Not long after the gangland wars broke out O’ Banion began to challenge the Torrio-Capone gang’s territory. And even more effective was the Thompson submachine gun, better known as the Tommy gun. As individual gangsters became more demanding and territorial, few stooped to settle their differences with discussion. A Speakeasy was a place where the illegal sale and distribution of alcohol took place. Gang leaders competed for geographic stake in brothels and speakeasies. In a free-for-all, every-man-for-himself enterprise, every gangster wanted a bigger share of the trade. The front-line of the bootleg wars was fought in Chicago and the names of a generation of gangsters such as Al Capone and Dion ‘Dean’ O’ Banion would go on to achieve immortality. From 1920 onwards the new, younger and greedier gangs behaved far more viciously, using terror as a weapon. Fledging gangsters in cities were quick to spot an opportunity and if that meant going to war with rival gangs for the control of profitable liquor franchises, then so bit it. Prohibition had brought the mob to the forefront of American life, and gangsters became experts in liquor and bootlegging. Fleets of gangster owned trucks brought this beer and whiskey to the cities. Gangsters organised a massive cross-border traffic n liquor from Canada, often going to ingenious lengths to conceal it all in cars. With America’s extensive coastline, only twenty-six inshore vessels on hand and the coastguard been severely understaffed it was extremely difficult to police, with only five percent of alcohol ever being commandeered. In spite of the efforts of the US coastguard, gangsters became smugglers, smuggling alcohol from Britain, Europe and Canada. The money that cascaded through the bootlegging business also led to the expansion of rackets such as gambling and loan-sharking, new rackets were also created in the form of money laundering and an escalated arms race was also funded. To feed the seemingly endless thirst, the heads of the underground businesses produced and delivered a plentiful supply of beer and moonshine. All ever did was supply a demand that was pretty popular’ Making, distributing and selling beer and liquor was a natural fit for the expertise of gangs like Capone’s, as well as gangs in cities like New York, Detroit, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and St. One of America’s most infamous mob bosses of the 1920s, Al ‘Scarface’ Capone, said when he was asked if he was a bootlegger that ‘All best people. A strong demand for alcohol was created and the mobsters, or rather the opportunists, began their reign of some of America’s largest cities. They had suffered for four years through WW1 and now they wanted to have some fun. Prohibition proved to be unpopular among many Americans who saw it as a violation to their freedom, and many Americans simply did not want to stop drinking. 6 billion nationally by the time of the year of 1926. It is believed that the annual sales of bootleg liquor had amassed to $3. The money that was to be made by violating the eighteenth amendment’s outlawing the sale, manufacture and transport of booze and beer was awesome. The onset of Prohibition proved to be an enormous and lucrative opportunity to the underworld. Prohibition took loosely organised neighbourhood gangs and put them into organised communication with each other. Instead it was the dawn of unprecedented violence in American life. Prohibition was meant to herald a new era of sobriety and clean-living. Gangsters and their accomplices were now suddenly everywhere. Prohibition gave rise to the bootleg years and bootlegging led to organised crime. But the arrival of the eighteenth Amendment fuelled the rise of aggressive and violent gangsters. Before the Volstead Act came in in 1920, outlawing alcohol, street gangs in the big cities were small and insignificant collection of angry young men who specialized in illegal vices, such as gambling. Instead of preventing the American people from engaging in behaviours that were frowned upon and reducing the rate of crime, they instead escalated the drinking problems and, in a round-a-bout way, encouraged the rise of crime and corruption. The introduction of Prohibition was to be a grave mistake by the American Federal government.
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