FBI files indicate that Al Capone was at one point a fully inducted made man in the American Mafia, holding the rank of captain in what would later become known as the Genovese crime family. The Brooklyn-born gangster moved to Chicago as a young man around 1918 and linked up with mobster Johnny Torrio. After the murder of their boss Big Jim Colosimo in 1920, Torrio and Capone built a powerful criminal organization. In 1925, Torrio survived an assassination attempt by the North Side gang and subsequently handed the operation over to Capone.
During the late 1920s, Capone found himself in conflict with mobster Joseph Ielo, who was vying for control of the Union Siciliana and criminal operations in Chicago. Ielo aligned himself with Bugs Moran’s North Side gang against Capone. According to FBI files based on information from influential mobster Nicola Gentile, boss of bosses Joe Masseria initially tried to mediate the dispute but eventually sided with Capone. The FBI documented that Ielo would lose large sums gambling with Capone’s associates, then raid Capone’s games and forcibly take back much more than he lost.
Capone made payments to Masseria for protection, but a dispute arose between Masseria and Ielo. In retaliation, Masseria brought Capone into his New York family with the rank of capo decina in Chicago, authorized the killing of Ielo, and war broke out between the two factions. Another FBI file provides further detail, stating that Capone was explained the organization of the Mafia and the privileges of becoming part of the family. He was elected a capo decina with authority to select ten trusted followers who, despite being in Chicago, would be subject to the New York family led by Masseria.
Capone and his men all reported ultimately to Masseria. It has been speculated which ten Chicago-based men Capone may have inducted. Two potential names are Davy Petillo and Salvatore Calombrano, both of whom later moved to New York and became noted figures in the Genovese crime family. Additional links connect Capone to the family.
One FBI file states that Genovese family mobster Generoso Deluca helped finance Capone’s rise in the Chicago underworld. Another respected Genovese mobster, Gaetano “Tony” Ricci, operated in Chicago early in his career. One file states that when Ricci came to New York from Chicago, Capone sent word to Salvatore D’Agata to take care of him, and as a result Ricci became a big shot in the New York underworld. Ricci kept his Chicago contacts for the rest of his criminal career and was often used as a liaison between the Genovese family and the Chicago Outfit.
One FBI file even links Capone to the plot to kill his own boss Masseria in 1931. According to the file, after a faction of Masseria’s followers fell, the remainder gave him an ultimatum. He opposed them, and Capone, a capo decina affiliated with Masseria’s family, was called by the group who, along with Vito Genovese, had decided to kill Masseria. After Masseria’s death in 1931, Capone and his group were recognized as their own organization, and any official allegiance to Masseria’s former family, now led by Charles Luciano, was presumably gone.
So if the FBI files are accurate, for a brief period of a couple of years, Al Capone was a member of what is now known as the Genovese crime family and was indeed a fully inducted made man in the American Mafia.