Prohibition and the Mafia

Jason Caprio

4-13-14

Prohibition and the Mafia

            The creation of Prohibition was a huge movement in America during the 1920s. The Mafia was an organization that took Prohibition and made something out of it. Illegal selling of alcohol became just one of many activities that the mafia already used, but was still an important role that was played.
 Prohibition began with the Women’s Suffrage movement. Women used Christianity as ammo to get rid of alcohol and the distribution of it in America so the country would become cleaner,(Behr 35-44). Unfortunately, not everyone agreed with this, so selling alcohol secretively became a huge thing in the 1920s. Crime began to grow exponentially and become more organized. The Mafia saw it as just one more opportunity to bring in more profit to their organization. The Law would enforce Prohibition, but only if they were those that stayed true to it. Many officials of the Law were anti- Prohibition, loved to sneak alcohol for themselves and friends, and would even go undercover to make sure that alcohol could still be sold. They were too scared to do it themselves though. They and a vast majority of the public needed somebody to be willing to sell alcohol undercover, and the gangsters were more than happy to do it. The Mafia needed to make sure that nobody would get in their way while they sold alcohol underground, so they developed many tactics,(Behr).
 Mafia organizations would make deals with politicians. An example would be Ed Konvalinka and the deal he made with Torrio and Capone. The deal was that if both Torrio and Capone worked to help Ed get elected, he would not do anything to get in their way of selling alcohol. They would abide by his deal and would hijack the elections of democrats and hold voters at gun point to make the vote for Ed. Another example is the way that the Sicilian Genna Brothers handled it. One way police would find breweries is by the scent it gives off, but the Genna Brothers used ingredients that gave off scents that threw off their trail. The warehouse worked in the wide open where there were no attempts to hide the production of alcohol, they had literally been working right underneath the law’s nose and they didn't even know,(Behr 175-193).
Although Prohibition gave the Mafia a chance to bring in more money as a positive note, there were some negative effects that came out of this. The production and distribution of alcohol by multiple Mafia families lead to some competition and fueled the flame of turf wars, but around this time, Capone was in charge of the majority of the illegal breweries. Families would dish it out on each other for putting one another out of business, or for snitching to the police and getting the other side caught, but Capone would ultimately decide what, when, where, and how  it happened,(Behr)
 Prohibition was a time when America couldn't get up on its feet. It would have fights with its own citizens, the underground, and the Law. It gave reason for the police to break and enter with very few warrants involved, the citizen’s reason to question all that they trusted, and the Mafia the chance to bring in more money and antagonize the Law. Prohibition was just one of many factors that allowed the continuation of the Mafia. 


Sources

- "Chicago Outfit." American Mafia History. 01 Mar. 2014 <http://americanmafiahistory.com/chicago-outfit/>.

- "Organized Crime and Prohibition." Organized Crime and Prohibition. 01 Mar. 2014 <http://www.albany.edu/~wm731882/organized_crime1_final.html>.

-Behr, Edward. Prohibition: Thirteen years that changed America. New York: Arcade Pub., 2011.