# Al Capone Funded Soup Kitchens in Depression-Era Chicago? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 28, 2012, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129 "2012-09-28T12:47:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/21 "2012-10-01T10:14:23Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I would say, rather, that very few people are 100% good, or 100% evil. Maybe not 100%, but I’ll go with 95. I don’t think the urge to fling bread into the mud at the feet of starving children is a charitable one. Hmmm, that’s a little strong, isn’t it? Edit: “… to toss bread into the air for urchins catch …” I’ve seen what sociopaths can do to a small community with this supposed charity; it’s about garnering popular support, with the attendant protection against authorities, and about satisfying a little tin god ego. Nasty, nasty stuff, and not overcome in a couple of generations … ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/22 "2012-10-01T10:46:03Z")
My grandfather and a couple of my uncles were rumrunners in the Mafia. Grandpa didn’t see it as being evil. He saw it as a way to make more money than being a commercial fisherman, a way to better provide for his family. He thought that Prohibition was wrong, and would soon end, and in the meantime, he was going to make money while he could. He didn’t view his boss as being evil, either. He thought that his boss was giving him a good opportunity, and that his boss was generally a good guy. Grandpa thought that he and the organization that he worked for were not really doing anything wrong/evil. He was fully aware that he was breaking the law. As an American citizen who had been born in Sicily, a lot of stuff happened to him that was legal, but that wasn’t right. He didn’t think that lawful=good, or good=lawful all the time. I don’t think that he ever physically harmed anyone else in the course of his job as rumrunner. From what I understand, he was a pretty devout Catholic, and so he probably thought that he was, at least, trying to be a good person most of the time. He died when I was a teen, so my memories of him are pretty faint, and I might be mistaken. But I don’t think that Grandpa thought of himself as being evil, or at least, not any more evil than most people. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/23 "2012-10-01T14:50:09Z")
Nobody in my family was ever connected to the mob, which is partly why I campaign against stereotyping all Sicilians with it. I remember my grandmother saying with great pride that after she and my grandfather immigrated to America, they never lived in Little Italy. Because that helped keep them apart from mob activities. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/24 "2012-10-02T07:10:23Z")
I didn’t mean to imply that all Sicilians are involved in the Mafia. Back in the day, though, everyone in the Mafia was male and of Sicilian heritage. My point was, my grandfather didn’t regard himself as any more evil or bad than the average person. During his time as a rumrunner, he was able to make bigger donations to the church and other charities. Grandpa had a temper, but he wasn’t a sociopath. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/25 "2012-10-02T18:03:29Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I’ve also heard that he was instrumental in getting the Chicago public schools to serve milk to the kids with their lunches. Ooohh, would love to know/read more about that … ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/26 "2012-10-02T18:12:38Z")
I read an article after the tsunami in Japan that said the first people to get aid into the affected regions were the Chinese Triads (correct me if I’m wrong with the name), and that they wanted to keep that fact very quiet. They got food, diapers, medical supplies, etc. to those in need faster than legit aid agencies. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/27 "2012-10-02T18:36:43Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Al Capone was married and had a kid. The Chicago house is a museum now. It was surprisingly small and set in a very typical middle class Chicago neighborhood. I guess he wanted a normal life for his family. > [Former home of Al Capone | 7244 S Prairie Ave, Chicago, IL. … | Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiski/6842222540/) Capone himself lived pretty high on the hog once his criminal career took off. His home was small because he rarely stayed there. As to soup kitchens, organized crime in the prohabition era was part of political machines, and political machines ran off patronage. And part of that is serving the communities your a patron of with economic assistance. Our modern intolerance of corruption has largely done away with that in the US. Probably a good thing in general, but I think one casualty has been that criminal gangs are a lot more destructive to the communities they inhabit now that they no longer feel obligated to them. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/28 "2012-10-02T21:57:57Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It’s smart business: the people who benefit from your largess might end up on your jury. Good to have friends in low places?😉 ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/29 "2012-10-06T02:01:58Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > My grandfather and a couple of my uncles were rumrunners in the Mafia. Grandpa didn’t see it as being evil. > … > He died when I was a teen, so my memories of him are pretty faint, and I might be mistaken. But I don’t think that Grandpa thought of himself as being evil, or at least, not any more evil than most people. I mean no disrespect your grandfather, or anyone who does what they have to, to care for a family. And I doubt that I know anyone who has never broken a law. But there is a world of difference between a worker who is willing to take a risk to make good money, and the kind of sociopath that runs a criminal organization. I’ve seen one person drive the destruction of a good solid working class neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/30 "2012-10-06T07:12:28Z")
Well, I have to say that I doubt that Grandpa would have even tried to be the head of this sort of thing. He could have continued just being a commercial fisherman, and he and the family would have had a decent living. The thing was, he saw an opportunity to make a lot of money without a lot of risk. If anything, I think that he considered rumrunning to be LESS risky than commercial fishing. If he got caught while bootlegging, well, he might spend some time in jail. But it was not uncommon for commercial fishermen to die while at sea, from one cause or another. He wasn’t a full time rumrunner, either, he mostly kept fishing with occasional whiskey runs to Canada. He did a cost and benefit analysis (though he wouldn’t have put it into those words) and decided that the risk was worth the reward. I really, really doubt that he could have been an enforcer, or that he could have ordered anyone hurt as a business decision. He had a temper, and I know that he hit another guy in the head with a hammer at least once, but that was for personal reasons, it wasn’t business related in any way. Again, Grandpa didn’t think of himself as any more evil than most people. He believed that all humans are sinners, but he didn’t think that he was going to Hell because he was a rumrunner. And he had a lot of kind, generous impulses, and he tried to do good. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/31 "2012-10-06T23:03:08Z")
You know, I wouldn’t have thought there were many jobs riskier than smuggling contraband across international borders for an organized crime syndicate, but if I’d had to guess at one, it probably would have been commercial fisherman. “[H]e hit another guy in the head with a hammer _ **at least once** _, …”? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/32 "2012-10-06T23:16:05Z")
When FDR repealed Prohibition, the era of the bootleggers and beer barons (like Capone) was over-legitimate breweries supplied the beer to Chicago’s thirsty customers. So what was the Capone gang making money on? You had (I assume) prostitution and drugs-what did Al spend his time managing, once booze became legal? ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129/33 "2012-10-07T03:13:25Z")
> [@j666](#): > > You know, I wouldn’t have thought there were many jobs riskier than smuggling contraband across international borders for an organized crime syndicate, but if I’d had to guess at one, it probably would have been commercial fisherman. > > “[H]e hit another guy in the head with a hammer _ **at least once** _, …”? He hit another guy in the head with a hammer once THAT I KNOW OF. Apparently the other guy was not a total innocent in the fight. The cops took them both in, and put them in the same cell together. There were other empty cells. > [@ralph124c](#): > > When FDR repealed Prohibition, the era of the bootleggers and beer barons (like Capone) was over-legitimate breweries supplied the beer to Chicago’s thirsty customers. So what was the Capone gang making money on? You had (I assume) prostitution and drugs-what did Al spend his time managing, once booze became legal? IIRC, Capone had legal problems just as Prohibition was ending, and he was imprisoned either right at the end of Prohibition or just after the end. He stayed in prison for a while. I don’t remember (and don’t care to look up) what, if anything, he was doing in his criminal interests. I know that he had advanced syphilis, and it took its toll on him. As for other Mafia bosses, they had an organization set up, so many of them developed other ways of Making Money Fast. Numbers running, for instance, and prostitution and dope dealing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-capone-funded-soup-kitchens-in-depression-era-chicago/636129.md?page=1)