Scarface Al Capone: Rare Miami Views of The Original Gangster

A hundred years ago, Scarface Al Capone was in Miami running Puerto Rican rhum through the shallow seagrass flats of Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, and Cutler Ridge

He moved thousands of gallons of real original Cuban Bacardi, Haitian Barbancourt, Jamaican Appleton, and the aforementioned Ron del Barrilito from PR.

Four of the best all original sugar cane stilled liquors from the Caribbean making for a big time blast of fun in the dull dry climes of the USA at the time, which was prohibition, the 1920's, when juice was illegal.

Capone ran skiffs full of illegal booze up the Miami River to a dock just off Tobacco Road and that's what really started Brickell.

"I'm not born here and I'm not from here, but I been here since the 80's," says local author Jacob Katel, who grew up eleven blocks out of the city in unincorporated Dade around South Miami, Coral Gables, and The Grove, "And the true history of the real Miami has still mostly never been written down in very many books. Books are powerful technology, and believe it or not, I been one of the top young rising historians of Miami for the past twenty years or so."

So if you are interested in some of the untold stories of the Al Capone Miami era, pick up my new book Scarface Al Capone: Rare View of The Original Gangster from my AORTA series which aims to deliver a breath of fresh air from the heartbeat of Miami through crime fiction, dirty humor, poetry, photography, word games, entertainment, creative non fiction, and more.

It doesn't matter if you've seen Boardwalk Empire twice, and the Sopranos seven times, you haven't really seen the true stories they came from.

It doesn't matter if you been to History museums or watched gangster movies or read other books of which there have been many about Al Capone. This book draws from hundred year old primary sources to give you a rare view into the genuine original articles that created the mythos that forged the archetype, and the context to understand how its tendrils have unfurled across the century, including through dramatic conflict with a variety of wild characters.

So if you like good stories, check it out.

amazon.com/Scarface-Al-Capone-Original-Gangster/dp/B0GSWMJVCM

©Jacob Katel 2026 all rights reserved. No Ai was used in this creation