Al Capone got the nickname Scarface from a barroom fracas

Capone was introduced to Brooklyn racketeer Frankie Yale, a.k.a. Frank Sale, by Torrio. He hired Capone as a bartender and occasional bouncer at the Harvard Inn, a Coney Island dance hall and saloon he owned. According to legend, while working there, Capone insulted the sister of a local petty felon named Frank Galluccio, who promptly slashed him across the face three times with a pocket knife. However, MyAlCaponeMuseum.com's Mario Gomes discovered a December 1918 article in the Brooklyn Daily Times stating that one "Alfonzo Capone" was approached by two men and had his cheek slashed with a knife (though the paper gets the side of the face wrong).Along with other evidence, Gomes speculates that Capone insulted Galluccio's sister at a different dance hall, and then Galluccio tracked him down and attacked him at a restaurant.

Whatever happened, the healed wounds eventually led to Capone's infamous "Scarface" moniker, which he despised. (His closest friends referred to him as "Snorky," a reference to his fashion sense.) Capone later claimed that he received the three shrapnel scars while fighting in France during World War I, despite the fact that he had not served in the war.

Despite the permanent marks Galluccio left on Capone, there was no ill will between them thanks to Yale's intervention, and when Capone took over the Chicago mob, he hired Galluccio as his bodyguard for a then-astronomical salary of $100 per week.