Mrs. Ruland's U.S. History Class Project
Organized Crime as a Result of Prohibition
During the 1920's, the Progressives gained a major victory when Congress passed a constitutional amendment that banned alcohol from the United States. They believed that after the passage of this law, vice and crimes would slow or even stop in cities. Unfortunately they were far wrong. Instead of the intended effect, the passage of this law caused people to disregard authority when many people including the president were openly breaking the law with few to no consequences. Organized crime prospered as gangs would smuggle alcohol into the United States. The most common ways of doing this would be on high powered motorboats or through the cities in powerful cars designed to outrun the police. The most famous of these smugglers was Al Capone, or "Scarface". Capone evaded arrest for years, remaining above the law as he provided alcohol to the city of Chicago.
This website provides information on other gangs besides that of the notorious Al Capone. It gives information on how the smugglers smuggled the alcohol from Canada into the United States. It also describes the hardships they faced as they tried to get the alcohol into America
Alcohol Prohibition Was a Failure
The website has evidence on why Prohibition failed and a fully thought-out thesis about Prohibition. The graphs it has also helps you actually see how Prohibition didn't work. Finally, it provides quotes from the times.
Plenty of information on the most famous of bootleggers and his gang and his eventual arrest. This is a good source because it provides information on the bootlegging side of the Prohibition movement, so that it can be seen from a gangsters point of view. The photographs it shows provide a visual story of what is occurring to Capone.
History of Alcohol Prohibition
This site includes information from the First Hundred Years and the first temperance movements through the end of Prohibition. Also, it has a general overview of Prohibition, providing quotes from activists and Progressives during the time. Finally, it provides tables about alcoholism and drinking habits before and during Prohibition.
Organized Crime and Prohibition
This provides plenty of good information about Capone and other gangsters besides Capone such as Bugs Moran and Johnny Torrino. Also, it has primary sources including newspapers and pictures. Finally, it provides statistics about why Prohibition failed and government spending.
Rum War! the Coast Guard & Prohibition
This website doesn't have a lot of information about prohibition or organized crime; however, it provides many pictures and captions that show just how many ships were caught bootlegging and also how the life in the Coast Guard at that time was.
Organized Crime - How it was changed by Prohibition
This website offers in depth information about the creation and history of organized crime. It tells about how different gangs were formed and how the Chicago police didn't do much to try and stop the spread of organized crime. This website would be a very good website for research and I would recommend it.
This website is focused about sharing the life and times of gangster Frank Yale. It includes some of his most notable crimes as well as how he died and also tells of how Yale was double crossing Al Capone. Has a lot of information about his mobster life and traits of his that allowed him to be a good assassin.
Effect of Prohibition on organized crime
This site tells about how the period before World War I was actually a period of low drinking. It gives reasons for Prohibition as well as tells about how, long before Prohibition was passed as law, people were fighting for a law to be passed to ban alcohol. This is a useful site because it has a lot of good facts and would be a good research tool for researching Prohibition.
Organized Crime, USA: Changing Perceptions from Prohibition to the Present Day
This website is about life during Prohibition, and in particular, the life of the big businessman Arnold Rothstein. It tells about how even though there were laws against drinking, there were still places that you could go into and get a drink like there were no laws against it. This website is useful because it gives insight into the life during prohibition and how similar and different it was to normal life. It also tells in depth information about one of the big bootleggers of the time, Arthur Rothstein.
By: Brian D., Scott E.
Last updated March 28, 2007
© Marcella Ruland 1998-2008, All rights reserved
