ORGANIZED
CRIME IN THE
1920’S
Naomi Salinas,
BEFORE PROHIBITION
▪ Sicilian Immigration to NYC- 1875
▪ Big City Bosses
▪ Prostitution
▪ Bribing Police
▪ Local Gangs
▪ Drugs
▪ Robbery
▪ Contract Violence
(Prohibition Profits Transformed the Mob 1).
PROHIBITION ERA
“This great demand for and simultaneous illegalization of
alcohol opened up a new illegal market for the gangster to
develop and monopolize” (Hales and Kazmers 1).
▪ Arises from the American Temperance Society and the
Women’s Christian Temperance League in 1917 (Parkinson
1).
▪ Prohibition created an opportunity for the Mob to make
money through bootlegging.
BOOTLEGGING & BATHTUB
GIN
▪ Bathtub Gin▪ “They used a small still to ferment a ‘mash’ from corn sugar or
fruit, beets, even potato peels to produce 200-proof alcohol, then
mix it with glycerin and a key ingredient, a touch of juniper oil as
flavoring” (Bootleggers and Bathtub Gin 1).
▪ Bootlegging- the illegal making and selling of alcohol
▪ Sold in speakeasies
▪ Loopholes- Alcohol was legally sold for medical and
religious purposes
THE MAFIA OR “MOB”
▪ Five New York City Mob Families
▪ Polish, Irish, Sicilians, Jewish (Prohibition
Profits Transformed the Mob 1).
▪ Turf Wars
▪ Police & Politician Bribery
▪ Offered six million dollars a month for their silence (Prohibition
Profits Transformed the Mob 3).
▪ The Mafia bought out breweries and distilleries across the
country.
AL CAPONE
▪ Capone was a Mafia leader based in Chicago.
▪ He brought in $100 million each year through illegal
alcohol sale.
▪ “The Outfit”
▪ Ordered the killing of Chicago’s North Side leader, Hymie
Weiss of the Polish and Irish gang.
(Prohibition Profits Transformed the Mob 2-3).
CHARLES “LUCKY” LUCIANO
▪ New York’s Top Mob Leader
▪ Started as an illegal gambler, introduced to the Mob
▪ How he rose to the top▪ Killed his Mob Boss- Salvatore Maranzano takes over
▪ Maranzano gives him control of a Mafia Family
▪ Maranzano plots to kill Luciano, and Luciano has him killed
(Prohibition Profits Transformed the Mob 2).
▪ The Commission
THE WINE INDUSTRY
▪ Prohibition allowed the making of juice in homes without a
permit from the government (Bootleggers and Bathtub Gin
3).
▪ Bootleggers fermented the juice for longer than they
should’ve, allowing a loophole in Prohibition for making
wine.
▪ “The price for a ton of grapes, only $9.50 in 1919, rose to
an astonishing $375 by 1924” (Bootleggers and Bathtub
Gin 3).
LASTING EFFECTS OF
PROHIBITION AND THE MOB
▪ After prohibition, the mob was forced to find a different career,
some illegal, some not.
▪ Businesses that the Mob went into:
Garbage Disposal
Concrete & Construction
Prostitution and Illegal Drugs
Legal Alcohol Production
(Prohibition Profits Transformed the Mob 3).
▪
▪
▪
▪
“The idea that money can buy power was lucidly verified by gangsters
such as Capone: bootlegging funds led to both political and violent
physical power” (Hales and Kazmers 2).
WORKS CITED
“Bootleggers and Bathtub Gin - Prohibition: An Interactive History.” Prohibition, 0AD,
prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-prohibition-underworld/bootleggers-and-bathtub-gin/.
Hales, Taylor, and Nikolas Kazmers. “Organized Crime- How It Was Changed by Prohibition.” Organized
Crime - How It Was Changed by Prohibition, 2004,
www.umich.edu/~eng217/student_projects/nkazmers/organizedcrime2.html.
Parkinson, Hilary. “Prohibition and the Rise of the American Gangster.” National Archives and Records
Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, 17 Jan. 2012,
prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2012/01/17/prohibition-and-the-rise-of-the-american-gangster/.
“Prohibition Profits Transformed the Mob - Prohibition: An Interactive History.” Prohibition, 0AD,
prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-rise-of-organized-crime/the-mob-during-prohibition/.