the roaring twenties today’s topic: prohibition and organized crime
TRANSCRIPT
STUDENT OBJECTIVES
By the end of class today, you should be able to:
• Identify the three main goals of Prohibition
• Explain the connection between Prohibition and Organized Crime
• Evaluate the validity of arguments by those who wanted to
prohibit alcohol and those who wanted to keep it legal in the
United States
WARM UP ACTIVITY
Consider what might happen if the making,
selling, importing, and exporting of soft drinks
were made illegal.
Do you think that all Americans would stop
drinking soda? Why or Why not?
What unwanted effects might such a law
have?
Name reasons why some Americans would
want to BAN soft drinks.
MAIN GOALS OF PROHIBITION
Eliminate drunkenness and the domestic violence
that often came along with it.
Get rid of saloons, where prostitution, gambling,
and other perceived vices thrived.
Prevent absenteeism and on-the-job accidents that
drunkenness often caused.
PRACTICAL TEETOTALLERS
Though many prohibitionists believed that the
consumption of alcohol was an evil of society, others
stressed that the grain used for producing alcohol
should be used instead to produce food.
POEM ABOUT PROHIBITION
“Coward, monster, vicious brute. Friend to thief and prostitute.
Heartless, Godless, Hell’s delight. Crude by day and lewd by
night. Conscience dulled by demon rum. Liquor, thy name’s
Delirium.”
Funeral for Alcohol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuutDlyx1cE
I Never Knew I had Such a Wonderful Wife until the Town Went
Dry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT4TBxPewLQ
ENFORCEMENT
Once Prohibition becomes official through both the
18th amendment and the Volstead Act of 1919, it then
becomes difficult to enforce.
Can you think of any laws that are not very strictly
enforced by the police force?
Why do you think this is so?
D I S RE S P E C T F O R L AW E N FO RC E M E N T
Many citizens who wanted to drink alcohol viewed
police as “dog catchers with badges.”
The federal government organizes a taskforce
specifically aimed at curbing the transportation and
consumption of alcohol.
Prohibition laws were enforced much more in rural
areas than in the cities. Why so?
VOCAB NAME DROPS
Bootleggers supplied illegal alcohol. They either brewed
it themselves from corn, grain, or potatoes or they
smuggled it in from Canada and the Caribbean.
Speakeasies were bars that operated illegally, usually in
major cities.
A heavy gate usually blocked the entrance; needed to show
a membership card to get in.
Other speakeasies were elaborately hidden.
ORGANIZED CRIME
Because supplying illegal liquor was a complex operation that
brought in enormous amounts of revenue, organized crime was
essential for its success.
Criminals like Al Capone flourished. He consolidated (peacefully
or otherwise) control of bootlegging in Chicago.
Capone flaunted his wealth, drove around in a bulletproof
Cadillac
He felt that there was nothing wrong with providing a service
that consenting adults wanted.
ST. VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE
Capone orders the brutal murder of 6 members of
a rival Chicago gang. He evades prosecution.
Would have been much easier to charge Capone if
the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act) existed back then.
Allows mob bosses to be charged for the crimes of
their subordinates, enacted in 1970.
THE CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE
Mobsters made their fortunes not simply through
alcohol but also through controlling gambling,
prostitution, and racketeering rings.
They paid off cops and forced local businesses to
pay “protection” fees.
What are some of the advances in
transportation and weaponry that helped
mobsters do their jobs more efficiently?
THE FBI
The federal government fought back with improved
law enforcement.
Headed by J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI went after
mobsters like Capone, who managed to evade
chargers brought against him
Feds finally get Capone on tax evasion
CLOSURE
Prohibition and Organized Crime were just two factors
that made the twenties a time of boom, excitement, and
ultimately. . . Tragedy.
The intense pace at which life in the twenties moved came
to an equally abrupt end in 1929 with the stock market
crash and the ensuing Great Depression.
In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt repealed
prohibition, to the rejoice of millions.