Al Capone | The Man They Called Scarface

It's 1929, and Chicago is a city ruled by vice, a place where the streets regularly run red with blood.

But today, there's crimson in the windows and flowers in the stores.

It's Valentine's Day in the Windy City.

White flurries of snow tumble through the sky as Albert Weinshank hustles through Lincoln Park, one of Chicago's working-class neighborhoods.

The 35-year-old mobster is hurrying to meet his colleagues at a discreet garage.

Their boss, Bugs Moran, has scored a shipment of Old Log Cabin whiskey, and everyone is expected to be there when the deal goes down.

Even Moran himself is supposed to show his face today, because the seller has insisted on him being there to close the deal.

Checking his watch, Weinshank picks up the pace.

He dashes across a slushy street, ignoring traffic.

Then he turns a corner and approaches the garage.

He slides open the heavy metal door and steps inside.

The garage is barely warmer than it is outside, and the air reeks of gasoline and exhaust.

A radio plays feebly, the snowy weather playing havoc with the reception.

And under a single grimy light bulb, the gang's mechanic, Johnny May, makes some repairs to a truck.

His dog, Highball, sits beside him, his tail thumping on the cold concrete.

Milling around the garage are five other men.

They all turn at the sound of Weinshank's entrance, expecting to see their boss stroll in ready to complete the deal.

And at first glance, a couple of them mistake Weinshank for Moran.

The two have a similar look, but realizing who it is, they relax, ribbing Weinshank for trying to copy the boss's fashion sense.

But Weinshank's resemblance to Moran is no laughing matter.

After all, Moran is a wanted man.

Highball's ears go up and he barks protectively, right before the heavy garage door opens once more.

Two cops walk in to the dim space.

Behind them, a couple of guys in plainclothes, and all of them are armed.

Shotguns and tomes.

Someone turns off the radio.

The new arrivals announce that they're here to stop an illegal shipment of whiskey.

Then the cops order everyone to line up against the walls so they can be cuffed and taken in for questioning.

Weinshank and the other gangsters do as they're told, but they're not worried.

With the gang's connections on the force, they won't be in custody long.

Unfortunately, in this one instance, resisting arrest might have been the better idea, because while their backs are turned and they raise their hands, they don't see the cops raise their guns.

The gangsters fall where they stand.

As Albert Weinshank breathes out his last ragged breaths, his blood spills onto the floor, turning the barely lit concrete a dark valentine red.

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Thank By the time of the St.

Valentine's Day Massacre, the gangs of Chicago had enjoyed almost a decade of spectacular profits.

Prohibition had been in effect since the beginning of 1920, making it illegal to produce or sell alcohol throughout the country.

The law might have changed in America, but Americans hadn't.

Booze was still big business, nowhere more so than in Chicago.

People were willing to pay high prices for drinks served in illicit speakeasies and so-called soda parlors.

That made alcohol smuggling incredibly lucrative.

Of course, it also made it incredibly competitive.

For years, it was a never-ending, deadly game of one-upmanship as mob bosses tried to prove they were the top dog in Chicago.

By 1929, however, there was no doubting who Chicago's big fella was.

Al Capone sat at the head of an operation spanning every vice and racket in the city.

He ran his outfit with an iron fist and a dead-eyed smile, and he seemed untouchable.

But although he enjoyed a level of celebrity many can only dream about, Capone had his fair share of enemies in Chicago and beyond.

While he built his own twisted version of the American Dream, he'd attract at a robes gallery of foes who all wanted a bite of organized crime's top dog.

Like castles made of sand, Capone's empire couldn't last forever, and the fallout from the St.

Valentine's Day Massacre was just the first in a series of waves that would knock down everything Capone had spent his life building.

This is the first episode in our four-part series about Al Capone, the man they called Scarface.

It's 1895 in the US.

Immigration Offices on Ellis Island, New York Harbor.

In a vaulted hall, hundreds of newly arrived migrants line up to complete their paperwork.

The room is a cacophonous symphony of different languages, crying babies, and the dull thud and shuffle of luggage.

Among those waiting in line is an exhausted young couple from Italy.

29-year-old Gabriele Capone's arms are full of battered suitcases.

His wife, Teresa, keeps a firm grip on their two young sons.

Around them, hundreds of immigrants stand in line, trepidation writ upon every face.

The exhausting journey across the Atlantic took its toll, but the Capones know that it was worth it, will be worth it.

Gabriele is a skilled baker and pasta maker.

He's sure he'll do well in America.

Like so many other Europeans, the Capones have heard about the boundless opportunities the United States has to offer.

Gabriele and Teresa are determined to show their children that if you work hard, anything is possible.

Hours drag on, and the Capones edge closer to the exit.

Finally, all that stands between them and their new life in America is one man and a stamp.

Nervous for this final hurdle, Gabriele takes the lead, handing over their passports with a shaky smile.

The immigration officer barely looks at the documents before he slams the stamp down onto the paper.

After months of planning and saving and worrying, it's done.

The officer jerks a thumb over his shoulder, pointing the Capones to the doors directly behind him.

Gathering up their luggage, Gabriele leads his family through the doors, out of the building, and into America.

The Capones come to the states with the best of intentions, but the family's life won't shake out like they imagine.

These two decent, hardworking immigrants will raise one of the most famous criminals in American history.

Al Capone isn't yet born when his family makes the long journey from Italy, but as his parents begin their new life in America, they'll unknowingly set their son on the path to becoming a legend of the underworld.

Brooklyn, in the late 19th century, defines the term ethnic melting pot.

It's already crowded with European families, fresh off the boat and eager to make good on what America has promised them.

So finding a place to live is hard for the Capones.

But by the end of 1895, the young family is settled into a tenement amongst other Italians near Brooklyn's navy yards.

It's not uncommon for new arrivals to have to squash into overcrowded housing, but it's certainly not pleasant.

Conditions for immigrants are rough in New York.

The city is rapidly expanding, and there aren't enough jobs to go around.

Despite his training in the culinary arts, Gabriele struggles to find work during his first couple of years in America.

Luckily, he's not the home's sole breadwinner.

Like many women in her community, Teresa is determined to help elevate her family out of poverty.

So, she picks up piecework for garment factories, which she can do from home while raising their children.

Meanwhile, Gabriele leaves pasta making behind and retrains as a barber.

Eventually, the family move into a small apartment above his brand new storefront.

It's there, on January 17th, 1899, that Alphonse Gabriele Capone is born.

It's a mixed upbringing for the young Al Capone.

At home with his parents and siblings, he sticks to Italian.

But out on the crowded streets of Brooklyn, playing alongside children of other immigrants, he speaks English.

And Capone will always identify as an American.

Later in life, he'll bristle whenever someone calls him Italian or even Italian-American.

Till the day he dies, he'll firmly correct people by saying, That strong sense of self radiates from Capone, even as a youngster.

By eight, he's gained a reputation for being a fierce fighter.

He's big for his age, and with a temper to match, few of his schoolmates dare to cross him.

But Capone isn't some mindless thug.

He's a smart kid with a particular knack for numbers.

Other poor parents in Brooklyn force their children to leave school early so they can get a job, start contributing in income.

But Gabriele and Teresa can see their son has some brains on him.

Although money is tight in the Capone household, they encourage him to continue his education as long as possible.

And Capone does well at the local Catholic school when he shows up.

And that's increasingly the problem.

As Capone gets older, he'd rather run around the streets with other hooligans like his older brothers than sit behind a desk at school.

Eventually, he'll skip so many days that he fails out of the sixth grade.

After that, at the age of around 12, Capone decides he's had enough book learning.

His disappointed parents insist that if Capone isn't at school, he'll at least have to work to earn his keep.

Some accounts have him working in a candy store.

Others say he set up pens in a bowling alley.

What seems certain is that sometime around 1913, Gabrielle brings home a shoe shine box for his teenage son.

He hopes to ignite an entrepreneurial spirit in the boy.

And the plan works.

Just not in the way Gabrielle imagined.

The 14-year-old Capone sets up his shoe shine box in the heart of Brooklyn, a couple of blocks away from the waterfront, at the intersection of Union and Columbia.

All around him, busy locals go about their lives, shopping at the stores and buying from street vendors.

It's the perfect place for an enterprising shoe shine boy to make a killing.

Capone's a confident kid and makes a persuasive salesman.

But on those first few days, he does so well that it's not long before other boys are flocking to the intersection with shoe shine boxes of their own.

Capone doesn't like the competition.

He'd rather work smart than hard.

But as he offers his shoe shine services on the crowded streets, Capone can help noticing the activities of a local Sicilian gang.

Muscle thugs go from store to store demanding protection payments from businesses of all sizes.

It's clearly good money.

And with the number of shoe shine boys around him growing, Capone's mind starts ticking over.

He does the math and comes up with a new business plan.

Inspired by the gangsters, Capone starts shaking down the other shoe shine boys in the area, insisting that they pay him for quote unquote protection.

Capone by himself is intimidating enough for a teenager, but he doesn't act alone.

For enforcers, he enlists other kids, thereby keeping his hands clean.

Before long, the 14-year-old has a sizable group of youngsters reporting to him as part of the racket, which they called the South Brooklyn Rippers.

Capone's making a tidy little income, but his set up eventually catches the attention of the full fledge gang leaders in the area, who strongly suggest that the kids knock it off.

The seed has been planted, however.

Honest work for honest pay doesn't sound so appealing to young Capone anymore.

And over the next couple of years, Capone will leave the Shoe Shine Boys behind and join with an established gang across the water in Manhattan.

At first, he runs around with a group of small-time crooks, but his antics with them soon catch the eye of a far more sophisticated criminal.

Even today, many consider Johnny Torio to be the smartest gangster America has ever seen.

He will prove to be the most important role model in Capone's life.

Born in Italy, Torio traveled to the United States as a child in 1882.

And like Capone, he displayed an early talent for criminal enterprise.

After leading a street gang of his own as a young man, Torio branched out into the more lucrative pursuits of gambling and loan sharking.

Torio's in his early thirties by the time he and Capone crossed paths.

His gang now boasts several legitimate businesses, but the mobster makes the bulk of his money from the numbers game, a popular if illegal forerunner to modern lotteries.

Similar schemes are run by various gangs throughout the city, but Torio is an unusual kind of mobster in many ways.

His success stems from his core belief that there's always enough business for everyone.

In Torio's eyes, rivalry between gangs may be understandable, but actively trying to eliminate the competition is a waste of time, money, and often lives.

Not all Torio's competitors hold such enlightened views, of course, so he keeps plenty of muscle around.

But he'll always favor the smart solution over the violent one.

That's why Capone rises fast in Torio's organization.

Not thanks to his muscles, but to his mind.

Capone becomes a runner, ferrying gamblers' bets across the city and using his mathematical skills to help tally up each day's take in the evening.

That gives the impressionable teen an intimate look at how Torio runs his operation.

He sees how the experienced mobster stays several degrees removed from the day to day of his businesses and rackets.

Torio trusts chosen men to handle his affairs properly, and Capone is soon one of them.

By the time he turns 16, he's one of the mobster's favorites.

The hands-off approach is what makes Torio confident enough to leave New York behind in search of new opportunities.

He heads for the second city, Chicago.

While he's away, he leaves Capone under the watchful eye of a trusted colleague, another mobster called Frankie Yale.

Around 1917, Capone starts working at Yale's bar on Coney Island.

At the age of 18, Al Capone's on a career path that will outstrip anything his father's shoe shine box could have provided.

After his rough and tumble start in Brooklyn, Capone's world will expand.

The new life awaiting him is filled with danger, excitement and more money than Capone has ever dreamed of.

It's a life of luxury and even fame, where violence is a currency and the price of doing business is sometimes murder.

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It's 1917, and on Coney Island, the Harvard Inn is bustling.

Owned by experienced gangster and racketeer Frankie Yale, the bar is mainly frequented by men on Yale's payroll, as well as other underworld associates and their guests.

18-year-old Al Capone has been working at the inn for a few months now.

Mostly, he's there as muscle to help keep customers in line, but sometimes he's behind the bar slinging drinks and getting to know some of the more storied mobsters who wander in off the street.

Tonight, he's doing just that, spending the night laughing at the tales of his elders.

It's got him in a good mood.

The future seems bright and full of possibility and adventure, but Capone is also full of booze, and the reckless abandonment usually inspires in him.

When a beautiful brunette walks across the bar to the restrooms, Capone lets his eyes drift up and down her figure.

The woman, who looks to be a couple of years older than Capone, has been sitting at a table with her friends, mostly men.

But now she's all alone, giving the young bartender the perfect opportunity to make his move.

When she leaves the ladies room a few minutes later, he calls out to her.

She looks over her shoulder and he slides her awake, tells her she's got a great set of pins.

The brunette rolls her eyes and keeps walking.

Unperturbed and still feeling bold, Capone steps out from behind the bar and catches up to the woman.

With all the bravado of a well-built teenager, he's determined to impress her.

But like most 18-year-olds, the kid's got no idea how to approach a woman.

So he tries something he's seen go down in the bar countless other times.

Wrapping his arm around her, he tries to compliment her figure again, telling her she's beautiful.

That's mistake number one.

Seconds after Capone grabs the woman, a man rushes over and tells Capone to keep his hands to himself.

But the teen doesn't give up so easily.

He brushes the stranger off, tells him to get lost.

Mistake number two.

The interloper is the woman's brother, and he doesn't take kindly to the way Capone's treating his sister.

But he knows that, like himself, the kid is one of Yale's men, so he gives him one more chance to back down.

Capone just laughs.

That's his final mistake of the night.

What happens next takes just seconds.

The brother seizes an empty glass and smashes it on the edge of a nearby table, then slashes Capone's face, leaving the team bloodied and furious, his pride wounded just as deeply as his cheek.

Capone throws a punch at his attacker, but other customers rush forward to pull them apart before anyone else gets hurt.

In the end, it's Frankie Yale who settles matters.

Once Capone's had his face bandaged and the broken glass has been swept away, Yale sets his two employees down.

He orders them to shake hands and put the incident behind them.

Capone was out of line, and the other man was justified in his actions.

End of story.

It's an important lesson for Capone.

There's no legal recourse for disputes between gangsters.

In this world, revenge is an acceptable form of currency, and the bloodier, the better.

Learning this is a crucial part of Capone's education, one that the teenager carries with him for the rest of his days.

As for the scars on his face, the stories about how he got them will evolve over the years until no one is ever really sure what the truth is.

Eventually, Capone will tell people he was injured fighting in France during the Great War.

But despite the conflicting rumors, the end result is the same.

The scars are a memorable feature of the gangster's appearance, and earn him a nickname he will always loathe.

Scarface.

Ever since Johnny Torrio relocated to Chicago, it's Frankie Yale who's taken care of Capone's ongoing education.

But despite the close partnership between Yale and Torrio, Capone's two teachers are nothing alike.

Torrio is genteel and refined, at least as far as mobsters go.

But Yale is an out-and-out brute.

Torrio's businesses include plenty of legitimate operations.

But Yale deals almost exclusively in extortion, protection rackets, loan sharking and kickbacks.

The kinds of business where a punch is more common than a handshake, and a meeting can end with a trip to the morgue.

It's Capone's hulking figure, rather than a sharp mind, that wins Yale's approval.

After his stint at the Harvard Yard Inn, Capone is promoted to the position of enforcer, where his size is an intimidating asset, and his healing scars are a signal that this is a man you don't want to mess with.

It's around this time, towards the end of 1917, that 18-year-old Capone begins a factory job in addition to his duties for Yale.

He gives his factory earnings to his mother and keeps the rest of his pay for himself.

But the most important thing he brings home from work is May Coughlin, an Irish woman a couple years older than him.

May works in the office of the factory, and the two are drawn together by their shared love of dancing, common experience as the children of immigrants, and a mutual attraction that's electric.

It's not long before things turn intimate.

Eventually, May discovers that she's pregnant.

The two don't marry right away, but still Capone takes responsibility.

When May has to quit her job because she's showing, he starts contributing money to her family to make up for the lost paycheck.

It's the beginning of December 1918, when their son Albert is born two months premature.

A few weeks later, Capone finally marries May and seemingly makes a vow to go straight.

For a number of months, perhaps even up to a year, Capone moves out of New York and heads to Baltimore.

There he works as a bookkeeper for a construction company.

While honing his business acumen and learning how to maintain pristine accounts, he diligently sends money home to his parents and his wife.

For a brief moment, it seems that Capone might be abandoning his criminal pursuits for a life of honest work.

But then, in November of 1919, his father, Gabriele, dies suddenly of a heart attack.

The unexpected event pulls Capone back to Brooklyn and back to a life of crime.

With a wife and child and now his mother to support, Capone doesn't have time to find another legitimate job.

So he goes back to what he knows best, taking orders from Yale and Torrio.

He's soon put to work, keeping an eye on Torrio's brothels to make sure the ladies of the house toe the line.

And if young Capone happens to fall into bed with some of them while he's there, it's no one's business but his.

He also performs collection duties for Yale.

If someone owes the mobster money, whether it's from a loan or a protection racket, Capone's backhand is a persuasive reminder that payment is due.

His work keeps him out for entire nights, and sometimes even has him absent from home for weeks at a time.

The trouble is that away from the stabilizing influence of family life, the new job unleashes Capone's more primal tendencies.

Those come to the fore one evening in late 1919.

Details about exactly what happened are slim, but the most common version of the story has Capone setting out to collect $1,500 that a small-time criminal owes Yale.

He hears that his target is playing in a neighborhood game of craps, so he sets out to intercept the guy before he can go underground again.

As it happens, Capone times his arrival perfectly and corners the mark right after he's cleaned up.

He's flush with cash, which Capone orders him to hand over.

Gun in hand and six foot of menace, Capone is hard to say no to.

But winning at the dice seems to have given the crook a shot of ill-advised confidence.

He talks back to Capone and threatens reprisals.

It's then that Capone decides that the cash isn't all he wants to take from his target.

Before anyone can do anything to stop him, Capone squeezes the trigger, shooting the guy dead.

It's the first murder Capone will be directly associated with, though certainly not the last.

But in what will become a recurring theme throughout the mobster's life, there are no witnesses to link him to the crime, or at least none that are willing to speak with the police.

Indeed, as Capone becomes more and more entwined in gang life, he learns that it's not the authorities he has to fear.

The real danger comes from other mobsters.

It's a world where crossing the wrong person can be a deadly mistake.

By 1919, Capone is a 20-year-old thug who's been wrapped up in gang violence for a dozen years.

He's made a name for himself, but that also makes him a target.

One evening, he's cornered by members of a rival gang, the White Hands.

They think they've got the best of him, but Capone gives as good as he gets, and then some.

He beats one of the other men nearly to death.

Capone walks away, his head held high.

He's sure he's defended his reputation on the streets, as well as that of his boss.

But that's not the end of the matter.

After the brawl, a prominent member of the White Hand swears vengeance and promises to shoot on sight if he comes across Capone.

It's a serious enough threat that Frankie Yale pulls Capone aside.

In the back room of his bar, he tells the young thug that he's not safe in New York anymore.

It's time to get out.

Luckily for Capone, Yale has a solution.

Their mutual acquaintance, Johnny Torrio, has put down roots in Chicago, and there's a place there for Capone.

If the young man knows what's good for him, he'll get on the first train out of town.

Capone doesn't want to leave New York.

It's the only home he's ever really known.

But he's a survivor.

So leaving his family behind for the time being, he packs a bag and heads for the Windy City.

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It's the afternoon of May 11th, 1920.

Al Capone has been in Chicago for several months.

His mentor, the Manhattan transplant Johnny Torrio, has brought him into the fold of his new setup in the city.

They're both working for Big Jim Colosimo, a powerful gangster in charge of a brothel-based empire spread across Chicago.

Today, while Capone works the door at one of Colosimo's establishments, the Don is about to head out to dinner with his wife.

But right before he leaves, he receives a phone call from his popular restaurant, Colosimo's Cafe, telling him that there's someone waiting to meet him there.

Not wanting to disappoint a customer or supplier, Colosimo tells his wife he'll meet her later and heads over to the cafe.

When he arrives at the restaurant, there's no one there.

Unworried, Colosimo disappears into his office to get some paperwork done in case the mystery man comes back.

Eventually, though, Colosimo's done waiting, so he puts his hat and coat back on and heads towards the front of the restaurant.

But before he even makes it to the front door, a gunman appears, seemingly out of nowhere.

He holds a revolver to the back of Colosimo's head and pulls the trigger.

Big Jim is dead before he hits the ground.

And although the restaurant staff get a good look at the gunman before he leaves, no one is willing to identify him in a line-up.

It seems everyone in Chicago knows that when it comes to gang violence, it's best to keep your mouth shut.

So the assassination goes unsolved.

And once the dust settles, the man left in charge of Colosimo's entire network of brothels is Johnny Torrio.

Although no one will ever be able to prove it, it's assumed that Torrio ordered the hit on his boss.

After all, the two mobsters were duking it out over the best strategy to capitalize on a new law that's already upending life across America.

In December of 1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the production, transportation and sale of alcohol anywhere in the United States.

The law came into effect just over two years later in January 1920.

The Prohibition Era had begun.

But now, months later, the citizens of Chicago remain staunchly opposed to the ban on booze.

Seeing the opportunity to make huge profits, Torrio has been acquiring breweries around Chicago so that he can meet the demand for illicit alcohol.

But when Colossimo wouldn't give his support to the scheme, he became an obstacle to Torrio's grand plans.

Now that Colossimo is gone, Torrio has a large network of brothels under his control.

And with the growing number of illegal speakeasies and breweries joining his stable, Torrio solidifies his place at the top of the Second City.

At his right hand sits a young upstart from Brooklyn with a mind for numbers and a drive to succeed.

Al Capone.

Capone's early responsibilities in Chicago are simple in nature.

First, he's just a bouncer at Torrio's Four Deuces Club, but he works his way up through the ranks over time and eventually assumes management of the venue.

In his time at the club, Capone proves himself a jack of all trades, willing and able to fill any role required of him.

That might be why Torrio, who has no children of his own, takes a particular interest in the young man.

Capone has an undeniable knack for this business, so Torrio takes deliberate steps to set him up as an eventual heir.

Soon, Torrio has him brought into his inner circle.

There, Capone gets a firsthand look at the decisions that keep Torrio head and shoulders above any would-be competitors.

Because while most mobsters are easily distracted by other avenues of crime, like hijackings, gang violence and robberies, Torrio is single-minded about running his business.

He knows that with a reliable supply of booze from his illegal breweries, there's no end to the money he can make.

And as long as his own speakeasies never run dry, Torrio is happy to sell his booze to other bootleggers and businesses as well.

This is where Capone really earns his keep.

His experience as an enforcer in New York, his natural charm and his quick mind for figures all make him great at bringing other Chicago businesses under Torrio's control.

Owners of pool halls, cigar stores, bars and the like are convinced to buy their alcohol from Torrio with very few actual threats from Capone.

His intimidating size and countenance are enough to secure their cooperation.

But while Capone is helping Torrio expand his empire within Chicago, the older mobster begins to look beyond the city limits.

He notices that Chicago's surrounding suburbs are an untapped market.

There are few bars or brothels, but plenty of room for them and plenty of potential customers.

When Torrio approaches suburban community leaders to make his proposals, he reminds them that nobody is really going to get hurt by his business.

It's just good, slightly illicit fun.

And of course, Torrio brings a roll of bills with him to sweeten the deal for the unpersuaded.

That tactic is one of the most important Capone has to learn from his mentor, the careful art of bribery.

The young man sees that it's not all that hard in Chicago to convince the authorities to look the other way when you grease their palms a little.

So with honeyed words and generous bribes, Torrio expands his operations across Chicago's south side and out into some of the more hospitable suburbs beyond.

However, while Torrio's expansion picks up steam and Capone takes careful note of how to play the game, there's a change on the horizon once again.

Much of Chicago's organized crime is enabled by the city's mayor, William Big Bill Thompson.

He's corrupt to his back teeth, and he's been happy to look the other way as the mob has taken over Chicago.

But as 1921 arrives, the two-term mayor is losing popularity, faces defeat at the next election.

And although that's not due until 1923, the prospect of a less permissive government casts cloudy skies over Torrio's Champagne Sea.

For a careful planner like Torrio, the next two years are going to be crucial, because although he's found a worthy heir in the young Al Capone, it will all be for naught if his empire can't weather the coming storm.

From Airship, this is episode one in our series about Al Capone.

On the next episode, as gangland wars turn Chicago streets red, Capone and Torrio orchestrate one of the most violent elections the United States has ever seen.

If you'd like to learn more about Al Capone, we recommend Mr.

Capone, The Real and Complete Story of Al Capone by Robert J.

Schoenberg, Capone, His Life, Legacy and Legend by Deidre Blair, and Get Capone, The Secret Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster by Jonathan I.

This episode may contain reenactments or dramatized details, and while in some cases we can't know exactly what happened, all our dramatizations are based on historical research.

American Criminal is hosted, edited and produced by me, Jeremy Schwartz.

Audio Editing by Mohamed Shazid.

Sound Design by Matthew Phillips.

Music by Thronk.

This episode is written and researched by Joel Callan.

Managing Producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are Joel Callan, William Simpson and Lindsey Graham for Airship.

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