"Al Capone was evil."
Not completely. Again your knowledge in this arena is sadly deficient.
Capone, as other mob chieftains in American cities have over the years, often paid the bills for families struggling to make ends meet, anonymously paid hospital bills for people in the Italian neighborhoods of Chicago, and often tipped dirt-poor street-corner newsboys with $100 bills.
During the Depression he opened soup kitchens and shelters for the unemployed and homeless.
Don Alfonso a bad guy? Yep. A ruthless gangster and racketeer who ordered the murders of over a hundred? Without a doubt. But he did have his good points too, I suppose.
EP wrote: “Again your knowledge in this arena is sadly deficient. Capone, as other mob chieftains in American cities have over the years, often paid the bills for families struggling to make ends meet, anonymously paid hospital bills for people in the Italian neighborhoods of Chicago, and often tipped dirt-poor street-corner newsboys with $100 bills. During the Depression he opened soup kitchens and shelters for the unemployed and homeless.”
I'm not aware of anyone who studies Italian-American crime in the 1800s and early 1900s who will disagree with your point. Helping poor people was a major part of what the Mob did.
Some important qualifications, however:
1. In the era before government-run social services, that was a standard part of the work of political organizations of any type, and the Mob was doing the same things as all the rest of the groups competing for votes. It was very important for the Mob to be able to influence politicians by being able to deliver lots of votes, and this is one way they did it.
2. While the protection rackets often **WERE* rackets, the fact is that Mob-controlled neighborhoods were often safer — if only for their Italian residents — than they would have been without the Mob. Police forces in those days were often very far from the academy-trained professionals that we have today, and since the police forces of many cities were disproportionately Irish, ethnic bigotry was not unheard of among the police or the judges. If Mama Angelina's store got broken into, the Mob was much more likely to track down and punish the hoodlums who did it than the police force, and that helped endear Capone to legitimate business owners who believed — often with good reason — that the municipal government didn't care about Italian neighborhoods.
3. By accepting what everybody knew were ill-gotten gains, the Mob bought the silence of the recipients of its aid. When Robin Hood robbed the rich and rewarded the poor, he involved them in crime. By giving help to lots of people in his neighborhood, Capone and other mobsters created large numbers of people who had a stake in defending the criminals because they'd become criminals themselves.
The mere fact that somebody helps poor people doesn't necessarily say anything about their motives. Islamic extremists routinely open social service agencies and hospitals. So do Christian missionaries in poor nations. So does the United States Army in trying to “win hearts and minds.”
Yes, Capone did many things to help people. That's beyond dispute. The question is **WHY** he did those things, and the answer is anything but good.