Gang Violence During Prohibition

The Shelton gang terrorized the area of Fairfield Il., in Wayne County, during the prohibition era. During the prohibition the Shelton’s got into bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, facts about the organization, and how it all ended in 1945. During the prohibition, they bootlegged their own moonshine and others all over Wayne County. While they were bootlegging and making alcohol, they made a lot of rivals with other bootleggers in the area. Beside just bootlegging they also had casinos for people to gamble at all over southern IL.

The United States has been through many eras of social reform, but none of them are quite like prohibition. In most cases, social reform is directed at a specific group of people. For example, the women’s suffrage movement aimed to reform policies affecting women, whereas the civil rights movement aimed to reform policies affecting African Americans. Prohibition, on the other hand, impacted people of every race, class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. The question is: was prohibition successful?

“Only Capone’s gang kills like that!” a quote by Bugs Moran, leader of North Side Gang” (Gottesman 1). On February 14, 1929, seven men were killed in a warehouse loading zone in Chicago, USA climaxing a huge rivalry between the North Side Gang and Al Capone’s dominance over the city. Capone was one of the most dominant and well-known gangsters during the Prohibition Era, which ranged between 1920 and 1933. Prohibition in Chicago was huge, many people just wanted to go out for a drink and have a good time after work but the 18th amendment said otherwise.

Gangs began fighting for their territories which led to destruction and death. Violent crime became prominent in the era of prohibition. Capone was one of the major leaders in the violent crime. He organized one of the worst murders during this era, the St. Valentine 's Day Massacre. The St. Valentine Day Massacre is just one example of the numerous murders committed in the mobsters search for territory.

Temporary fun with lifelong consequences; alcohol. In 1919 the 18th amendment was ratified, this amendment declared it illegal to manufacture, transport and sell alcoholic beverages. America repealed Prohibition due to the crime rate increasing, failure of enforcement and no money being made off of alcohol. Due to the crime rate increasing majorly during Prohibition America had second thoughts on it. The US Census and FBI Uniform Crime Reports in Drug War Facts shows us a graph representing the homicide rate before, during and after the years of Prohibition.

By 1932, Americans had reversed the approval and disapproval making the disapproval rating had gone higher. Americans disapproved the prohibition because the criminality and murder went up, business’ were going down and it was impossible to enforce no alcohol. The rate of criminals went up leading to more murders when the Prohibition was enforced. Many criminals such as gangsters, racketeers, bootleggers, and dope sellers got “helped” out by prohibition. Especially in the Great Depression, were alcohol was even more wanted.

The prohibition was a huge disaster. It made it so easy for goons and crooks to have something to sell. In this case it was alcohol. Since people were illegally smuggling alcohol there was tremendous violence.

That meant that people were committing crimes just to get alcohol. If Prohibition made citizens do illegal things, than that is not something that America wanted. Another instance where Prohibition caused violence was with death. In Document B, the graph shows how deaths during Prohibition were very high. This can show that many of the murders were caused by those under the influence of alcohol.

Prohibition’s Failure In the 1920s, Al Capone was a name that inspired fear into the hearts of all of Chicago. His reign as crime boss over Chicago came because of a single government act. This act was the Eighteen Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, commonly known as Prohibition. The common goal for the law was that alcohol related crime would go down and the problems of drunks who did not take care of or provide for their families would be eradicated.

Guns, gangs, women, alcohol, gambling, are just some things that come to mind when I hear prohibition. According to the online source American History, The Prohibition is the act of prohibiting the manufacturing, storage, transportation, and sale of alcohol, including any alcoholic beverage. This led to the biggest crime rates of all time. At the head of all the crime was one man. His name, Alphonse Capone aka (Scarface) .

During the 1920’s gang related crime was a serious issue. The leader of all this violence and corruption was a man named Al “Scarface” Capone (“Al Capone”). This organized crime, dehumanization, and corruption, became the ultimate image of Chicago for people throughout the world. He was largely immersed in things like gambling, prostitution, and the illegal sale of liquor. He was not convicted for any of his crimes, even the St. Valentine's Day massacre of 1929, until he was imprisoned for tax evasion (Horan).

The U.S. census published in 2008 showed how in the time prohibition was enacted, the homicide rates skyrocketed. Then, when prohibition ended in 1933, the homicide rates went down again. (U.S. Census document B). In cartoonist Winsor McCay’s cartoon, he drew about how prohibition promoted all sorts of bad habits, including how it promoted gang violence and dope selling. (McCay document A).

The prohibition outlawed alcohol to try and diminish the crime rate. This led to a higher consumption of alcohol and illicit speakeasies. As fast as the police closed down one venue, more would spring up in its place (Prohibition in the United States). Government intrusion with the Volstead Act of 1919 outlawed beverages over 0.5 alcohol volume

Civil disobedience is inevitable, when the government violates the autonomy and ignores the societal welfare of the people. Similarly, in the 1920s, the enactment of Prohibition restricted the personal liberties of the american population and worsened economy to a certain degree. The failure of Prohibition to improve good family morals and the quality of life caused growing disdain for its implementation. At the time, organized crime became the embodiment of protest against the government, because of the money that mafias made selling illegal alcohol, which opposed Prohibition. As a result, the public viewed these organizations as heroes, due mostly in part to their actions against the government and the benefits foreseen from joining.

The 1920’s, or “The Roaring 20’s”, was a decade that witnessed exciting social changes. It was a time of prosperity and dissipation, bootleggers and jazz dancers, and most importantly, it was a decade of The Prohibition Era. The Prohibition Era is basically an era which banned the manufacture, transportation, import and export, and the sale of alcoholic beverages. It was meant to reduce crime, corruption, and social problems and increase the overall hygiene of America. However, this social and political experiment failed.