In February 1938, Al Capone developed dementia-like symptoms caused by tertiary syphilis for which he was hospitalized at Alcatraz, per “Al Capone: A Biography.” Mae, after learning of her husband’s illness, became distraught and wrote the prison but they were not forthcoming with information for her. The authorities released Capone late in 1939 and Mae and the Capone family had him taken to a hospital in Baltimore where he stayed for three years, per “Capone: The Man and the Era.” Capone then went to live with Mae at their luxurious estate in Miami Beach, Florida, which Capone purchased in 1928 and that Mae had spent lavishly to decorate before Capone’s downfall. The federal government hadn’t confiscated the property, but the FBI continued to keep watch on its owners, per “Capone.”
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Al Capone died on Jan. 25, 1947, at 48 years old after a heart attack. Mae continued to live in the house for several years, visited by her son and daughter-in-law, and her grandchildren. She never slept in the bedroom she’d shared with Capone again, telling one of her granddaughters, “I had such happy times there with Papa and he’s not there anymore and I don’t want to go into that room anymore,” according to the Chicago Tribune. Mae Capone died on April 16, 1986, at a nursing home in Hollywood, Florida, according to “Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d Ed.”
