Professional Documents
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The Prohibition
and The
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American Mob
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Adrian Timoc
Table of Content
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Chapter I: Introduction
I decided to choose this particular subject because I am very fascinated by the way
the Mafia in the States used a very harsh period, in which the state had to fight its
own people in order to impose a drastic law.
The whole prohibition story started around 30s and the Mafia started its
business a few years after that, seeing the possibility of making a huge amount of
money from bootlegging alcohol into the country on the big cities, exchanging it
for large amounts of cash from people willing to drink during the time of
prohibition in their country.
Al Capone was one of the eras most famous gangster, building a well-organized
empire in the city of Chicago, gathering all the street gangsters around the city and
teaching them how to live united as a strong family, creating the base of what we
know as The Organized Crime.
Now, on one hand, the interest for Mafia and its legitimate business may seem a
little strange, but on the other hand its not really like that, as it has to offer a real
lesson about courage, obedience, respect and how the world of the classic
gangsters was built on thousands of bodies, cold-blooded murders and infamous
hits.
~
Now lets continue to the first chapter of my work, Chapter II History, in which
Ill be talking about the apparition of the Prohibition Act and how the things were
going for the people of the United States during 20s until almost two decades
later.
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Chapter I: History
Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on
the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic
beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. It was promoted by
"dry" crusaders movement, led by rural Protestants and
social Progressives in the Democratic and Republican parties, and was
coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League, and the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union.
Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down
the rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of
alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. For example,
religious uses of wine were allowed. Private ownership and
consumption of alcohol was not made illegal under federal
law; however, in many areas local laws were more strict,
with some states banning possession outright. Nationwide
Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first
Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment,
on December 5, 1933.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the
introduction of alcohol prohibition and its subsequent
enforcement in law was a hotly debated issue. Prohibition
supporters, called drys, presented it as a victory for public
morals and health. Anti-prohibitionists, known as wets,
criticized the alcohol ban as an intrusion of mainly rural
Protestant ideals on a central aspect of urban, immigrant,
and Catholic life. Though popular opinion believes that
Prohibition failed, it succeeded in cutting overall alcohol
consumption in half during the 1920s, and consumption
remained below pre-Prohibition levels until the 1940s.
A big part of the people were suggesting that Prohibition
did socialize a significant proportion of the population in
temperate habits, at least temporarily. Some researchers
contend that its political failure is attributable more to a
changing historical context than to characteristics of the
law itself. Criticism remains that Prohibition led to
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In the early 1920s, fascist Benito Mussolini took control of Italy and waves of
Italian immigrants fled to the United States. Sicilian Mafia members also fled to
the United States as Mussolini cracked down on Mafia activities in Italy. Most
Italian immigrants resided in tenement buildings. As a way to escape the poor life
style some Italian immigrants chose to join the American Mafia.
The Mafia took advantage of prohibition and began selling illegal alcohol. The
profits from bootlegging far exceeded the traditional crimes of protection,
extortion, gambling and prostitution. Prohibition allowed Mafia families to make
fortunes. As prohibition continued victorious factions would go on to dominate
organized crime in their respective cities, setting up the family structure of each
city. Since gangs hijacked each other's alcohol shipments, forcing rivals to pay
them for "protection" to leave their operations alone; armed guards almost
invariably accompanied the caravans that delivered the liquor.
In the 1920s, Italian Mafia families began waging wars for absolute control over
lucrative bootlegging rackets. As the violence erupted, Italians fought Irish and
Jewish ethnic gangs for control of bootlegging in their respective territories. In
New York City, Frankie Yale waged war with the Irish American White Hand
Gang. In Chicago Al Capone and his family massacred the North Side Gang,
another Irish American outfit. In New York City, by the end of the 1920s two
factions of organized crime had emerged to fight for control of the criminal
underworld: one led by Joe Masseria and the other by Salvatore Maranzano. This
caused the Castellammarese War, which led to Masseria's murder in 1931.
Maranzano then divided New York City into five families. Maranzano, the first
leader of the American Mafia, established the code of conduct for the organization,
set up the "family" divisions and structure, and established procedures for
resolving disputes. In an unprecedented move, Maranzano set himself up as boss of
all bosses and required all families to pay tribute to him. This new role was
received negatively, and Maranzano was murdered within six months on the orders
of Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Luciano was a former Masseria underling who had
switched sides to Maranzano and orchestrated the killing of Masseria.
After prohibition ended in 1933, organized crime groups were confronted with an
impasse and needed other ways to maintain the high profits they had acquired
throughout the 1920s. The smarter of the organized crime groups acted prudently
and expanded into other ventures such as: unions, construction, sanitation, and
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Next Ill add some pictures found on the internet that shows a little of the
past, during prohibition in the States. Thank you for the patience.
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