Gangsters: Prohibition practically created organized crime in America. It provided members of small-time street gangs with the greatest opportunity ever — feeding the need of Americans coast to coast to drink beer, wine, and hard liquor on the sly. Organized racketeers dominated the illegal “bootlegging” industry as well as the urban machine “bosses” and the vice kings. They understood banking and other legitimate business and bribed policemen, judges, juries, witnesses, politicians, and even federal Prohibition agents as the cost of doing business. Feared and revered, these American gangsters often controlled liquor sales, gambling, and prostitution, while making popular, silk suits, diamond rings, guns, booze, and broads. They were also involved in the political, social, and economic conditions of the times. The period sparked a revolution in organized crime, generating frameworks and stacks of cash for major crime families that, though far less powerful, still exist to this day.
Al Capone, also known as Scarface, was a notorious gangster in Chicago. Originally from New York, Capone had minor dealings with gangs as a youngster but tried to hold down normal jobs. When he returned to New York for his Father's funeral, he was reacquainted with Johnny Torrio, known as the first modern racketeer. Capone moved his family to Chicago to work with Torrio in early 1921. This was soon after Prohibition had begun, and the Torrio-Capone organization capitalized on the sale and distribution of illegal alcohol. While they made a lot of money illegally moving alcohol, it was a dangerous business that involved a lot of violence. This ultimately led to Torrio retiring and Capone, and his family, in charge of a large, powerful business. His involvement in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre brought national attention to Capone and he became the most famous American gangster.
Mob boss Al Capone served free soup to
Chicago's unemployed
Al Capone
Outlaws, Mobsters & Crooks, Dec. 21, 2017
Al Capone
American Decades ,1998
Al Capone
Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 26 Feb. 2021.
American gangster, Al Capone. Chicago, Illinois: January 1, 1930.
Photograph. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/183_365701/1/183_365701/cite. Accessed 29 Nov 2021.
Al Capone And Family at a picnic, Chicago Heights, IL, 1929.
Photograph. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/127_1583929/1/127_1583929/cite. Accessed 29 Nov 2021.
Al Capone On His Way To Prison, October 1931
Al Capone On His Way To Prison. Photographer. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/115_2814014/1/115_2814014/cite. Accessed 29 Nov 2021.
Capone's Soup Kitchen: A group of men line up outside a Chicago soup kitchen opened by Al Capone, ca.1930s.
Photograph. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/127_1586620/1/127_1586620/cite. Accessed 29 Nov 2021.
Charles “Lucky” Luciano was an Italian-American gangster who was said by the FBI to be the man who “organized” organized crime in the United States. During Prohibition in the 1920s, Luciano became a bootlegger and was involved in illegal gambling. His friend and fellow gangster Lansky nicknamed him “Lucky” in 1929 after Luciano survived a gangland assassination attempt (Luciano also had a reputation for being lucky at gambling). Luciano became the acknowledged leader of the nationwide underworld, and he called his organized crime syndicate “The Commission” or “The Outfit.” He divided New York City among the “Five Families” (Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese) and the rest of the country among twenty-four respective criminal gangs. Though he declined the official title of “Capo di Tutti Capi,” or “Boss of all Bosses,” his command was unquestioned.
Lucky Luciano
Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 21 Sep. 2018.
Charles Luciano
Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1981.
Lucky Luciano
Gale Biography Online Collection, Gale, 1999.
Lucky Luciano, American Mobster
Lucky Luciano, American Mobster. Photograph. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 19 Jan 2021.
quest.eb.com/search/139_3914389/1/139_3914389/cite. Accessed 30 Nov 2021.
Lucky Luciano, Handcuffed
Gale Biography Online Collection, Gale, 2010. Gale In Context: Biography,
The Return Of Lucky - 1962: A wooden coffin containing the corpse of Sicilian-born New York mafia boss Charles 'Lucky' Luciano is lowered from the freight hull of an airplane, using a forklift, as he is returned to New York City for burial.
The Return Of Lucky. Photographer. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/115_2812296/1/115_2812296/cite. Accessed 30 Nov 2021.
Meyer Lansky was one of the most powerful U.S. organized crime figures of the twentieth century. During the 1920s Lansky expanded his operation and organized a gang that committed burglaries, smuggled alcohol, and killed persons for hire. Lansky extended the influence of organized crime into Cuba and after World War II financed the efforts that created the gambling industry in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lansky's operations included all major areas of vice, including gambling, prostitution, pornography, and narcotics trafficking.
Meyer Lansky
Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 36, Gale, 2016
Lansky, Meyer
The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, edited by Kenneth T. Jackson, et al., vol. 1: 1981-1985, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998,
Meyer Lansky
Encyclopædia Britannica, 17 Feb. 2021
Meyer Lansky
Outlaws, Mobsters & Crooks, Gale, 1998
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky . Fine Art. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
MEYER LANSKY (1902-1983), American gangster. Lansky is brought into the Dade County, Florida, jail on a drug charge in 1970.
Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 31 Aug 2017.
MEYER LANSKY: Photographed by the New York City Police Department, 1930s.
Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.