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Beth Marshall
English 102, 9:30
Sean Rody
Final Essay
March 18, 2013
Clubs, Crime, and Capone
The Eighteenth Amendment made alcohol illegal, but that did not
deter some citizens. The drinking continued, be it legal or otherwise. The
cities were filled with speakeasies, bootleggers, and mobsters. Prohibition
was instated to end the excessive and dangerous drinking habits many US
citizens had developed. Rather than ending drinking, prohibition gave
mobsters a chance to rise to the top. H.L. Mencken once wrote, “All that the
Prohibitionists have accomplished by their holy crusade is to…convert the
trade in alcohol, once a lawful business, into a criminal racket” (McCutcheon
43). I believe that Prohibition was a detriment to the citizens and society of
the United States of America in the 1920’s because it increased lawlessness,
increased crime, and increased gangster activity.
The eighteenth amendment made illegal “the manufacture, sale,
transport, import, or export of alcoholic beverages” (Allen 193). This came
after the country’s numerous struggles caused by alcohol. In 1830 the
average American over the age of fifteen drank the equivalent of eightyeight bottles of whiskey annually. Many citizens were drinking so heavily it
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caused them to lose their jobs, become abusive, and live in the streets (“A
Nation of Drunkards”). This struggle gave rise to those against alcohol.
There were groups like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the
Anti-Saloon League that worked to end the grasp booze had on the country’s
citizens (Feinstein 9). Sometimes these groups were referred to simply as
the “Drys.” They tired many different solutions before Prohibition such as
teaching temperance in public schools. An example of these teaching was
telling students that “One drink will burn your throat…[and]you could
spontaneously combust” (“A Nation of Drunkards”). Along with solving the
country’s struggles with alcohol “Drys” believed that it would solve all of the
problems like poverty and prostitution (“A Nation of Drunkards”). They had
hoped these horror stories would stop the excessive drinking but to no avail.
The “Drys” believed that alcohol was what was the cause of all the problems
in the United States.
The country’s last resort and hopefully the answer to this ever
growing problem was to make alcohol illegal. The Women’s Christian
Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League were strongly supported by
the small towns but had to get the vote before 1920. The reason behind this
was the 1920 census. This new census would mean a redistributing of
representatives and give the power of the vote to the rapidly growing cites
(“A Nation of Drunkards”). So they had to push Prohibition and fast. The
article “Co-Optimists” from 1929 discusses how in order to push the
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movement forward “Drys” targeted religious groups such as Protestants who
quickly agreed with them to ban alcohol (“Co-Optimists”).The Eighteenth
Amendment was enacted on January 16, 1920 and referred to as The
National Prohibition Act (“A Nation of Drunkards”). “Drys” believed that
banning alcohol would clean up the streets and solve the United States’
problems with alcohol. Little did the “Drys” know, The National Prohibition
Act would create a culture of crime organized throughout the United States.
Not only did prohibition increase the activity of gangsters and mobs
but it turned previously law abiding citizens into law-breakers. Noah
Feldman, a legal scholar, pointed out that “To pass a law means nothing, to
enforce it is everything,” (“A Nation of Scofflaws”). This was seen throughout
Prohibition. Prohibition closed down thousands of bars in the United States,
for a moment. These bars closed but soon turned into speakeasies.
Speakeasies were underground hidden places where men and women could
flirt, dance, and most importantly drink (Feinstein 10). In New York alone
one police commissioner guessed that there were roughly 32,000
speakeasies, which would be one speakeasy for every 243 people (“A
Nations of Hypocrites”). People had access to liquor in multiple ways. If
there was not an accessible speakeasy, one could always produce it in their
home.
In Chicago alone from 1921 to 1925 police detained about 696,933
homemade stills (McCutcheon 41). Only ten percent of these homemade
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stills that were producing alcohol were being stopped (McCutcheon 42).
Another way people got their fix of alcohol was by making bathtub gin.
Bathtub gin was made by mixing grain alcohol with berries from juniper
trees (Marcovitz 17). The product earned its name because most people
made it in their bathrooms’ and in the bathtub specifically because large
bottles would fit bathtub taps. Two historians, James Kirby Martin and Mark
Edward Lender, said that the most common recipe for bathtub gin was to
“Mix the alcohol with 30 to 50 percent water, then add a few drops of
glycerin and juniper juice to simulate the flavor of gin” (Marcovitz 18).
Fiorello La Guardia, a New York congressman, said in 1926, “The Eighteenth
Amendment is a disaster. It has created contempt and disregard for the law
all over the country” (“A Nations of Hypocrites”). Liquor was also smuggled
in from other counties. Gangs would get their liquor by bringing whiskey
from Canada and rum from the Caribbean. All of this alcohol had to be
smuggled past the Coast Guard and hijackers that waited to steal their
score. Bootleggers were able to do this by cover of darkness and having
their shipments wait outside the jurisdiction of the Coast Guard for speed
boats to pick it up and get away as fast as they could (Marcovitz 20-21).
Activities such as these turned some law-abiding citizens into law breakers
and caused prison populations to increase rapidly.
Prohibition violators accounted for roughly one third of the prison
population at the end of the 1920’s (Kyvig 3). Not only did Prohibition
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violators account for a large portion of the prison population but they
increased its overall population. The prison population from 1928-1931
increased by 26.8 percent. That 26.8 percent were just the people that got
caught and convicted; many others broke the law for years and never got
caught (McCutcheon 122). With today’s prison population 26.8 percent
would be roughly 56,940 people (McCutcheon 123). One source says,
“Prohibition law violations accounted for 65 percent of all cases federal
district courts…” (Kyvig 142). The law breaking started with drinking but
soon moved to more dangerous crimes. So despite the “Dry’s” best efforts to
stop the circulation of alcohol, they only turned citizens to defy the law.
Crime rates boomed during the 1920s in United States of America.
The crime increase gave the Unites States of America a bad reputation. By
1926 more than 12,000 murders were taking place annually.
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(McCutcheon 121)
(McCutcheon 139)
Murder rates were not the only ones that saw a significant increase but bank
robbery, kidnapping, auto theft, gambling, and drug trafficking did as well
(“The FBI…”). Theft and burglaries increased by 9 percent, assaults and
battery increase by 13 percent, and drug addiction was estimated to
increase by 44.6 percent (Marcovitz 16). In Chicago drunk driving increased
by 476 percent (McCutcheon 42). The homicide rate from 1911-1921 in the
United States of America was 7.20 homicides per 100,000 people. During
prohibition the murder rate reached unthinkable highs. Robberies rose at an
alarming pace. In 1927, Cleveland alone had over 2,327 cars stolen. In
London, England, a city with a much larger population there were only 290
(McCutcheon 121). There was crime and gang activity before Prohibition but
it caused a noticeable spike in these activities. The original intention of
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Prohibition, to clean up the streets, was turning out to have the opposite
effect.
The crime in the United States spiraled out of control. People were
being gunned down and robbed blind, Prohibition was the main cause. It
created an opportunity for people who did not follow the law to make a
fortune (“A Nations of Scofflaws”). There were gangs present far before the
1920’s but Prohibition gave them their big break. Before Prohibition gangs
specialized in illegal gambling, narcotics, extortion, and stealing. Writer Pete
Hamil said,
“Never underestimate the need for young dopes to defy the
conventional laws. Want them to brush their teeth? Make it illegal.
Make toothpaste illegal, and they will be standing up on the roof
brushing away. It’s a natural human thing to do. I think it’s a healthy
thing” (“A Nations of Hypocrites”).
When alcohol became illegal it was a no brainer that gangs expanded into
the liquor business. Al Capone was one of the people that seized the
opportunity. Capone ran a bootlegging empire and with the influence and
money he gained he spread into other markets. When he was asked about
the empire he built up by bootlegging he said, “I make money by satisfying
a public demand. If I break the law, my customers who number hundreds
the best people in Chicago, are as guilty as I am…Everybody calls me a
racketeer. I call myself a business man…” (Pietrusza 30). He diversified his
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income by investing money in the dairy industry and telephone companies to
ensure that if or when Prohibition ended he would still make money
(Feinstein 10-11). In one year alone Al Capone made $105 million, and in
today’s economy equates to one billion dollars (McCutcheon 121). Mobsters
gained this power with brutality and ruthlessness.
Mobsters were cold-blooded killers. In Chicago there were over seven
hundred murders tied back to the liquor business (McCutcheon 42). Those
who stood in the way of mobsters were killed. Al Capone and Johnny Torrio
ordered the killing of Dion O’Banion, a rival mobster after a bad deal
between their rival gangs. O’Banion was gunned down by four men in the
floral shop he ran as a front (Pietrusza 32). Earl “Little Hymie” Weiss and
George “Bugs” Moran battled back by attacking Torrio with shotguns,
severely wounding him. The two also carried out a drive by at the home of Al
Capone, but no one was killed. As retribution for injuring his mentor, Torrio,
Capone called for Weiss to be killed. He was shot with Thompson submachine guns in front of the Holy Name Cathedral (Pietrusza 32-33). Al
Capone commented on these events and said, “I told them [his rivals] we’re
making a shooting gallery out of a great business and nobody’s profiting
from it…There’s plenty of beer business for everybody—why kill over it?”
(Moore 41). The violence did not end there; gangs continued to plague cities
across the United States with gruesome, horrific, and shocking murders.
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The quintessence of gangland-style crime was the St. Valentine’s Day
Massacre, on February 14, 1929. This was the gang style killing of seven
men, ordered by infamous mobster Al Capone. According to the Chicago
Tribune “seven men were lined up against a whitewashed wall and pumped
with 90 bullets from submachine guns, shotguns and a revolver” (O'Brien).
The victims of this crime were members of a rival gang, and with their
deaths Al Capone seized control of Chicago. Prohibition was put in place to
try to stop crime, but it resulted in an undeniable and horrifying increase.
Men like Al Capone and “Bugs” Moran started making their money selling
alcohol to club owners but moved on to use that money to fund their
empires (Feinstein 10). The business of booze gave these men money,
followers, power, and “friends.”
By purchasing booze many people funneled money towards
mobsters. These mobsters in turn paid off police. There were many police
officers and judges that wanted the pay raise that came with being “friends”
with mobsters. This friendship meant keeping the mobsters that employed
them for being convicted and they would keep getting paid. Corruption ran
rampant through police stations and courtrooms, after all why convict their
source of income?
“An investigation in Philadelphia in 1928 reveled that after eight
years of Prohibition many police officers there had savings of tens of
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thousands of dollars, and several of them hundreds of thousands—on
average annual salaries of just over $3,000” (Moore 27).
At Prohibition’s height the Police Chief of Chicago, Charles Fitzmorris,
admitted that “Sixty percent of my police are in the bootlegging business”
(McCutcheon 42). Police forces were forced to hire more officers to enforce
Prohibition, but they were untrained and easily bribed. After their first year
of duty half of the officers had to be fired for accepting bribes (“A Nation of
Scofflaws”). Mobsters had goons to kill their enemies and “friends” to keep
them out of jail.
The Prohibition era in United States of America ultimately hurt its
citizens and society. It damaged its citizens by allowing gangsters to rise to
power, allowing them to kill, and allowing them to extort. It also harmed
them by making a habit of choice illegal causing some people to break the
law so they could enjoy a drink. Prohibition soiled the reputation United
States and thus negatively impacted the society. I believe that Prohibition
was incredibly damaging. Prohibition fostered an environment of lawlessness
and law-breaking. Prohibition caused an undeniable spike in crime rates.
Prohibition also contributed to the rapid rise of gangs power. The 18th
amendment made alcohol illegal, but had more of an effect than just that. It
influenced many aspects of daily life in the roaring twenties in the United
States and changed its citizens in a negative way.
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Works Cited
“A Nation of Drunkards.”Prohibition.PBS. Oct. 2011. Television.
“A Nation of Scofflaws.”Prohibition.PBS. Oct. 2011. Television.
“A Nation of Hypocrites.”Prohibition.PBS. Oct. 2011. Television.
Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920's.
New York: Wiley, 1997. Print.
"Dry Hope." Time 14.20 (1929): 13. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4
Feb. 2013.
Feinstein, Stephen. The 1920s from Prohibition to Charles Lindbergh.
Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2006. Print.
"The FBI and the American Gangster, 1924-1938." FBI. N.p., n.d. Web. 19
Feb. 2013.
Kyvig, David E. Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940: How Americans
Lived through the "Roaring Twenties" and the Great Depression.
Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004. Print.
Marcovitz, Hal. The Roaring Twenties. San Diego, CA: ReferencePoint, 2013.
Print.
McCutcheon, Marc. The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life from Prohibition
through World War II. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest, 1995. Print.
Moore, Lucy. Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties. New
York: Overlook, 2010. Print.
O'Brien, John. "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre." The Chicago Tribune
2013: n. pag. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.
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Pietrusza, David. "Prohibition: The Wettest Dry Nation Ever." The Roaring
Twenties. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 1998. 31-33. Print.