Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was already 100 years old by the time Al Capone arrived, and the cells were austere. But not this one. This one, located in Cell Block 8, is where Capone spent eight months of his one year sentence.
According to Eastern State's website:
"Alphonse “Scarface” Capone got his first taste of prison life in Philadelphia. He stopped in Philadelphia while traveling from Atlantic City back to his home in Chicago in May 1929. He was arrested outside a movie theater for carrying a concealed, unlicensed .38 caliber revolver.
The Philadelphia courts were tough. They handed Capone the maximum sentence: one year in prison. Capone served eight months of that sentence in this cell. But while the Philadelphia courts tried to make an example of Chicago’s famous bootlegger, the officials at Eastern State Penitentiary were nothing if not generous. They allowed Capone comforts not typically granted to inmates, including fine furniture, oriental rugs, oil paintings and a fancy radio. He liked to listen to waltzes in his cell.
Capone’s arrest came at a time of escalating mob violence in Chicago, and he was often accused of hiding in prison intentionally. He spent thousands of dollars trying to get himself released, and he denied all his life that he came to Philadelphia to hide."
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