Organized Crime In The 1920s

Crime is inevitable in society with one man always wanting something another has but specifically organized crime is a different story. In America, organized crime has roots that go back to a Sicilian Mafia that would demand money in exchange for living in the 1850s. This became known to the FBI as the first “family” that was “the predecessor of all subsequent ‘families.’"1 Soon after this came other criminal gang members under a hierarchy with big-city bosses. New methods emerged for these gangs such as extortion, loansharking, drugs, burglary, robbery, and contract violence. However, none of these actions from the mafia or criminal gangs earned success to be under a single organization. This changed as the 1920s emerged, creating the most

The absence of alcohol created the overwhelming need for it in America leading to the perfect opportunity for criminals to step in. Two criminals known as Johnny Torrio and Al Capone stepped in almost immediately to make millions of dollars. This overwhelming amount of money instantly began recreating what was known as crime. It created rival gang wars and led to the first creation of mob hierarchies. These were the first large-scale example of organized crime through gangs and mobs due to the former being on a minor scale. These practices of bootlegging and illegally smuggling alcohol during the time of prohibition continued to the point of organized crime having country-wide dominance. Later in 1927,

A prime example of this is Al Capone setting up laundromats across his city to disguise his illegal alcohol sales. Overall, the introduction of money laundering and businesses to organized crime was a clear improvement that helped it strengthen greatly. Immigration in the 1920s was very important to the growth and success of organized crime during the time. The time of increased organized crime due to prohibition required an increased amount of criminals. This meant that “organized crime provided paths of upward mobility for many young men raised in ethnic slums"5 due to their family’s recent immigration. Many immigrants became attracted to organized crime because it seemed to be a simple way to get out of their problem of being poor in the slums. Organized crime was also appealing to immigrants due to it being “open to uneducated and ambitious ethnic youths."6 Since organized crime was so appealing to these immigrants, it allowed for a continuous increase in the growth in it due to the number of new criminals. This was essential for operations previously mentioned such as Torio’s newly created illegal alcohol needing distribution. Soon the number of bootleggers outnumbered the amount of Prohibition agents so, what they “and state and