what can you tell me about gangs in the 1920s about prohibition?

Question

no direct quotes please

Answer 1

Prohibition was the belief (carried by mostly women) that alcohol should be banned and illegal to consume. Banning alcohol was thought to potentially raise public moral and also was beneficial to women for their husbands wouldn't come home drunk and beat them. I can't remember too much about the gangs, aside from that they were big in politics and helped candidates get elected with their vast majority of connections. This leads to the spoil's system in which an elected person would use his power to benefit those who helped him reach his current position.

Answer 2

All the answers here seem to be correct. Although only a few tell a good and correct story. First the idea that the Mafia was Italian is incorrect. Mafia is a word that is used to describe a group of organized members. (being mostly illegal) The gangs of that time and right before that time where from the same background. Most ethnic groups stayed with in there own. The prohibition gave the gangs a chance to make a huge amount of money very easily. One way to make more money and to expand was to eliminate the competition. On a legal side this would be done with a buy out or making them go bankrupt. On the illegal side, this was done illegally. (usually by death). The gangs of that time are really no different than gangs before there time or after there time. There just happened to be a few members in a few groups that had the motivation to be extremely brutal. It seemed to be a huge deal in the 1920s because nobody had ever seen such a display on a large scale before. Being from a will know family that came from the gangs of the 1920s, I can say the answers about the families being extremely well off is correct. The gangs of that time also had a huge influence in all political party's. It is still evident today. The gangs had set in play many things that have happened in there time and is still happening today. The Gangs of the 1920s where the most brutal and the most influential. Most large families of that time have put there children in places for them to exil in a way that is not illegal. And they have done extremely well. Although there are still families that run a lot of illegal business's, they have ther legal ones to back them up. The one thing to remember is that the prohibition had little to do with the gangs of the 1920s, rather, the gangs had a lot to do with prohibition.

Answer 3

1920s Gangs

Answer 4

The prohibition was from 1920-1933. The "gangs" used this as a means to get income as well as to support their illegal activities. The prohibition was accomplished by means of the 18th ammendments to the constitution on Jan.16th 1919, as well as
Volstead Act of Oct. 28 1919. Some interesting facts is the Joseph Kennedy smuggled in alcohol during the prohibition. Joseph Kennedy is the father of J.F.K.
The running of alcohol as well as the selling of was called "Bootlegging" and the places were the illegal alcohol was sold were called "speakeasies".

A lot of the time the alcohol that was transported illegally was rum because it was so cheap although it was low profit for the runners. The runners would soon move to illegally transporting Canadian Whiskey as well as, French Champagne and English Gin. More often than not these items were sent to bigger cities where the runners would most often make the most money.

Many of the violence that happened during the prohibition years had to do with "turf wars" between organized crime families and bootlegging.

Answer 5

Wow! You have a lot of great answers and anecdotes up/down there. You used the word "gangs," which, because I live in L.A., makes me think you are thinking in terms of today's gangs.

Prohibition created the Mob, otherwise known as ORGANIZED crime (perhaps differentiating it from today's gangs).

They made money from booze and gambling and prostitution, often but not always found in the same place.

They were divided ethnically and fought over "turf," which usually meant control of alcohol distribution in various areas of big cities (read Chicago and New York).

Unlike today's gangs, the leaders were celebrities. Other famous people regarded them as cool people to hang out with. They were not, though, on the Astors or the Rockefellers guest lists.

The attitude of the people was that the Mob(s) provided entertainment and liquor and they only shot each other, so Elliott Ness and the Untouchables were often not held in high regard for going after them.

Unlike today's gangs, they didn't shoot little kids and innocent bystanders, and they were mostly adults.

Answer 6

Al Capone was a gang member. Got busted by the IRS. I think gang members are nothing but bullies.

They probably did bootleg alcohol (homemade), not to good. Maybe a few poisonings got around. So now there is the FDA. Food Drug Administration.

Gangs used tommy guns. Submachine guns to get their way, from the law. Blood thirsty when they wanted to be. Especially when you took out a loan of some kind. Money in particuliar. Lose a leg, finger or something pleasant, you relied on in life.

Answer 7

In Chicago, Torrio was an underboss that wanted to do more bootlegging than they were. His boss owned a fancy resturant and only wanted to bootlegg just enough to take care of it and the speakeasy's that they controlled. Torrio had Capone take care of his former boss (killed). Then the gang started bootlegging in earnest and made huge amounts of money. Later on Torrio was set up by the North Side gang and was arrested. Capone took over from there.

Prohibition made some folks quite rich. Capone's manshion in Florida was quite large. It was there that he died after being released from Alcatraz in the '50's.

Answer 8

The 18th amendment outlawed all liquor and the tranportation of it!! Its a lot like marajuana in today's society......you aren't supposed to have it much less smoke it or sell it. People couldn't even use it for medicinal purposes.
Prohibition was meant to reduce the consumption of alchool because it was seen as evil. The prohibition amendment (18th) was made because they wanted to make life safer. When people drink they are way more likely to commit a crime, argue/disturb the peace, and just don't care about anything. The people of that time saw this and only wanted to improve their society, but the had no way of enforcing the prohibition amendment. And things were getting worse instead of better.
And because of the crime increase gangs began to thrive. Gangs were especially popular in the larger cities; Chicago was the capital of racketeers, including Johnny Torrio, “Bugs Moran”, the Gennas, and the O’Banions but the most powerful was Al Capone, and he too operated out of Chicago.
Overall prohibition was a terrible mistake and lasted way too long (13 years in fact), and America will be forever scared because prohibition

Answer 9

Historically, gangs in the 1920's consisted of black gangs, ie the Goodlows, the Kelleys and the Boozies in Los Angeles, hispanic gangs, irish gangs, italian gangs and, believe it or not, jewish gangs.
During the prohibiton, many gangs opened "clubs" where drinking bathtub gin became fashionable among ALL residents of the area, no matter of ethnicity. The Italians, especially, were black marketeers for alcohol, and used thier own clubs to sell alcohol as well as drinking establishments, gambling establishments, etc. There was a difference between clubs and speakeasies, you should know. Many legitimate clubs had backroom speakeasies, while many illegitimate clubs were very open about serving and consumption of alcohol. Providing funding for local politicians, jobs for younger members of th neighborhood, courting polite society, etc gave these illegitimate clubs a glamour of legitimacy and continued existence. !

Answer 10

All the mafias weren't Italian. You had Irish Sottish,Chinese and of course southern moonshiners.The Irish ,AKA kennedy's imported liquor from the British Isles and held the New England area and dependind on the neighborhoods which were ethnic back then thats where the other nationalities played into controlling their sales. Borderline disputes and the offer of selling speakeasys cheaper / sometimes better booze is where the turf war would start. Or the powers to be would sell and "offer protection from the cops" and other business people along with a take of the action(sales) There were also co-ops where the northern boys hooked up with the "cornbread mafia to bring in the "good stuff" from the oldtimers down south who had been making it for years. What one organization didn't or couldn't make or buy that was top shelf was negotiated from the other or if the time was right and they knew the connections sometimes they would try to "organize' the other's suppliers either by a friendly agreement or by force . I could go on and on about this but I am getting tired of typing

Answer 11

Al Capone, a bootlegging gang leader of the 1920's who broke lots of rules and got reallly rich off of prohibition, had a brother who was a police officer named Vince.