Blackbeard is the famous name that was referred to a notorious pirate who carried his operations in the West Indies and the northern part of the American colonies during the early 1700s. Blackbeard’s real name was Edward Teach or Edward Thatch. It is believed that Teach was born in Bristol in England although very little is known concerning his real life. It is recorded that during mid 1716, Blackbeard collaborated with a pirate group lead by Benjamin Hornigold famously known to operate with its base from Caribbean island of New Providence. Blackbeard owned his own ship (Queen Anne’s) from 1717 — 1718 and became a known and notorious criminal and a pirate. In order to frighten his enemies, Blackbeard was known to tie lit fuses under his hut that would be seen by his rivals and they would be frightened. After working for sometimes with Hornigold for some years, Blackbeard broke ranks and formed his group and allies of pirates (Angus 12).
During this period, his allies and groups were known all over as the most dangerous pirate operating group. With collaboration with his cohort, Blackbeard blocked and took control of port Charleston in South Carolina. It is until he was given ransom that he accepted to release the port workers. His actions were so pronounced that he got attention of Virginia Governor who organized a party to strategize of how to capture him an operation that was successful in November of 1718. Lieutenant Robert Maynard led a group of sailors who killed Blackbeard during a ferocious battle (Angus 19).
In his robbing activities, Teach used fearsome tricks in order to gain access to the victims’ territory for his robbery activities unlike Al Capone who used force. His capturing strategy was a collaborative one since he sort permission from crew members and they is no recorded instance of murder of captives that he held hostage. His death brought country wide romanticizing and soon after his death, several fiction work was done with Blackbeard as the center of focus and as the main character (Angus 24).
Al Capone was born in January of 1899 in Brooklyn in New York where he was baptized Alphonsus Capone. During his life, he grew up in company of the famous kid gangs that operated in the neighborhood where the environment was considered hostile. This environment was considered worse in terms of junior theft cases due to many juniors dropping out of school. Al Capone was not an exception since he also dropped out of school in the sixth grade when he was age fourteen. After his little school life, Al Capone worked in several places including as a cutter in the book bindery, as a clerk in the candy stores and finally as a pin boy in a bowling alley. From all these workings, Al Capone was not satisfied and he ended up joining a notorious gangster known as five points that was based in Manhattan which concentrated their operations in the Frankie’s Yale’s Brooklyn Drive (Luciano 23).
It is in this gangster that Al Capone worked as a bartender and a bouncer in Harvard Inn. He got his nick name of Scarface while working in Harvard Inn due to his infamous facial scars which he got after an attack by a patron’s brother when he insulted the patron. It is during a dance at Coughlin when Al Capone met with an Irish girl by the name of Mary Mae who they got married the same year in December 1918 and got their first born the same year and named him Sonny Francis (Luciano 27).
Al Capone was first arrested while he was working in Yale for a disorderly misconduct. However his criminal behaviors were far than ending since he committed murder for two people in New York which conformed to his earlier testimonies that he would kill. Al Capone was so feared that no one accepted to testify in court that he witnessed the murder of the two men in New York by Al Capone; therefore, he was released without any charges of murder. This was also a policy for the group and went in conformity with the groups’ etiquette of sparing and covering up one of their own who was in trouble. Al Capone also adopted a strategy to beat and thoroughly injury those who crossed his line to instill fear to others who may have the intentions to try his patience and his emotions (Luciano 34).
One such instance happened when Al Capone hospitalized one of the gang members after a confrontation and Al Capone beat the colleague to a point of bed ridden in Yale. As a result of this action, he was sent to Chicago by the gang leader until things would come down and cool so as to return to normal duties and activities. Al Capone also utilized his physical strength to carry out his activities and criminal duties besides intelligence since it’s reported that he was very intelligence. Unlike Blackbeard, Al Capone never engaged in pirate activities but he dealt with land crimes of which they were more dangerous and therefore application of force was inevitable (Luciano 54).