How Did Al Capone Contribute To The Rise Of Organized Crime

The prohibition era is marked with the banning of alcohol, the rise of organized crime and bootlegging, a time of wealth for those clever enough to take advantage. Al Capone was a bootlegger. He was a very wealthy, feared, and successful racketeer. Al Capone became wealthy and feared through bootlegging, corrupting law officials, and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Al Capone’s main source of wealth was his racketeering business. The bootlegging business was a lucrative one. Especially for Al Capone’s gang boss and friend Johnny Torrio. “In Chicago, Torrio was presiding over a booming business in gambling and prostitution, but with the enactment in 1920 of the 18th Amendment prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol, Torrio focused on

He also used previous connections from Johnny Torrio to help in this. Using bribery, threats and previous connections he corrupted officials. He used these methods of corruption, especially bribery and previous connections, to get away with what he wanted to do. “Prior to Prohibition, urban juvenile street gangs, usually based in ethnic working-class neighborhoods, had engaged in a wide range of petty lawbreaking activities. After January 1920 these gangs turned their primary attention to bootlegging. Any criminal with good local political connections could pursue a career that offered the potential for wealth” (“The 1920s”). Anybody who had connections within the government could get away with almost anything. “He protected his businesses by bribing police officers and political leaders, and he managed to rig elections so that the right people stayed in office” (“Capone”). Capone did what he could, from bribery to election rigging, to make sure he could get away with almost anything. “Chicago had become a nearly lawless place, with corrupt police officers and politicians not only tolerating but even taking part in criminal activity, and gangsters frequently having shoot-outs on the streets. Capone was at the heart of the action . . . Because people involved in organized crime would not talk to the police—out of fear, loyalty, or because of their own guilt—it was almost impossible to solve or

Capone was also known to use violence to gain what he wanted, such as during the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. “By early 1929 Al Capone had neutralized most of his major underworld enemies in Chicago. But one gang operating on the North Side, led by George ‘Bugs’ Moran, continued to defy him, and Capone resolved to liquidate all its leadership, especially Moran. Through informants Capone knew that Moran's gang congregated regularly in a garage on North Clark Street to await the arrival of their liquor-truck convoys and that one such shipment was due to arrive at 10:30 A.M. on 14 February 1929. Capone ordered his main ‘enforcer,’ Fred ‘Killer’ Burke, to prepare a ‘surprise’ for Moran and company” (“St. Valentine’s” DISCovering). Capone wanted more power and he was going to get it by any means necessary. “On February 14, 1929, North Side gang members gathered at a city garage where shipments of liquor were received. Two men dressed as police officers and another two men entered the building and ordered Moran's men to line up against a wall. The North Side men cooperated quietly, assuming that their lawyers would get them released as usual. The men in disguise shot the seven defenseless victims, six of them leading members of the gang, with three machine guns, a shotgun, and a revolver. It was the bloodiest incident of gang violence Chicago had seen. Witnesses reported that the four assailants exited the