Forget Al Pacino, the real Scarface was none other Al Capone himself. The nickname and the scars themselves, however, were not something Capone was proud of at all. In fact, he hated them so much that he made up stories as to how they got there. Sometimes he told people he got them when fighting in France during World War I in the Lost Battalion and sometimes he told people a barber, which was his father’s chosen profession, accidentally cut him during a haircut. Both of these are utterly ridiculous stories but he was Al Capone, what were people going to do? Argue with him? He did everything he could to hide the scars including applying powder to them and trying his hardest to not let newspaper photographers, the ones who gave him the name Scarface (a nickname they would never, ever call him to his face, of course) in the first place, get his bad side when they took his picture, which was very often as Al loved the attention. How did Capone get the scars? Unless he was getting a haircut from a barber who used a machete instead of scissors we can discount that theory. And Capone never served a day in the military so there goes the whole World War I Lost Battalion theory. Here’s what really happened. One fateful night in Brooklyn, Al was working at the Harvard Inn, which was owned by Frankie Yale, (Yes, Harvard and Yale but we’ll discuss that at another time) as a waiter and a bouncer. In actuality, he was a thug posing as a waiter who smacked people around if they got out of line. One night Capone was giving a young girl they eye, really staring at her and not making any secret of it. The girl got annoyed and asked her brother if he could do anything about it. Before he could Al went up to the young lady and told her, “Honey, you got a nice ass and I mean that as a compliment, believe me.” Her brother became enraged but I mean, what was he gonna do? It was Al Capone, right? Wrong. It turns out that the girl’s brother was Frank Galluccio, who was a New York City gangster and he was pissed. Outraged, he stood up to defend his sister’s honor. Capone tried to back off and make light of the situation but when Galluccio made it clear this was a serious problem, Capone charged at him. Galluccio pulled a knife and tried to stab Capone in the neck. He missed and ended up slashing his face three times. Capone was taken to the hospital and stitched up, 30 stiches in total. After the incident took place, Galluccio went to the bosses in New York City and explained the situation. They told him not to worry and said they would make Capone apologize because after all, Galluccio was only defending his sister’s honor. Capone did as he was told and apologized. Ironically, legend has it that Galluccio felt bad for permanently scarring Capone. But Al went on to become the head of “The Outfit” and the most famous gangster in the history of America. All’s well that ends well.
Article By: Jon DaBove
