The Rise Of Organized Crime

Salvatore Lucania was born on November 24, 1897 in Sicily, Italy; almost ten years later, he began a new life of crime and prosperity in New York City’s lower east side. Upon arrival, he could not speak english; he bullied the other kids into paying him for protection and participated in drug dealing. One day, Lucania was abducted, beaten, stabbed, and left for dead; miraculously, he survived. This rather fortunate recovery led him to become known as Lucky Luciano (“Lucky Luciano Biography.com.” Edited by Biography.com, The Biography.Com website, A&E Television Networks, 17 June 2015, www.biography.com/people/lucky-luciano -9388350). In 1916, he became the leader of the Five Points Gang and continued to make a name for himself. During these early years, Luciano was in and out of jail-- mostly for getting caught dealing drugs.

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illegal, through the Volstead act of 1919, leading to the first and only time an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was repealed.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’.

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).

Despised by many, admired by few, but known by all, history had never seen an outlaw quite like Al Capone. Capone rose to his notorious fame during Chicago’s 1920’s Prohibition era through organized crime and extreme celebrity status. Though his legacy today remains one of violence and murder, Capone’s heyday was full of glamour and good deeds. Due to his staunch pursuit of the American Dream, charitable nature, and effective business tactics, Al Capone’s legacy should not only be a violent gangster but additionally as an ambitious businessman on his own unique path to success.

In 1920, the United States entered a new stage in its life, the Era of Prohibition. However, flaws in the planning, execution, and administration caused this noble idea to vacillate unquestionably. However, men who were willing to break the law were the ones that were able to build a lucrative life for themselves; one such man was Alphonse Capone. However, honest men such as Elliot Ness fought adamantly to defend their morals, beliefs, and the law of the land. Nevertheless, Capone was a man who took advantage of his time and lived the life of the American Dream: going from rags to riches. However, it was this very same opulence that caused his downfall and incarceration. The tireless efforts of Elliot Ness eventually paid off

Alphonse was destined to a life of lawlessness from a young age. In his adolescence, he lived the life of an Italian Immigrant. Sequestered to predominantly Italian boroughs, education was lackluster and the influence of the Italian mob was ever present. However, Capone's education played a key role in his development. As Kobel states in his novel, it was here at school where Capone met another future mob boss. Another Italian delinquent youth at the time, Salvatore Lucania, also known as Lucky Luciano. (Kobler 23) Capone continued to live a moderately normal life until his expulsion from school at age fourteen. He worked side jobs around Brooklyn

The Congress and the several states shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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

The 1920s was a very eventful time period for the US crime scene. With the emergences of major crime bosses like Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, Charles Luciano, and others there was much to be done in the crime world. Charles “Lucky” Luciano (born as Salvatore Lucania) would become a key player in the reshaping and modernization of the mafia and the crime world. Young Luciano would show signs of pursuing a criminal career. His parents and family however disapproved of their son’s action and career path and essentially exiled him, respecting his family’s wishes he would later change his name from Salvatore Lucania to Charles Luciano. He also by the age of 10 he involved extortion, and thievery. Upon his arrest for the distribution of drugs in 1915, the police would offered to release him if he would tell them what he knew about the mob, Luciano however refused to talk due to the Sicilian code of silence, this action would vastly considered pivotal in fast tracking his career in

In the 1920s and 1930s America saw a large growth in mafias & mobs, drug & Alcohol Trafficking, and the organization of crime were a result of the Prohibition.

Do you know the notorious gangster popular during the prohibition era who went by the name of “Scarface”? It’s Alphonse Capone! Al Capone for short. This man made 60 million dollars annually by selling illegal liquor. He did so many crimes that he eventually went to Alcatraz Island! This is going to be telling you about how he became such a well known criminal and some of the things he did during his career.

Charles "Lucky" Luciano was born Salvatore Lucania in Sicily, Italy, on November 24, 1897.Luciano split New York City into five crime families, heading the Genovese crime family himself. Luciano moved to Havana and was later deported to Italy, living out his final years in Naples. Born Salvatore Lucania in Sicily in 1897, Charles "Lucky" Luciano became one of the most notorious criminal figures of the 20th century. The teenaged Luciano befriended Jewish gang members Meyer Lansky and his associate Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who would become two of his most important allies.

“Lucky” Luciano was born originally as Salvatore Lucania in Sicily, Italy, on November 24th, 1897. In 1906, Lucania immigrated to America with his family at the age of nine. Lucania was not able to speak English in school and preferred to spend his time making money on the streets in the Lower East Side of New York. One of Lucania’s first crimes was forcing his classmates to pay him in exchange for protection. If they did not oblige, he would physically beat them. Some time after moving the United States, Luciana changed his name to Charles Luciano. Luciano dropped out of school in 1914, and worked as a clerk in a hat company. While he worked at the company he befriended Meyer Lansky, Benjamin Seigel, and Giuseppe Masseria, all gangsters (appositive).

One of the most successful Mafia bosses involved in bootlegging and prostitution was Charles "Lucky" Luciano. He was born in 1897 in Sicily, Italy. At the age of 9 he moved to the Lower East Side of New York. In 1920 he began his own prostitution