History
How Prohibition Helped the Mafia
00:00 - 03:50
The Prohibition of Alcohol in the 1920s had a lot of problems, including the general poor public opinions involving it and the creation of organized crime syndicates who profited off selling the new illegal items
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Video Transcript
0:00
NARRATOR: Going into the 1920s
many people
0:02
believed banning alcohol would
make America more peaceful.
0:05
They were wrong.
0:07
Violent murders,
widespread corruption,
0:09
and the dawn of organized crime
defined the decade and beyond.
0:13
In the years leading
up to the 1920s,
0:15
antialcohol activists,
such as Carrie Nation,
0:18
had been hard at work building
a case against the demon drink,
0:21
and they had some
legitimate arguments.
0:23
Prohibitionist women
advocated for temperance
0:25
as a means of combating their
abusive alcoholic husbands.
0:29
Industrialists got
behind the movement
0:30
because they thought alcohol was
limiting the potential output
0:33
of their average worker.
0:35
But temperance was also
used by racist organizations
0:37
as an outlet for
their xenophobic views
0:39
against the millions
of European immigrants
0:41
coming to the United States.
0:43
The Germans and
Irish in particular
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were scorned for their
alleged drunkenness.
0:47
Whatever their reasons,
46 states ultimately
0:49
ratified the 18th Amendment
with only Connecticut
0:52
and Rhode Island dissenting.
0:53
Prohibition
officially took effect
0:55
at the very start of the
decade, enforced by the language
0:57
of the Volstead Act,
named for House Judiciary
1:00
chairman Andrew Volstead.
1:02
Within a year, Americans'
alcohol consumption
1:04
had already dropped
to historic lows,
1:06
but the drop was temporary.
1:07
Americans didn't stop drinking.
1:09
The 18th Amendment allowed
for some loopholes--
1:12
fermenting grapes at home,
prescriptions from doctors,
1:15
and religious exemptions.
1:17
A lot of people found God.
1:20
But the eradication of a
corporate structure for alcohol
1:22
production and distribution
left a huge opportunity
1:25
for a large-scale,
organized, and insanely
1:28
profitable black market.
1:30
Existing small-time
street gangs took
1:31
advantage, quickly evolving
into vast bootlegging
1:34
criminal enterprises.
1:36
They employed everyone from
warehouse workers to truck
1:39
drivers to accountants.
1:41
Gang leaders would
bribe politicians, cops,
1:44
even the Prohibition agents
themselves, nicknamed Prohis,
1:47
to ensure their
businesses ran smoothly.
1:50
Some relied on rum running,
illegally importing liquor
1:53
from other countries and storing
it in warehouses across the US.
1:56
Sometimes they
would simply distill
1:58
liquor in private homes.
1:59
Other gangsters bought
abandoned breweries
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and operated them in secret.
2:02
They worked in the shadows,
but one part of the business
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was very public, the violence.
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Gangs fought for territory in
the streets of major US cities.
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Chicago was especially violent.
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729 people were killed
by gangs in Cook County
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alone during Prohibition.
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The most famous
of these incidents
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was the St. Valentine's
Day massacre in 1929.
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Men working for Al Capone,
dressed as policemen,
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gunned down seven rival members
of Bugs Moran's gang against
2:30
the wall of a parking garage.
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No one was ever
charged for the crime.
2:35
Realizing cooperation could
lead to greater profits,
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many gangs agreed
to treaties that
2:40
allowed them to
operate peacefully
2:41
in their respective territories.
2:43
Johnny Torrio attempted to
organize the gangs in Chicago
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with Al Capone as
his right-hand man.
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When Torrio retired to
Italy and handed the reins
2:50
to his protege, Capone
inherited a business
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pulling in more than $1 billion
a year in today's terms.
2:57
Charles "Lucky"
Luciano organized
2:59
the Italian and Jewish
gangs in New York
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under Joe "The Boss" Masseria
before Luciano had Masseria
3:04
killed in 1931 and had his
successor, Salvatore Maranzano,
3:08
killed the same year.
3:10
Luciano went on to found The
Commission, a national crime
3:13
syndicate composed of New
York's five mafia families
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and the controlling families
in Chicago and Buffalo.
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Prohibition ended
with the ratification
3:21
of the 21st Amendment
in 1933, but the mafia
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kept rolling along.
3:26
These crime families had
already entered the worlds
3:28
of loan sharking, prostitution,
and illegal gambling,
3:31
just to name a
few, and continued
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to grow throughout the country
on the backs of their profits
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from Prohibition.
3:38
INTERVIEWER: You must have
in your mind something
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you've done that you can
speak of to your credit
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as an American citizen.
3:42
If so, what are they?
3:44
Paid my tax.
3:46
[laughter]
