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The Devastating Effects Of Prohibition In The 1920's

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Prohibition seemed like a good idea, in concept, but the citizens were much more protective over their alcohol. Once-peaceful area were reduced to violent, aggressive prisons. People wanted their alcohol, and they would stop at nothing to get it back. Prohibition was negative for 1920’s society, causing devastating effects such as an increase in organized crime, encouraged the creation of poisonous moonshines, and led to the corruption of public officials. After the 18th Amendment was passed, consequently making the sale, distribution and production of alcohol illegal, organized crime skyrocketed. Criminals could sell illegal spirits at high prices because it was of great demand, and there was no consistent way to get it. The prices of spirits increased by 24%, and the price of beer boosted 700% (Hanson). This led to the rise of the modern gangster we all associate with the 1920’s. Many of these gangsters sold alcohol to get money. For example, Al Capone made around sixty million dollars a year through …show more content…

The deadly concoctions could sometimes cause blindness, paralysis and a disease called ¨jake foot¨. Consumption of industrial alcohol became so serious that the government tried to step in and scare away potential drinkers by poisoning the alcohols with substances such as formaldehyde and acetone. This intentional poisoning killed at least ten thousand people (Hanson). Alas, even the government was not safe from the pull of alcohol. Many public officials were rendered corrupt and manipulative. A man by the name of George Cassidy, better known as ¨The Man In The Green Hat¨, would deliver cocktails to House and Senate officials (¨Corruption¨). Some police officers would leave the force and start their own bootlegging trade, paying their former higher-ups to keep their mouths

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Specifically, Al Capone was one of the most well-known booze distributors and was labeled “public enemy number

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555 Words | 3 Pages

The creation of illegal establishments like speakeasies would be the just the beginning of crime in the 1920s. Bootlegging, the illegal sell of alcohol became commonplace. Gangsters rose to power on the streets of cities like Chicago and New York. Criminals like Al Capone, and Charles “Lucky’ Luciano became household names. Prohibition, intended to fix America’s alcohol problem, only made it worse.

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This money made the gangs and the mafia even more powerful. The mafia also become very skilled at bribing politicians and even policeman to look the other way when they did get caught. Al Capone is a famous example of this common happening. In urban areas most people opposed prohibition, in these places law enforcement towards prohibition was much weaker compared to rural

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882 Words | 4 Pages

Although this was the case, many still wanted to consume it so other people started to sell it illegally. Another word for it, bootlegging in this time came people like Al Capone. Cheating the law and selling alcohol illegally making money for themselves, which was money lost by the government. This was also shown in the book The Great Gatsby, by Gatsby himself. Although it was not clear Gatsby was a bootlegger, he was associated with those people.

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232 Words | 1 Pages

During the 1920’s due to increase in rate of crimes the 18th amendment led to failure. A prohibition was put under the ban on the alcoholic beverages in United States from 1920 to 1933. Due to prohibition many bootleggers supplied illegal alcohol to the public. Many of the bootleggers became immensely rich through selling alcohol. They started the crimes which are still in effect today.

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For some people dealing was the only way they could make money if they couldnt get an actual job “Responding to the public's desire, gangs in the cities organized and delivered the liquor.” (McNeill). Even though the selling of liquor was illegal it provided jobs for those who couldn't make an income. It was a way for those who didn't have jobs to provide for their families so they could buy food and pay for shelter. But at the same time they risked going to jail and leaving their families.

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Government as well as public officials took part. One popular example was Roy Olmstead, a Seattle police officer who eventually started selling alcohol illegally, but got caught and lost his position as an officer. After he was fired, he decided to start bootlegging as his main job and ended up making way more money than when he was a police officer. After a while of success, he got caught again and had to participate in four years of drudgery. Olmstead wasn’t the only police officer to get involved, some local officers as well as state ones were found guilty in engaging in these activities.

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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.

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Gangs were formed and bootlegging began to provide quick and easy money. Bootleggers were people who made and sold illegal alcohol. The price of alcohol soared. Many crime lords took notice and used it to their advantage. Al Capone was one of the most notorious crime mobsters in the 1920’s.

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Small-time street gangs were provided the opportunity to feed the need of Americans demand for illegal alcohol. “By the early 1920s, profits from the illegal production and trafficking of liquor were so enormous that gangs learned to be more “organized” than ever, they bought breweries that were closed because of Prohibition and hired experience brewers. They ran boats out into oceans and lakes to buy liquor from other countries, leading to the term “rum running.” Paid individual citizens would operate stills at home to make gallons of bad-tasting booze. Thousands of Mob-owned illegal bars known as “speakeasies sold illegal beer, watered down whiskey and sometimes “rotgut” which was poisonous.”

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These people were the major crime bosses of New York, Chicago, Atlantic City, and L.A. The crime bosses and their mafias used this money to fuel other illegal ventures. Crime grew exponentially. The mobsters of Chicago, Detroit, and New York City all found ways to traffic banned items during prohibition to grow their mobs. The Chicago Mafia alone earned an estimated 4,000,000 dollars a year on average during prohibition. Police and the government officials relied on the mob for alcohol.

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Jails and courtrooms became overcrowded with criminals who were caught making, selling, or transporting alcoholic beverages. The man responsible for a large portion of the illegal liquor business was Al Capone (Getchell). The famous gangster profited greatly from his illegal endeavors, having approximately 100 million dollars by 1927. Capone and gangsters such as he significantly aided in the establishment of organized crime in America. As they became more skilled in their work, mobsters began running prostitution rings, selling narcotics, gambling, and loan- sharking.

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Of course, the demand was huge, not every American was able to willingly give up alcohol. Capone was the biggest and best known gangster during the prohibition who had strong connections that controlled the truck drivers required for rum smuggling. He stayed relatively close with his work in Chicago. Capone knew how to manage his business and was well expanded through various cities. Illegal beverages like moonshine, was one of the most poisonous alcoholic drinks around, well referred to as 'rotgut'.

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646 Words | 3 Pages

With the installment of the new amendment, criminals for the first time began to illegally distribute alcohol on a nationwide basis. The number of syndicates bloomed. Bootlegging, brewing moonshine, and smuggling thrived, and although even some leaders of law enforcement faced criminal charges, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover denied the existence of organized crime. It was in this era that crime began to seem an everyday occurrence. In fact, criminals even controlled most businesses that were in our everyday life.

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430 Words | 2 Pages

Gangs began to be formed and smuggling came to the rise. Al Capone was one of the most influential gang leaders of the this era. “The most notorious example was the Chicago gangster Al Capone, who earned a staggering $60 million annually from bootleg operations and speakeasies” (Prohibition 2009). Smugglers would bring alcohol across the Canadian and Mexican borders to minimize the risk of getting caught in the states. “The distribution of liquor was necessarily more complex than other types of criminal activity, and organized gangs eventually arose that could control an entire local chain of bootlegging operations, from concealed distilleries and breweries through storage and transport channels to speakeasies, restaurants, nightclubs, and other retail

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