Gangsters In The 1920s Essay

It’s nearly dawn, shadows seem to roam everywhere. There’s a party in a speakeasy that you can only find if you know a certain somebody. The lights are dazing and too bright to really focus on any one person but no one minds; they are all having too much fun to notice someone sneak into the area. The music changes from fun to screeches and gunshots. A gangster had gone after his rival that had been in that speakeasy. This is what the 1930’s had actually been like. Americans have always been able to relate and admire rebels, gangsters in the 1920’s and 1930’s were their rebels with a cause. Gangsters went through and got what they want, at any cost, their problem had been prohibition and the government’s meddling, that had appealed to Americans

A lot of people did not agree with prohibition and still wanted a way to get alcohol. Prohibition started because alcoholism and domestic violence was at a high and by getting rid of alcohol Congress thought domestic violence, bar fights and things of that nature would go away. Gangsters came to power because people needed a way to get alcohol and gangsters had it. But with the rise of gangsters came the rise of organized crime, which was just as bad if not worse than when people could freely get alcohol. One quote that explains how organized crime became more and more in power, “In Chicago a bare six months of prohibition has raised the total of crime, figured for the entire year, more than 25 per cent. The reason given by the Crimes Commission is illuminating. In Chicago crime, is not due to poverty or hard times. Crime is a business here,” (The New York Times, article Drink and Crime on January 8, 1920). That excerpt describes how a lot of people figured ‘why not go into crime, gangsters get money and alcohol’ and from that idea gangsters such as AL Capone, Legs Diamond and Dutch Shultz, and Bonnie and Clyde. To conclude, becoming a gangster seemed to be the better deal to some people during the