The Tweed Ring Scandal

J. Edgar Hoover’s key addition to the DOI was the hiring of Melvin “Little Mel” Purvis. Although Purvis wasn’t even five feet tall, his demeanor and skills made him a perfect fit for Hoover’s new look of the Department of Investigation. He was full of confidence and an excellent marksman as well. Even Purvis himself stated, “I never doubted that my application would be accepted; I had a complete and ignorant confidence in my abilities.” After a few years of being in charge of the Dallas, Texas DOI office, Purvis was promoted to work at the office in Chicago, Illinois. His promotion allowed him to become the lead man in the Department of Investigation’s hunt for John Dillinger.

Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1899. Al Capone was an american mobster, crime boss, and business man during the Prohibition Era. He is known as the most famous criminal from his time. (1899-1947)

Guns, gangs, women, alcohol, gambling, are just some things that come to mind when I hear prohibition. According to the online source American History, The Prohibition is the act of prohibiting the manufacturing, storage, transportation, and sale of alcohol, including any alcoholic beverage. This led to the biggest crime rates of all time. At the head of all the crime was one man. His name, Alphonse Capone aka (Scarface) . “You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.” This was Al Capone’s favorite saying. Which summarizes his can do attitude and how he expects things to get done. Al Capone was born January 25, 1899 and died January 25,1947. Although Capone’s life was short, he impacted America more

James J. Hill was a robber baron as opposed to being a captain of industry. In his early career he had appear to be a captain of industry, as he did provide a boost to the economy of his hometown, but those acts of goodness are overshadowed by the corrupt, or dishonest for personal gain, businesses practices he later exercised. Hill took advantage of immigrants looking to find homes. He attempted to gain complete control over many railroad companies. He and another robber baron, E.H. Harriman, formed a holding company, which is similar to a trust. Hill took advantage of people and did whatever possible to gain all that he could out of any opportunity thrown his way. James J. Hill was a robber baron because he looked out only for himself, and disregarded the needs of others in order to get more money.

The President I have have chosen is Andrew Johnson. He was the 17th President of the United States serving from 1865-1869. He started out as a vice president when president Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. After that someone had to be elected the new president. Andrew Johnson was chosen. He was apart of the democratic party. During his presidency, some of choices were a success and others were failures. He served many roles as the president but not all of them when well.

Al Capone, a mob boss. In 1920s the mob was at its peak. The mob made alcohol, had prostitutes and gambled during the prohibition. The prohibition was when the 18th amendment was passed, the 18th amendment banned alcohol in the United States. Capone was one of the more well known mob bosses. He made 100 million annually. Capone influence the United States by doing what he wanted, he influenced todays law system, and helped Chicago 's people through tough times.

America had just finished fighting the Civil War and we were broken. Reconstruction began in 1865 and was the time of rebuilding America after the Civil War tore apart our country. People also referred to the this time as “putting back the pieces”. Abraham Lincoln was the president during this period of time. He had thought of a blueprint for the Reconstruction; which consisted of an idea known as the Ten-Percent Plan. This plan specified that any Southern state could be readmitted into the Union as soon as 10 percent of its voters swore to an oath of allegiance to the Union. Ultimately, the Reconstruction was a success because there was peace between the North and South, but also introduced new amendments to the U.S Constitution.

William "Boss" Tweed began his rise to influence in the late 1840s as a volunteer fireman in New York City. From this inauspicious beginning, Tweed managed to build a power base in his ward. He served as an alderman in 1852-53 and then was elected to a term in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1853-55. State and local affairs were his prime concern and he remained active in Tammany Hall, the organizational force of the Democratic Party in New York. Tweed emerged as the focal point of patronage decisions, giving him immense power.Boss Tweed gathered a small group of men who controlled New York City 's finances. They dispensed jobs and contracts

Andrew Jackson was said to be a divergent president in many ways, especially for his unique background compared to the wealthy ones of the previous presidents. He started off as an orphan and made his way up to becoming a general in the military, then became a frontier and started working in office soon later. Jackson’s presidency was held during an age known as the Age of the Common Man where he was determined to always do what was best for the common people and protect them from the powers of the rich and the privileged. With his success as a populist in his own Jacksonian Democracy, Jackson was able to seduce the American people but frighten the political and economic elite. Although Jackson had good intentions with what he wanted to accomplish

For instance, he once turned a four million dollar courthouse into a twelve million dollar courthouse through fraudulence. The Tweed Ring became exposed with the help of city patricians, The New York Times, and assorted political enemies within both parties, with varying motives. When The Tweed Ring was exposed, New York estimated William ‘The Boss’ Tweed’s services costed them somewhere between forty million dollars and one hundred million dollars. Initially, Tweed and his associates were sentenced to prison for twelve years, yet were released in 1875. Later on, William ‘The Boss’ Tweed would find himself in another jail cell, due to later charges, dead on April 12, 1878.

America has gone through their fair share of political changes, but the reconstruction era was one of the more difficult of these changes. The Civil War was over and the U.S. had to somehow reintegrate the country and inforce new laws, while figuring out how to deal with the four million newly freed slaves. The reconstruction era was the time when the United States was trying to put itself back together as a stronger more united nation. While eventually many politicians gave up and moved on to other problems, the era did see many achievements as well as

Reconstruction was a period of time dedicated to rebuilding the nation after the Civil War. The war ended with the South being defeated and their economy being devastated. Many Southerners struggled after the war with rebuilding their land and lives. The President and Congress had to decide the terms for which the former Confederate states would be permitted to join the Union. President Lincoln’s plan for reuniting the country was found in the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. He favored a moderate policy that would conjoin the South with the Union without any punishment for treason. Many resisted Lincoln’s plan, saying it was not harsh enough while others did not know if Lincoln was being too lenient. The Radical Republicans and moderate Republicans were caught in a conflict.

William Magear Tweed also known as Boss Tweed was born on April 23, 1823 in New York City on the lower east side of Manhattan. He married a woman named Mary Jane Skaden a little after he was born in 1844, then organized a volunteer fire company. It didn’t take long for him to get into politics because he ran for city alderman but unfortunately he lost the race in 1850 when he was 26 years old. He wasn’t a quitter so he ran again the next year and won so he was elected to one term in Congress. This started out to bring him even more success but the niceness didn’t last long, all the while corruption started to take place. He fulfilled his mission in the Democratic Party and of course filled it with the people he was friendly with just like

Jay Gould and Jim Fisk attempted to corner the nation’s gold market on September 24th 1869. They were president and vice president of the Erie Railroad, and they earned the reputation as two of Wall Street’s most ruthless financial masterminds. Their rap sheets included everything from issuing fraudulent stock to bribing politicians and judges, and they had a lucrative partnership with Tammany Hall power player Willian “Boss” Tweed. Jay Gould was an expert at devising new ways to game the system and he was once named the “Mephitopheles of Wall Street” because of his ability to line his own pockets. In 1869 Gould “spun a web” that was aimed at conquering the gold market. Gold was still the official currency of international trade at the time, but

Why do people commit crimes? What goes through their minds before they actually commit a crime? These are questions asked from society to criminologist every time one decides they want to commit a crime. Criminologists has given us different crime causations, theories, to explain the answer to these questions. A theory is a speculation about how phenomena, behavior, or process are caused and what takes place after the cause is determined (Anderson, 2015). There are numerous theories that have evolved over time to explain why crimes are committed. These theories include anomie, strained, social control, and rational choice theory. In this research paper I will be focusing on rational choice theory. Majority of these theories focus on a macro-level, which is the largest, meanwhile some focus on a micro-level, the smaller level, depending on the circumstances. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize how rational choice theory is integrate with different crimes. The crimes included are burglary, white collar crime, and murder.