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Fascinating Facts About the Birth of the Italian-American Mafia

Khalid Elhassan February 13, 2025 17 min

Mafia - Lucky Luciano, who midwifed the birth of the modern Italian-American Mafia — Lucky Luciano, who midwifed the birth of the modern Italian-American Mafia. The Mob Museum

6. Falling Out With Al Capone

Mafia - Frankie Yale's bullet-riddled car — Frankie Yale’s bullet-riddled car. Imgur

Yale traveled to Chicago in 1924 with a hit team to murder a rival of his former underling, Al Capone. He was arrested afterwards, but released when police failed to shake his alibi. Capone returned the favor the following year, when during a visit to NYC he helped Yale murder three rivals and wound a fourth in an ambush outside a nightclub. That friendship ended in 1927 when Yale, Capone’s whiskey supplier, got greedy and started hijacking the Chicago gangster’s trucks. A meeting failed to resolve matters, and Capone set plans in motion for his former boss’ downfall. On July 1^st, 1928, Yale received a call that something was wrong with his wife. He refused to wait for his usual escort of bodyguards, jumped into his armor-plated car, and sped off. He was intercepted en route by gunmen who riddled his car and fatally shot him with armor-piercing bullets.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.