The Prohibition Movement Essay, Research Paper

The Prohibition Movement

Used by everybody, repudiated by nobody and that it came

forth in society, like the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to

slay if not the first, the fairest born in every family (Encarta 98).

These words by Abraham Lincoln summed up the Drys attitude

towards the Prohibition movement. The Drys were very big

supporters of Prohibition and being sober. The Wets wanted

Prohibition to end. Prohibition brought about the rise of organized

crime and crime bosses. This rise in crime glamorized violence and

crime which America to identified with.

The rise in crime because of Prohibition saw the beginning of

the crime boss. They were the leaders of certain groups or gangs

of bootleggers, thieves, and murderers. The crime bosses became

glamorized and were usually recognizable. People didn t stop the

bosses because they were charismatic and friendly; to their friends

and not enemies. Some famous crime bosses were Chester Lemare,

Maxie Hoff, Dion O Banion, and probably the most infamous was Al

Capone. On the outside these men were friendly, approachable, and

kind. But the real men were the ones who many of their enemies

saw. They were ruthless killers. They might not have been the ones

killing in some cases, but they told people who to kill. Their

charisma is illusrated by Schoenberg as he describes Dion O Banion.

Dion never acted tough. His habit of calling even enemies swell fellows, mirrored an ingrained cheeriness and courtesy… He was an indefatigable handshaker and backslapper, though never at the same time: at least one hand stayed free to go for one of the three gun pockets tailored into his clothes (Hintz 109). This quote shows that these crime bosses were always cautious

and they didn t trust anyone even their best of friends. One man that became very large because of Prohibition was a fellow name Al Capone. He grew up in Chicago and ran his racket there. Chicago was always a rough neighborhood and with Prohibition it became very violent. Alva Johnston of the New Yorker wrote, Chicago is the imperial city of the gang world, and New York is a remote provincial place (Crime library). This quote reflects the attitude of everyone in America that Chicago is a very rough place and the leader of the gangster cities. It was run by the most ruthless crime boss in history, Al Capone. Capone s nickname was Scarface because he had knife slash scars on his face. The story behind Scarface is this. Capone used to work in a Chicago restaurant that he was a waiter, janitor, and busboy. One day he was serving a young couple and the woman was very beautiful. Capone leaned over and said, Honey, you have a nice ass and I mean that as a compliment (Detjen 85). The man she was with was her brother, and after Capone said that, he stood up and slashed Capone s face three times. The wounds healed, but they left long, nasty scars on the side of his face. These scars became an example of Capone s ruthlessness and violence. The example of Scarface s violence happened one night at his home in Chicago. Capone learned of one of his fellow gangsters plotting against him. So he invited all of his associates to dinner. After dinner, Capone started a speech about teamwork and loyalties. In the middle he took a baseball bat and smashed the nonloyal gangster s head in, in front of everyone. This was to say to everyone there that no one tries to take down Capone; everyone understood.

During Prohibition, almost all police officers were corrupt and could be paid off very easily. All this corruptness is why crime bosses got away with so much without even getting a slap on the wrist. An example of this was Al Capone. He had everyone in Chicago on his payroll, perhaps the only people not paid off were everyday citizens that didn t really matter. One group of police officers who couldn t be paid off were the Untouchables. They are lead by a man named Eliot Ness, a former credit company investigator. He was tough and couldn t be bribed, which is why he was called Untouchable . The

Untouchables were compiled of ten officers trained in different fields. They began to get very successful at closing stills and speakeasies. This made Capone very worried that his empire was going to crumble beneath him. So Scarface offered each Untouchable two thousand dollars a week to stop busting his operations; each

Untouchable refuse him. Capone at first was very shocked that they

couldn t be bought and then he became angry. Now that the

Untouchables were doing well, Eliot Ness became confident. One

day Ness felt exceptionally confident so he decided to have a parade.

He got together forty-five of Capone s trucks that he had confiscated

during raids. With them he got people to drive them past Capone s

hotel in Chicago where he was staying. Capone went into a rage and

destroyed his whole hotel room. He put a bounty on all the

Untouchable s heads.

With careful consideration Ness got into Capone s operations.

The Untouchables are very deep into Capone s racket. Finally in

1931, Ness captured Al Capone. Of all things Capone was convicted

of income tax evasion. To add insult to injury Ness got take Capone

to the train station where he was turned over to federal marshals.

On February 14, 1929, a turning point in Prohibition happened. Two killers from St. Louis were hired to join with three members of Capone s gang. They all dressed in police uniforms. They raided Bugs Moran s headquarters in Chicago, and instead of a normal raid Capone s men shot and killed all of them with Tommy Guns. This

horrible event was coined the St. Valentine s Day Massacre. This

event changed the public s attitude towards crime bosses and the

violence they inflicted. People began to hate gangsters and they

wanted them out of their cities. Local governments saw this change

in attitude and began to crack down on gangsters. They stopped

accepting bribes and started arresting major crime leaders. This

police compentcy marked the beginning of the end of Prohibition and

major crime.

One major reason for the failure of Prohibition was the

economy. During the 1920s people spent more money than they

had. For this reason everyone fell into debt. On October 29, 1929,

Black Tuesday occurred and the stock market collapsed. All

investors lost very large sums of money. This marked the beginning

of the Depression. People lost their jobs and money was hard to

come by. Because of these reason a lot of people began to drink

their troubles away (Hintz 155). In 1930 people drank an average

of seven gallons of alcohol per year. This was the same as the early

1900s. The Wets began to blame the Depression on Prohibition.

They said that America was losing around five hundred million dollars

a year by not legally selling alcohol. This fact shocked most

Americans. They knew that people drank, but they didn t realize that

it was that profitable. Congress was alarmed as well, so they

modified the Volstead Act and on April 7, all liquor was legal to

manufacture and sell; everyone celebrated with drinking parties.

Prohibition brought about the rise of organized crime and crime bosses. This rise in crime glamorized violence and crime which

America became to identify with. Crime bosses ruled the twenties

and met their downfall in the thirties. This proves that America likes living dangerously, but after awhile it gets to be a little too much to handle.