The Chicago Mob

During the 1920s, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution prohibited the sale and production of alcohol in the United States. As a result of Prohibition bootlegging, the illegal distribution of alcohol became the trade of gangsters. One of the most notorious Chicago mobsters was Al Capone. Because bootlegging and gambling proved to be so lucrative, there were many gang rivalries. Tensions came to a head on Valentine's Day in 1929, in what later became known as the “St. Valentine's Day Massacre.” During the massacre, seven gangsters were brutally murdered by rival gang members dressed as police officers. With this event and the end of Prohibition in 1933, the flourishing crime industry began to die out, although not without affecting the city of Chicago's reputation for ...