Mafias: The Roaring Twenties

Local believed they could not trust Spanish law enforcement officials, and so they organized their own protection societies that eventually evolved into the Mafia(“United States History.”). When they immigrated to the United States they banded together of again because of a lack of trust for police, government, and their rights. When organized crime exploded the Mafias saw it as their chance to band together to make a

Once the organized crime families were established they were the main contributors to the illegal “Bootlegging” of alcohol. During the 20’s there was a great deal of violent crimes. Most of them could be connected back to the organized crime families. Alphonse Gabriel “Al” Capone was a gangster who led illegal activities such as the smuggling and the bootlegging of alcohol during the prohibition. Even though he had a tough exterior he was a caring man he was the first to open up a soup kitchen in Chicago (hammer). Capone’s estimated annual revenue was around 100 million dollars. He had many men working for him such as Frank Nitti, August Pisano and Louis Morganno. He supplied Chicago with most of its alcohol. (Capone: the man and his era).

The Mafia was first developed in Sicily in feudal times to protect the estates of landlords who were out of town. The word Mafia, derived from the Sicilian word, Mafioso, means family. Today, Mafia is a name which describes a loose association of criminal groups. These groups can be bound together by blood, oath or sworn secrecy. Many people had considered the Sicilian Mafia as the most ruthless mobsters of the twentieth century.

We may not see this group but the mafia was big back in the day. The mafia was the leading group in criminal activity in the 1960’s(Darity). The mafia was a group that would make tons and tons of money off of drugs, robberies and murders. They would sometimes pay off cops to look the other way and if they didn’t get what they wanted they would use their firearms. With stronger and more enforced laws, many lives could have been saved.

     Exactly what is the Mafia? Mafia, more specifically the Italian-American Mafia, is a group of criminals organized into "families," and operating primarily in North America. Also known as La Cosa Nostra, at one time there were 26 families in the United States - roughly one for each major city. The Mafia composed of bosses of numerous families, mostly New York, was the overseeing authority for all of the other La Cosa Nostra families. New York City is the place of origin for organized crime in the United States. Currently, there are five families in the New York City outfit of the La Cosa Nostra. The five families are, the Gambinos, Genovese, Colombo,

The Mafia is multiple crime organizations engaged in smuggling drugs and participating in other criminal activities in the US, Italy, Russia, and elsewhere (dictionary.com).

     The Mafia is groups of criminals that developed for the purpose of protecting those who can not go to the police for protection. Its roots can be traced back to Sicily, where the Mafia was based on the premise that any member suffering an injustice was to take personal vengeance while avoiding all

During the early 1900s, specifically the 1920s, organizations involved in sophisticated crime arose and lived on for decades, influencing American progress and culture. These organizations came to be known as the American Mafia, the Italian Mafia, or the Italian Mob. These “families”, as they were called, sprung up in large cities all across the United States. The mob progressed quickly in America, developing from the simplest of crimes to methodical, organized illegal activity. The method of structure and the emphasis of loyalty and secrecy made insiders of the mob very susceptible to exploitation by the local police and federal government agencies, many instances of which were eventually revealed to the public. The mafia, while still around today, fell in prominence and importance in the eyes of the American government and its people. The major time frame of relevance for the American Mafia is about 1920-2001.

The vast amount of wealth caused much dictation over the country and the mafia then came to the United States in 1860. These members owned many businesses, land, homes, and much more wealth (Frank 64.) The mafia has also been named “a second government (Kelly 80.) ” Prohibition was one of the main reasons that mob leaders had gotten widely spread due to the demand of alcohol and casinos.

The Mafia is based on grounds that any member suffering injustice was forced to take personal vengeance while having no contact with the police. And now-a-days the American Mafia gangs had its own territory to run and any people from other gangs or anyone outside of the territory would be killed if they messed with the family. Many of the mores or norms of the Mafia were seen throughout the movie. Some of the rules that were not written but everyone just assumed you knew in the mafia were trust and silence. In other words, if you got caught while doing something you would never tell on your friends and

“The Chicago Outfit is just that, traditional organized crime. It is not the Mafia; it has always been very diverse and operates under the principals of Southern Italian organized crime.Until the late 1950s, it was considered a local problem with little federal intervention. Prohibition turned it into a very profitable and well-run organization but reform movements of the 1920s caused protection agreements to break down, leading to open warfare on the streets of Chicago. Again, we see that as the Mobs changed on the Chicago landscape, the murder rate changed. The Chicago Mobs were responsible for 594 murders from 1920 to 1929. From 1930 to 1939, the Chicago Mobs were responsible for 325 murders.”

They mostly settled their roots in the big cities of Chicago and New York. In New York alone the number of Italians rose from 20,000 to 250,000 in just a decade. It was in the 1920’s that The mafias profits really skyrocketed, and that was because at that time, alcohol in America had been deemed “illegal” and the U.S.A was in an era of Prohibition. The Mob wasted no time at all capitalizing on the American citizens lack of liquor. One famous mobster that made his fortune and reputation during this time was the original “ Scarface”, Alphonse Gabriel Capone.

The Italian Mafia in the U.S. can trace its origins all the way back to the Sicilian Mafia which was founded in Sicily during the 1800’s (Italian Organized Crime). After thousands of years of different armies with different nationalities conquering Italy and exploiting its people, the Sicilians became to be more clannish and family focused. Originally they were just resistance fighters that were protecting their friends and family. They were relied on for protection, justice, and survival. Nobody cared if they got money from it because it came from the oppressive authorities. Members of these groups were known as “Men of Honor” and they were well respected and even admired because they looked out for their family and kept silent sometimes even unto death. They didn’t become an organized crime group until the 1920’s however (Italian Organized Crime). It was around this same time that the US began to see what later became La Cosa Nostra or “our thing,” better known as the American Mafia which was aided by the “thousands of Italian organized crime figures, mostly Sicilian Mafiosi” who came to the United States illegally (Italian Organized Crime). The modern American Mafia is credited to Charles “Lucky” Luciano who came over in the 1920’s (Italian Organized Crime). Luciano structured La Cosa Nostra just like their Sicilian

Imagine living in a world where crime ruled. A world where gangsters were more powerful than politicians, owned the police, and ran the city in whatever way they felt. They robbed whom they wanted and killed when they didn't get their way. Now stop imagining and realize that this happened here in the United States of America in the 1920's. It was run by an organization made up mainly of Italians called the Mafia.

When you think of the Mafia one's mind may think of numerous Mafia movies like "The God Father" which is a movie that was made in 1972 about a fictional Mafia family, the Corleone Family or Goodfellas, and Scarface just to name a few. Those movies just give the viewers a small insight of how the Mafia or organized crime works. Organized crime has been around for some time now and many familiar names had been associated with organized crime. The FBI defines organized crime as "any group" having some manner of a formalized structure and whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities (Abadinsky, 2013). Famous Mafia families such as the Maranzano, Bonanno, Luciano, Genovese, Mangano, and the Gambino family is just a few families that many people may know or even heard of. Carlo Gambino and the Gambino Crime family is probably well known all over the world and known as one of the richest and most powerful crime families to date.