Crime Czars In Chicago

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Pages: 6

Prohibition was a time when people struggled with lack of happinoes and and being joyful because that time period wasn't any of those things. It was filled with depression, sorrow, and was just full of atrocious behavior. There were gangs, bootlegging operations, and illicit activity that was just allowed and grew tremendously with great leadership (“Prohibition”). It was the rise of the Crime Czars in Chicago and on the northern part of the country that really took control. These gangsters used their influential carefree personalities and practically ran the nation (“Al”). They had so many followers because the government essentially handed them over when they passed the 18th amendment in 1919. This then led to a rebellion and illegal movements …show more content…
This city was then known as the Corrupt city. During the 1920s - 1930s, Chicago experienced a big change in its organized crime in which it heavily supported. The fluctuation in the population that took place actually helped the crime because it affected the ability of Chicago’s governmental system to operate effectively. Immigrants were also so attracted to this area because of the job opportunities. Each gang wanted to secure and grow in territories so they started working with other gangs in different cities. They then expanded their interest in the narcotics traffic, gambling rackets, prostitution, labour racketeering, loan-sharking, and extortion (“Bugsy”). The American Mafia then grew out of these coordinated activities. In 1925 when Torrio had given all his power to Al Capone, who later became the most famous gangster of the prohibition era. Even though there were other crime czars like O'Bannion, Masseria, Lansky, Luciano, and Siegal were also legendary. Capone still had the most wealth out of all of them with 100 million dollars, which is equivalent to 1.4 billion today (“Prohibition”). Gangsters such as Capone did all types of illegal things because it was against the law and they strived to defeat the government. He ran gambling events, horse races, whorehouses, and anything they could make profit off of