How Did Prohibition Increase Organized Crime?

Wine grapes were selling at twenty dollars a ton at the beginning of the Prohibition Era and within the next six years that price jumped to $175 a ton, and demand was steadily increasing (Chidsey 82). However, the bootlegger was by far the chief source of booze in the Prohibition years. Organized crime didn’t begin with Prohibition; it became much better organized (Perrett 401). When Prohibition arrived, hundreds of mobsters went straight into bootlegging. They made millions on illegal traffic in liquor. Dion O’ Banion was a classic gangster of the times.He controlled liquor sales on the north side of Chicago. His rival was the Syndicate, headed by Al Capone and Johnny Torri o, who took the profits from liquor in all parts and suburbs of Chicago

Gang wars such as these were ever present during Prohibition, especially within cities. The institution of gangsterism had been brought about by Prohibition (Chidsey 119). Without Prohibition, the bootleggers would not have come into existence, and nearly every gangster started with the illegal sale of beer and liquor (Chidsey 119). To some extent, the public didn’t protest against gangs, because they knew “that the modern crime gangs provided quality booze” (Chidsey 402). The speakeasies that these gangsters controlled eventually evolved into the nightclubs that were also prime symbols of the Roaring Twenties.Prohibition ended the old-fashioned cabarets. The nightclubs replaced them, with small tables, hard liquor instead of wine, loud entertainment, and a tiny dance floor. A new form of prostitution also helped the boom of nightclubs. This was usually attributed to Prohibition (Perrett 154). The girls were forced of the streets and out of the brothels, but they prospered in the new nightclubs where they were now known as “hostesses” (Perrett