Prohibition was the political forbiddance of producing, transporting and selling alcoholic beverages. The Eighteenth Amendment was imposed in 1917 and was abolished in 1933. It was know as the National Prohibition Act. This act was enforced by the government assuming that it would help reduce criminal actions like homicide, assault and battery. Furthermore they hoped to reduce poverty and to improve economy and the quality of life.
Many well-known bootleggers emerged during this age, for instance Arnold Rothstein and Johnny Torrio (both operating in New York) and of course Al Capone in Chicago of whom we will talk in more detail.
Alphonse Capone was born in 1899 as the son of Italian immigrants. He grew up in the New York slums and became a member of several youth gangs there. Kicked out of school at the age of fourteen he was now able to completely focus on gang life. Because he was in trouble with another 
gang he took his family to Chicago. There he met Johnny Torrio (mentioned above) and ascended to be his confidant. Together they had many “speak-easies” which were the new illegal saloons. There people were able to buy all kinds of alcohol which bootleggers had smuggled from Europe and Canada.
After Torrio was gunned down in 1925 he had enough of gang life. Therefore he handed the control over to Capone. Although Capone kept the business running the police could not prove his illegal actions which also included murder. But instead of this Capone was arrested for tax evasion. Released in 1939 he became mentally ill. Finally he died in his villa in Miami at the age of 48 because of a heart attack.
Unfortunately the police was not able to reduce the illegal consume of alcohol. Many bootleggers bribed the police, even leading officials - but not all authorities were corruptible. And these incorruptible officers sometimes burst into houses which they assumed to be“speak-easies”.
However, the Eighteenth Amendment turned out to be ineffective. Instead of crime rate reduction homicide had a 78 percent increase and also the other major crimes could not be repressed. Only minor crime rates, like swearing, decreased. All in all Prohibition did not serve its purpose and was doomed to fail.
Kathy Barske & Leonard Michl
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