Crime In The 1920's

The roaring twenties brought a series of unfortunate events. The crime was at an all high: bank robberies, kidnapping, auto theft, gambling, drug trafficking, and prostitution. The media romanticized the violence that occurred in cities like New York and Chicago.
The United States became deprived of their alcohol on January 17, 1920. The eighteenth amendment was the nationwide banning of selling, transporting, and production of all alcohol. Alcohol offered an escape for the working class taking away the stress from their manual labor. Bootleggers began to emerge as did speakeasies these would later become what mobsters build their infamous empires from.
The ban on alcohol in the U.S failed miserably. Speakeasies provided business opportunities

One of the biggest scandals was the Teapot Dome Scandal, one of Presidents Harding's cabinet members sold U.S Navy oil reserves at Elk Hills, California, and Teapot Dome, Wyoming causing a strain in the country. Judges and Senators were friends with these mobsters, getting help by rigging elections. The Police Departments in Chicago and New York lacked the adequate training to stop any of the shady business. Bribing of police officers and agents into smuggling operations of alcohol became a big problem. The crime at the time was said to be, “the greatest crime record ever attained by a

The motive for his murder was O'Banion's sold his main brewery to Torrio, but as the deal closed police raided and seized 500 barrels of beer resulting in the arrests of 31 bootleggers including Torrio. On November 10, 1924, as O'Banion was clipping chrysanthemum in his flower shop, three gunmen hired by Al Capone murdered Charles. Although all evidence pointed to Al Capone no arrests or convictions made. Charles Dion “Deany’’ O'Banion death would spark the decade-long gang warfare in Chicago.
The following year Johnny Torrio was fined $5000 and a conviction of nine months for the operation of the illegal brewery that bought from O’Banion. The judge appointed to Torrio's case allowed him ten days of freedom to settle any business before being incarcerated. As Torrio left his apartment, two gunmen assaulted and shot Torrio with pistols and shotguns. Miraculously Torrio recovered in jail and bestowed his empire to Al Capone telling him, '' It's all yours Al''. Torrio’s promise was kept and left everything behind to Al Capone and moved to Italy