Prohibition pg. 65-68

How long did Prohibition last in America?

Thirteen years, five months, and nine days

How were criminal networks able to make billions during prohibition?

By controlling the production or importation, distriubution, and sale of illegal alcohal

What is a bootlegger?

Those who handled the procurement and transport of alcohol

Who was the most prolific bootlegger of the prohibition era?

George Remus

Just before the passage of prohibition laws, where did Remus move to?

From Chicago to Cincinnati

Why did Remus move from Chicago to Cincinnati?

To engineer a expansive bootlegging scheme

What previous occupations did Remus hold?

A pharmacist, and lawyer

What did Remus purchase with his life savings?

Dozens of whiskey distilleries

What did Remus do with his whiskey distilleries?

He moved the stock to a network of wholesale drug companies

The Volstead Act allowed who to sell alcohol, and under what label?

Drug companies were permitted to sell “medicinal whiskey” if prescribed by a doctor

How did the law try to stop doctors from abusing their ability to prescribe alcohol?

By issuing numbered prescription pads and capping the amount of alcohol they could prescribe

Remus shifted a large share of the whiskey into what?

The black market

What did Remus do with the money he made from bootlegging?

He threw lavish parties at his mansion

What made bootleg alcohol a valuable commodity?

The laws of supply and demand

What percent of price had beer increased by in 1928?

600%

What percent of price did gin increase by?

520%

How much did the price of whiskey increase by?

310%

How many employees did Remus’s operation employ?

Three thousand

What jobs were available through working for Remus?

Security guards, accountants, and armored trucks

How much of Reamus’s money went towards bribing politicians?

20 milion

Who did Remus use his money to bribe?

Politicians, prohibition agents, and local police

Remus’s bribes demonstrated what about Prohibition?

It was easily converted into a force for public corruption

When Remus landed himself in legal peril, what was the Senate investigating?

Corruption in the Harding administration

What did Remus voluntarily provide to the Senate for their investigation?

Testimony

Who did Remus catalog cash payments to?

Jess Smith

Who was Jess Smith?

A key member of Attorney General Daugherty’s Ohio Gang

Why was Remus paying Jess Smith?

To secure free reign of government bonded warehouses and get a veritable get-out-of-jail free card

After a federal raid on his main warehouse, how many years was Remus sentenced to prison?

2 years

Where did Remus serve his sentence?

Atlanta penitentiary

What was Remus’s bootlegging empire equal to?

A large corporation, managing complex purchasing and shipping logistics while also deftly navigating the political thicket of government regulators and law enforcement

What other “businesses” sold alcohal

Upscale clubs, casinos, and hotels continued to provide alcohol to patrons, while building leveraging their connections to influential people to avoid raids.

What were speakeasies?

Numerous clandestine saloons that flourished in American cities

How would someone get into a speakeasy

Membership card, or secret password for admission

Squalid and lower quality speakeasies that served potentially toxic alcohol were referred to as what?

BlindPigs

Which city made a natural distribution hub or smuggled alcohol

Detroit

What made Detroit a major distribution hub for alcohol?

Its un-patrolled riverine border with Canada

How many blind pigs could reportedly be found in Detroit?

20,000

What were some locations that blind pigs were found?

Apartment buildings, a radio store, a laundry, and even a funeral home where liquor was stashed in caskets

In 1929 how many nightclubs and speakeasies were operating within New York?

373

What did the official report of prostitution in nightclubs determined what percent of 52 clubs to be respectable?

14% The remainder were found to engage in some level of commercialized prostitution

In Philadelphia the police department reported how many arrests for intoxication in 1919?

16,819

When did intoxication arrests see a brief dip?

1920

After 1920, which year experienced a dramatic ruise in arrests due to intoxication

1925

How many intoxication arrests were reported in 1925?

51

At the start of prohibition in 1920, how many federal prisoners were there?

3,720

By the time prohibition ended in 1933 how many federal prisoners were in prison due to the Volstead Act?

13,352

What was a negative reaction as a result of the Volstead Act?

State corrections officials from New York to Texas struggled to manage overcrounded prisons

Who did the governments enforcement of prohibition disproportionately fall on?

Immigrant and African-American communities

The nature of the liquor trade as well as practical demands required to successfully run a bootlegging enterprise made it suited to what?

Organized crime

Wealthy gangsters were closely related to what?

Folk heroes

Who was Al Capone?

The king of Chicago’s underworld. Virtually ran the cityand captured the publics imagination

Where was Capone born?

Brooklyn

What nationality were Capones parents?

Italian immigrants

When was Capone born?

1899

What age did Capone leave school?

14 years old

Who looked after Capone?

Johnny Torrio

Who was Johnny Torrio?

A powerful New York bootlegger and mob boss

Where did Torrio move to in 1919?

Chicago

What was Capones job when working under Torrio?

Capone oversaw much of the criminal syndicates activities

How did Capone expand the gangs operations?

By using his fearsome reputation after being implicated in several murders

How did Harpers Monthly Magazine walk its readers through the mechanics of a classic racket?

By having them imagine a fictious crime boss who wished to take control of the pretzel trade in Chicago

In Harpers Monthly Magazine what does the boss invite the pretzel men to discuss?

A offer for a joint enterprise and his protection for a monthly sum of 100$

What happens to men who refuse the bosses deal?

They are targeted for escalating violence and forced to abandon thetwisted dough business

By 1928, which businesses did Capone corner?

Alcohol, gambling, prostitution and dry cleaning, incorporating his own business

Who voted Capone as one of the top ten personages of the world?

Northwestern journalism students in 1930

Who was on the list of the top ten personages of the world with capone?

Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, and Mahatma Ghandi

What car did Capone drive?

A custom steel-plated Cadillac

How much did Capones Cadillac weigh?

seven tons

How much did Capones Cadillac cost?

A reported 20,000

What did Capone spend tens of thousands of dollars on?

Custom made suits, and flashy jewelry

From 1924 to 1928 how many bombings and murders did Chicago face?

More than 100 bombings and over 381 murders per year

What brought down Capone?

A tax bill

True or False, the supreme court rules that illegal income was still taxable

True

What did the U.S government build a case against Capone for?

Tax evasion

When was Capone convicted?

October 17, 1931

How many counts was Capone convitced on?

three separate accounts

How many years was Capone sentenced to in prison?

11 years