Thursday, November 16, 2017

Al Capone is my uncle and also my Godfather.

On November 15, 1939 my uncle Al Capone was released from Federal Prison and returned to Chicago. My grandfather Ralph, Al's older brother and business partner, arranged for a big 'coming home' party. Of course my father and mother were there, my mother due to give birth to me in January, my uncle Al was to be my Godfather. My mother told me that everyone there saw that Al was not acting in a normal fashion. He would go up to his sister and ask "Who are you?" Then he would go up to another person asking the same question. Then he went back to his sister, my
aunt Maffie, and ask the same question again, "Who are you?" My grandfather knew he needed some help. He called around and found a doctor in Baltimore. My family the next day took him to Baltimore where a doctor diagnosed that he was given drugs in prison that they claimed would treat his syphilis. My uncle was given injections of mercury in the Federal Prison hospital on Terminal Island. The hospital immediately began treating him by leaching the poisons out of his system. He was still in the hospital when I was baptized. In my book you will see copies of the telegrams that Al and his mother sent to my parents. His son stood in for him but in reality my uncle Al Capone is also my Godfather.