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What Was The Role Of Organized Crime In The 1920s

259 Words2 Pages
Organized crime existed before the 1920s however, prohibition gave way to a new organized crime under Al Capone, bootlegging, and speakeasies. A year after the 18th Amendment was passed, it was clear that it was not working well. While this did help to reduce drinking in some regions of the nation, it also helped to produce a vast, profitable industry that was now illegal to authorized businessmen and taken over by organized crime. In Chicago, the new mafia leader, Al Capone built a criminal empire based on illegal alcohol. “The idea that money can buy power was lucidly verified by gangsters such as Capone,” as illegal alcohol became as easy to acquire as legal alcohol had once been (Hales and Nikolas). Since the distribution of alcohol was
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