AHC: No Mafia Dominance

[krinsbez]

In the 1920s, there were a diverse array of ethnic organized crime syndicates in the United States. But for most of the 20th Century, it has been the Italian mob, the Mafia, which has dominated, with their erstwhile competitors reduced to footnotes, to the point that, as it declined, many of the syndicates of other ethnicities that have been taking its place are referred to by the name "Mafia".

The challenge therefore, is to either A: figure out how another ethnic crime syndicate could instead become dominant, or B: figure out how no single ethnic crime syndicate could become dominant.

 

[TxCoatl1970]

POD's for No "Mafia" Dominance

• Prohibition never passes and thus never gives organized crime the impetus to go for national distribution and stop a lot of a factional regional BS getting in the way of profits.
• More FBI focus goes into taking on the Mob from 1930 on instead of belatedly waking up in the 1960's- mostly b/c Hoover saw the Mafia as a necessary evil and quite useful at identifiying and taking out Communists.
• Unions aren't busted by the National Guard in the 1930's. Unions were admittedly in a no-win situation. Companies hated them and used everything short of death squads to get rid of them. Then when the blowback went critical, especially in coal country and railroad strikes corps flexed their political muscle to call out the National Guard. If union leaders showed too much honesty, they were dirty Reds out to overthrow capitalism, but if they had enough Mafia support, they were corrupt gangsters.

Long story shorter, Prohibition never forces crime to get organized, FBI treats anyone trying to organize it as a dire national security risk, and unions never get corrupted by Mafia influence.
As a butterfly, South Florida and Vegas's building booms don't happen due to Mob investments of union pensions funds, though s/b else might develop them. YMMV on that point.