Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice

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Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice is a character from the comic strip, Dick Tracy, created by Chester Gould. He is a organized crime boss, based on Al Capone, who was the first major enemy of the police detective.

Caprice appeared in the first published story of the strip when his minions robbed and murdered Emil Trueheart before his family and Tracy's eyes. In response, Tracy joined the police force and became major thorn in the gangster's side for years.

The character eventually faded away until the 1970s when Max Allan Collins revived him for one last story. By this time, Caprice's power had faded considerably from an autocratic boss to merely one of a criminal ruling elite committee known as The Apparatus. Furthermore, his health declined seriously to the point he was in a terminal state.

Determined to have his revenge on Tracy for ruining his power base, Caprice created an open contract to kill Tracy for one million dollars to anyone willing to attempt it. As a result, Tracy found himself repeatedly attacked by amateurs who had no prior history of violent crimes. As Tracy and his comrades took precautions and investigated, a professional criminal bomber, "Little" Lettel, made his own attempt with a car bomb. Unfortunately, Junior's wife, Moon Maid, was killed by the bomb.

As evidence arose that the attempts on his life were mob related, Tracy publicly announced that he was taking command of the Organized Crime Unit to retaliate. This prompted the Apparatus board to confront Caprice and tell him that they would not tolerate something so brazen with such serious consequences as attempting to murder police officers. To stop the contract, the Apparatus set up their own one million dollar contract on anyone who collects on Caprice's.

With the contract neutralized, Caprice resorted to an elite hitman, the Iceman, to murder Tracy. With the promise of a foreign home to escape the Apparatus' reprisal on top of the million, Iceman made his attempt and eventually failed. Fatally wounded, Iceman told Tracy about Caprice's machinations.

Tracy came to Caprice's home to arrest him for murder. Upon hearing of Tracy's arrival and intentions, Caprice had a fit of rage that was too much for his health and died.

[edit] Other media

• In the 1990 film adaptation, Big Boy is played by Al Pacino.