Al Capone played mandola- really!

[rnjl]

So I'm reading the NY Times book review section and there's a review of a new biography of Al Capone, and lo and behold:

"Capone served eight years, more than half of them on Alcatraz, where he learned to play the mandola. "

Who knew?

[allenhopkins]

Apparently the Federal penal system was trying to teach prisoners a legitimate marketable skill?

[Fretbear]

Syphilis does eventually make one go crazy.........

[Eddie Sheehy]

I guess he already had a mandola case...

[Glassweb]

Capone played mandola? No kiddin'! Huh? You gotta a problem wid dat???

[Mandolin Mick]

Do we know if he went with an A or F model?

[MandolinoNapoletano]

Al Capone was an American with Neapolitan decent. It goes with his culture. As a little boy italian music was probably the only music he ever heard.

[allenhopkins]

Al Capone was an American with Neapolitan decent. It goes with his culture. As a little boy italian music was probably the only music he ever heard.

True, but what's hanging me up is the idea that he'd learn mandola in Alcatraz. I've taken the Alcatraz tour, and it doesn't seem like a place that would offer instrumental lessons. Apparently Capone was sent there because he'd been able to secure favored treatment in other Federal prisons:

In 1934, Attorney General Homer Cummings along with Sanford Bates, the head of the Federal Prisons, made arrangements to send Capone to a facility where he would be unable to leverage the system. Alcatraz was the perfect answer to a problem that no one could seem to control. In August of 1934, without any formal notice, Capone was placed on a secure prison railroad car, on a journey along with 52 other inmates to America's Devil Island.

From the first moment of his arrival, Capone worked to manipulate the system. Warden Johnston had a custom of meeting the new "fish" when they first arrived at Alcatraz, and usually participated in their brief orientation. Johnston wrote in a later memoir that he had little trouble recognizing Capone while he stood in the lineup. Capone was grinning, and making quiet smug comments from the side of his mouth to other inmates. When it became his turn to approach Warden Johnston, it appeared that he wanted to show off to the other inmates by asking questions on their behalf in a leader-type role. Johnston quickly provided him his prison AZ number, and made him get back in line with the other convicts. During Capone's time on Alcatraz, he made several attempts to con Johnston into allowing him special privileges, but all were denied. Johnston maintained that Capone would not be given any special rights and would have to follow the rules as would any other inmate.

Capone eventually conceded and one day made the comment to Johnston, "It looks like Alcatraz has got me licked." Capone spent 4 ½ years on Alcatraz and held a variety of jobs. Capone's time on Alcatraz was not easy time. Capone got into a fight with another inmate in the recreation yard and was placed in isolation for eight days. While working in the prison basement, an inmate who was standing in line waiting for a haircut, exchanged words with Capone and stabbed him with a pair of shears. Capone was admitted into the prison hospital and released a few days later with a minor wound. Capone eventually became symptomatic from syphilis, a disease he had evidently been carrying for years. In 1938, he was transferred to Terminal Island Prison in Southern California to serve out the remainder of his sentence, and was released in November of 1939. Capone died on January 25, 1947, in his Palm Beach Mansion from complications of syphilis.

-- from the alcatrazhistory.com website

[billkilpatrick]

he also composed:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30250301/

[delsbrother]

I wonder who taught him? Rudy Cipolla was in town by that point...

[Andy Fielding]

I guess he already had a mandola case...

Heh! I was going to say, "So that's why those mobsters were always carrying around violin-shaped cases..." But I think you beat me to it.

[John Hill]

Syphilis does eventually make one go crazy.........

That's if he played the banjola.

[billkilpatrick]

"capone" in italian - at least here in tuscany - means big head ... "cappone" means capon or castrated rooster.

[lmartnla]

Here's a YouTube video of a newscast describing Capone's playing a banjo and his 'transcription' of the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACr_xVfIp2I

Not my style---Lou

[billkilpatrick]

not mine either ... think i'll pass on downloading the song from the "capone FANS?! (dot) com site.

[fishtownmike]

Maybe you read that wrong. Are you sure it didn't say he once killed a man with a mandola?

[polkat]

According to the book "Six Against The Rock", partially researched from Alcatraz records, Capone played a Selmer tenor banjo at Alcatraz. He played in a little group with 4 other prisoners. But they are all dead and gone now so who really knows?

[jelhai]

Updating this old thread.

Here's new info on Al Capone and his fretted-instrument talents: "Before long, Capone traded his banjo for a different instrument. Some biographers say it was a mandolin, but Eig notes that Capone himself referred to it as a mandola, a similar but larger stringed instrument. The added heft would have come in handy in a 1936 incident when a fellow inmate attacked Capone, then swabbing the floor near the showers, with one blade from a pair of scissors. Before a guard intervened, Eig writes, “Somehow Capone got hold of his mandola, picked it up, and swung it like a club at his attacker.”"

Source: https://www.history.com/news/al-capone-alcatraz

[journeybear]

He also played tenor banjo, which would have made a more formidable weapon, both physically and acoustically.

You may want to consider posting this over at this thread, which is a bit more current and replete with information. Why there are so many threads on the subject baffles me. Some day they may be combined, to quell confusion.

[Prince of Darkness]

Makes sense that he would try mandola if he had been playing tenor banjo. Same tuning