prohittibition
The twenties are known to have been a decade of vast crime and racketeering, this is a directly due to the prohibition of alcohol. The passing of the of the 18th Amendment was supposed to mark the beginning of the "new era." In this time period there would no longer be legal sales of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Through the passing of the 18th Amendment the US government hoped to make the entire country "dry" and in turn lower crime rates and make the American people happier. However the hopes of a dry United States were soon shattered by the likes of many of the key players in mass production of alcohol and leaders of illicit activities such as gambling and various other crimes that became acceptable. Suddenly criminals have found new and vastly acceptable ways to be rich leaders of organizations that mass-produced crimes in many ways, shapes, and forms. The first crime bosses of the United States as a result of Prohibition did their work and based their organizations is Chicago. Some of these bosses included the likes of Michael "Big Mike" Cassins McDonald who is considered to be the founder of organized crime in Chicago. Most likely the most well know of all the crime bosses ever Al Capone and his
The people of Chicago and the rest of the nation believed in and followed Capone and his gangsters with such nostalgia that movies and books were written in their honor. Gangster films that portrayed the gangsters as the good guys and cops and the bad guys were becoming more popular, and organized crime was becoming more acceptable with each passing day. The gangster films were loved by all and were becoming dangerously popular throughout the country. These gangster films were propaganda of such that the people that went to see them left the theaters believing the police and law enforcement to be the bad guys. All these films accomplished was to make organized crime even more socially acceptable that now children and their parents could see their heroes of Hollywood portrayed as gangsters. New York at this time was by no means undisturbed during this time of organized crime. Rum-runners and bootleggers were shooting each other all over town, competing with each other for control over their territory and in the attempt to gain new territory. Bootleggers killed in shootouts were often encased in cement and tossed off rum boats into the East River. Your life was meaningless to the other bootleggers and the ones who made it all the way to the top were "endowed with savagery, shrewdness, and luck." Ironically it was through Arnold Rothstein, the son of a Jew, that a new system of Italian crime leaders came to control of the NewYork underground. It was Rothstein more than anyone who Americanized the gangs to bring them into the melting pots of organized crime in the United States was. Rothstein was also known as the founder of the selling of narcotics in the US. Rothstein led his gangs in various activities from bootlegging to beating men in strike likes. This is where the Mafia began to form and make names for themselves and to become know as goons throughout the city. With the murder of Rothstein in 1928 Torrio succeeded him as fixer, financier, and broker for the increasingly streamlined bootleg underworld. Torrio was now back in with the Italian mob and was back where he believed he belonged. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nder him. All he had to do was assign his workers where to work and he worked with the police himself and paid them off personally. McDonald and his underlings continued to work in conjunction with politicians, police, and numerous other people to control politics, the law, and legal gambling throughout the city. They assisted in the election of John H. Roche so that McDonald could have a mayor that he could manipulate and therefore make it easier for him to control the crime rings of the city. McDonald and his chain of followers propelled Roche into city office by switching every ballot box in the second precinct of the eighteenth ward and allowed Roche to win by a narrow margin of 375 votes out of a total of 86,329 votes cast. McDonald's illicit activities however did not stop there; he manipulated tax assessment that year. For example, he reduced taxes owed to the government for those that had contacts with him or had handed out light bribes in his favor. At the World's fair held in Chicago McDonald assigned pick pockets to various corners throughout the fair grounds. Since some pickpockets were ! Capone undoubtedly had his own motives. If he provided food and shelter for the poor of the South Side it was simply to promote his own "respectability." None of this however did diminish the obvious fact that hungry people of Chicago are being fed at his expense. Throug
Some common words found in the essay are:
Robin Hood, , Chicago McDonald, American Gangster, Roche McDonald, Arnold Rothstein, Crime Torrio, Torrio Italian, Boy Floyd, United Rothstein, organized crime, socially acceptable, racketeering bootlegging, al capone, throughout city, gangster films, passing 18th amendment, 18th amendment, people chicago, crime rings, passing 18th, mike cassins mcdonald, michael mike cassins, jim colosimo mont, james jim colosimo,
Approximate Word count = 2418
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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