January 17, 1920 the 18th amendment was passed in the United States, taking away the right to buy or sell alcohol. The desire for this now illegal liquid paved the way for underworld crime groups to grow in the United States, leading to gangs being formed, and the Mafia’s presence in the US. Organized crime became powerful during the 1920’s due to these groups providing people with alcohol while prohibition was in place.
Before prohibition, organized crime was virtually non existent, but when prohibition came to be it gave them the capability to become what they are now. “Prohibition practically created organized crime in America,” (The Mob Museum). This disallowance gave these groups the chance to sell alcohol to the American people who yearned for it, growing their business like wildfire, expanding so much that they became organized, and
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Scott Fitzgerald. There is a character that Gatsby is partners with named Mr. Wolfshiem, who is insinuated to be a mobster. There is a scene where Mr. Wolfshiem tells about a friend of his who was shot right in front of him. A group of their friends were sitting in the old Metropole, and some men wanted to talk to his friend. When the friend went outside to talk to the people they shot him and drove off. The five that shot him were caught and electrocuted, yet the dead man’s friends never even blinked an eye when he was shot. This led the reader to not only believe that he was a gangster, but it is later stated that he was into some very shady business with Gatsby, and Meyer Wolfshiem is called a bootlegger. In this era, a bootlegger is part of the mob, and this statement affirms the fact that he is indeed a mobster. The two of them, Gatsby and Wolfshiem, would sell alcohol out of drug stores, and made a fortune doing so. And due to the mob being so organized, it was very difficult to catch anyone in that business, including these two. (Fitzgerald, pg. 74-75,