Gianni de Falco

Vincent Leung

Mr. Lo

E4

April 9, 2011

Organized Crime & Corruption in the 1920s:

Booze, Tea, Gangsters, & Guns

America in the 1920s was a seemingly fantastic time on its glittering and rich surface,

but under that glamorous exterior overflowing with grand culture there lay a country decaying

via gangsters, organized crime, and horrific political corruption. The speedy deterioration and

lack of recognition towards the law during this time went hand in hand with a new rigid

amendment annexed to the Constitution in January of 1920. This 18th amendment was the

ultimate victory of the age old temperance movement that had been fighting for the illegalization

of the transportation, consumption and sale of alcohol since as far back as the late 1780s. A

whole new medium for crime was now open and with its grand commencement, followed by the

birth of ruthless gangsters such as Al Capone, John Dillinger, and the notorious Bonne & Clyde.

But this moral degradation didn’t stop there, the political corruption of the early ‘20s, which was

brought on by President Warren G. Harding and his infamous “Ohio Gang”, added onto the

lawless aspect of this “golden age of American culture”. As America bled jazz, burned cash, and

danced their hearts out, these savage and adamant criminals ran our streets for more than a

decade, holding the public hostage under their relentless reign of terror.
 The dawn of Prohibition seem to come as quickly as it ended but during its short lived

failure as a movement crime rate increased tremendously due to the new illegal business of the

illicit manufacturing, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcohol based beverages. Deaths via

alcohol poisoning rose by 400% in the 1920si, an astonishing and expedited increase from

before. Arrests of drunk and disorderly conduct rose by 41.2%, arrests of drunken drivers

increased by 81%, thefts and burglaries increased by 9%, homicides, assaults, and battery

increased by 13%, the number of federal convicts rose by 561%, the populations of federal

prisons rose by 366%, and the overall federal expenditures on penal institutions increased by a

whopping 1,000%ii. By these statistics alone you can see the negative effects brought on the

idealistic Temperance movement. Along with all those astonishing statistics, mob crime on a

whole rose to incredible heights. The patriarch and conductor for a lot of the illicit alcohol

production and distribution during Prohibition of was a virulent Brooklynite by the name of

Alphonse Capone, also known as Al Capone.

Born to an immigrant family in 1899 in Brooklyn, New York, Capone was a delinquent

from an early age. Dropping out of school in sixth grade, he joined a local street gang and was

accepted as a member. The infamous Johnny Torrio was the alpha male and gang leader, a man

who played an important role at bringing Capone to his position as kingpin and mob lord later in

his life.iii

Circa 1920, John Torrio invited Capone to join him in Chicago where Torrio had made a

name for himself in the local Colosimo mob, a dangerous mob that owned the streets of Chicago.

At this point, the 18th amendment had just been passed and the illicit alcohol industry was birthed

and gangsters such as Torrio and Capone became pioneers of the industry very early on. Soon

after the commencement of the new alcohol industry, Torrio took control of the Colisimo mob
immediately after the death of Big Jim Colosimo. Torrio’s new seize of power allowed for the

promotion of Capone to Torrio’s right hand man, giving him the experience he would use later to

orchestrate the illicit alcohol industry and other racketeering ventures.iv

Capone gained and worked hard to maintain his malicious reputation as a fierce kingpin

and mob lord. Now the Don of the Capone mob, Al and his men fought passionately to gain and

retain “racketeering rights” to zones all around Chicago. As Capone and his gang of mobsters

grew in size and power rival gangs dropped off one by one from the streets of the Windy City

until the Capone mob was the reigning mafia. v

The pinnacle of Chicago gang warfare came on February 14, 1929 with the St.

Valentine’s Day Massacre where seven gangsters associated with the “Bugs” Moran mob were

maliciously slaughtered by rival gangs posed as police. The holocaust was credited to Capone

and merry band of gangster but surprisingly the notorious kingpin was absent from the massacre

in Florida during the carnage. vi

Investigations into Capone started in early 1929 when he failed to show up in front of the

Federal Grand Jury in reply to a subpoena he was issued. Appearing in front of the Federal

Grand Jury at Chicago on March 20, 1929, he was arrested on the 27th on the charge for

Contempt of Court and posted a $5,000 bond and was released promptly. On the 17th of May in

’29, Capone and his bodyguard were arrested in Philly for carrying weapons and were sentenced

immediately to terms of one year each. Capone was released three months early on account of

good behavior. On October 18, 1931, Capone was found guilty after trial by jury on the accounts

of tax evasion and prohibition charges. He was sentenced to 11 years in Federal prison and fined

$50,000, charged $7,692 for court costs and also owed $215,000 plus interest on the taxes he

evaded. vii
 Released on November 16, 1939, Capone had served seven years, six months and fifteen

days. He had also paid all debts he was accountable for as well. While in jail, he was diagnosed

with syphilis and had deteriorated mentally during his incarceration. By 1946 he was told by his

physician and a Baltimore psychiatrist that he had the mentality of a 12 year old. The great

Capone spent the rest of his years with his family in Florida until finally giving out to pneumonia

and a stroke in January of ‘47.viii

As the Great Depression hit full swing in the early 30s, people were rendered workless

and helpless. Not being able to support their family any longer, men were willing to go to feat to

bring the bacon to the table. And queue the most notorious and famous bank robbers of the late

‘20s early ‘30s, John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde. These everyday people seized America by

its throat with their no holds barred bank robbing tactics that took casualties every time, yet the

public still honored them as heroes. Their crimes were glorified and gave hope to the everyman

that he too could one day fearlessly seize whatever necessities he needs with brutal force, just as

their not-so-friendly national outlaws had before them.

Born on the 22nd of June, 1903, John Herbert Dillinger was in and out of trouble from as

early as he could count. Born in Indianapolis, his mother passed away when he was three and his

mother remarried around six years later, much to John’s dismay. He quit school early and got a

job at a machine shop. Starting out on a good foot, John soon became bored with life started to

stay out all night. His father worried much about the affect the city might be having on the

developing mind of his son, so he packed up their bags and moved them to a farm near

Moorseville, Indiana. John responded no better to the latter than he had the former.ix

After some problems at home and some run-ins with the law, John took refuge into the

Navy, but only lasting a short period before he abandoned ship when his boat docked in Boston.
Upon fleeing the Navy, he went back home and married 16 year old Betty Huvios, which

brought him back to Indianapolis once more. Failing to find work, he turned to a local small time

shark named Ed Singleton with whom Dillinger had his first robbery with. The robbery failed

and Singleton was sentenced to two years while Dillinger was to serve to sentences of two to

fourteen years and an additional one of ten to twenty years. He was released in May of 1933 on

parole, and it was from here on that John Dillinger’s name went down in infamy.x

Robbing a bank almost immediately after being released from jail, Dillinger was

apprehended quickly, but this marked the start of his string of robberies and escapes from prison

which made the next year for Dillinger and his acquaintances quite busy. As his gang and he

swept across Indiana pulling many a heist on banks and police arsenals, they gained a lot of heat

and in January of 1934, Dillinger and his merry band of men killed an East Chicago police

officer during a bank heist and it was for this crime that Dillinger was for the last time.xi

Being held in a jail in Crown Point, Indiana, he tricked the guards and held them hostage

with a wooden gun and fled. Dillinger grabbed the warden’s car, a decision that would cost him

his life, and drove it over state lines to Chicago, Illinois. While hiding in Illinois with girlfriend

Evelyn Frechette, he and the remaining members of his gang robbed a police station to stock up

on ammunitions. After their base was attacked in mid-1934, Dillinger hid for a few months until

things cool off. While hiding, two special agents, Samuel A. Cowley and Melvin Purvis where

assigned to Dillinger’s case. These two agents, along with the help of a local Chicago brothel

maid who went by the name Anna Sage, brought Dillinger down for good. On Saturday July 22,

1934, Dillinger, Sage, and another girl Polly Hamilton strolled out of the local movie theater,

The Biograph, and found an array of FBI agents waiting for him and they had no hesitation in

taking fire. At 10:50pm on that same day, John Dillinger was pronounced dead. Dying as
somewhat of a martyr, Dillinger has been and always will be remembered as one of the craftiest

of those outlaws from that time period.xii

Without a doubt, the most glorified and praised of all the outlaws from 1920s and 1930s

was the notorious duo, Bonnie and Clyde. Meeting originally in Texas in January of 1930,

Bonnie was 19 and Clyde was 21. Soon after their first encounter, Clyde was sent to jail but

escaped shortly after by using a gun that Bonnie had smuggled into jail for him. His escape was

quite short lived and he was sent back into jail almost immediately after his grand escape. He

was paroled in February of ‘32 and henceforth commenced the crime spree that Bonnie and

Clyde would conduct over the next two years.xiii

Picking up gunman William Daniel Jones, Ivan M. Buck Barrow (Clyde’s Brother) and

his wife Blanche the infamous “Barrow Gang” had amounted to five members and was now

complete. The gang held bank robberies all throughout the countries that not only grabbed the

media’s attention but also that of the FBI, then known as just the Bureau of Investigation. During

a shootout in 1933 in Iowa, Ivan Barrow was killed and Blanche was taken by the police. A few

months later Jones was taken too, but they duo trudged on. Through another year of blatant

rampages that ended in the death of many police officers, Bonnie and Clyde were caught driving

early one morning on May 23, 1934. Police had set up a stake out on the side of the road near

Sailes, Louisiana. As the duo tried to drive away, the police opened up fire, killing the pair

instantaneously.xiv

The tale of Clyde Champion Barrow and Bonnie Parker has been immortalized through

the movie about their crime spree entitled Bonnie and Clyde. Through the film and through the

age old practice of oral history, Bonnie and Clyde go down in our minds not as vicious outlaws,

but as glorified heroes who did what they needed to in order to get by.
 Although the crime of the 1920s and 1930s seemed to be just about gangs and robbers, it

wasn’t partial towards political corruption in the least. One of the most heinous and corrupt

group of politicians ever stands to be Warren G. Harding and his infamous “Ohio Gang”. After

being deadlocked as the Republican candidate in 1920, Harding won office with 61% of the

popular vote and also won has the first sitting senator to ever be elected. Once elected, he turned

over many of the policies that still stood from Wilson’s presidency and also this allowed for the

Roaring Twenties it also planted the seeds for the Great Depression.xv

Harding keeled his cabinet over to his friends who went by the title the “Ohio Gang”.

His members were not politicians in the least and in fact, acted as children in a toy store playing

with whatever they could find. Harding’s cabinet was so corrupt that it worsened the deep seeded

distrust that some Americans have toward their government officials. The worst of the corruption

stood to be the leasing of government owned oil wells to private companies. The deal was made

by Albert B. Fall, a senator from New Mexico. He was rewarded quite well with a heaping total

of $400,000 for his amoral and illicit affairs. Fall was put on trial in 1929 and finally sentenced

to jail in 1931.xvi

Harding was a good man who just played around with the wrong people. In the book

Dead Last: The Public Memory of Warren G. Harding, by Phillip G. Payne, Payne explains how

Warren has the classic example of a farm boy making it to president. And age old example of

democracy working at its finest. On page 5, Payne quotes a historian by the name of Eric Foner

who explains that during his running for president, Harding didn’t seem special at all just an

average man who was slightly apathetic. It was the gang of corrupt man boys who Harding

appointed to office that really gave the President a bad name.xvii

crime, I don’t think that this time period compares in any way to the wave of serial killers that

America saw in the late 20th century. Maniacs and psychopaths such as Ted Bundy, Jeffery

Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy wreaked a certain havoc on this country that was so terrifying

because it was quite arbitrary in its manner. Criminals like Dillinger and Capone might have

done committed a crime or two for fun, but it was really out of necessity. Making money and

trying to maintaining a stable lifestyle was their main goal. The crimes of someone like Dahmer

are incomparable because they had no purpose except for pure pleasure. The 1920s and ‘30s

attributed a lot of culture that can still be seen today in America and although the massive crime

wave that swept through America was not a good thing in the least, the criminality of the Jazz

Age in comparison to the 1970s to early 2000s is menial. It is so menial in fact, that Al Capone

looks like a fluffy Italian teddy bear in comparison to a mad man such as Gary Ridgway or John

Gacy.
i
Organized Crime in the 1920s; The Finer Times; April 9th, 2011; <http://www.thefinertimes.com/20th-Century-
Crime/organised-crime-in-the-1920s.html>
ii
Organized Crime in the 1920s; Albany Education; April 9th, 2011;
< http://www.albany.edu/~wm731882/organized_crime1_final.html>
iii
Alphonse Capone; Alphonse Capone; April 10th 2011; < http://alphonsecapone.com/>
iv
Alphonse Capone; Alphonse Capone; April 10th 2011; < http://alphonsecapone.com/>
v
Alphonse Capone; Alphonse Capone; April 10th 2011; < http://alphonsecapone.com/>
vi
Alphonse Capone; Alphonse Capone; April 10th 2011; < http://alphonsecapone.com/>
vii
Alphonse Capone; Alphonse Capone; April 10th 2011; < http://alphonsecapone.com/>
viii
Alphonse Capone; Alphonse Capone; April 10th 2011; < http://alphonsecapone.com/>
ix
John Dillinger; The Federal Bureau of Investigation; April 11, 2011;
< http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/john-dillinger>
x
John Dillinger; The Federal Bureau of Investigation; April 11, 2011;
< http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/john-dillinger>
xi
John Dillinger; The Federal Bureau of Investigation; April 11, 2011;
< http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/john-dillinger>
xii
John Dillinger; The Federal Bureau of Investigation; April 11, 2011;
< http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/john-dillinger>
xiii
Bonnie and Clyde; The Federal Bureau of Investigation; April 11, 2011;
< http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/bonnie-and-clyde>
xiv
Bonnie and Clyde; The Federal Bureau of Investigation; April 11, 2011;
< http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/bonnie-and-clyde>
xv
Warren G. Harding; Ohio History Central; July 1, 2005; April 11, 2011 <http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?
rec=199>
xvi
Warren G. Harding; Ohio History Central; July 1, 2005; April 11, 2011 <http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?
rec=199>
xvii
Dead Last: The Public Memory of Warren G. Harding's Scandalous Legacy; Payne, Phillip G.; Athens, Ohio: Ohio
University Press; 2009; Print
 Bibliography
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<http://www.thefinertimes.com/20th-Century-Crime/organised-crime-
in-the-1920s.html>
2. Organized Crime in the 1920s; Albany Education; April 9th, 2011;
<http://www.albany.edu/~wm731882/organized_crime1_final.html>
3. Alphonse Capone; Alphonse Capone; April 10th 2011; <
http://alphonsecapone.com/>
4. John Dillinger; The Federal Bureau of Investigation; April 11, 2011;
< http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/john-dillinger>
5. Bonnie and Clyde; The Federal Bureau of Investigation; April 11, 2011;
< http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/bonnie-and-clyde>
6. Warren G. Harding; Ohio History Central; July 1, 2005; April 11, 2011
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=199
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Legacy; Payne, Phillip G.; Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press; 2009;
Print