Prohibition
In 1920 the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed banning the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. Many gangs, including those that were Italian, entered the illegal booming bootleg liquor business and were able to transform themselves from groups of common criminals into organized and sophisticated criminal syndicates. These enterprises became proficient at bribing police and other public officials while smuggling, money laundering, and murdering other gang members for territory. To many Americans who disagreed with the law, these gangs were seen as heroes who were performing a public service. Although there was violence, most people believed that it only affected those in the industry, so they turned a blind eye to it. Additionally, these gangs could also control some of the press in the area they operated so often times the information was skewed. People became interested in the larger than life figures that popped up in these gangs as they became sensationalized through the media. But the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre and the Castellammarese War and the those that were involved would be what would define what a gangster was for generations to come.
Despite it being almost a century since the Prohibition Era, the gangster genre is still popular in the minds of many of Americans. This does not just include Italians, it includes peoples of all races and sexes. Well how can that be? How can something so old still be so relevant in our culture and the way we as a society view Italians? The answer is simple. Media.
