The legendary Brooklyn-born mobster, who ruled gangland Chicago during Prohibition, is best known for his 1929 "Valentine's Day Massacre" of seven members of rival bootlegger Bugs Moran's gang. 1" was transferred to Alcatraz. Meanwhile, on orders from President Herbert Hoover to nail Capone, the federal government built a case against the crime boss for income-tax fraud, and in June 1931, he was indicted on charges of tax evasion. He was sentenced to 11 years behind bars and fined $50,000; it was the harshest sentence delivered for tax fraud up to that point. Two years later, in August 1934, he and a group of fellow inmates were sent by train to California then transported to the recently opened federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. In January 1947, the 48-year-old Capone suffered a stroke then came down with pneumonia; he died at his Florida home on January 25.
– Did notorious gangster Al Capone have a soft spot? An intimate letter he penned from prison suggests so. The three-page letter, which being auctioned off next week, is addressed to Capone's son, Albert "Sonny" Capone. The mobster signed it, "Love & Kisses, Your Dear Dad Alphonse Capone #85" (his number at the Alcatraz prison), the AP reports. "Well heart of mine, sure hope things come our way for next year, then I'll be there in your arms," Capone wrote. "It's an exceedingly rare personal letter showing the softer side of the notorious gangster," says the executive VP of RR Auction, which is handling Monday's auction in Cambridge, Mass., and expects the note to fetch around $50,000. The legendary Brooklyn-born mobster, who ruled gangland Chicago during Prohibition, was charged with income tax evasion in 1931; he was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison, much of which he spent at Alcatraz. He was released from prison in 1939; riddled with syphilis, he suffered a stroke and died in 1947 at age 48. Though the letter to his then-college-aged son is dated only "Jan 16th," experts say he likely wrote it in 1938, four years after he transferred to Alcatraz. In a somewhat surprisingly cheerful tone, his letter describes the daily grind in prison, which Capone tried to relieve by playing banjo and mandola. Capone ended the letter encouraging his son to stay strong: "Well Sonny keep up your chin, and don't worry about your dear Dad, and when again you [are] allowed a vacation, I want you and your dear Mother to come here together, as I sure would love to see you." Read more from the letter here.