Crimes and Famous Criminals in America in the 1920s - Essay Example

Crimes and Famous Criminals in America in the 1920s Today in History. “Mafia in the United s”. History.com, n.d. Web. February 14, 2015. < http://www.history.com/topics/mafia-in-the-united-states > The American Mafia was an Italian-American organized criminal group that rose into prominence in the 1920s. The organized crime by this group succeeded as a result of the group thriving in the illegal liquor business in the 1920s, before it was prohibited, and its activities spread to numerous cities in the USA, but most notably the city of New York and Chicago. The prohibition of the liquor business then saw the group venture into a mixture of legitimate and illegitimate business starting 1933, where gambling, drug trafficking and labor union infiltration formed the illegal business they conducted, while investment in real estate in New York and investment in the garment industry were legal businesses. The most notorious and famous leaders of the criminal gang included J. Gotti and the ever famous and memorable Al Capone, who fascinated and also terrified the public in equal measure. The rise of the group followed an illegal immigration of a category of the low class Italians into America, notably the farmers, and other category of craftsmen and unskilled laborers who flocked the USA in the early 20th century. The immigrants flocked the USA in such large numbers, in such a way that in the three decades between 1880 and 1910, the Italian immigrants in the New York City alone had increased from a mere 20,000 to roughly half-a-million. The high numbers of immigrant Italians meant that some criminal gangs in the neighborhood had to rise, constituting of those who could not get better opportunities in employment. The crimes started by Italian gangs first preying on their own Italian community, and later spreading their wings to terrorize the whole of the American society. However, the fully organized American Mafia found its way in America in the late 1920s, after two rival gang groups engaged in a war, and caused a shakeup that resulted in the formation of one strong Mafia group with an organized hierarchy of leadership. The activities of the American Mafia were strengthened by their notorious oath and initiation rituals for the new members, which required that the new members make an oath of allegiance and silence. However, the establishment of suitable racketeering laws to fight crime in the 1970s enabled the gradual arrest and prosecution of the Mafia leaders and members, as well as the confiscation of both their legal and illegal properties. Thus, by the 1980s, the war on the Mafia had accelerated and by the turn of the 21st century, the illegal criminal gang had become almost distinct. Nash, Tim. “Organized Crime in the 1920’s and Prohibition”. The Finer Times, 2008. Web. February 14, 2015. < http://www.thefinertimes.com/20th-Century-Crime/organised-crime-in-the-1920s.html> The 1920s mark a period of great criminal activity in America, and also a bad time for the USA and the global economy, due to the depression that ensued. It is such economic turbulence that caused most people to see the criminal gangs as heroes, since they were the only ones able to thrive better at such economic turbulent times. Life was hard and income was elusive, so crime turned to be the savior for most people, who joined the criminal gangs willingly. The European crime gangs and the American gang mobster thrived well in the 1920s. Consequently, the USA established the prohibition laws during this era to try to contain this wave of crime that had peaked. J Dillinger, Clyde, and Bonnie were among the most famous names in the criminal circles in the 1920s, but none was close to being as popular as that of Al Capone. Nevertheless, it is the government policies that served to accelerate the crimes during this era. The USA government had banned both the sale and supply of alcohol, resulting in the public feeling devastated. Thus with alcohol banned, the public depended on the criminals for its supply, thus saw them as their savior. Bribing the federal officials became an order of the day for criminals dealing in alcohol, and eventually even those involved in other crimes. Consequently, crime flourished and took over most cities in the USA in the 1920s, and the decades following it. Chicagohs.org. “Al Capone”. Chicago Historical Society, 1999. Web. February 14, 2015. < http://www.chicagohs.org/history/capone.html> In Brooklyn New York, on the 17th of January, 1899, a boy was born and baptized by the name of Alphonsus Capone. The late 19th century was a rough period for the poor neighborhood in the suburbs of New York. Thus, Capone grew under very tough conditions, which caused him to be a member of two kid gangs in his childhood. He was bright but nevertheless did not finish school, only dropping out at the sixth grade when he was fourteen years old, and he proceeded to doing various jobs. He worked as a cutter in a book store bindery, then as a candy house clerk and then went to become a pin boy at a bowling ball alley. Al Capone is the most popular and widely spoken about leader of gangster in the United States. His name is simply a representation of the collapse of law and order in the USA. Nevertheless, he was also generous and good to the poor. His criminal activities started to refurbish once again when he started to work as a bartender and then a bouncer in Manhattan. It is during this time that he sustained his so well known face-injuries, which later came to earn him the infamous nickname of ‘Scarface’, after his confrontations with a patron and his brother while bartending. He met an Irish girl in early 1918 and proceeded to marry her in the December of the same year, and had a son with her. Nevertheless, not even family life would deter him from criminality, and he proceeded to engage in criminal gang fully in the succeeding decade. His initial major crime was the murder of two men in New York, just before he moved to Chicago in 1919, where he fully staged himself as the man synonymous with crime and lawlessness. In the prohibition era of 1920s, the city of Chicago had officially become the United States city of lawlessness. It is the leading role of Al Capone that saw the city of Chicago become both a horrifying and most notorious criminal region of the USA, both for the general public and the law enforcement agencies. Between 1925 and 1930, he had popularized the criminal syndicate in Chicago, such that he controlled a combined legal and illegal business empire that was approximated to be worth $100 million a year. Many attempts were made on his life but were never successful due to his intelligence and also vast spy network. However, he was indicted in 1931 and charged with the criminal act of tax evasion since he did not pay taxes for his illegal businesses. He was sentenced to 11 year imprisonment which expired 1939, after which he returned to his home sickly. There, he was unable to control the gang network, so he lived a silent and mostly sickly life, until he died in 1947. FBI.gov. “The FBI and the American Gangster, 1924-1938”. Federal Bureau of Investigations. Web. . February 14, 2015. The 1920s was the beginning of an era of a new war, which also marked the end of the real war. Professional crime was rising fast, due to the prohibition laws that made the nation dry out of alcohol, causing the gangs controlling illegal supply of alcohol spread like bush fire. Thus, Chicago alone, the most notorious crime city in USA in the 1920s, had over 1300 gangs. The gangs were the only wealthy fellows. Therefore, they were able to bribe their way both in the police force and the politicians. Consequently, the 1920s witnessed an annual murder of approximately 12,000 people. The law enforcement agencies were both ill-prepared and also ill-equipped, thus could not be able to control the crimes. The Bureau of Investigations was also young and its investigations were politicized, thus it was no better in addressing the crimes. This allowed crime to flourish in the 1920s and the following decades. Nevertheless, Edgar Hoover, a 29 year old lawyer then, helped to reform the FBI and give it the face of professionalism that has ever since been associated with the agency. He introduced rigorous training, strong code of conduct, curbed corruption and outside political influence, and also introduced fingerprinting as the basis of identification for people and criminals. The other vital change he introduced was the scientific lab for criminal investigations in 1933, which saw crimes start being investigated using scientific evidence. Consequently, the criminals in different crimes started being identified, while the innocent were set free. Efficiency and precision became the new face of the FBI, and consequently it became the greatest enemy of the criminal gangs. The FBI became the new face of heroism, and worked towards degrading the crime authority markedly. Read More