Why are gangsters like Al Capone glorified?

[Julie4]

[Lliam]

Capone came to power in the roaring 20s. His "outfit" made money mostly on liquor, as well ask gambling. This was during prohibition. People wanted booze and people liked to party, go to speak easies, and gamble. So that didn't make Capone unpopular. In fact, he was probably a lot more popular that the government that had passed prohibition, and the prohibition agents who raided businesses and destroyed liquor.

He was also a spiffy dresser and a celebrity. He was in the press a lot. And I doubt if anything was ever printed about his involvement in gang murders because there was never any proof. Any claims that he was would have been slander. He was never convicted of anything.

After the stock market crash in 1929, that started the Great Depression, he opened up a soup kitchen that served 5000 people a day.

So I'll bet a large portion of the population in Chicago admired him.
And because he was rich and famous, I'm sure a lot of people across the country admired him.

Most of the other gangsters like Bonny and Clyde, John Dillinger, and Pretty Boy Floyd all began their careers during the Great Depression and got famous for different reasons than Capone.

I think the reason they are glorified is because of 1930s gangster movies with great actors like James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and many more. It became a movie genre. The gangsters dressed in cool clothes, drove cool cars, lived large, and were exciting, "bad boys". And the movies were exciting, full of suspense, murder and violence. Just the kind of thing many people like today.

[Chazmatazz269]

Because they were actually good dudes. There are a number of books written by people who lived with these “gangsters” in their hay day. Almost invariably, if you lived in the neighborhood, they knew your name and treated you like family. As long as you didn’t try to steal from them or rat on them, they took care of you. They were really only adversarial with government agencies and competing “crime” organizations. More often than not, they were self-made men too. And that’s long been the American dream.

[Greergr]

The exact reasons men aspire to be and glorify Thomas Shelby and Don Draper. We see these men being unapologetically masculine with their violence and dominant personalities. This is only boosted when they are portrayed pulling in gorgeous women and having the sex men want. When these characters are displayed on Sopranos and other media, this idea is that all gangsters are the "men" to aspire to be. It's almost the same when women read Twilight and consume similar media where it portrays the only desirable women as a set of arbitrary standards; so they try to fit into these standards that they will believe inevitably leads to male attention and validation.

[Kissskissbangbang]

Hmm good question. He became very popular and movies were made about him not long after. Movies from the 60s and 70s were anything but educational 😂 all they did was glorify him, whether they intended to or not. And thus, the glorification continues. Not to mention you have films like The Godfather which is absolutely nothing but glorification of the Mafia, which Al Capone was a part of sooo...

[Guanfei]

There's the idea that they were "gangsters with honor", following rules, going against the government, and often helping poor people.
Some sort of "Robin Hood".
Of course reality is far from it, but it's true that, unlike most criminals today, they tried to get the support of people by helping them or the community. It was in their interest, but they did it.

[ManOnFire]

A lot of people in today's times champion villains anyway. I'm not with it, but it is a disease in our world nowadays.

[John_Doesnt]

Because damn it feels good to be a gangster!

[Kaneki05]

Well that's a dumb question. Every famous villain in this world and fiction is by definition glorified right away. Even Hitler was liked by many.

[exitseven]

THey are bigger than life figures. People think they are basically good guys and movies and TV portray them as such. In reality most of these guys are murderers and sociopaths.

[Cubus]

Al Capone was damn unlucky. EXACTLY on the date of his 21th birthday they introduced a prohibition :D

Who wouldn't get angry?

[jamesgoldman]

People don't like the government and often admire those who take a stand against them

[IsoUser]

He literally died from Syphilis how can that freaking loser be glorified in any way shape or form? He was just some street thug loser!!

[Iron_Man]

They are extremely popular why I don’t know I guess they do things their way and defy the government

[TwoToTooTutu2]

They pay people to make them look good. Propaganda if you will.

[driven159]

because they portrayed as the little guy beating the big bad Government guys

[Anonymous]

I think what he did is he robbed from the wealthy and gave to the poor. He also ran a bootlegging syndication.

[joeldalton]

People, Americans in particular, admire outlaws.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

Evil people like evil and admire evil.

[monkeynutts]

I have no idea.

[fireforeffect]

Not in my house!