Like many bar-room fights this one started over a girl. Blood was spilled because someone dared to insult an Italian’s sister. To fight for the honor of your family is a noble, time honored tradition. Today most people courageously rely on lawyers to do their dueling for them. The fight lasted only a few minutes, but the story is in the history books forever. It was the night an infamous nickname was carved with a knife.
The year is 1917. The place — a nightclub on Coney Island in New York. An Italian named Frank Gallucio is out on the town with his all grown up baby sister. To everyone else baby sister is a very attractive young lady and one of the men working at the bar is smitten by her looks. The young man is constantly walking past their table, staring at her with seemingly X-ray vision eyes and eventually he does the unthinkable, and makes a rude and crude remark about one of Frank’s sister’s attractive physical attributes.
What exactly did he say? Well, if I was to repeat the remark word for word than I would be insulting some out-for-blood Italian guy’s sister. I will tell you that the part of her body in question swings gracefully right to left, back and forth when she walks.
Needless to say, to Frank, the man’s words are fighting words. Unforgivable! The battle to defend his sisters’ and his families’ honor is on. When you are fighting for the honor of your family they naturally expect you to win the fight. Frank has a serious problem, his punches fail to hurt the man; they just make him mad.
Personally, I would have asked my sister for some help, (after all my butt would be getting kicked because of hers) – but not Frank – who instead whips out a switchblade and slashes his opponent’s face three times. He then grabs his sister and they wisely flee the scene.
The injured man was just starting out in life when at the age of eighteen the left side of his face was permanently marked by a knife. The deeper wound that he was forced to endure to the end of his days was hearing the nickname that he hated most: Scarface — Scarface Al Capone.
Defending one’s honor works both ways, and Capone let it be known that he would kill the man who disfigured him or die trying. Luckily, Lucky Luciano intervened and ordered Al to apologize to Frank for insulting his sister, and to swear that he would never seek revenge.
As the years went by and Al’s power and standing in the syndicate increased, he kept faith with his promise. When Frank ended up unemployed, Al hired him and paid him generously. My guess is Frank showed the proper respect to Al and referred to him as the boss and never once as Scarface. Likewise Al probably never asked his fellow Italian about his sister. The good old days when men could settle their differences without calling their lawyers.
They call me Chicago Kenny and I conduct historical tours of Chicago.
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