The Mafia in America

At first the American Mafia ignored this new business opportunity. Steeped in the traditions of the Sicilian "honored society," which absolutely forbade involvement in either narcotics or prostitution, the Mafia left the heroin business to the powerful Jewish gangsters-such as "Legs" Diamond, "Dutch" Schultz, and Meyer Lansky-who dominated organized crime in the 1920s. The Mafia contented itself with the substantial profits to be gained from controlling the bootleg liquor industry.(8)However, in 1930-1931, only seven years after heroin was legally banned, a war erupted in the Mafia ranks. Out of the violence that left more than sixty gangsters dead came a new generation of leaders with little respect for the traditional code of honor."


Image: Salvatore Lucania, alias Lucky Luciano.

The leader of this mafioso youth movement was the legendary Salvatore C. Luciana, known to the world as Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Charming and strikingly handsome, Luciano must rank as one of the most brilliant criminal executives of the modern age. For, at a series of meetings shortly following the last of the bloodbaths that completely eliminated the old guard, Luciano outlined his plans for a modern, nationwide crime cartel. His modernization scheme quickly won total support from the leaders of America's twenty-four Mafia "families," and within a few months the National Commission was functioning smoothly. This was an event of historic proportions: almost singlehandedly, Luciano built the Mafia into the most powerful criminal syndicate in the United States and pioneered organizational techniques that are still the basis of organized crime today. Luciano also forged an alliance between the Mafia and Meyer Lansky's Jewish gangs that has survived for almost 40 years and even today is the dominant characteristic of organized crime in the United States.

With the end of Prohibition in sight, Luciano made the decision to take the Mafia into the lucrative prostitution and heroin rackets. This decision was determined more by financial considerations than anything else. The predominance of the Mafia over its Jewish and Irish rivals had been built on its success in illegal distilling and rumrunning. Its continued preeminence, which Luciano hoped to maintain through superior organization, could only be sustained by developing new sources of income.
(http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/McCoy/book/07.htm)

GANGSTERS OF THE 1920's :
Capone Was Chicago

In the public eye, the gangster represents urban life: the streetwise, self-made man.

In the 20's, New York and Chicago were the major capitalist urban hubs of American society and organized crime.

Both were cities of stark contrasts between extreme wealth and abject poverty.

For many in the early 1920's business was booming, and Al Capone and other famous gangsters and bootleggers ran their respective cities like puppet masters.

Capone was the poster-boy of the media and he loved the attention.

He was the true rags to riches story that has been the plotline in one too many gangster movies throughout the years. In his time, however, Capone’s fame was still a novelty.

As prohibition progressed Capone's fame, reputation, and influence grew, thanks in large part to his own public relations policy.

Al was the ultimate showman.
Dressed in classic gangster wear, sporting a diamond ring the size of a golf ball, and usually good for a quote or two, Capone conspired in his fame like few others could.

Raw, articulate, and aggressive, Capone molded the public's perception of famous gangsters as if from clay.

(http://www.1920s-fashion-and-music.com/famous-gangsters.html)