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American Mafia Research Paper

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This prohibition era led to corruption, stealing, murders, etc. The American Mafia, in conjunction with the Jewish-American mafia, took this opportunity and started to trade in illegal importation and production of alcohol. This made money, and several organised crime groups did come up and established themselves in bootlegging monopoly all over U.S. major cities (Calder, 1992).
At the beginning of the 20’s in the U.S., gangsters ruled neighbourhoods. The bosses of the Prohibition-era mob were Al Capone, Johnny Torrio and Joe Masseria, the principals who flourished off booze and blood. Less recalled, but likewise essential was Frankie Yale, a ruthless front-runner who joined two ganglands and was an important part in the early Mafia (Calder, …show more content…

These ‘families’ were highly involved in many illegal activities, namely, bookmaking, loan-sharking, drug trafficking, money laundering. The main areas, which they did operate, were New York, Boston, Chicago, Newark, Detroit, Philadelphia and Miami. The LCN has been operating from New York, since the 1920s (The Mafia, n.d.).
To prevent gang wars (also known as ‘Vendetta’), Lucky and Meyer Lansky in Atlantic City, New Jersey set up a commission in 1931. The scale and frequency of the gang wars did reduce considerably. If a family declares war on another family, it meant that the family has war with the Commission. This gave the families incentives to talk rather than to fight. This commission is still in existence, though its current connection is only composed of the bosses of the Five Families, the Chicago Outfit, and the Philadelphia Crime Family leaders. Its events, like much of the Mafia in general, have withdrawn from the community due to impediments by the FBI. The mafia eventually expanded from five families to twenty-six crime families nationwide in the major cities of the U.S. with the central crime, based in New York (The Mafia, …show more content…

The Irish are alcohol drinkers and they participated in various illegal activities to continue with alcohol tradition. One of the famous bootlegger in the New York underworld was ‘Big’ Bill Dwyer, who was arrested for the violation of the Volstead Act (National Prohibition Act) during 1925 and 1926 (Slavicek, 2009).
The Irish Mob is one of the oldest in the U.S., and now it has appeared in major cities including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, and New Orleans. Irish gangs such as the ‘Dead Rabbits’ and ‘Whyos’ ruled New York’s underworld for a number of years. The Irish mafia has no governing body, so the bosses set out their own rules. All Irish organized crime groups tend to operate in association with each other, but not on a formal basis. The Irish tend to operate in all illegal activities, money laundering, drugs, prostitution, and alcohol contraband. A single Irish mob can have 10-1000 member and this depends on the territory (Abadinsky, 2012).
How is the U.S. Organized to Combat Organized Crime?
Any mafia investigation is handled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.), which is divided into three sections:
• One section deals with the ‘La Cosa Nostra’,
• One with Eurasian/Middle Easter Organised Crime

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The successful bootleggers at the time were able to capitalize on the high demand for alcohol. “Through the criminal experience gained and the political connections established in gambling and prostitution rackets in the early 1900s, gangsters had become well prepared for the exploitation of Prohibition.” One could argue that these gangsters may have only been successful from an economic standpoint and that their lives seemed more glamorous then they truly were. Many of them died terrible deaths but the fact is historians and society will forever be fascinated with these figures and their lifestyles. Through my research, I have determined that it was more than this; these successful gangsters had very similar character traits and childhood

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A study showed that in the 1920s 50 percent of New York’s bootleggers were Jewish, 25 percent Irish and 25% Italians (Hortis 49). Many independent Italian bootleggers started doing business with other bootleggers and therefore joined in a network of economic cooperation and gradually evolved into larger gangs. By the late 1920s, there were 5 Italian

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At 19 he became top dog of the notorious Five Point Gang and befriended many top honchos in the mafia scene. After bootlegging with big names like Lansky and Bugsy Siegel he was chosen to be the boss lieutenant of the largest crime family in New York, helping his solidify his name in the mob scene. With his foot in the picture, Lucky began his first contribution and creation for the mafia setting.(History.com Staff) In 1930, he created the Commission, a organization consisting of the top boss of the Five Families including big names like Al Capone, as well as the head of Chicago Outfit. The Commission was used in order to keep an eye on the other mobs activity, a place where they would make collective decisions on what to do to help maintain their image as well what to keep them safe.

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The mobsters way of profit was found through robbery, bootlegging racketeering and extortion. Through the 1920s, there was a constant grip on society from the mobster’s hand that created a tight hold on the city’s ergonomics.(Infamous) The drinking of alcohol was illegal in the 1920s, which caused many Americans to develop hidden bars or speakeasies to drink their alcoholic beverages. While the Eighteenth “Amendment officially” banned alcohol production, many states “already” had laws prohibiting alcohol.

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Editorial- Organized crime Prohibition started 1920 and ended in December 5, 1933 and increased Organized crime. Had prohibition never happened organized crime syndicates may not have become so wealthy or powerful .No discussion of organized crime in the 1920s would be complete without addressing 'Scarface' Al Capone. Alphonse Capone is undoubtedly the most recognizable gangster of the era. Born to Italian immigrants in New York City, Capone relocated to Chicago were he learned the art of racketeering, running a brothel and bootlegging.

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When Prohibition occurred in the 1920s and 1930s, organized crime groups were living in a time where they had a rise in revenue and power (Mallory, 2012). Since there was a decrease in the amount of alcohol available for consumption by the public, the demand increased and led to an increase in price on alcohol as well (Mallory, 2012). This gave organized crime groups, such as the Mafia, the opportunity to make large sums of money from “bootlegging” (Mallory, 2012, p. 113). In order to keep their money safe during Prohibition, groups would corrupt and take control over the government and law enforcement (Mallory, 2012). As a result of the business that organized crime groups created during this era, the groups operated more effectively, gained

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Not only did the number of serious crimes increase, but crime during Prohibition became organized. Criminal groups became organized around the “steady source of income provided by laws against victimless crimes such as consuming alcohol or drugs, gambling, and prostitution.” These criminal groups and organizations became known as mafias, which were organized groups that used extortions and other criminal methods to become affluent. The mafia was the first real criminal element that surfaced during Prohibition. As a result of the mafia’s involvement in illegal activities, crime spiked, and crime associates, such as the infamous Chicago crime boss Al Capone, grew stronger and wealthier.

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Small-time street gangs were provided the opportunity to feed the need of Americans demand for illegal alcohol. “By the early 1920s, profits from the illegal production and trafficking of liquor were so enormous that gangs learned to be more “organized” than ever, they bought breweries that were closed because of Prohibition and hired experience brewers. They ran boats out into oceans and lakes to buy liquor from other countries, leading to the term “rum running.” Paid individual citizens would operate stills at home to make gallons of bad-tasting booze. Thousands of Mob-owned illegal bars known as “speakeasies sold illegal beer, watered down whiskey and sometimes “rotgut” which was poisonous.”

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In essence, they officially operated their own country, controlled their economic and political stability, and the United States Government could not do anything about it. However, there was one thing the Mafia could not do, and that was literally take over everything for themselves. They could alter minimal laws that expanded their business, but take anything away from the United States and it would surely mean trouble. With active investments in telecommunications, sugar, cattle, minerals, and more,

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Prohibition and Immigration conflicts in the 1920’s were linked. The Italian mafia was under attack and a lot of its members fled to the U.S.. They organized the crime in the U.S. and created the mob. The mob made most of it 's money off of running speakeasies and bootlegging liquor. This was easy money since everyone was ignoring prohibition and wanted

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According to www.yourdictionary.com organized crime is illegal behavior planned and carried out by groups in systematic fashion. Organized crime today is a result of mostly Lucky Luciano, The Gambino Crime family, and the Chicago Outfit. Lucky Luciano is known as the father of modern organized crime. This is because of two things, he split New York into 5 different crime families. Luciano, Mangano, Profaci, marangano, and gagliano.

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“By the 1920s, Americans had consumed over twenty-five million gallons of illegal liquor, and bootlegging became a one billion dollars business” As the bootlegging business blossomed, street gangs became established gangsters. With their new found wealth they were able to pay off law enforcement officials. Many law enforcement officials took the bribe, because they were underpaid and overworked. Not only did gangsters have money, they now had the power of the law which made running their operations less complicated.

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How the Mafia works then after is that they would refuse to get aid from the government by any means. If anyone does so, they would be targeted by the bosses and get killed. They would not cooperate with the laws, and they would rather obtain and settle things by their own hands, which originally came from why they wanted to make these clans in the first place. Guns and have been a very important factor for the rise of the Italian mafia.

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Origins of the organized crime in Pittsburgh, and elsewhere in the United States, is largely the story of immigrants and alcohol. Like other big industrialized cities, Pittsburgh had its own bloody mob history. If Chicago had Al Capone and New York had Lucky Luciano, the Western Pennsylvania mob had 24 traditional Mafia families, that rose and decline parallel to the rise and decline of the mob families in other cities in United States. In general, mob grew from the bootlegging years of the 1920s as immigrants seized economic opportunity and the outlawing of alcohol in 1920, which created the first large-scale criminal organizations as Irish, Jewish and Italian immigrants took control of the bootlegging industry. All three groups had flocked to the industrial cities for jobs.

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The ruthless behavior of this criminal organization is completed mainly to make money. With that being said, mobsters deal with illegal acts, drugs, and gambling, these are untaxed and unregulated, they’re also very expensive. Not to mention the portrayal of the mafia and mobsters in major Hollywood movies and TV shows, including The Godfather and The Mafia Only Kills In Summer. Numerous elements of mafia life is still relevant today, in both Italy and the U.S., as Italians started to immigrate in the

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