Illegal Alcohol example essay topic

The 1920's also known as the Roaring 20's or the Jazz Age was a time of flowing money, also a time of great crime through which this money flowed. Prohibition had been declared but somehow alcohol was still available. There was the illegal producing and distributing of alcohol. Cops were easily bought.

You did not have to pay the time for the crime if you had the money. Political scandals also occurred such as the Teapot Dome scandal occurred. And most importantly in the 1920's organized crime flourished. Organized crime was, in many cases, responsible for the other crimes committed. Bootlegging, as it relates to the 1920's, is the illegal distribution or production of liquor.

So how is this a crime if in America it is legal to make and sell Alcohol? Well in the 1920's the Eighteenth Amendment, the National Prohibition Act, or the Volstead Act, was passed. This act outlawed alcohol except for religious or medicinal purposed. Prohibition was meant to reduce the consumption of alcohol, seen by some as the devil's advocate, and thereby reduce crime, poverty, death rates, and improve the economy and the quality of life. This, however, failed to work.

Instead there was an explosion of crime and the amount of alcohol consumption actually went up. Bootleggers were those who had access to the illegal alcohol. There were various methods of obtaining the alcohol such as smuggling it form oversees or Canada. Many made the alcohol themselves. Some even stole it from government warehouses. Many people hid their liquor in hip flasks, false books, hollow canes, and anything else they could find.

There were also illegal speak-easies, which replaced the saloons. People would go to these to speak easies to purchase alcohol. These speakeasies were usually hidden or in the disguise of something else. By 1925 New York alone had 100,000 speakeasies. The police intercepted barely 5 percent of this illegal alcohol.

Many bootleggers secured their business by bribing authority figures. A big of the sudden increase of felonies was organized crime. Since alcohol was illegal gangsters readily took to bootlegging and supplied the public with booze. The most notable gangs were the Italian mafias. Large cities were, of course the main location for these gangs. These gangs not only bootlegged, but owned various other illegal operations.

These gangs also bought off the cops so they would not interfere. The competition for business led to gang warfare. The battle between gangs caused over four hundred gang related murders a year in Chicago alone. The most powerful and infamous gang leader was Al Capone. Al Capone was born in Brooklyn and participated in several gangs as a child.

He had scars on his face, which got him the nickname "Scarface". He inherited his position form his mentor. Capone controlled speakeasies, bookie joints, gambling houses, brothels, horse and race tracks, nightclubs, distilleries and breweries at a reported income of $100,000,000 a year. One of the most notorious gang killing was the Valentines Day Massacre. Capone planned the murder of Bugs Moran because of business differences. Capone's henchman staged an alcohol delivery at a warehouse and Capone's men came dressed as police pretending to raid the place.

All that were inside were killed in a sweep of gun fire. Capone had an alibi, because he was in Miami at the time. He was never convicted of a thing. These types of gang warfare showed how crime was increased due to prohibition. The problems prohibition intended to solve, such as crime, grew worse and they never returned to their pre-prohibition levels.

Not only was prohibition ineffective, it was also damaging to the people and society it was meant to help. Prohibition should not have gone on for the thirteen years it was allowed to damage society. However, not all crime in the 1920's was directly due to prohibition. Warren G. Harding. Harding was born on Nov. 2, 1865, in Corsica, Ohio. He worked for a newspaper as editor and publisher.

Early in his life he was involved in politics. He ran for president promising a return to normalcy, a return to how things used to be. He believed that the government should not control business and that we shouldn't deal in the affairs of Europe. Harding's cabinet was primarily made up of his friends and political supporters. They were known as the "Ohio Gang".

Jesse smith part of the Ohio gang was caught carrying bribes to and form the Attorney Generals office. After being banned from Washington he committed suicide. Charles Cramer, legal advisor to the Veterans Bureau was also exposed for taking bribes he too committed suicide. Charles Forbes, head of the same bureau, was convicted of taking at least $250 million dollars in kickbacks and bribes. Colonel Thomas W. Miller, head of the Office of Alien Property was convicted of fraud. He had sold valuable German patents seized in the war for far below market price.

He too had taken bribes. One of the most famous scandals was the teapot dome scandal. Control of oil reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming was transferred from the Navy Dept. to the Dept. of the Interior. In 1922, Albert Fall, U.S. Secretary of the Interior leased the teapot dome fields to Henry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny.

These leasing's went under senate investigation and it was found Doheny had lent Fall 100,000 dollars interest free. Fall was convicted for conspiracy and for accepting bribes. He was sentences to a year in prison and fined $100,000. The Roaring 20's is an appropriate nickname for this point in time.

With restriction comes rebellion. Prohibition fueled underworld crime. We had one of the weakest presidential cabinets ever. However much of Americas identity was forged in this time period. Using the past as an example we can prevent such things from happening again.