Bootleggers Research Paper

Bootlegging was similar to a Speakeasy because they were hiding, selling, or making alcohol illegally. Some bootleggers are able to make up to $100 million each year. Most of these bootleggers and gangsters took advantage of Prohibition because they made extremely high profits from the bootlegging trade. They also created many different underground industries like Speakeasies. One of the top bootleggers in New York was Charles “Lucky” Luciano.

It was illegal even to transport the alcoholic beverages from one place to another. Often there would be high-speed chases in order to out run the police during the prohibition era. Mobsters made profit off of the alcohol. Various people took over cities and soon became a war on other bosses and cities. Violence started to take in place making guns shootings murders more often. for example for al Capone to survive this he spent almost half of his money earned from bootlegging profit on body guards. A lot of mafia related gangs were killing each other over

They became rich and powerful by providing speakeasies and others who were willing to buy their alcohol. Some bootleggers got their alcohol from other countries. “The first large-scale organized criminal activity of the Prohibition Era was smuggling…The manufacture, importation, and sale of alcoholic beverages were perfectly legal in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean,” (Cohen). During the Roaring Twenties, someone who bought alcohol from other countries had to smuggle the alcoholic beverages inside the country. “As soon as Prohibition went into effect there was a dramatic increase in Mexican imports of scotch whiskey from Britain. The Mexicans weren't drinking more; eventually all of this whiskey made its way north across the border” (Cohen). 0Bootleggers were powerful and rich and became one of the biggest reasons for the increase of organized crime in the Era of Prohibition.

The only problem with the liquor trade was that gangsters found huge fortunes and businesses in selling the illegal liquor There were great problems enforcing the law, the prohibition bureau was set up to fight the bootleggers, yet many of the authorities in the bureau were on the payroll with the big gangs.

Smuggling alcohol was a very lucrative business for the unscrupulous. In order to ease the transportation, smugglers switched from beer and wine to hard liquor because it was more concentrated easier to hide. Since illegal liquor production was a black market, producers did not have to worry about government regulations when considering what to put into their drinks. In addition, many bootleggers were new to the game and did not know what they were doing. Many ended up accidentally producing poisonous liquor.

This was when people made beer and other alcoholic drinks, and sold them to people for lots of money illegally. The most famous bootlegger of all time was a gangster called Al Capone. He ran many alcohol rings throughout the mid atlantic including central Pennsylvania. He was later caught and arrested by government officials in 1931 but it wasn't for just bootlegging. The main crime was him not paying his income taxes.

Bootlegging is the making, selling and distribution of illegal goods such as alcohol. Many things lead into bootlegging but the main cause was the passing of prohibition. Bootlegging became a worldwide crisis in certain situations such as the critical rise of crime rates. There were many crimes, or criminal investigations that went on during the time of prohibition such as bootlegging, gang violence, and the modifications of cars to run from police also known as “rum-running.” It was a time of drastic criminal activity. There were many after effects of bootlegging such as the United States gaining a corrupt government, and

The American Mafia rose to power during the prohibition. They gained most of their power by entering the bootlegging business, and ended up becoming a huge

Because liquor was no longer legally available, the public turned to gangsters who took on the bootlegging industry and supplied them with liquor. Because the industry was so immensely profitable, more gangs participated. As a result of the money involved in the bootlegging industry, there was much

Smuggling liquor became a quick way to make money. Often, the liquor was homemade and very impure. ©¯Moonshine©˜ and other homemade alcohol resulted in 4,154 deaths in 1925 alone. By the mid 1920©ˆs, around forty million dollars worth of liquor had been illegally imported into the United States and the undermanned police force was powerless to stop it. At this time, around ten percent of the population was

These organized crime rings mirror today’s street gangs and drug cartels. Miller begins his coverage of organized crime with the first recorded criminal activity after the implementation of the prohibition, which occurred only 59 minutes after the prohibition began, with the theft of $100,000 worth of whiskey. This record of gang activity was the first of many in the following years which Miller mentioned. The emergence of speakeasies and gin mills in the dark unoccupied centers of cities created a fervent market for the illegal production and consumption of alcohol. Many lawmakers, doctors and officials participated in the distribution of alcohol, and as a result, enabled the growth of organized crime rings.

When caught bootlegging liquor you would be issued a fine, this made things alright because everyone was happy, the laws were so hard to enforce that the government was just happy collecting fine money and the bootleggers were happy cause it was a small price to pay for the amount of money they were making. The most ironic thing about prohibition is that it is the major bases for what we call organized crime.

The swindlers, also known as bootleggers set up 100,000’s of illegal ‘speakeasies’ in Chicago alone and worked along the lines of “intimidation, blackmail”, bribery and homicide. These businesses, often hidden in basements, office buildings, and anywhere that could be found became straightforward for customers to lay hands on hard liquor. On the other hand, the Bootleggers smuggled liquor from oversees and Canada, stole it from government warehouses, and produced their own. The bootlegging business had become so extensive that the laws were flagrantly violated by gangsters, commoners and even sly government officials who had formed “corrupt alliances” with the mobsters, hence making it impossible to prevent immense quantities of liquor from entering the country.

The huge public demand for alcohol led to a soaring business for bootleggers. When prohibition began, people immediately wanted a way to drink. Hence, the extremely profitable bootlegging business was born. Before Prohibition gangs existed, but had little influence. Now, they had gained tremendous power almost overnight. Bootlegging was easy - New York City gangs paid hundreds of poor immigrants to maintain stills in their apartments. Common citizens, once law abiding, now became criminals by making their own alcohol. However, this posed risks for those who made their own. "The

By 1925 there were at least 3200 speakeasies and stores who sold liquor in order to get some extra income in New York. The smuggling of alcohol was a very good business that involved money. Some of the direct distilling and home brewing were secretly installed in garages, tenements, and warehouses. With the fear of being hijacked, the bootleggers hired gunmen to protect the goods; so illegal gun market was a side effect of the Prohibition that brought big amounts of money. The illegal alcohol and gun market brought gangs to everywhere, these gangs fought constantly to maintain the territory and respect. Chicago and New York where the cities where the Mafia gain more power, gang wars and assassination became an everyday thing. On May 11th, Jim Colosimo was the first of the Chicago mafia bosses to be assassinated.