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The Prohibition In The 1920's

1635 Words7 Pages

The prohibition era, between 1920 and 1933, was an attempt to legislate morality. The social experiment aimed to eliminate the consumption of alcohol by prohibiting its manufacture, sale and transportation, which in turn spawned a black market of violence and crime. In what was intended to improve the country's health, lower crime rates, raise social standards and lower taxes, prohibition proved to be one of the America's greatest economic, social and political tragedies. Before prohibition, alcohol existed as a part of American social culture. Alcohol was a practical choice, drunken on a daily basis with “most people believing that whiskey was as essential as bread”. By 1814, the notion that alcohol “was necessary for health” remained …show more content…

Al (Scarface) Capone was known in Chicago for being one of the most notorious gang leaders. Capone was seen by many as a dishonourable theif, employing new methods of murder and depending on violence. “Some call it bootlegging. Some call it racketeering. I call it business. They say I violate the prohibition law. Who doesn’t?”. By 1925, Capone was earning over $60 million per year in alcohol sales alone. Throughout his unlawful reign, authorities counted over 64 gang related murders, including the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, February 14th 1929. Seven men from a notorious enemy gang run by Irish George "Bugs" Moran were gunned down in their garage from which their bootlegging operation was run. Police investigations found the gunman had dressed as a police officer pretending to arrest them before firing 70 rounds of ammunition. Al Capone claimed it was not his gang, although it is largely suspected that he ordered the executions. The Massacre marked the end of Capone's career, making him the most wanted criminal, labelling him "Public Enemy No.1". Prohibition also resulted in many people became dishonest, undermining the public trust during law enforcement. The Anti-Saloon League also concluded that 50% of crime, 25% of poverty and 19% of divorces were caused from liquor

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Gangs began fighting for their territories which led to destruction and death. Violent crime became prominent in the era of prohibition. Capone was one of the major leaders in the violent crime. He organized one of the worst murders during this era, the St. Valentine 's Day Massacre. The St. Valentine Day Massacre is just one example of the numerous murders committed in the mobsters search for territory.

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"A great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose" President Herbert Hoover’s description of the prohibition. 1920-1933 is the period when the eighteenth amendment was set in place which established the Prohibition. The Prohibition was a ban on alcoholic beverages where they could not legally be manufactured, transported, or sold in the U.S., this was supposed to have a positive impact on the country. Prohibition in America during 1920s was largely ineffective because the the economy started to decline and it negatively affected the American people, although there were some positives.

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The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre is the most infamous unsolved crime in U.S. history. This day marked Capone’s most notorious killing. On February 14, 1929, four men of Capone entered a garage which occupied 7 men from his rival gang. Two of his four men entered dressed as policemen, fooling the seven men into thinking it was a police raid, resulting in the drop of their weapons and rise of their arms.

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Valentine's Day Massacre was one of Capone's biggest, most notorious, bloodletting of all. His biggest rival was Bugs Moran. He had intervened with so many of Capone's deliveries that Capone decided to take him out. He hired killers and they devised a plan to carry this out and get away with it. On February 14, 1929, Moran had a huge shipment of Canadian whiskey coming in and a few of his members of the gang were awaiting the shipment to come in.

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Gangsters were given a medium to fully exercise their territorial influence with the ban of alcohol. In the article "7 Chicago Gangsters Slain by Firing Squad of Rivals, Some in Police Uniforms” Gale explains the significance of the newspaper written by the New York Times about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre 1929. In the article it states, “Capone's notoriety reached its zenith on February 14, 1929, when seven members of a rival gang were killed in what came to be known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Capone was widely believed to have ordered the killings, although he was in Florida at the time. The massacre, which

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Al Capone, the most notorious bootlegger, made $60 million annually by selling illegal alcohol in Chicago. He was involved in a gang responsible for many murders and the Valentine’s Day Massacre. Capone was finally arrested four years ago, in May of 1929, after President Hoover ordered, “I want that man in jail!” The rise in crime proved to be one the the biggest mistakes of

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Additionally, during Prohibition, 32,000 speakeasies, illegal liquor-serving nightclubs, replaced 15000 pubs. Illegal liquor trade became a $3.5 billion industry as of 1926 and gangs of bootleggers were formed. In 1929, Al Capone’s gang shot seven members of their rival gang. This event, known as the St. Valentine’s Massacre, increased competition for control of the market. Evidently, the laws of Prohibition were disregarded and protested by many.

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He has a fearsome reputation including: racketeering rights, bootlegging, prostitution, and gambling; his name alone “is synonymous worldwide with ‘Chicago Gangster’” (Sifakis, 65). He owned Chicago in every sense of the word; over “half of the city’s police was on the Capone payroll” (Sifakis, 65) as well as numerous state attorneys, governors and congressmen. Capone participated in many acts of violence, though they could not be connected to him; for example, the St. Valentine’s day massacre. Capone sought to eliminate his rivals in order to gain control of Cicero, and on February 14, 1929, an enemy of Capone, George ‘Bugs’ Moran and seven of his men were shot to death.

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The crime as it was named, occured on Valentine’s Day, 1929. While Capone was rising to the top, he managed to make himself some rivals, like George “Bugs” Moran. Al Capone and Moran were rivals in the bootlegging business and weren't afraid to try to kill each other if necessary. Capone had already had most of his other competitors killed. (Cannon, Forsyth, 1999)

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Capone reportedly made an astonishing $60 million annually from bootleg operations and speakeasies. These illegal operations acted as fuel to fire rise in gang violence. One of the worst incidents of gang violence

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