How would have organised crime have developed in America if prohibition was never enacted?
Organised crime in America without prohibiton
- Thread starter zeppelin247
- Start date
Didn't a lot of it have to do with loan sharks? Plus if drugs like cocaine and meth are illegalized, organized crime will rise.
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Prostitution gambling and other interests would have caused it to rise. The prohibition must have been lie Christmas easter and several birthdays rolled into one for them but I daresay they will find a way
Further, even before Prohibition, you had liquor smuggling into dry states and counties. Hell, one reason they were able to hit the ground running is that a lot of the groundwork was already there...
Flubber
Banned
Without Prohibition, you're still be looking at activities like smuggling, prostitution/"white" slavery, gambling, and loan sharking among others. All that is more than enough to keep organized crime alive and flourishing.
All Prohibition did was provide organized crime with a huge cash infusion plus a greater "Nudge nudge, wink wink" level of respectability and acceptability. Those in turn triggered an expansion in operations and competition.
More cash mean that more people could be on the payroll directly or indirectly. More potential profits meant that one group's activities were now worth another group killing in order to control. More acceptance meant "civilians" were more apt to turn a blind eye because the criminals were providing something most "civilians" wanted.
Flubber
Banned
Exactly. Smuggling was and is huge.
In fact, most smuggling is done to subvert taxes and tariffs on goods rather than outright prohibitions on goods.
Prohibition was their golden era. Without that they might not reach the power that they did before. They might be more powerful to this day than they are now.
Prohibition made the Mafia and a few other groups ridiculously rich. Unlike a lot of other vices, alcohol was one of the more commonly enjoyed, so more people were willing to get it through illegal means. Afterwards it was said the Mafia owned .25 of every dollar that went through NY before the Feds declared war. If they didn't have their golden era they wouldn't be as big of a target for federal groups. They might have later with Meth or Heroin. Depends on the butterflies from no Prohibition.
It is rumored that the Kennedies owe some of their fortune to prohibition. Even if that isn't the case there will be some businessmen and politicians that won't make their fortunes through prohibition.
Prohibition made the Mafia and a few other groups ridiculously rich. Unlike a lot of other vices, alcohol was one of the more commonly enjoyed, so more people were willing to get it through illegal means. Afterwards it was said the Mafia owned .25 of every dollar that went through NY before the Feds declared war. If they didn't have their golden era they wouldn't be as big of a target for federal groups. They might have later with Meth or Heroin. Depends on the butterflies from no Prohibition.
It is rumored that the Kennedies owe some of their fortune to prohibition. Even if that isn't the case there will be some businessmen and politicians that won't make their fortunes through prohibition.
The Mafia remains a collection of autonomous, old-country style Italian gangs sticking mainly to their traditional criminal activities in the Italian-American neighborhoods they are able to control, though individual mafiosi are able to gain more wealth and power than others through burlesque houses, brothels, and other profitable enterprises. However the Mafia never upgrades its style and the Five Families of New York are never unified under a Boss of Bosses.
Without Prohibition, Lucky Luciano and those other Italians (and others) who drifted into the sphere of high-society gangster Rothstein form the basis of modern organized crime, acting and dressing like how we think of gangsters OTL, but they lack the money and power to take over the Mafia. Instead there is a clear distinction between the Mafia and other old-style ethnic gangs, with the Mafia being like the Tongs essentially, and the modern style of organized crime pioneered by anti-traditional Jewish and Italian gangsters that, without the old mafia superstructure, are more easily able to incorporate gangs from various other ethnicities.
So there would be a distinction between mafiosi, which would be as obscure and mysterious as the Tong, and what ATL people would call gangsters, as we know and love in OTL.
The way I'm seeing it, without prohibition of alcohol, the ones who really will benefit are the street gangs, as they'll be the ones that are the most obvious elements to be incorporated by the modern-style gangsters once drug trafficking becomes big in America. The first coke or heroin boom is going to see mafia that were left behind in their old habits due to no Prohibition completely outpaced as the modern criminal network Luciano and others had to start from scratch weld street gangs into their distribution networks.
Overall, I see a stronger separation between neighborhood racketeering like the Mafia and organized crime, and organized crime might even be mainly used to describe what are essentially cartels rather than "mafias".
Without Prohibition, Lucky Luciano and those other Italians (and others) who drifted into the sphere of high-society gangster Rothstein form the basis of modern organized crime, acting and dressing like how we think of gangsters OTL, but they lack the money and power to take over the Mafia. Instead there is a clear distinction between the Mafia and other old-style ethnic gangs, with the Mafia being like the Tongs essentially, and the modern style of organized crime pioneered by anti-traditional Jewish and Italian gangsters that, without the old mafia superstructure, are more easily able to incorporate gangs from various other ethnicities.
So there would be a distinction between mafiosi, which would be as obscure and mysterious as the Tong, and what ATL people would call gangsters, as we know and love in OTL.
The way I'm seeing it, without prohibition of alcohol, the ones who really will benefit are the street gangs, as they'll be the ones that are the most obvious elements to be incorporated by the modern-style gangsters once drug trafficking becomes big in America. The first coke or heroin boom is going to see mafia that were left behind in their old habits due to no Prohibition completely outpaced as the modern criminal network Luciano and others had to start from scratch weld street gangs into their distribution networks.
Overall, I see a stronger separation between neighborhood racketeering like the Mafia and organized crime, and organized crime might even be mainly used to describe what are essentially cartels rather than "mafias".
No prohibition strongly implies no ATF and a far weaker FBI, so the Mafia families would have better long-term survival prospects. Perhaps rather than OTL's "intensive" organized crime, we might see more "extensive" criminal networks, where ties between the Italian/Sicilian and US Mafias remain, well familial.
Well, organized crime as we knew it between the wars might not exist without Alcohol Prohibition. But, there is potential for other problems to occur.
One scenario I can think of revolves around cannabis. This drug, already feared by many more reactionary fellows across the U.S.(especially in certain areas), not just because of its association with Mexicans(and later, blacks to an extent), but also thanks to fearmongering campaigns done by W.R. Hearst and company, was a ripe target for banning on at least some state levels.
Let's say that the Mexican Revolution gets a little bloodier and a significantly worse situation develops across the border; remember Columbus? Imagine 20 of them happening all in one event, and if some of the captured Mexicans happened to be smoking a little Mary Jane. That right there, could be a spark for a backlash.
In response to this, Hearst and other newspaper magnates begin to push for a huge backlash against marijuana, with perhaps some support from organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. This proves to be especially popular in the South, where much of the worst racism exists(particularly against the Black community), while in the North, an equally powerful anti-prohibition movement begins to start up. By the mid 1920s, the U.S. is starting to become polarized regionally; while some safehavens for cannabis smokers do exist in the South, such as New Orleans and the growing port town of Miami in Florida, and some northern locales such as Omaha, Cleveland, Columbus, and Indianapolis have banned the drug, the South is becoming increasingly prohibitionist, and the North remains largely prohibition freeSome cities, like New York and Chicago, are quickly developing a cannabis culture as well as San Francisco, and L.A., out West.
Some Southern newspapers(and a few particularly reactionary newspapers up North as well) begin to churn out weekly, and soon, daily, news 'stories' about the supposed ill effects of cannabis and people who reportedly committed various crimes and broke taboos under its influence, and partly thanks to this, increasingly, many are calling for outright prohibition of the drug. In 1930, a man who happens to be the grandson of a man who was one of the wealthiest slaveowners in the entire South, successfully wins the governor's office in Mississippi. And in 1932, with overwhelming support from voters, it becomes the first state to absolutely ban the drug statewide.
By 1938, on the eve of WW2, the only Southern states that haven't banned cannabis are Louisiana, Florida, and Kentucky, the last state having undergone a major surge in Progressive support in recent years. And north and west of the Mason-Dixon line, Ohio, Indiana, W. Va., Pennsylvania, and Idaho have banned cannabis. However, though, it remains legal in all other states.
After World War II, many Americans, including some young GIs, are finding themselves very short on money and with a less effective GI Bill, some less fortunate, and more adventurous Americans begin to turn to gray market means of obtaining a little extra cash. In Missouri in late 1947, a young GI named Jonny Barrett decides to hop up his '29 Ford and turn it into a performance machine. He spends the next 5 years using his car to smuggle marijuana from Missouri, where it's legal, to Arkansas and Tennessee, where it isn't. By 1956, Jonny's built up a reputation and a small cadre of fellow travellers, raising hell all across the South from El Paso to Roanoke.....and there are plenty of copycats in the wings.....
Prohibition did bring a lot more money in, & that was a huge deal.
It also forced the rival gangs to work out their problems without constant wars, which really ushers in the "modern era" of orgcrime. Without Luciano & Lansky being bigtime, IMO, you get a succession of pretenders at capo di tutti capi & internecine Irish, Jewish, Italian, & Negro wars into the era of illegal marijuana--& then add Mexicans... Do that just at the start of WW2...
How big a step would it be to have the U.S. looking to invade Mexico, rather than send aid to Britain?
It also forced the rival gangs to work out their problems without constant wars, which really ushers in the "modern era" of orgcrime. Without Luciano & Lansky being bigtime, IMO, you get a succession of pretenders at capo di tutti capi & internecine Irish, Jewish, Italian, & Negro wars into the era of illegal marijuana--& then add Mexicans... Do that just at the start of WW2...
How big a step would it be to have the U.S. looking to invade Mexico, rather than send aid to Britain?"Traditional" criminal activities like protection, loan sharking, prostitution, and smuggling (whether cigarettes or alcohol from low tax/legal areas to high tax/illegal areas) will always be there. Because a lot of this stuff goes on in marginalized areas or among marginalized groups the profit is no where near as large as the booze profit during prohibition. These activities are also more "local" and don't require the consolidation and networks that sprang up OTL - as has been noted.
Furthermore because these activities don't have the acceptance that beating prohibition does, as well as much less cash to flash, corruption of law enforcement and judges by criminal elements is both less prevalent and less winked at. While the FBI may not be as "active" don't forget a lot of it's activity was spawned going after high profile bank robbers and kidnappers, so J. Edgar will still have his G-men.
What you may see is that organized crime is quite disorganized, until the 60s or 70s when drug money begins to be huge, and then you see the sort of internecine gang wars of OTL 1920s over booze but now over drugs.
Furthermore because these activities don't have the acceptance that beating prohibition does, as well as much less cash to flash, corruption of law enforcement and judges by criminal elements is both less prevalent and less winked at. While the FBI may not be as "active" don't forget a lot of it's activity was spawned going after high profile bank robbers and kidnappers, so J. Edgar will still have his G-men.
What you may see is that organized crime is quite disorganized, until the 60s or 70s when drug money begins to be huge, and then you see the sort of internecine gang wars of OTL 1920s over booze but now over drugs.