Big Al's Place: Former wife of the Rolling Stones musician, was courted by Capone's grandson

In A Nutshell

Years after his release from Alcatraz, bedeviled by hallucinations fueled by untreated, late-stage syphilis, Al Capone wanders the overgrown grounds of his Miami Beach estate, ruminating with ghosts. Tomorrow will bring his forty-eighth birthday and one week later he will be dead. Between then and now sprawls an epic life, from the wild streets of turn-of-the-century Brooklyn, to a bloody Saint Valentine’s Day that shocked the world; here is the glamorous ascent and shocking decline of America's true king of crime.

Some History

Jim VanBebber's 2004 feature, The Manson Family, was hailed as, "Crucial," by Peter Travers in Rolling Stone's four-star review. It inspired Roger Ebert to proclaim, "...it has an undeniable power and effect...it exists in a category of one film - this film." The film's successful theatrical release brought further critical acclaim and Manson then went on to thrive on home video, including as the centerpiece of Visions of Hell: The Films of Jim VanBebber, a mid-career retrospective DVD box set released in 2008.

Capone first met VanBebber at Wright State University when both men were enrolled in the Motion Pictures Production program headed up by Academy Award nominated documentary filmmakers Jim Klein and Julia Reichert. When, in junior year, the class was divided into small groups with the purpose of producing a short film, VanBebber, with partners Marcello Games and cinematographer Mike King, decided to shoot a full length feature. That film, 1988's Deadbeat at Dawn went on to earn true cult status, playing to crowds on 42nd Street and on many waning drive-in screens before landing on cable's The Movie Channel where it debuted on Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater, hosted by Joe Bob Briggs, who had singled out Deadbeat in his nationally syndicated four-star review.

With funds derived from the sale of Deadbeat, King, Games and VanBebber began their follow up production, The Manson Family, which brings us full circle

6/20/10

Former wife of the Rolling Stones musician, was courted by Capone's grandson

Jo Wood, the former wife of the Rolling Stones musician Ronnie Wood, says she has been courted by Al Capone's grandson. Recently linked with John Collins, a polo-playing pal of the Prince of Wales, Jo Wood is courted by an altogether more unusual figure.

The former wife of Ronnie Wood, the Rolling Stones guitarist, has been on a series of trysts with an American she says is the grandson of Al Capone, the Chicago Prohibition-era gangster.

"He was lovely, a perfect gentlemen," she said of Peter Capone, 70, an architect, before joking: "I have to admit, I was quite taken with the idea of being with a proper mobster."

At the launch of the English National Ballet's 60th anniversary season, Wood, 55, admitted that the relationship did not last: "He took me to a beautiful restaurant by the sea. Waves were crashing and it was very romantic, but he is a little old for me."

She added at the Dorchester hotel in Mayfair, London, that she was enjoying being single. "Why do I want to get caught up with another man just yet?" she asked. "I don't need a man at all, but I love the company of men and going out on dates with them."

Wood's former husband, who had battled with drink problems, left her two years ago to live with Ekaterina Ivanova, a Russian waitress.

Courtesy of the UK Telegraph