Deirdre Marie Capone on WINK TV

I gave a presentation at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in Ft. Myers, Florida on Monday April 20, 2015. My appearance was cover by WINK TV. Deirdre Capone on WINK TV

Amazon.com Review

Amazon.com Review

Gangster Al Capone once commented that “This American system of ours…gives each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it.” Despite the fact that it’s coming from a known gangster, it says a great deal about the mind of the man. He sees himself as an average, successful American businessman, even if his comment understates the whole picture. It’s this human quality that Deirdre Marie Capone evokes in Uncle Al Capone, a fascinating book that’s one part biography, one part memoir, and one part remembrance of Public Enemy Number One. As the grand-niece of Al, Capone recounts how she hid her family name for years. When a school research project leads her to come clean to her kids, she begins recalling the rich family history she once knew. It’s a tale that starts after the family emigrates from Angri, Italy to Brooklyn, New York. Capone shows that Al and her grandfather, Ralph, weren’t always members of a crime syndicate. In fact, their childhood is fairly normal, with Al finishing high school, and Ralph working odd jobs to help support the family. Everything changes when their father dies and Prohibition becomes law. Forced to earn a living for his family, Al, and eventually Ralph, head to Chicago and down the path to criminal celebrity. Throughout the book, Capone tries to reconcile what she knows about her family with recorded history. Early in the book she writes, “I will not pretend to be able to paint a rosy picture of my uncle Al. I cannot make him out to be a perfect man, or even a good man. But what I want people to know is that he was a complex man. He was human and he had a heart.” Capone succeeds, balancing both the public history of Al, from the Valentine’s Day Massacre to his incarceration at Alcatraz, with personal photos, family recipes, and her own memories. The author recalls how loving certain members of the Capone family were, particularly her great-aunt Maffie who helps the author to see good in the men. It’s not always an easy task as the author recounts losing friends, jobs, and other opportunities, once people learned she was a descendant of the notorious Al Capone. Overall, Uncle Al Capone is a memoir that is as complex and human as the man that it’s about. It brings a fresh perspective to the other Al Capone biographies, and finally gives the larger-than-life gangster the one thing that may have eluded him in life: to be seen as simply a human being. Katerie Prior

Berne Davis Art Center, Ft. Myers, FL

Sponsored by FineMark National Bank & Trust Enjoy lunch and lecture with Deirdre Marie Capone. Born in Chicago, Illinois, to a large Italian family, Deirdre is the author of the recently published UNCLE AL CAPONE: The Untold Story from Inside the Family (Recap Publishing, 2015) She is the only remaining Capone family member with first-hand knowledge of her historical family's legacy

Monday April 20, 2015 12:00 Noon

Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, 2301 1st Street, Fort Myers, Florida, United States 33901

Miami Curbed Article

http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2015/03/26/al-capone-house-media-tour.php

Uncle Al Capone - The Untold Story from Inside His Family: Al Capone's Florida Home gets a make over.

Uncle Al Capone - The Untold Story from Inside His Family: Al Capone's Florida Home gets a make over.: On March 18, 2015 there was an event at which I was invited where the press got a chance to tour the home where my uncle Al Capone l...

Al Capone's Florida Home gets a make over.

On March 18, 2015 there was an event at which I was invited where the press got a chance to tour the home where my uncle Al Capone lived and it was also the home where he died. Click any link below to view some of the coverage.

 

Miami Herald

 

NBC Miami

ABC News

Baltimore Sun

MSN

UK Daily Mail

I think that you agree that my appearance at this event was a treat for the media. I told them many family stories and also told them that I have a movie which will be out to the public in 2017. In it the viewer will know the real Al Capone and the truth about that era. Was Al Capone a mobster? Yes. Was Al Capone a monster? NO

St. Joseph's Day

St. Joseph’s Day

In America March 19 is always celebrated as Saint Joseph’s Day. (Saint Joseph was the symbolic, but not birth, father of Jesus.) In Italy March 19 is also celebrated as Father’s Day. My Grandmother Theresa taught me the customs of the Italian celebration of this Christian Feast Day.

Saint Joseph’s Day always falls during Lent, so the food served on this day never has meat, and the food that is served represents the harvest so no cheese is served. Therefore, the pasta which is traditionally served is sprinkled with bread crumbs rather than cheese.

I remember Grandma asking me on one Feast Day if I knew why bread crumbs were used on the food, instead of another non-cheese seasoning

“No, Grandmacita,” I answered wonderingly.

“Because the bread crumbs symbolize the sawdust Saint Joseph –and Jesus would-- create when they sawed wood to make furniture for their customers in Nazareth,”  she smiled.

Saint Joseph was also chosen the patron saint of Italy. One year, I think in the Middle Ages, there was a terrible drought in the country and people fervently prayed to him to save their crops and restore the virtually empty water wells. In an almost-mystical response to the ardent pleas of the devout peasants, massive rain showers soaked the parched land. Like Saint Joseph, Saint Patrick became the patron saint of Ireland when he was said to have driven out all the snakes in the country.

Grandma Theresa taught me to always wear red on Saint Joseph’s Day. Italians wear red on that feast day in the similar religious-based tradition that the Irish wear green on Saint Patrick’s Day!

There is another wonderful custom that my Grandmother faithfully practiced and passed down to me: If you pray to Saint Joseph and he answers your prayers, you must thank him by preparing a feast in his honor and asking others to eat from a table we call a “Saint Joseph’s Table”.

Traditionally, the grateful petitioner then opened their front door (only on the Feast Day?) and hung out a red flag so that anyone could enter their home and eat at the Table until they were satisfied. For obvious reasons, at 7244 S. Prairie Avenue, only invited guests were able to dine at the Saint Joseph’s Table.

This Feast Day was the one time my family members could invite acquaintances outside the family to come and eat. There were no chairs placed at the table. Diners would take a plate, fill it and, after eating, put the plate in the kitchen and leave. Then Grandma, Aunt Maffy and I would wash the dishes and place them back on the table for the next guests.

“What are we celebrating this year, Grandmacita?” I asked her one year.

“We are celebrating that your Uncle Al is getting stronger and healthier every day,“ she replied solemnly. “I have said nine novenas for him”, she added.

The nine novenas leading up to Saint Joseph’s Day is another custom. A novena is a special prayer that you would say over and over during the day for nine successive days. Each day you said a different prayer.

I prefer to think of myself as spiritual rather than religious. But I do believe in the power of prayer, so I offer you here the prayer to St. Joseph that my Grandma Capone claimed brought miracles.

O St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the Throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires. O St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, so that, having engaged here below your Heavenly power, I may offer my Thanksgiving and Homage to the most Loving of Fathers. O St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls, pray for us. Amen