Miami Vices

Chicago mob boss Al Capone (right) first visited Miami Beach in 1928. He told friends it as “the sunny Italy of the New World.” At the waterfront mansion he soon bought, opera great Enrico Caruso provided the entertainment for his first party. Snobby Beach elitists tried and failed to get Capone kicked out since they charged his home was a haven for “gangsters and racketeers.” Except for a stint in prison, he stayed until his 1947 death. During his final years, crippled with syphilis-induced dementia, Capone was wheeled out to the water’s edge outside his mansion, and then quickly rolled inside when sightseeing boats drew near.