instrumental in Capone’s rise and fall.

Al Capone was in control after Johnny Torrio retired after North Side gunmen almost killed him. Al Capone took charge and expanded the bootlegging business through increasingly violent means, but his mutually profitable relationships with mayor William Hale Thompson and the city’s police meant he seemed safe from law enforcement.

Al Capone donated to various charities and was viewed by many as a “modern-day Robin Hood”. However, the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, in which seven gang rivals were murdered in broad daylight, damaged the public image of Chicago and Capone, leading influential citizens to demand government action and newspapers to dub Capone “Public Enemy No.1”.

Al Capone was convicted of five counts in 1931 after the federal authorities became intent on jailing him and charged him with 22 counts of tax evasion. His case was highly publicized. The judge admitted as evidence Capone’s admissions of his income and unpaid taxes, made during prior (and ultimately abortive) negotiations to pay the government taxes he owed.

Al Capone was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. After conviction, he replaced his defense team with experts in tax law, and his grounds for appeal were strengthened by a Supreme Court ruling, but his appeal ultimately failed.

Teresina Capone’s son, Al Capone showed signs of neurosyphilis early in his sentence and became increasingly debilitated before being released after almost eight years of incarceration. On January 25, 1947, he died of cardiac arrest after a stroke.