cultural conflicts of the 1920s. prohibition 18 th amendment – prohibits the manufacture, sale,...
TRANSCRIPT
Cultural Conflicts of the 1920s
Prohibition
• 18th Amendment – Prohibits the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating beverages.
• Defined the separation of values in the country and in the cities.
Bootlegging
• Originates from drinkers who would hide flasks in their boots.
• In the 1920s it was used to describe anyone who could supply alcohol.
• Bootleggers would either transport the alcohol from Canada or Mexico.
• They would also run distilleries and make their own alcohol to sell.
Moonshine
Speakeasies
• Illegally operated bars that would buy the alcohol from bootleggers.
• Primarily located in cities.
• A patron of the bar would need a membership card or a password to enter.
Organized Crime
• Regimented organizations that participated in one or many illegal ventures.
• Bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, and racketeering.
• Racketeering – means of controlling a neighborhood or city.
• A racketeer would offer protection to people or businesses in exchange for a tribute.
Organized Crime
• If the tribute was not paid the person or business would face consequences.
• In American cities gangland wars ravaged neighborhoods.
• In Chicago alone 157 bombs targeted at homes and businesses were set off in one year.
Paul Kelly, a.k.a. Paolo Antonio Vacarelli
Big Jim Colosimo
Johnny "The Fox" Torrio
The Four Deuces
Al Capone comes to Chicago
Big Jim mudered – Torrio Reigns
Hymie Weiss and Bugs“The North Side Gang”
Torrio Dead? Capone Reigns
Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti
Valentine's Day
The Untouchables
Meyer Lansky
Charles "Lucky" Luciano
Frank Costello
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel
Machine Gun Kelly
Thompson Gun
Bonnie Parker
Clyde Barrow
Bonnie and Clyde
The Modern Version
• "The American people . . . had expected to be greeted, when the great day came, by a covey of angels bearing gifts of peace, happiness, prosperity and salvation, which they had been assured would be theirs when the rum demon had been scotched. Instead they were met by a horde of bootleggers, moonshiners, rum-runners, hijackers, gangsters, racketeers, trigger men, venal judges, corrupt police, crooked politicians, and speakeasy operators, all bearing the twin symbols of the Eighteenth Amendment--the Tommy gun and the poisoned cup." – Herbert Asbury –author of Gangs of New York