By Nathan Smith

Al Capone is much more myth than man in the popular imagination. While the notorious gangster of 1920s Prohibition-era Chicago still lingers in our cultural consciousness, this image is one riddled with contradictions: of a mobster and a do-gooder; a man who sprayed silver bullets into the air from his car and helped feed the city's poor as he orchestrated some of the most cold-blooded murders in Chicago's history.

Although he was only leader of the infamous "Chicago Outfit" for only six years, Al Capone has remained permanently enshrined as one of America's most notorious criminals and still commands our attention almost a century later.

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Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/