The Prohibition: The Rise Of Organized Crime
Prohibition: The Rise of Organized Crime
Prohibition in the United States was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages. The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. constitution took away the license to do business from the brewers, distillers, and the wholesale and retail sellers of alcoholic beverages. The leaders of the prohibition movement were concerned with the drinking behavior of Americans and made an attempt to improve the country. Unfortunately, they were about to discover that making Prohibition the law had been one thing; enforcing it would be another. Therefore, causing a major problem in the United States. The result of prohibition led to higher …show more content…
crime rates, excessive violence, and a rise to powerful criminals whose vast sums of money by bootlegging started the concept of organized crime.
Immigration was a main contributor of the birth of organized crime in the prohibition era. The article “Mafia” reports that, “The number of Italian immigrants soared from 20,000 to 250,000 between 1880 and 1890, by 1910 that number jumped to 500,000 immigrants. “Mafia” further mentions that, “There was a wave of Italians that flocked to America during the 19th and 20th century, most of these citizens were law-abiding, but some were criminals who formed neighborhood gangs”. Along with the arrivals from the Italians, Woodiwiss adds, bootlegging unexpectedly presented second generation Jews, Sicilians, Poles, Slavs who had opportunities to climb the criminal hierarchy (8). David Okrent points out in his book, “While population tripled, the population’s capacity for beer had increased. Americans drank 36 gallons in 1850; by 1890 consumption had exploded to 855 million gallons” (545). Okrent declares, “Immigration was responsible, the German’s brought beer, but also a generation of men who knew how to make, sell, and market alcohol” (547). During this era, these ethnic gangs became skilled at smuggling, money laundering, bribing public officers, and most importantly creating a bootlegging liquor business (“Mafia”). The article “Organized,” article states, “The bootlegging industry was highly profitable, this fueled many gang wars and the Mafia”. Thus, Immigration influenced the start of organized crime. More importantly, the 18th amendment fueled gangs to launch the bootlegging industry.
Powerful criminals called gangsters arose from prohibition creating empires of illegal liquor businesses to supply Americans with the banned substance. As David Okrent states in his book The Last Call, “The liquor industry wasn’t dead, of course; a new version, this one illegal, underground would soon emerge with the birth of the dry utopia” (2295). Many Americans found ways to violate the law and satisfy their craving of alcohol. Witwer mentions in his article, people could drink at illegal business called speakeasies. Author David Okrent states, “It didn’t take much more than a bottle and two chairs to make a speakeasy, but once those fundamentals were in place the permutations were endless” (4055). There was a great demand for liquor and someone had to fulfill and supply this illegal product (Witwer), and “It was organized crime who supplied the booze” (Nash). Prohibition spurred the growth of crime groups who violated the law by supplying this illicit product to Americans and the illegal market of United States.
Prohibition is the leading cause to why organized crime became a huge problem in the 1920’s.
The prohibition and the economic depression had a huge impact on people, causing an atmosphere of despair and criminal activity (Nash). Nash points out further in his article, “Jobs began to be scarce and people needed to find a way to provide for their families, gangsterism was dangerous, but an easy way to make money”. Alcohol was no longer legal and people turned to gangsters, who took on the bootlegging industry, therefore providing them with liquor (“Organized”). European crime syndicates and American mobsters were now looked upon as heroes (Nash). Furthermore, John Pearson states in article, while alcohol consumption reduced, criminals created a network for smuggling alcohol into the country, most likely from Canada. One author notes in his book that, “Prohibition had been the catalyst for transforming the neighborhood gangs of the 1920’s into smoothly run regional and national criminal operations” (Okrent 6732). Witwer claims, the gangs of criminals became more organized and had more money with which to work after the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. While prohibition was in full swing, criminal activity was increasing and gangsters were starting to develop their criminal …show more content…
organizations.
One of the most famous criminal syndicate started to make a negative impact on one of United States largest cities. According to Witwer, the most famous felon of the era was Al Capone, who led a criminal gang in Chicago, Illinois. According to Woodiwiss, “Al Capone controlled a large and growing business of bootlegging. His profits enabled him to expand and diversify operations; illegal rackets were complemented by legal and illegal enterprises, for example, breweries, distillers, speakeasies, warehouses, nightclubs, horse and dog race tracks, brothels, and gambling houses produced an annual income of one-hundred million dollars” (8). Al Capone’s organization was able to function because of the connection he had with Chicago public officials (Woodiwiss 8). To illustrate Capone’s success, the Chicago newspaper took an interest in Capone. A federal agent in Okrent’s novel stated, “Alphonse Capone is, without a doubt, the best advertised, and most talked about gangster in the United States” (Okrent 6249). Capone makes himself available to the press, feeding them quotable material, such as, “When I sell liquor, it’s bootlegging” (Okrent 6248). Adding to his publicity, Capone also had a violent streak of terrifying, he countenanced murder as a form of negotiation, ran gunfights, and issued bombings (Okrent 6260). With excessive crime rates increases rapidly in Chicago, the most notorious killing by Capone was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (“Organized”). David Okrent declares, “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago left seven gangsters dead, just weeks before Inauguration Day, this was vivid evidence of an escalation in violence” (6225). Al Capone was a major contributor to the rise of organized crime, his fame and power demonstrated the unexpected results of prohibition, thus causing terror throughout the city of Chicago.
Another mobster that built and maintained a prominent syndicate in the 1920’s was Lucky Luciano. Luciano was a part of a major bootlegging gang called the “Big Six” along with Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro and Long Zwillman, together these criminals controlled the illegal liquor trade on the East Coast (“Lucky”). In 1929, Luciano survived a death threat issued by top crime boss Masseria, but prevailed later by ordering a hit on his fellow gang leader Marazano. (“Lucky”). Luciano rose to power creating a new more organized criminal network that established guidelines between different operations and suppress any conflict (“Lucky”). In the article “Lucky,” the author states, “This took organized crime to a new level”. Furthermore Buchanan notes that, “He modernized the Mafia. This smoothly ran syndicate was operated by two dozen family bosses who controlled bootlegging, garment trade, their influence and tentacles ever expanding, infiltrating and corrupting legitimate business, politics and law enforcement”. A prosecutor in Buchanan article calls Lucky Luciano “the czar of organized crime in this city” (Edna Buchanan). Lucky Luciano climbed to the top of the criminal hierarchy, causing numerous amounts violent crimes, but the Italian-born American mobster was best known for engineering the structure of modern organized crime.
During prohibition there were many concepts of crime that gangsters implemented, therefore leading to an excessive violence. David Witwer states that, “After making immense revenue from the illegal liquor trades, these gangs turned their criminal activity itself into a business”. Criminal organizations were in the process of providing good and services and also resorting to real crime to defend sales, territories, brand names, and labor contracts (“Organized”). Famous criminals would do anything to become more powerful and well-known. In The Last Call, Okrent notes, “To secure cash flow like that murder could seem like bookkeeping – Just another thing you had to do to your business on track" (5416). Woodiwiss comments, “It took savagery, shrewdness and luck to survive the bootleg gang wars, many died because both liquor and gun trade were unregulated” (8). Criminals set unreasonably high prices which caused brutal fights and gang wars to break out over the trade (Tim Nash). In addition Okrent mentions that, “The warfare led to 215 mob killings in Chicago in three-year period was in 1924 through the St. Valentine’s Day massacre five years later, the most famous killings of the era were ignited by alcohol” (David Okrent 5392). The depredation of the big-city mobsters became so well-known during prohibition that the spread of violent crime escalated.
There were numerous influences to why the birth of organized crime flourished during the 1920’s. For instance the wave of immigrants into the United States brought many criminals who formed gangs, which then led to the illegal underground network of crime ran by powerful gangsters. The government finally abolished the laws when they realized nothing was improving, in fact it created more of a problem than solved. As a result, crime finally decreased and criminals focused on creating their wealth in new markets. In the end, the illegal liquor business, caused by prohibition, was the main cause for the start of organized crime in the United States.
WORKS CITED
Woodwiss, Michael.
"Capone to Kefauver: Organised Crime In America." History
Today Jun. 1987: 8. History Reference Center. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
Mayo, Mike. "Mafia, The ("Cosa Nostra," "The Syndicate," "The Commission," Organized
Crime)." American Murder (2008): 209-212. History Reference Center. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
Witwer, David. "The Rise Of Gangsters." Cobblestone. April 2006: 8-10. History Reference
Center. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
Pearson, John. "The Roaring 20S & The Failure Of Prohibition." Prohibition in the United
States. Great Neck, 2009. History Reference Center. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
Nash, Tim. “Organized Crime in the 1920’s and Prohibition.” The Finer Times. The Finer
Times, 2014. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
“Mafia in the United States.” History.com. History.com, 2009. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
Buchanan, Edna. "Lucky Luciano.” Time. 7 Dec. 1998: 130. History Reference Center. Web.
19 Mar. 2014.
“Organized Crime and Prohibition.” University of Albany. University of Albany, n.d. Web.
19 Mar. 2014.
Okrent, Daniel. Last Call The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York, NY: Scribner,
2010. Print.
"Lucky Luciano." Biography.com. Biograpghy.com, 2014. Web. Apr 17
2014
Prohibition in the United States was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages. The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. constitution took away the license to do business from the brewers, distillers, and the wholesale and retail sellers of alcoholic beverages. The leaders of the prohibition movement were concerned with the drinking behavior of Americans and made an attempt to improve the country. Unfortunately, they were about to discover that making Prohibition the law had been one thing; enforcing it would be another. Therefore, causing a major problem in the United States. The result of prohibition led to higher …show more content…
crime rates, excessive violence, and a rise to powerful criminals whose vast sums of money by bootlegging started the concept of organized crime.
Immigration was a main contributor of the birth of organized crime in the prohibition era. The article “Mafia” reports that, “The number of Italian immigrants soared from 20,000 to 250,000 between 1880 and 1890, by 1910 that number jumped to 500,000 immigrants. “Mafia” further mentions that, “There was a wave of Italians that flocked to America during the 19th and 20th century, most of these citizens were law-abiding, but some were criminals who formed neighborhood gangs”. Along with the arrivals from the Italians, Woodiwiss adds, bootlegging unexpectedly presented second generation Jews, Sicilians, Poles, Slavs who had opportunities to climb the criminal hierarchy (8). David Okrent points out in his book, “While population tripled, the population’s capacity for beer had increased. Americans drank 36 gallons in 1850; by 1890 consumption had exploded to 855 million gallons” (545). Okrent declares, “Immigration was responsible, the German’s brought beer, but also a generation of men who knew how to make, sell, and market alcohol” (547). During this era, these ethnic gangs became skilled at smuggling, money laundering, bribing public officers, and most importantly creating a bootlegging liquor business (“Mafia”). The article “Organized,” article states, “The bootlegging industry was highly profitable, this fueled many gang wars and the Mafia”. Thus, Immigration influenced the start of organized crime. More importantly, the 18th amendment fueled gangs to launch the bootlegging industry.
Powerful criminals called gangsters arose from prohibition creating empires of illegal liquor businesses to supply Americans with the banned substance. As David Okrent states in his book The Last Call, “The liquor industry wasn’t dead, of course; a new version, this one illegal, underground would soon emerge with the birth of the dry utopia” (2295). Many Americans found ways to violate the law and satisfy their craving of alcohol. Witwer mentions in his article, people could drink at illegal business called speakeasies. Author David Okrent states, “It didn’t take much more than a bottle and two chairs to make a speakeasy, but once those fundamentals were in place the permutations were endless” (4055). There was a great demand for liquor and someone had to fulfill and supply this illegal product (Witwer), and “It was organized crime who supplied the booze” (Nash). Prohibition spurred the growth of crime groups who violated the law by supplying this illicit product to Americans and the illegal market of United States.
Prohibition is the leading cause to why organized crime became a huge problem in the 1920’s.
The prohibition and the economic depression had a huge impact on people, causing an atmosphere of despair and criminal activity (Nash). Nash points out further in his article, “Jobs began to be scarce and people needed to find a way to provide for their families, gangsterism was dangerous, but an easy way to make money”. Alcohol was no longer legal and people turned to gangsters, who took on the bootlegging industry, therefore providing them with liquor (“Organized”). European crime syndicates and American mobsters were now looked upon as heroes (Nash). Furthermore, John Pearson states in article, while alcohol consumption reduced, criminals created a network for smuggling alcohol into the country, most likely from Canada. One author notes in his book that, “Prohibition had been the catalyst for transforming the neighborhood gangs of the 1920’s into smoothly run regional and national criminal operations” (Okrent 6732). Witwer claims, the gangs of criminals became more organized and had more money with which to work after the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. While prohibition was in full swing, criminal activity was increasing and gangsters were starting to develop their criminal …show more content…
organizations.
One of the most famous criminal syndicate started to make a negative impact on one of United States largest cities. According to Witwer, the most famous felon of the era was Al Capone, who led a criminal gang in Chicago, Illinois. According to Woodiwiss, “Al Capone controlled a large and growing business of bootlegging. His profits enabled him to expand and diversify operations; illegal rackets were complemented by legal and illegal enterprises, for example, breweries, distillers, speakeasies, warehouses, nightclubs, horse and dog race tracks, brothels, and gambling houses produced an annual income of one-hundred million dollars” (8). Al Capone’s organization was able to function because of the connection he had with Chicago public officials (Woodiwiss 8). To illustrate Capone’s success, the Chicago newspaper took an interest in Capone. A federal agent in Okrent’s novel stated, “Alphonse Capone is, without a doubt, the best advertised, and most talked about gangster in the United States” (Okrent 6249). Capone makes himself available to the press, feeding them quotable material, such as, “When I sell liquor, it’s bootlegging” (Okrent 6248). Adding to his publicity, Capone also had a violent streak of terrifying, he countenanced murder as a form of negotiation, ran gunfights, and issued bombings (Okrent 6260). With excessive crime rates increases rapidly in Chicago, the most notorious killing by Capone was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (“Organized”). David Okrent declares, “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago left seven gangsters dead, just weeks before Inauguration Day, this was vivid evidence of an escalation in violence” (6225). Al Capone was a major contributor to the rise of organized crime, his fame and power demonstrated the unexpected results of prohibition, thus causing terror throughout the city of Chicago.
Another mobster that built and maintained a prominent syndicate in the 1920’s was Lucky Luciano. Luciano was a part of a major bootlegging gang called the “Big Six” along with Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro and Long Zwillman, together these criminals controlled the illegal liquor trade on the East Coast (“Lucky”). In 1929, Luciano survived a death threat issued by top crime boss Masseria, but prevailed later by ordering a hit on his fellow gang leader Marazano. (“Lucky”). Luciano rose to power creating a new more organized criminal network that established guidelines between different operations and suppress any conflict (“Lucky”). In the article “Lucky,” the author states, “This took organized crime to a new level”. Furthermore Buchanan notes that, “He modernized the Mafia. This smoothly ran syndicate was operated by two dozen family bosses who controlled bootlegging, garment trade, their influence and tentacles ever expanding, infiltrating and corrupting legitimate business, politics and law enforcement”. A prosecutor in Buchanan article calls Lucky Luciano “the czar of organized crime in this city” (Edna Buchanan). Lucky Luciano climbed to the top of the criminal hierarchy, causing numerous amounts violent crimes, but the Italian-born American mobster was best known for engineering the structure of modern organized crime.
During prohibition there were many concepts of crime that gangsters implemented, therefore leading to an excessive violence. David Witwer states that, “After making immense revenue from the illegal liquor trades, these gangs turned their criminal activity itself into a business”. Criminal organizations were in the process of providing good and services and also resorting to real crime to defend sales, territories, brand names, and labor contracts (“Organized”). Famous criminals would do anything to become more powerful and well-known. In The Last Call, Okrent notes, “To secure cash flow like that murder could seem like bookkeeping – Just another thing you had to do to your business on track" (5416). Woodiwiss comments, “It took savagery, shrewdness and luck to survive the bootleg gang wars, many died because both liquor and gun trade were unregulated” (8). Criminals set unreasonably high prices which caused brutal fights and gang wars to break out over the trade (Tim Nash). In addition Okrent mentions that, “The warfare led to 215 mob killings in Chicago in three-year period was in 1924 through the St. Valentine’s Day massacre five years later, the most famous killings of the era were ignited by alcohol” (David Okrent 5392). The depredation of the big-city mobsters became so well-known during prohibition that the spread of violent crime escalated.
There were numerous influences to why the birth of organized crime flourished during the 1920’s. For instance the wave of immigrants into the United States brought many criminals who formed gangs, which then led to the illegal underground network of crime ran by powerful gangsters. The government finally abolished the laws when they realized nothing was improving, in fact it created more of a problem than solved. As a result, crime finally decreased and criminals focused on creating their wealth in new markets. In the end, the illegal liquor business, caused by prohibition, was the main cause for the start of organized crime in the United States.
WORKS CITED
Woodwiss, Michael.
"Capone to Kefauver: Organised Crime In America." History
Today Jun. 1987: 8. History Reference Center. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
Mayo, Mike. "Mafia, The ("Cosa Nostra," "The Syndicate," "The Commission," Organized
Crime)." American Murder (2008): 209-212. History Reference Center. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
Witwer, David. "The Rise Of Gangsters." Cobblestone. April 2006: 8-10. History Reference
Center. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
Pearson, John. "The Roaring 20S & The Failure Of Prohibition." Prohibition in the United
States. Great Neck, 2009. History Reference Center. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
Nash, Tim. “Organized Crime in the 1920’s and Prohibition.” The Finer Times. The Finer
Times, 2014. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
“Mafia in the United States.” History.com. History.com, 2009. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
Buchanan, Edna. "Lucky Luciano.” Time. 7 Dec. 1998: 130. History Reference Center. Web.
19 Mar. 2014.
“Organized Crime and Prohibition.” University of Albany. University of Albany, n.d. Web.
19 Mar. 2014.
Okrent, Daniel. Last Call The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York, NY: Scribner,
2010. Print.
"Lucky Luciano." Biography.com. Biograpghy.com, 2014. Web. Apr 17
2014