Behind the public image of a crime boss sits a history of coercion, victims and criminal prosecutions. These profiles follow the rise of notorious American gangsters and the evidence that brought their cases into court.
This is a selection of documented cases, rather than a numerical ranking of danger. Allegations, historical attribution and proved convictions are distinguished in each profile.
A Treasury investigation reconstructed Capone’s income and secured five tax convictions in 1931. An eleven-year sentence took him from Chicago to federal prison, including Alcatraz.
The Gambino boss’s 1992 trial combined intercepted conversations with an insider’s testimony. A jury found him guilty on all thirteen counts, and the federal court imposed life imprisonment.
Bulger’s Boston racketeering trial proved a role in eleven murders. His story also exposed a corrupt informant relationship and later failures surrounding his fatal transfer between federal prisons.
