The Prohibition Of The 18th Amendment

When we think of the mafia and gangs, one name comes to mind, Al Capone. Al Capone, also known as Scarface, was an infamous mafia leader who was active in Chicago during the Prohibition era. Having committed numerous criminal deeds and being the man behind countless murders, Capone was finally arrested for tax evasion . Now, you might ask, “How was he able to commit all these violent deeds without being imprisoned?” Well, we first have to go to the beginning of Capone’s life.

Al Capone, who was born in New York in 1899, was one of the most prominent gangsters in America in the 1920s. He was the son of Italian immigrants, and after leaving school at a young age, became a small-time criminal. Known as ‘Scarface,’ he had links to the leader of the Five Points Gang, Johnny Torrio, and moved to Chicago in 1920, where he gradually rose through the ranks as a partner in saloons, gambling and brothels. They moved their operations to Illinois after an offer to work with Jim Colosimo, a central figure in Chicago’s brothel business. Gang rivalry heated up after a dispute between Torrio and Colosimo over whether to begin in the bootlegging business, and in 1920, Colosimo was murdered allegedly by Al Capone. After this, Torrio’s criminal empire expanded massively throughout Chicago, before leaving in 1925 and handing over operations to Capone. After taking over, Capone expanded operations even further, and was able to control Chicago’s Mayor, ‘Big Bill’ Thompson and fix his elections. A local newspaper from the time reported

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).

Capone stuck with legitimate employment working as a paper cutter in a munitions factory. Meanwhile his gangster career started with running small errands for Johnny Torrio, who ran

Al Capone was a highly known gangster in the 1920s Alphonse Capone born in Brooklyn, New York to a poor US immigrant couple, Gabriele and Teresina Capone, seeking a better opportunity for their then big family of eight children. He was known for running many lucrative illegal businesses that included alcohol bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, and protection. Al Capone was so notorious that he would murder those who got in his way. With little prosecution of his actions, Al Capone believed his self to being unstoppable. Al Capone, being raised as a kid in poverty learned hands on how to organize crime and became the biggest force in organized crime.

Al Capone grew up in Brooklyn, New York; his parents came from Italy, so he had some Italian background in him. He was the fourth child out of nine; he went to school until he was fourteen years old, but he eventually dropped out to help earn money for his family. Right after he dropped out, he joined a street gang called the South Brooklyn Rippers. When he grew older, he joined a new gang called the Five

These violent groups led to an immense increase in breaking the law from the ratification and, following the prohibitation, of the 18th amendment. Document 1 states “ This amendment gave rise to organized crime and mob leaders such as Al Capone.” Also, document 3 states “The illegal liquor business, caused by Prohibition, was the start of organized crime in the USA.” Both of these pieces of evidence reveal that organized crime deliberatley got put into place as a result of the alcohol ban. Infamous crime leaders, such as Al Capone, intentionatley broke the law, irrated mobs of Americans protesting.

The 18th amendment made made the manufacture, sale, distribution, and consumption of alcohol illegal. This amendment was a huge failure because it causes people to go behind the laws back and drink illegally. There was a secret drinking establishment called speakeasies and there were also people who provided alcohol illegally and they were called bootleggers. The act that enforced prohibition was the volstead act.

The 1920’s of America was a time of many dramatic social and political changes. New fads arose, the economy changed, and thousands of people were transitioning from rural to urban areas. During this time, new amendments emerged, like the 18th amendment. The 18th amendment, prohibition, may have seemed like a positive thing at the time, but it caused countless problems like increased crime rates, the court system and law enforcement became corrupted, and the making of homemade alcohol increased.

Achievement of lowered crime rates in society is always ideal and it involves citizens to band together to eliminate deviant behavior with the help of government policy makers that create laws to instill fear for displaying reckless behavior. Those with deviant behavior cause violent incidents and many reformationists believed that alcohol caused this behavior. A popular historical example is the 18th amendment, calling for a complete ban of alcohol sales, transportation, and manufacture in the United States. The 18th amendment, also known as Prohibition was created in 1920’s and lasted for a little over a decade. Alcohol consumption was at an extremely high rate and many believed that alcohol was the reason for deviant behavior in society. This controversial amendment wanted to change individual behavior for the better because they believed alcohol increases the chance of recklessness, which can be prevented. In order to achieve that, they wanted to lower the amount of alcohol consumption by using this bill

The 18th amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919, which banned the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol. This time has come to be known as the prohibition. It all started because of the effects alcohol was showing on American families. “Teachers had complained of children coming to school under the influence of drink” (Blumenthal, 84). Men were wasting away their money on alcohol and gambling, kids were being neglected, there was abuse, drunk driving, people not shown up to work due to drunkenness, and so much more all came from the consumption of alcohol. It was seen as a menace to the American Family (KCTS9, 2). Americans were getting fed up with the direction society was heading and decided to take action. Groups were formed

In the United States, the 18th Amendment was designed to avoid issues and prohibit all various alcohol. In many ways, the citizens of the United States disregarded the law and still found diverse ways to obtain alcohol. The worsening effects of the Amendment played a vital role in the Prohibition Era, in which the law caused the citizens to encounter themselves in violence and barbarity to our nation. The Amendment also created the arise of leaders including Al Capone in which almost gained power of authority in the city of Chicago in which generated intense brutality to our nation. I definitely agree with the idea that the Prohibition Era offered us the citizens of the United States a warning about the various dangers of the outlaw of alcohol

People were jailed regularly, moonshiners struggled to find new ways to provide a normal life for their families, and crime syndicates were at an all time high with the rising profits from bootlegging. Police officers turned into criminals, law abiding citizens reputations were tarnished because they drink illegally. Tho throughout all this misery there still stood completely elated those who felt like the prohibition of alcoholic beverages was in the best interest of the whole America. Wayne Wheeler felt extremely accomplished and proud to know that his feelings towards drinking were felt by the people in charge who took a stand against alcoholism. Basically there was a wide spectrum on the affects that occurred during the period of prohibition those being good or bad. You’ll be excited to learn that eventually due to the causes and affects of the 18th Amendment it was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment, also the 18th Amendment to this day remains the only Amendment in the over 200 years of the Constitution to ever be

Surprisingly, there were few indications that he would grow to be in the life of crime. It was not until him and his family moved to a bolder diverse area, with individuals of all kinds that would eventually change the perspectives that young Capone had. Capone attended a catholic institute until he got kicked out for hitting his teacher. Later on Johnny Torrio came into Capone’s life which greatly influenced his personality, morals and future by becoming his boss in the crime industry. One day a young hood rat had slashed his left cheek and left an enormous scar which resulted in his nickname Scarface (“Al Capone”1).

The 18th amendment gave opportunities for gangsters, such as Al Capone, to make money selling liquor in speakeasies, or illegal bars during prohibition. Crime involving gangsters increased during the Prohibition Era and even ended up with a massacre, known as the St. Valentine’s day massacre, which was a massacre between the gangs of Bugs Moran and Al Capone (“21st Amendment”). Not to say these gangsters didn’t exist before the Prohibition, but the Prohibition did aid them in organized crime. Not only were gangsters a problem, but public officials were also extremely corrupt (Notes). One example in Edgewater, New Jersey, the mayor, chief of police, a sergeant, two detectives, and a U.S. customs inspector had a rumrunner pay them $61,000 to help land liquor worth one million dollars (Hanson “Effects of Prohibition”). Another great problem is a loss of revenue for the government. With alcohol being illegal, the government can no longer collect tax for alcohol and collect a profit. This is a huge problem because the government needed money to aide for the Great Depression, which was a huge economic depression worldwide (Hanson