Another aspect of organized crime is the persecution of those crimes and how the public reacted. Many of the major leaders of these families such as Al Capone for the Italian mafia in Chicago and Salvatore “Lucky Luciano” Lucania who was used as an example for all crime under the political watch of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Both men, however, were able to prosper under the reign of previous politicians because these particular politicians were either payed off or simply did not care about the crimes of mobsters. For example, Al Capone was not arrested and tried until 1931 for federal tax evasion and Luciano in 1936 for several counts of prostitution (Charles ('Lucky') Luciano 13). Another issue that presented itself as prosecutors attempted to charge these men with the multiple crimes they committed was that they were often not the enforcer of the crime, simply the instigator, as there was no precedent to try these cases. …show more content…
As such, despite both serving terms much longer than any other who had committed the same crimes, Capone and Luciano lived in luxury in Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in California and Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York respectively (Bovenkerk 231). Consequently, Luciano was even able to continue to run his organized crime syndicate while in prison through sure willpower and close connections with the outside world (“Lucky Luciano” 3). Though despite all the benefits these organized crime leaders were receiving, the public was simply shielded from the ever growing power of these men, even while locked away. Because the media knew the public would not approve or understand the power of these men, they merely chose to keep this information between the people who were directly affected by it: the men themselves, their families, and their