Cause And Effect Of Gangsters In The 1920's

During the period of prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol was made illegal, through the Volstead act of 1919, leading to the first and only time an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was repealed. Throughout this time in American history gangsters were common and were constantly increasing in every city but one in particular stood out from all the others making a significant impact on American history. Scarface, Alphonse Capone or more commonly known as Al Capone; who was the most infamous gangster, taking advantage of the era of Prohibition, ran an organized crime association in Chicago during the 1920s. He was responsible for over 500 murders; he had 700 men under his control and earned $60 million a year for bootlegging. Capone, who was glamorised in media and shown as charitable to the helpless was also controlling and violent and became an iconic figure of the successful American gangster who insisted he was just ‘supplying the public demand’.

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.

During the 1920s, organised crime was a major issue plaguing federal authorities, as well as the American people. This took place in most big cities across the United States, particularly in Chicago, Illinois, where gangsters such as Al Capone, Bugs Moran and Johnny Torrio dominated all aspects of life. However, at this time, authorities also faced problems from the government through corruption and scandalous actions.

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.

Prohibition was a very big issue in the 20s and 30s, it didn’t help most people disagreed with it. The Jewish mob and Rothstein exploited this by using prohibition to make money and expand their agenda. The practiced they used was called bootlegging, and it consisted of a couple different levels. The people who made the alcohol illegally, the original buyers, the smugglers and then the final buyer who who would sell it to the public. The mob used bootlegging to build their empire. Arnold Rothstein was one of the overseers of this type of operation. Since liquor was illegal not everyone was up to the task of breaking the law. “According to Rich Cohen, Rothstein was the person to see during prohibition (1920–1933) if one had an idea for a tremendous business opportunity, legal or not. Rothstein "understood the truths of early 20th century capitalism (hypocrisy, exclusion, greed) and came to dominate them".”(Patrick) Rothstein was kind of the father of the mob, although he was not directly tied to one mob, he worked closely with the jews, italians, and poles. According to Rich Cohen in ‘Tough Jews” he talks about how Rothstein groomed Luciano and Lansky. (Cohen) The Jewish mob was making statements left and right, they created a monopoly hand in hand with the Italian mob on liquor. Since liquor was illegal and they controlled it, the mob could rise the price up and down however they pleased. This monopoly gained them

    Prohibition caused gangs and organized crime to thrive in the 1920’s. Big gangsters made fortunes off of bootlegging, or the illegal make and distribution of alcohol, and speakeasies, illegal clubs or bars that sold alcohol. Al Capone of Chicago was one of the most well known gangsters of the time. He made up to $60 million dollars annually bootlegging and running speakeasies

The 1920s was a “time of great criminal activity, with prohibition laws in America and the world in an economic depression” (Nash, 1). Organized criminals such as American mobsters thrived during this time. Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde, and John Dillinger were the most well-known of the gangsters at the time, many of the common people looked to these criminals as “heroes”. There were a tremendous amount of people who turned to criminal activity; mostly because jobs were scarce and

Bootlegging, the distribution and dealing of an illegal substance, was becoming increasingly popular with liquor outlawed. Bootleggers would go to great extents to bring in liquor to their customers, prymarily speakeasy owners, as well as making sure they did not lose their customers to the other vaious gangs in the area. To ensure this threats were made to owners, gang wars began, and many murders occurred. (“Prohibition”) Those who became successful bootleggers became emmensly rich and powerful resulting in the expansion and flourishing of organized crime. Most organized crime leaders, gangsters, were wealthy and lived, at least on the outside, a sophisticated and exuberant life. In fact durning the Prohibition Era many people idolized bootlegging and gangs because it was a fast way to get rich and powerful.This would lead to an increase in the population of gangs. These gangs could be extremely dangerous and would kill many, ultimately causing an increase in homicide rates by 13% ("Organized Crime and Prohibition”). The reasoning behind the homicide rates going up is simple; as different mobs became more powerful in their areas and their range of illegal activities expanded they got more attention and this attention caused for rivalrys between different mobs and a higher police involvement in attempting to end the

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

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

One prominent example of organized crime is Gatsby’s bootlegging of alcohol. In the 1920’s prohibition was put in place. It was put into place in January 1920, by the eighteenth amendment before it was later repealed in December 1993, by the twenty-first amendment. Prohibition prevented the making and selling of alcohol, though it had the unintended effect of making alcohol even more

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 choice of prohibition, a decision designed to make America a safer place, not only made America drastically more dangerous, but it also led to a substantial rise in organized crime. The reasons for prohibition include the temperance movement and the thought of a safer society. These reasons, which led to prohibition becoming a law, only did the opposite. Prohibition opened the gates and allowed for the sale of illegal alcohol, bootlegging, to grow exponentially. This easy opportunity to make substantial amounts of money caused the Italian crime families to begin the bootlegging business. Prohibition also led to more alcohol related deaths, and severely hurt the doomed economy by taking away thousands of jobs. The Prohibition Era allowed for the Italian crime families to become so wealthy and so entrenched in society that they could no longer be stopped.

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

The Roaring 20s, considered as an exciting period of time when the economy was successful and there were a lot of changes in culture and society. During the 1920s, the government helped business grow like gangbusters largely by not regulating it much at all. The 20s gave us jazz, movies, radio, and illegal liquor. The 20s also gave us success, although not for everybody. Gangsters like Al Capone, Dutch Schultz, and Charles Luciano and a consumer culture based on credit, and lots of hate against immigrants, and eventually the The Great