Gangster culture develop in the USA in the 1920`s to the 1940`s Essay

Why did a battalionster culture gird in the ground crushs in the 1920s to the 1940s ?There were several varied factors that contri barelyed to the commenceing of a gangster culture and the organise abomination in the States. The interesting thing ab come out of the closet this is that in all of the factors dear happened to appear at once, creating a perfect environment for the birth of a nation-wide, arrange nefarious power.This criminal power could develop because the nefarious increase in exotic immigrants du multitude that cartridge clip in the States, which is probably the primary(prenominal) reason. The mafia too could develop in the US because of their in reality strict discipline, its organisation and hierarchy. Also grievous for the birth of this gangster culture was the prohibition, the fact that lush drink was illegal and the mafia could produce it and snitch it make it rich, scarcely they had and then other employmentes too. The mighty foun ding fathers with their great gangs unionised all these championshipes and make the phenomenon maffia in America in the 1920s and 1940s possible.The organised criminal power beginning(a) of all it need to be said what the maffia is. The joint mafia means arrogance and presumption in Italian and refuge in Arabic, which refers to the origins of the maffia as a society that fled to the hills of Italy to avoid b depart. It is the word for a sort out of criminals who ar some clips linked together with a teleph wizard line oath and who are non allowed to betray their secret.The first time the word mafia was menti 1d was in the ninth century in Sicily. To this time the main purpose of the so-called maffia was it to strengthen themselves against the Arabic and Nor domain forces which invaded their homeland in Sicily. These Arabic and Norman forces oppressed the endemic Sicilians so that they had to gather in refuge in the surrounding hills. The in cristaltion of the secret soci ety in the hills was it to wake a wet consciousness of togetherness between all the native Sicilians and to unite each native against the invaders. They tried to create a sense of family which was well organised and had a strong hierarchical layout.History of the unrelenting increase of foreignersThe U.S. maffia, or the Black Hand as it was k nowadaysn in the early period, began to develop in the 1800s in the the States because of the vicious increase in foreign immigrants during that time in America. Three iodine thousand thousand Irish, three and a half million Jews and four million Italians immigrated to America. rising York was the second biggest Italian city after Naples, one quarter of clean York more than half a million people were Italian . Although some(prenominal) think the mafia had their roots in cutting York and lolly it very has been traced in 26 major cities in America.The new immigrants, bewildered by the new land, and its strange language, lived close ly together in the low Italys of radical York, Chicago, New Orleans and other cities. The first time the Mafia was mentioned and indeed discovered in America was in New Orleans in the 1800s. Police Chief David Hennesy discovered the existence of this ripening gangster culture in the heart of the unify States of America enchantment he was investigating the stumble of an Italian immigrant. unmatched reason wherefore the Mafia was suitable to establish itself was because they were by far the biggest ethnic group in America and they had strong and raging leaders or earlier usurps. tangle with Vito, Vito Cascio Ferro (1862-1945), was the first Sicilian Capo de Tutti Capi. He is believed to be the one man primarily responsible for establishing the communication between the Sicilian and U.S. Mafia. He had also an big role in 1924 when m every Italian Mafia elements came to the USA to avoid persecution in Sicily because Mussolini was determined to rid of the Mafia in Italy. T his change magnitude the numbers of fragments in the organisation and developed the gangster culture in the USA.Discipline and HierarchyDisciplineIt is quite interesting that the Mafia was able to establish itself so fast in America one chief(prenominal) reason for this phenomenon was the discipline.First of all every new mobster (member of the family) had to go through a ceremony, this ceremony was often compared to the baptism ceremony. This ceremony was very pregnant for the mobster because at this day he became full member of La Cosa Nostra (our affair). The newcomer was t overage that the Mafia is a secret society and that there is salutary one way in and only one way out of it. You come in on your feet and you go out in a coffin. They were told that they have to kill even their own blood family when the mobster accepted everything he was told of the territorys he must abide by.These rules were the heart of the Mafia and one of the or so important reasons wherefore th is gangster culture could develop in America. The most important rule in organised crime was the rule called the Omerta. The Omerta is a code of silence. A vow neer to reveal any Mafia secrets or member beneath threat of torture or death. some other rule was the obedience rule. The obedience rule stated that the member must at all times be loyal to the chieftain or Don. A third law of the Mafia was the assistance to any befriended Mafia faction, no headers asked. A few others included, Avenge any attack on members of the family, because an attack on one was an attack on all, and the last rule was to avoid any and all contact with the presidency activity.HierarchyAnother evidence for the strong discipline in the Mafia was the hierarchical layout. The Mafia in America was organised like a parliament which was called the guidance. The commission handled interfamily disputes and set general policy for La Cosa Nostra. It acted as more of a forum of Family pigeonholees than a bo ard of directors. At the head of each family stood the Dons or Bosses they were the men with all of the power in the Family. They were giving orders, and the rest of the Family were pass judgment to get married them without question. Next in line to the Dons were the Underbosses, who were second in command. He reignled the day-to-day operations of the Family. Followed by the Consigliere or pleaders. The consigliere acts as a counsellor or advisor to the boss.He was directly infra the boss in terms of the hierarchy, but he did not normally give orders. quaternary in the line was the so-called Capo. Capo is the miserable form for capodecina or caporegime and he was the leader of a crew or decina (literally, group of ten) of ten to fifteen selliers. The Soldiers were the ones who would enforce discipline over some(prenominal) members and non-members through the use of intimidation, assaults, and murder. And last were the men who did the really dirty sound for the stack, the As sociates. They were not do guys, they just hang rough with the crew. They often are willing to do anything to get made, and therefrom handle a spile of hits.The ProhibitionAnother fact that benefited the developing of he Mafia in the USA in the 1920s and 1930s was the prohibition. Prohibition basically means the legal forbidden toil, transport and sale of alcoholic drinks in the USA between 1920 and 1933. With these laws the Mafia had a perfect base for its organised crime.The regime of England and the American Colonies tried since 1750, almost fruitless, to stop the excessive economic breathing in of alcohol. In the twenties of the 19th century the average alcohol outgo of pure alcohol per person was about twenty seven litres per year.The government saw a strong link between the alcohol white plague on the one hand and the rapidly training criminality, poverty , barbarous force and the developing of great gangster culture on the other hand.They therefore have seen the n ecessity for an alcohol prohibition. The first prohibition law was passed in 1851 in the state Main and prohibited the production and the sale of alcohol except for medical or technical purposes. With this law all alcoholic drinks with more than 0,5 percent alcohol were forbidden. Thirteen of the thirty-one states introduced similar laws around 1850. However, the means of alliance and states for the effective enforcement were completely inadequate to the Prohibition.Follow of the subject prohibition was that the Mafia made this prohibition useful to itself, they built dim dis funds boxery in great extent to produce the alcohol, they smuggled it, they sold illegal through so-called bootleggers, they also sold it into Speakeasies (camouflaged Saloons) and they bribed the jurisprudence the follow of all these illegal wheelings and dealings were a rapid increase of organised crime all over the USA .To this time the developing of the American Mafia was on its peak. It was expanding l ike never before in the United States. The fact that a thing so umpteen people treasured to have was illegal and easy to produce was almost perfect for the organised crime and the Mafia.War of the women plainly in 1873 the spectacular warfare of the women stony-broke out everywhere in the United States. They were protesting against the Saloons which were the places of the greatest alcohol consumption and in 1900 the woman found the Anti-Saloon-League of America (ASL) that performed great political warp in the following time. Until 1916 23 of the 48 states issued Anti-Saloon Laws for the closing of the Saloons and for the prohibition of the production of alcoholic drinks. These laws were not a disaster for the gangster culture but they already lost some money in their bootlegging air.In the initial phase of the founding economy crisis the prohibition opponents argued convincing, that that the prohibition change the increase of jobs and the income of taxes it also added the st agnation of the economy. In December 1933 the US congress with great majority discharged the 21st condition addition, with which the 18th addition, the Prohibition, was cancelled. The control of the alcohol consumption rested now on the individual states. Until 1966 every state had cancelled their prohibition laws.That was bitter for the Mafia and the Dons, because they lost one of their most important businesses and had to look for other ways to make adept money.Other BusinessesThe Bootlegging business was not the only illegal business in which the Mafia was involved in. Another fact why the Mafia was so successful in organised crime was because they were so fictile and had many other businesses.One of them was the Extortion of protection money which was already make in Sicily in the 1700s. Pictures of a black hand (which was the sign for the Mafia in Sicily) were distributed to the wealthy. This was an unspoken request for an amount of money in pass by for protection. If the money wasnt paid, the recipients could expect violence such as kidnappings, bombings, and murder. The methods did not change in the USA when the extorted business did not accept the preoccupancy to the family it had to fear terror. In cities were the Mafia was really pre move only areas were extorted and did what the Don cherished them to do. The Black Hand fear became such a occupation that a special Italian branch of the guard had to be formed, this was intrinsic as the immigrants did not trust the Irish/American law force, and the police had no understanding of Italian customs or behaviour.A whole net of organised crime was over the towns were the Mafia was, they controlled the illegal business like bootlegging, extortion, machine gambling, bookmaking, loan sharking, labour racketeering and kidnapping but also legal businesses like food production,they owned restaurants, they controlled the garbage governance as well as the garment manufacturing, bars and taverns and Labou r unions as well.The DonsThe Dons owned the cities with there businesses, they controlled everything that happened in their towns and ran the city in whatever way they felt. They and their gangs had a great part that the Mafia could develop in the US.The strongest and therefore probably the most famous individuals in the chronicle of the American Mafia were Vito Cascio Ferro (Don Vito), Charlie Luciano (Lucky Luciano), Joseph Bonano (Joey Bananas, Alphonse Capone (to his friends Snorky, among some members of the press Scarface). These handsome individuals were so regnant and influencing that they had a great part why the Mafia could establish itself in America in the 1920s to the 1940s.Vito Cascio Ferro (1862- 1945)Vito Cascio Ferro was responsible for the establishing the communication between the Sicilian and U.S. Mafia. Cascio Ferro came to New York in 1900, he already had launch himself in Sicily where he commited kidnapping, extortion, arson, and threatening officials.Ferros activities in the U.S. are not clear, but he killed at least one man. This man, called Benedetto Madonia, had been trying to establish a counterfeiting ring in Don Vitos territory without permission or authorization of Don Vito. He was killed really brutally,he was cut in pieces and put into a barrel with his penis and testicles in his mouth. This showed how dangerous the Mafia was already in its early stages, as well as that the police could not really stop the uprising criminal society in the U.S. in the 1920- 1940s.Don Vito fled to New Orleans before the police could ask him one question ,he spent time organising his own counterfeiting ring along with establishing a companionship for heroin smuggling with Sicily. Again nobody could stop the establishment of Don Vito. Everything seemed to be alright cashbox Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino(police officer), could give evidence for Vitos illegal activities. These evidence forced him to return to Sicily where he quickly launch himsel f as head of all Mafiosi. Again everything seemed to be alright till Lieutenant Petrosino once again appeared in his life. He came to sicily in 1909 to evoke the connection between the U.S. and Sicilian mobs and hopefully to have some criminals extradited binding to the U.S., including Cascio Ferro, but Petrosino soon was murdered in Sicily probably by Vito himself and deuce other gunmen. This story was never proved by evidence. by and by the kill of Lieutenant Petrosino Don Vito became even more popular in both(prenominal) the Sicilian and U.S. pits this fact helped him to establish himself as a well well-thought-of businessman in Palermo. For a certain time everything worked well, Vito even began to pose Mafiosi to the U.S. to help build a criminal empire there.In 1921 Benito Mussolini came to power, one of his major aims were to destroy the strong Mafia organisation, Vito had established. Vito who had seen this coming had sent Salvatore Maranzano to the States to bring for th over the crime empire there and to establish the Mafia in America even more. He actually planned to follow Marranzano and read over leadership himself but he never got the chance, because he was arrested in 1929. Vito Cascio Ferro was sentenced to life im prisonment. Vito Cascio Ferro established the Mafia in America, he also made sure that this criminal society had a future in the USA when he sent more Mafiosi to the States.Charlie Luciano (1896 1962)Charlie Luciano was born in Lercara Friddi, Sicily, on eleventh November, 1896. His family moved to the United States in 1906 and they settled in New York. He began his criminal passage by selling drugs when he was really young. In 1915 he was arrested in the possession of several kilos of heroin. When he came out of prison he again chose the criminal career. In 1920 he became a member of a Mafia gang, which had allready established itself in America. By 1925 Luciano criminal career was going really well, he became the Dons secon d hand, he directed bootlegging, prostitution and drug distribution. In 1929 a gang war broke out between Lucianos Don and Salvatore Maranzano.During this gang war Luciano was kidnapped by Maranzanos men and was stabbed with an ice pick. His attackers thought he was unused and therefore left him. hardly he miraculously survived and was known from now on as Lucky Luciano. In April 1931, Luciano, Albert Anastasia and Bugsy Siegel, were involved in the murder of their Don, Joe Masseria. They now controlled the Mob Masseria had left and the business as well, so they therefore controlled one of the strongest Mafia gangs to this time. This was not enough power for Luciano, six months subsequent he arranged the killing of Salvatore Maranzano with the help of Meyer Lansky. Luciano was now the most important criminal boss in New York and one reason why the Mafia could establish itself in the USA in the 1920s 1940s.But this was still not enough power for him and he therefore conjugated w ith Louis Lepke Buchalter, Abe Reles and Albert Anastasia to form Murder Incorporated which was an organisation that carried out executions for money.This again showed how strong the Mafia already was, they found a killing organisation under the eyes of the American law. Everything went well for the American Mafia and Lucky Luciano till 1936 when he was sentenced for a life in prison for 30 years. But once again the Mafia in the US showed its strength, Luciano could continue tyrannical his criminal empire from prison.In February, 1946, he was deported to Italy where he lived for a short time, but in 1947 he went to Cuba to control his criminal activities in the USA. The US were able to get rid of his activities when they sent him back to Italy again. He died of a heart attack in Naples on 26th January, 1962. Lucky Luciano was really important for the go up of the American Mafia because he unlike Maranzano, who tried to impose himself as the Emperor in an organisation modelled afte r the roman print Empire, Luciano organised a decentralised structure in which the major crime families divided up territories and spheres of activities and met, when necessary, to mediate differences between the various families. This served to prevent the full-scale wars that had wracked the Mafia in the 1930s while allowing organised crime to grow even richer and more entrenched in the United States of America. Charlie Luciano gained a lot of power when he killed two of the most powerful Dons in the USA, he also stopped the gang wars and reorganised the body how the Mafia worked.Joseph Bonanno (1905 2002)Joseph Bonanno became the boss of one of the most prominent crime families in the cosmos, the Bonanno crime family. He began his career with extorting money from businesses and little crimes. In 1927 Salvatore Maranzano, who had been sent over by Don Vito Cascio Ferro, the Italian man who dreamed of Mafia control overseas, had arrived to meet up with Bonanno and others to bri ng the American Mafia under Don Vitos control. Maranzano began a fight with the man who, until then, led Mafia activities in New York Joe The Boss Masseria. The war between them became known as the Castellemarese War.Several young Mafiosis were involved in this war, Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky and indeed Joseph Bonano, known as the young generation of mobsters. Lucky Luciano, Joe Bonanno and others were tired of the bloodshed, and terrible that all of this violence would draw too much attention from the authorities on their interests, set up a meeting which led to the construct of the crime Commission, and hits on Masseria, and Maranzano, marking the end of the era of the Mustache Petes. The Commission consisted of five Mafia families, and the Bonanno Mafia family was one of them. Bonanno took over what used to be mainly Maranzanos faction.This Commision was really important for the uprising of the Mafia because it made sure thet the families would not fight against each other.Bonanno did not like violent conflicts, he therefore ruled his family with fairness, and in addition to his to gambling and other rackets, focused his attention on more legitimate ventures such as the clothing industry, and funeral businesses. Bonanno established himself on the West Coast, particularly California, and Arizona, and other countries such as Cuba, and Canada which again shows the great influence of Bonanno and the American Mafia to this time.Joseph Bonanno was never convicted of a serious crime. He was once fined $450 and was jailed for terms of 8 and 14 months for contempt of court for refusing to answer questions but he never had been to prison any longer then 14 months. He was really important for the uprising Mafia society because he got rid of the old generation mobster, he also set up the Commision to calm the gang wars down and took over a great crime empire of Salvatore Moranzano, which made him one of the most powerful Dons of the Mafia archives.Alp honse Capone (1899 1947)Al Capone, how he was also called, is probably the most famous Mafia Boss in the history of the American Mafia. He was born in New York and was the fourth oldest of nine children. He was known as a brutal Neapolitan mobster from the younger generation, who became a powerful force in the Sicilian-American Mafia and is therefore important for the question why the Mafia could rise in America. He is probably so well known because he was as an organisational and motivational genius who served as one of the architects of the nation-wide criminal Syndicate.Al Capones philosophy was that laws only applied to people who had enough money to live by them. He grew up in the slums of Brooklyn & received the last name Scarface as the result of a knife wound. He was a direful enforcer for Five Points leader Johnny Torrio.Johnny Torrio stablished himself in Chicagos Colosimo gang Capone quickly rose to the top of the Colosimo crime empire, which give thanks to Torrio and Capone, included bootleg liquor among its enterprises. Capones real time came after Torrio narrowly escaped death on Jan. 24, 1925 and left the whole gang with all its businesses to Capone.Capone organised the syndicate with a plan to make crime in Chicago and throughout the United States run like a business monopoly. Through violence Capone became king of the Chicago underworld, The Master Criminal. With his methods he established a $110-million-a-year empire out of bootleg liquor, gambling, prostitution & labor rackets. The police tried several times to imprison him but too many businesses were tied to legal ones and too many officials, politicians and policeman were bribed by Capone.After a series of wars against other Mafia gangs a new field Syndicate was set up which was another step to establish the American Mafia even more. But he could enjoy the new underworld just for about a month. At the end of October in 1931 he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion. He a lready suffered from syphilis and in jail it was getting worse . He managed to chair prison and was never again involved in underworld affairs. He died in 1947 as maybe the greatest Mafia Boss the world has ever seen. His ability to co-ordinate, managing and motivate people made him one of the most powerful Mafia individuals and he had a great deal why the Mafia could establish itself in America.The Mafia in the 1920s 1940s was so powerful that the Dons and their gangs could do what ever they wanted to do. It is questionable if the individuals of the Mafia were just more powerful and the circumstances too perfect for the growth of the Mafia, or if the Police and the politicians in America were just too weak. What I can say for sure is that throughout history the Mafia was probably the system which was better organised than every government and more powerful than every other gangster culture this world has ever seen because many things that came together by chance which made Americ a a perfect ground for the growth of a gangster culture.One of the most important reasons was the vicious increase in foreign immigrants during that time in America, it flooded some of the most mighty Dons in American history to the USA and gave these Dons the Mob they needed. Another thing was that these Dons were able to keep a really strict discipline, organisation and hierarchy. Also important for the birth of this gangster culture was the prohibition, the fact that alcohol was illegal and the Mafia could produce it and sell it made it rich, but they had indeed other businesses too. The mighty Dons with their great gangs organised all these businesses and made the phenomenon Mafia in America in the 1920s and 1940s possible.BibliographyAlbini, JosephThe American Mafia Genesis of a Legend /Appleton-Century-Crofts (1971)Arlacchi, Pino hands of Dishonour Inside the Sicilian Mafia /William Morrow & accompany, Inc. (1992)Catania, EnzoMAFIA /St. Martins call down (1978)Foreman, Laura True Crime Mafia /Time-Life Books (1993)Reid, EdThe Grim Reapers The Anatomy of unionized Crime in America /Henry Regnery Company (1969)Repetto, ThomasAmerican Mafia A History of its Rise to Power /Henry Holt and Company (2004)Short, MartinCrime Inc. The Story of Organised Crime /Arrow Books Ltd. (1997)Sondern, FrederickBrotherhood of dark The Mafia /Farrar, Straus and Cudahy (1959)Sterling, ClaireOctopus The Long Reach of the International Sicilian Mafia /W.W. Norton & Company, (1990)Chambliss, William Eine kriminelle Vereinigung. Politik und Verbrechen in den USA (1978)WebsitesA Brief History Of The Mafia http//www.pressanykey.com/mafia/history.htmlAl Capone http//www.tincat.demon.co.uk/alcapone.htmCharles Luciano http//www.gambino.com/bio/charlesluciano.htmHow The Mafia Started http//www.geocities.com/capitolhill/lobby/9880/started.html