Chicago, November 12th, 1955.
It's a big day for the multi-millionaire businessman.
Not surprising, he has just been elected head of the state
with more than 75% of the vote.
For Governor Capone, the question is
who didn't vote for me?
The son of immigrants, Al Capone has climbed
every rung of the criminal ladder.
At 45, he was already the undisputed boss
of the crime syndicate.
Becoming a millionaire through sales of bootleg liquor,
the gangster is now a respectable,
and super rich, businessman.
His property empire,
built on the corpses of his former enemies,
is today 100% legal, but none of this ever happened.
In 1930, a tiny grain of sand will change the course of
an investigation and toss Al Capone behind bars on Alcatraz.
Our history is no more than a serious of incredible events.
Every one of us can influence its course.
(exciting rock music)
The most infinitesimal of our decisions
can influence the future of humanity.
To know the past is to foresee the future.
(ominous music)
December 18th, 1917.
Under pressure from the influential Wayne Wheeler,
the U.S. Congress adopts the 18th Amendment.
February 14th, 1929, St. Valentine's Day.
Al Capone's henchmen execute seven members of a rival gang.
October 24th, 1931, the gangster Al Capone
is sentenced to 11 years in jail for tax fraud.
These three events are key moments in the rise,
and then the fall, of the most notorious American gangster,
Al Capone.
England, 1620.
The Mayflower has just set sail for the new world.
Aboard, 200 puritans determined to flee persecution.
They are driven by the conviction they need to found
a new society in America.
A purer, and strictly Christian, society.
For them, all pleasure is suspect.
Temptation is too great, sin is never far.
Two centuries later, the United States,
made rich by wave after wave of immigrants,
remains profoundly steeped in the ideal
of those first pioneers.
Rigid discipline in life and unshakeable faith in God.
And yet, right in the heart of the Republic,
alcohol flows freely.
In 1830, the average citizen drinks the equivalent of
88 bottles of whiskey per year.
Alcohol is everywhere.
When not working, men go to the saloon.
There they talk business, politics,
but they also drink their fill.
And at that time, there is no form of protection
against conjugal violence.
The impact on family life is devastating.
All levels of society are effected.
From workers to judges, as well, of the preacher.
However, in the mid 19 century,
more and more voices are raised
to denounce the evils of alcohol.
This movement, born of Protestant ceremonies,
will spread and grow.
Its objective?
Cleanse the country by abolishing
the consumption of alcohol.
This is the beginning of the long march towards prohibition.
(glass shattering)
Across the country, women will emerge from their homes
to mount an assault on drunkenness.
Blockade of saloons, demonstrations, political pressure,
wrecking of establishments, all methods are good
to make their voice heard.
And they succeed.
At the beginning of the 20th century,
some 10 American states have gone dry with no alcohol.
But for Wayne Wheeler, the most influential politician
in the United States, this is not enough.
At the head of the Anti-Saloon League,
he wants more than a simple law,
he wants to carve prohibition into the marble slab
of the constitution.
On December 18, 1917, after a century of struggle,
Congress adopts the 18th Amendment to the Constitution,
banning the production, the sale, and the transport
of spirits within the territory of the United States.
So at this point,
the restriction only applies to hard liquor,
but just before the amendment comes into effect,
the Volstead Act completes, and extends, the ban
to all drinks containing more than 0.5 degrees of alcohol.
For Americans, it's take to take a last drink.
Welcome to the memory of humanity.
Here we can control time, analyze, and compare
billions of events and alter them
to rewrite history, endlessly.
All the events in our history,
however minute they might be,
are memorized and interconnected.
It only requires one to be changed
for all the others to be shaken to the core.
For example, let's try to understand the effect of alcohol
on the human body.
Alcoholic fermentation is a chemical process,
during which sugars are turned into ethanol.
This procedure has been know to man for thousands of years.
When swallowed, the alcohol arrives in the stomach,
and then, in the small intestine.
It passes into the blood, from which it spreads
to all the organs, in particular, the liver and the brain.
The first effects are slight euphoria,
a partial lifting of inhibitions,
and an increase in reaction time.
But, in high doses, motor functions are effected,
leading to possible vomiting loss of consciousness,
or even death.
Over the long term, excessive consumption may trigger
numerous diseases, sometimes fatal ones.
As often the case, it's all a question of moderation.
A total ban on consumption of alcohol.
For a large number of Americans, it's something of a joke.
One law, amongst others that, in any case,
will never be applied.
(glasses clinking)
But, the saloons start to close one after the another,
distilleries fire their workers,
stocks are impounded or even destroyed.
A special target?
The breweries, generally run by German immigrants.
(upbeat blues music)
Clearly, this is for good.
The law's applied to the letter, and zealously.
The first positive effects are quickly felt.
Fewer deaths, no more drunks in the streets,
less brawls outside bars.
For the saloon owners, there are only two options left.
Respect the law or turn their cellar into an illegal bar.
(rat squeaking)
It's the birth of the speakeasys.
The hangout of those who scoff at the laws.
Scofflaws, where you can order your bourbon from the barman,
but only if you whisper.
To supply them, the bootleggers, or smugglers,
dream up increasingly ingenious strategies.
Out in the country, they start instilling their own alcohol,
often at night, in the woods, by the light of the moon.
To drink and flout the law,
soon becomes, not only a desire, but a duty too.
People think the government has no right
to dictate how they behave.
Even the President of the United States
has his own personal stock at the White House.
The speakeasys become the new temples
of fashionable society.
Places of worship in an amazing age
when women have won their place next to men,
at the same time as their right to vote.
A time when jazz and the blues are almost more intoxicating
than bootleg whiskey.
A time when the cities are sprouting skyscrapers.
A time outside of time, the roaring 20s.
In the first 20 months of the application of prohibition,
100 million liters of bootleg alcohol are consumed,
right under the nose of the State.
To fight the recalcitrant element,
the Feds disposed of a budget
of a mere three million dollars.
On the ground, they have one agent
per 70 thousand population.
For the city of New York alone,
it is estimated they would need 250,000,
and the same number to watch over those very agents
because the administration is no fool.
Corruption is rife.
From neighborhood cops who turn a blind eye,
to the federal agents who hold the secret dives to ransom,
the house is rotten from basement to attic.
Then, the gang robbed the train.
The power to ban.
Passing a law is one thing,
being able to apply it is another.
The 18th Amendment ran against the majority of opinion.
It was all about an influential group
imposing its vision of things
and its morality on an entire country.
By choosing to defy this law, considered to be unjust,
a large part of the population stepped outside the law.
What would happen in France if a pressure group
banned cheese, or wine?
What if tobacco were made illegal?
How many people would cross the line?
The whole question, a difficult one to decide,
is to determine if a ban if just or not.
Should we legalize cannabis, heroin, firearms?
In every case, it's as much about
the removal of individual freedom,
as a problem of health or of public safety.
The question is made even more complex when we know
that any ban is immediately met with the emergence of
an illegal smuggling network.
Doesn't the result risk being worse than the cause?
1917, New York.
In the fog of alcohol and tobacco,
a jazz concert can quickly turn into a settling of scores.
The man slashed with a razor
won't easily forget what just happened.
Of Italian origin, he is a member of the New York mafia.
His name is Alphonse, soon he's quite simply, Al.
Al Capone.
The son of immigrants, Al Capone starts
right at the bottom of the ladder.
Spotted for his special talents,
he becomes right-hand man to gangster Johnny Torrio.
Of a violent character,
he leaves New York for Chicago in 1918.
He needs to disappear,
but retirement is asking too much of Capone.
With Johnny Torrio, he orders the murder
of the local godfather and immediately takes his place.
Bootlegging, dives, prostitution, racketeering,
Capone dips his toe into everything crooked.
He's violent and dangerous, acts fast and strikes hard.
The authorities are no threat, they are easily bribed.
His real enemies?
The Irish gangs from the Northern neighborhoods.
This is no time for compromise,
but for conquering territory.
(guns firing)
Under pressure from Irish bullets,
Torrio flees Chicago and returns to Italy.
Alone, Capone wages a merciless war with his sworn enemies.
The authorities, corrupt, look away
and allow him to clean up.
Whoever controls the liquor traffic, controls Chicago.
And yet, in the eyes of the general public,
Capone enjoys a Robin Hood image.
The Prince of Thieves flouting an unfair law.
Colorful, and a media darling,
the crook doesn't bother to hide.
Opera, fur coats, dog races, and armored Cadillac.
He taunts the authorities, defies his opponents,
and even makes the front page of Time.
At barely 30, he is all-powerful in Chicago.
The state of Illinois, corrupt from top to bottom,
can no longer stop him.
February 14th, 1929, St. Valentine's Day,
seven members of the Irish, North side gang
have a meeting in a warehouse to take delivery of a load.
Suddenly, cops appear.
Nobody resists.
The Irish mobsters know perfectly well
that they'll soon be free.
They are told to put down their weapons
and line up against a wall.
(rapid gun fire)
Capone's men, disguised as cops,
riddle the mobsters with lead,
then calmly leave under the cover of their uniforms.
Behind them, a pool of blood and still smoking shells.
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
will deeply shock public opinion.
For the authorities, it's the last straw.
Always more.
The gangsters who defy prohibition, will wage a real war.
At first, armed with simple revolvers,
they equip themselves with automatic weapons
and evermore powerful vehicles.
The famous Tommy gun, designed by General Thompson,
can fire 700 rounds per minute.
This high rate of fire,
and its intensive use by the gangsters,
earn it the nicknames Chicago Typewriter, or Piano.
At sea, Coast Guard vessels, now faster and faster,
disrupt the smugglers, who respond by converting
airplane engines to drive their launches.
At high speeds, these engines, running on aviation fuel,
risk overheating and explosion.
For each new weapon, a fresh response,
always more effective.
It's a race to violence.
Atlantic City, May 1929.
The entire underworld is gathered today
to put an end to the violence that is harming business
and splitting up territories.
This gangster conference is to lay the foundations
of a crime syndicate for the United States.
United, they will be able to bribe whomever they wish.
Capone, richer than ever,
is a leading figure at the meeting.
However, this hard-to-control Italian, starts to irritate.
Fearing he'll be murdered, Capone gets himself arrested
and finds temporary refuge in jail.
However, other people are out hunting
for public enemy number one.
On the shores of Lake Michigan,
more and more voices are raised against
the mob's strangle hold on the city of Chicago.
Financed by a mystery committee, dubbed the Secret Six,
Special Agent Elliot Ness, reputedly incorruptible,
is given the mission of putting Capone behind bars.
President's orders.
The investigator surrounds himself with a reduced squad
of reliable policeman, hand picked, experts in their field.
Weapons handling, offensive driving, phone tapping,
hand-to-hand combat.
Rather than attack the bars, the visible tip of the iceberg,
Ness decides to target the source.
He tells the delivery trucks,
working back up to the breweries and distilleries.
A series of spectacular raids ensues.
One after another, Capone's wells dry up.
But the gangster has to face another danger.
Ness and his squad are merely the muscle
of a wider operation.
While Capone was fighting tooth and nail for his breweries,
Special Tax Agent Frank J. Wilson,
was sifting through his life, his accounts, his assets.
Strangely enough, his mission is not to prove that Capone
was in breach of prohibition.
His weapon is a recently passed law.
From now on, all income,
even that derived from illegal activity,
must be declared for tax.
The gangsters are caught in the trap.
If they don't declare, they are charged.
If they do declare, it's an admission of their smuggling.
However, for the moment, it's impossible to link Capone
to his vast fortune.
The wiley villain only ever pays in cash,
and keeps no written evidence of his dealings.
Then, one day in 1930, inspector Wilson happens across
a forgotten item in the file.
In this account book, a note mentions a certain Al.
We have just reached a turning point.
A turning point is a key event, a crossroads,
in our history where the world swings one way, or the other.
Special Tax Agent Wilson has just unearthed an old file
seized during an earlier search.
In the file is a hand-written note.
Seemingly ordinary, incriminating a certain Al.
When subject to expert analysis,
it will provide a trail back to Al Capone.
What would've happened if this document had remained
under a stack of files?
Unable to link the mafia man to his activities,
the investigation would've gone on for years.
Years in which Capone would've continued his
relentless progression.
At the head of a powerful crime syndicate,
he would've had the financial, and political, means
to bend any judge to his will,
and any senior civil servant.
He might even had been tempted by a political career.
After rigged elections, the biggest gangster of all time
could've found himself at the head of the state of Illinois.
A gangster at the head of a state.
Al Capone.
Undisputed boss of the Chicago underworld.
Asked to face 23 charges before a federal court,
the legal machine is in motion,
and its aim is to put the crook behind bars
once and far all.
Confident, and arrogant, Capone doesn't see
that the wind has turned.
True to himself, he bribes the jury.
But to general surprise, the implacable judge
has the jury replaced.
Clearly more talented at handling out a beating,
than with tax matters,
Capone makes a poor choice of lawyers.
His defense makes several mistakes.
On October 24th, 1931, the verdict is announced.
Capone is found guilty of tax evasion,
and is sentenced to 11 years in jail.
The villain was beaten by an accountant.
Handcuffed, escorted by Elliot Ness,
Capone has lost his permanent smirk,
and the comedy is over.
The infamous Al Capone will rot away for years,
in the no less infamous, Alcatraz prison.
The agents of prohibition won that round,
but they are soon to be disenchanted,
because in the meantime, on October 29th, 1929,
the American economy suffered one of the worst days
in its history: Black Thursday.
The day when 13 million shares sold at rock bottom.
When the stock exchange collapsed,
when America was brought to its knees.
This unprecedented financial crisis goes global.
Soon, faced with economic chaos, the restrictive, Puritan
prohibition laws no longer seem relevant.
The state needs money,
and wants to bring back taxes on alcohol.
Despite the millions of bottles seized,
and the more than 53,000 sentences,
prohibition is finally defeated from the inside.
On February 20th, 1933, Congress adopts the 21st Amendment,
which repeals the 18th.
(exciting guitar music)
Each state remains free to manage the alcohol question
as it sees fit,
but the Federal state decides it is no longer its problem.
Gangsters are the biggest losers in the change.
Legal alcohol is sold much more cheaply.
They turn to other interests because, luckily for them,
the United States has no shortage of laws to break,
restrictions to get around, vices to pander to,
but that is another story.
The history of the United States
is written to the rhythm of its crusades
against slavery, alcohol, communism,
and today, Islamist terrorism.
On each occasion, laws were passed to restrict, by force,
and establish a virtuous America.
Prohibition was a rearguard action led by Americans
of the old Protestant stock,
against the new American immigrants.
The 18th Amendment was the last great victory
of these defenders of the past.
Taking advantage of the windfall,
gangsters, like Al Capone, where able to convert
that formidable American spirit of enterprise,
to create a real crime syndicate.
Ironically, prohibition opened the country's doors
to the mafia.
(intense booming music)
In the United States, individual freedom
is a founding value,
in a country where everyone has the right
to do what you want,
and live life as they understand it.
Eduction is often more effective than imposition.
(intense music)