Diedre Marie Capone's Book "Uncle Al Capone"
I am a Capone, My grandfather was Ralph Capone, listed in 1930 as Public Enemy #3 by the Chicago Crime Commission. That makes me the grand niece of his partner and younger brother, Public enemy #1 Al Capone. www.unclealcapone.com

Diedre Marie Capone occupies a very privileged position... she is the niece of probably the most famous gangster in the world... the man about whom more legendary stories and myths abound than you could possibly imagine... she is the last surviving member of the Al Capone family. Diedre talks about her infamous uncle and her recently released biography on his life. She speaks of secrets and little-known facts that the world never knew before.

"Ralph and Al Capone lobbied the Nevada legislature to legalize gambling, alcohol and prostitution in that state; that they were the owners of the first upscale casino in Las Vegas way before Bugsy Siegel came to Vegas, and what really happened in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre," Diedre begins.

If the name - Al Capone - reminds you of smuggling, forgery, prostitution and gang wars, you don't know the real man.

Diedre recalls a very friendly and affectionate uncle who taught her to ride a bike and swim. Looking back, she cherishes being part of the Al Capone family, a fact evident in her book, "Uncle Al Capone", which reveals a part of the former Italian-American gangster's life that is truly shocking and eye-opening.

The book is a bestseller on Web sites like Amazon. Check out the following review, from Katerie Prior of ForeWord Reviews...

"...Throughout the book, Capone tries to reconcile what she knows about her family with recorded history. Early in the book she writes, "I will not pretend to be able to paint a rosy picture of my uncle Al. I cannot make him out to be a perfect man, or even a good man. But what I want people to know is that he was a complex man. He was human and he had a heart." Capone succeeds, balancing both the public history of Al, from the Valentine's Day Massacre to his incarceration at Alcatraz, with personal photos, family recipes, and her own memories...It's not always an easy task as the author recounts losing friends, jobs, and other opportunities, once people learned she was a descendant of the notorious Al Capone... (it is) a memoir that is as complex and human as the man that it's about. It brings a fresh perspective to the other Al Capone biographies, and finally gives the larger-than-life gangster the one thing that may have eluded him in life: to be seen as simply a human being."

Meanwhile, Diedre herself says, in the beginning of her book:

"I am a Capone, My grandfather was Ralph Capone, listed in 1930 as Public Enemy #3 by the Chicago Crime Commission. That makes me the grand niece of his partner and younger brother, Public enemy #1 Al Capone."

For most of her life, Diedre has hidden the fact that she is a "Capone". In fact, when she reached 30, she left home and re-discovered herself in Minnessota, where her family legacy was known only to her husband. When her kids announced one day they were learning about Al Capone in school, her husband and she decided to reveal their secret to them. The response she got from her children emboldened her to accept the family legacy. Years later, after exhaustive research and talks with friends and relatives, she decided to publish the book.

The book not only gives you an insight into a humane side of a man who was once the world's most wanted gangster but also never-before-seen pictures and family recipes of the Capones.

"For all the dissension, for all the pain, there comes a moment in our lives where we have to stand up and say: This - the good and the bad - is who I am," says Deirdre Marie Capone.

More details of the book can be accessed from www.unclealcapone.com