The Chicago Mafia During The Prohibition Era - 1236 Words

Just like in every other business legal or not legal if there is demand, be rest assured there will be a supply. The result was bootlegging â€Å"alcoholic liquor unlawfully made, sold, or transported, without registration or payment of taxes.† (random house, 2015) Bootlegging helped open the door for more organized crime such as opening speakeasies, which were private illegal stores and clubs that sold alcohol. These activities turned out to be a very lucrative business in the black market sector, thus creating large organized crime groups, more criminal and violent activities. This was especially true in the larger cities, such as Chicago were one man named Al Capone ruled the city â€Å"One of the most famous American gangsters, Al Capone, also†¦show more content†¦In the 1920s many anti-prohibitionists started gaining steam, because of the new found support and the obviousness that the 18th Amendment was not working. When the great depression struck in 1929, it h elped support the Anti-Prohibition movement even further, for the sheer fact that the government could end the prohibition and instead of the black market getting the money from alcohol sales, it could be going to the people. The money the government was using to enforce the prohibition, that clearly wasn’t working, could be going to areas in the U.S. that really needed it. These were some of the points that even Democrat, Franklin D. Roosevelt used during his election campaign, and the majority loved the idea of ending the prohibition and Roosevelt was elected to be the 32nd president in November 1932. Soon after Roosevelt came into office it was put into motion to repeal the 18th Amendment. â€Å"After over a decade of being a â€Å"dry† country, on December 6, 1932, Senator John Blaine of Wisconsin submitted a resolution onto the floor of the Senate to submit the 21st amendment to the states for ratification, which followed in February 1933. That very same year, t he 36th state, which was the last necessary one needed (and ironically ended up being Utah), ratified the 21st amendment at 5:32pm on December 5th, at which point President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, at 7pmon the same day, signed the amendment and