Bootleggers and other gangsters of the 1920s killed, cheated, stole, bribed, and in the case of Charles Birger, charmed their way into the hearts and memories of the American people with the same allure as the cowboys and outlaws of the old west. However, in the 1920’s, instead of bar fights and bank robbing, bootleggers raided the freight cars chock full of the “liquid gold” of prohibition: alcohol. Bootleggers had their start in the south with the ratification of the 18th amendment in the United States Constitution, banning the consumption and sale of all alcoholic beverages. Big time gang leaders and small operation hillbillies alike saw this prohibition as an enormous money making opportunity as they knew what the American people wanted, …show more content…
one mans father even recalls his father running an “establishment” for Mr.Birger. What went on at said establishment is anybody’s guess. Although bootleggers did not refrain from often robbing the government of their so-called “medicinal liquor”, they did refrain from “attacking ordinary citizens, and law enforcement officers were strictly off limits” (Gingold) When gangs were not stealing the liquor they were making it , although gangs had always controlled gambling and prostitution, but: “the 1920s was the birth of organized crime. From Boston to Kansas City, powerful gangs carved up all the major cities. Added together, they controlled an enormous empire of breweries, distilleries, warehouses, fleets of trucks and fast boats, and tens of thousands of speakeasies.” This makes it clear that bootlegging was happening all over the U.S. This complex system made liquor available nearly everywhere, eventually changing the minds of the American people about alcohol. Despite the government’s attempts to snuff out the bootlegging empire, these gangs continued to prosper throughout the 1930s, until the repeal of the 18th amendment: thus, ending …show more content…
In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, ending national Prohibition. After the repeal of the 18th Amendment, some states continued Prohibition by maintaining statewide temperance laws. Mississippi, the last dry state in the Union, ended Prohibition in