1. Prohibition, Gangsters and the Glorification of Crime in the 1920s
The Lawless Decade
Prohibition, Gangsters and the Glorification of Crime in the 1920s

3. Prohibition
Championed by the Anti-Saloon League and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
Many states pass anti-drinking laws in Progressive Era
Wilson bans beer production to conserve grain for war effort

5. Prohibition 18th Amendment, ratified 1919 Volstead Act
Banned manufacture and sale of “intoxicating liquors”
Volstead Act
Banned anything with more than 0.5% alcohol

7. Enforcement Very lax Government never spent money to hire more agents
Spent only $5 million when $300 million needed
Led to underground economy
Speakeasies
Gangsters

10. Per Capita Consumption of Alcohol, 1910-29
Source: Clark Warburton, The Economic Results of Prohibition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1932), pp , 72.

11. Al Capone Chicago gangster Wealth made in alcohol and prostitution
“Active” in Chicago politics
No one would testify against him

12. Al Capone’s “Free Lunch” Restaurant During Depression

13. Leopold & Loeb, 1924 Two teenagers kidnap and kill 14 year old boy
From wealthy families
“Thrill Killers”
Crime and trial a sensation
Life sentences
Richard Loeb
Nathan Leopold

14. St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
February 14, 1929, Chicago
Capone’s gang murders 7 from a rival gang - execution style
Brutality of event leads feds to crack down on Capone
Capone arrested in 1931

15. Murder Rate,
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1975), part 1, p. 414.

16. Prohibition’s Demise Problems
Not enforceable
Rise in crime
Loss of tax revenue
People switch to “harder” liquor
Blaine Act allowed 3.2% alcohol beer (1933)
21st Amendment repeals Prohibition (1933)

17. Crime Continues to Captivate
Public Enemy Era
Bonnie & Clyde
John Dillinger
Ma Barker
All met glorious (and bloody) ends
Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow