Allen Barra

According to historical writer Allen Barra, popular culture portrayals of legendary gangsters such as Al Capone are largely incorrect and responsible for the public's widely held misconceptions about real—life gangsters. In the following selection Barra clears up several popular myths about several notorious members of organized crime, arguing that misconceptions about Capone make him the world's most overrated gangster.

MOST OVERRATED GANGSTER: AL CAPONE. IT'S amazing what a hit TV series and a few popular movies can do for a guy's image. Al Capone and Eliot Ness are inextricably locked together in the mythology of twentieth—century American gang warfare, yet they never met and had practically nothing to do with each other. Capone, of course, made Ness famous, not the other way around. Capone was the bestknown gangster in America in his own lifetime, and no one...