NCJ Number
117383
Journal
History Today Volume: 37 Dated: (June 1987) Pages: 8-15
Date Published
1987
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This account of efforts to address bootlegging, drug law violations, gambling and other offenses in the United States from the 1920's to the early 1950's emphasizes that that laws and enforcement efforts represented a moral crusade rather than a rational effort and that the term 'organized crime' was a new label for a longstanding phenomenon.
Abstract
Al Capone was not the first ruthless entrepreneur to join with thugs and government officials to gain an illegal fortune. He became famous because of media attention. During Prohibition, Capone and other bootleggers took the risks while public officials were paid off. Prohibition created or worsened a situation of widespread and systematic lawlessness in the United States. It's repeal was supported by most businesspeople, who felt threatened by the growing wealth of bootleggers. Ending Prohibition did not end the moral crusade, however. Gambling, prostitution, drug taking, and other activities were still banned in most places. Gambling enjoyed a particulary strong wartime and post-war boom and led to proposals to increase Federal law enforcement efforts. In 1950 Senator Kefauver of Tennessee led hearings focusing on this issue. The Kefauver Committee manipulated its evidence to fit a nebulous conspiracy theory focusing on the Mafia. The Committee made no appreciable impact against crime in the 1950's and seriously impeded any other approach to the problem of organized crime. Photographs.