The ‘Speakeasies’ smuggled huge quantities of alcohol across the thousands of miles of border between Canada and the USA; from the British Islands of the Bahamas to Florida; and across the US-Mexico border. Some operated countless illegal breweries and stills. A spirit made secretly in homemade stills called ‘moonshine’ was also sold in the Speakeasies. By 1925, it was estimated there were 100000 speakeasies in New York City only. In that single year, American drank 200 million gallons of spirits, 685 million gallons of malt liquor and 118 million gallons of wine.
Many home products were sold to those customers who wanted small quantities of alcohol. Vine-Glo, a type of grape juice, turned into wine (15% alcohol) after 60 days of fermentation. Wort, or near beer, was legally produced because it had less than 0.5% alcohol. But when yeast was added, it was quickly turned into beer. A homemade alcohol called ‘rotgut’ produced blindness and even death. The sales of medical alcohol, which was 95% pure alcohol, increased 400% between 1923 and 1931.
These examples shows that people tried anything they possibly could to get and make alcohol. They were obsessed with drinking alcohol and alcoholism had reached beyond extreme. People were not aware of any of the consequences through drinking.
Alcohol killed brain cells and stopped many others working properly. Judgement and behaviour were affected, people were lost part of their memory and especially self respect and self discipline, and that was what caused most troubles of the society. Drinking also made the livers and Kidneys overworked and lead to cirrhosis and dehydration, and irritated the guts causing indigestion, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and ulcers. The number of deaths from poisoned liquor rose from 1064 in1920 to 4154 in 1925. Some were attacked and found dead on the roads and some died of major health problems.
This was the main concern to the society at the time. John Kramer, the first commissioner was given $2.2 million by the congress to make sure the Prohibition laws were obeyed. However with only 1,550 federal agents and over 18,700 miles huge, virtually uncontrollable coastline, it was very hard to prevent immense quantities of liquor from entering America.
Prohibition also provided a wonderful opportunity to organise crime. The bootlegging business as it was known fell under the control of organised gangs, which managed to overpowered many of the authorities. A gang was based in Chicago and was led by Al Capone, which was probably one of the most notorious of them all. The career of Al Capone was the development of bootlegging on a large scale. His annual earnings estimated at $60 million to $100 a year from smuggling alcohol. Al Capone himself had 700 men under his command, like his private army.
Gangs were not only involved with bootlegging. They also made money out of rackets. Businessmen and shopkeepers had to pay protection money to gangsters to prevent their premises from being smashed up by the gang. Al Capone made $10 million from racketeering alone. The rise of the bootlegging gangs led to a succession of gang wars and murders. Many of his gang armed with sawn-off shot-guns and Thompson sub-machine guns, they called them ‘Chicago typewriter’s’. Capone’s men would execute those who refused to accede his demands.
Capone was said to have behind 130 murders in Chicago in 1926 to 1927. But none of the murders were convicted, because Capone had been bribing the police and politicians. At the time, over half of the police force took bribes from him. They socialised with him in cocktail parties even though he was the enemy of the people. He was extremely ruthless and this was shown in one of the most horrifying and famous gangster shootouts ever, it was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago in 1929. Capone and his men plotted the murder of O’ Banions, led by Bugs Moran, due to seeking for revenge for the death of one of his gangs. They machine-gunned seven of Moran’s gang members. But no one was convicted for the murders.
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was only one of the examples of the ‘gang wars’. People felt like they were dependent on gangsters to supply the alcohol they craved. Over 400 gang related murders a year in Chicago alone were recorded.
The attitudes to the laws also changed due to Prohibition, and this made a great impact on the society. Many people caught drinking would not be convicted by the jury. Only 20 out of 6904 cases of breaking the Prohibition law in New York between 1921 and 1925 were ever convicted. Judges were sympathetic towards people, as they were probably guilty of committing it. The foreman of the Grand Jurors said, “… they will not convict men for crimes they themselves are committing.” The prohibition agents became powerless to enforce a law many people were prepared to break.
Prohibition had caused a number of problems to the society, especially changing the attitudes to laws. The U.S. became an unstable country due to Prohibition, though however, not everything was pessimistic during the 1920s, because bootlegging and speakeasies had actually brought wealth and the economic boom to the society.