Almost every family has secrets; some families have bigger things to hide. That was the case for Deirdre Marie Capone. During her childhood, the topic no one wanted to discuss was her great-uncle, Al Capone, notorious for his crimes and dubbed "Public Enemy Number One."
Al Capone's brother, Ralph Capone, begged his granddaughter Deirdre Marie Capone not to publish the family secrets until she was the last living member of the family. She did as he asked, but in recent years she has become a leading authority on crime families and their dynamics.
"As a result of countless interviews I have become an expert in crime families and how they evolve," Deirdre Marie Capone says. "Crime during the Capone era was limited to the men who ran the businesses. Family was off limits. But I can tell my father's story now: he grew up during a remarkable era of our country's history, and it cost him his life."
Capone's book, Uncle Al Capone, The Untold Story from Inside His Family (Recap Publishing) reveals for the first time many startling facts about one of the most famous gangsters of the twentieth century. She skillfully recreates the setting, the flamboyant, careless generation who made illegal drinking a glamorous pastime. "The book doesn't even begin to cover all the stories I could tell," she notes.
As a child, Deirdre Marie didn't know he was a notorious gangster; he was just her Uncle Al. He taught her how to swim, ride a bike, and play the mandolin. But after he died on her seventh birthday she began paying the price of being a Capone. From age 7 to 13 her classmates were forbidden to play with her. When she was 10 her father committed suicide due to the burden of the Capone name. At age 18 she was fired from her first full-time job because of her name. As soon as she could, she left Chicago and her family name behind.
Capone captures the story that eluded dozens of writers: Al Capone as a loving, if flawed, family man. No other biographer has captured the truth about Al Capone: none of the others were family.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.unclealcapone.com.
