Capone spent his early years near his home on the docks of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He was a good student in his youth, but when he was 14, he struck a teacher in the face while attending P.S. 133. According to some sources, Capone was expelled, while others claim he left school on his own. In any event, he never returned. ¹⁾

Capone went to work after graduating from high school, working at a candy store, a bowling alley, and a local bindery. ²⁾

With his brother Ralph, he was a player of a semi-pro Brooklyn baseball team. ³⁾

At the same time as he worked respectable employment, Capone was a member of street gangs that specialized in minor crime and destruction. In addition to the South Brooklyn Rippers and Junior Forty Thieves, Capone joined Johnny Torrio's James Street Boys gang, where he became Torrio's protégé; and at 16, Capone joined the Five Point Gang, named after the notorious 19th-century Manhattan slum.⁴⁾