This book aims to highlight the causes why the Prohibition Era led to an evolution of the New York mob from a rural, ethnic and small-scale to an urban, American and wide-scale crime.
The temperance project, advocated by the WASP elite since the early nineteenth century, turned into prohibition only after the end of WWI with the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment. By considering the success that war prohibition made to the soldiers' psychophysical condition, Congress aimed to shift this political move even to civil society. So it was that the Italian, Irish and Jewish mobs took the chance to spread their bribe system to local politics due to the lucrative alcohol bootlegging. New York became the core of the national anti-prohibition, where the smuggling from Canada and Europe merged into the legendary Manhattan nightclubs and speakeasies. With the coming of the Great Depression, the Republican Party was aware about the failure of this political measure, leading to the making of a new corporate underworld.
The book is addressed to historians of New York, historians of crime and historians of modern America as well as to an audience of readers interested in the history of the Prohibition Era.
Author(s): Francesco Landolf
Series: Routledge Advances in American History, 23
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 428
City: New York
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Graphs
List of Maps
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1 New York between Alcohol and Prohibition (1784–1896)
The temperance context
The saloons, Tammany Hall and the citizenship
The first Italian mass migration and the padroni
The Gilded Age, Anti-Saloon League and Raines Law
2 Cops and Mobsters
The fall of the “American” gangs
Definitions and roots of Black Hand, Mafia and Camorra in the United States
The Mafia in New York and a different Italian: Detective Lieutenant Joe Petrosino
The making of the Italian Squad and the murder of Petrosino
Sicily vs. Naples. The Mafia-Camorra gang feud (1912–1917)
The reform by Richard E. Enright and the gangs of New York
3 Before the Eighteenth Amendment (1913–1919)
The law comes from Washington
Turning point: The war
The loophole comes from New York
Two “wet” players: Alfred “Al” E. Smith and James “Jimmy” J. Walker
4 Years of Opposition (1920–1925)
A hard contrast against Long Island’s pirates
“Dry” attack: Prohibition Unit and Mullan-Gage Law (1920–1921)
The New Yorkers’ refusal
The power of corruption
“Wet” counterstrike: Repeal and the end of Anderson (1923–1924)
5 Years of Carelessness (1926–1929)
The politics of the image: Democrats and Republicans
Extremis Malis Extrema Remedia: The “padlock campaign” (1926–1928)
The New York crazy nights
Guys, dolls and the jazz age
Alcohol is gold
From the Bureau of Prohibition to the Jones Act and a farewell to Smith (1927–1929)
6 The Lords of the Liquors
Corleone vs. Palermo in the two Little Italies
The Bronx and the “Beer Baron”
Into the Midtown’s nightclubs
The Jewish gangsters from the Lower East Side
Someone fixed the 1919 World Series
Two Irish mavericks
An old mob in “Irishtown”
A new Camorra in South Brooklyn
One more Mafia in Williamsburg
7 From Old Bandits to Modern Gangsters
An early showdown
Who wants to be the king of New York?
Negligence or corruption? The Warren and Whalen police (1927–1929)
To become a racketeer, namely an economic bandit
The underworld in real estate: Generoso Pope
The underworld and the justice system: Albert H. Vitale
8 Years of Crisis (1930–1933)
The Pandora’s box is open
A conflicting response: Hoover and the Wickersham Commission
The final showdown (1930–1931)
The “Julius Caesar” from Sicily and the Mafia in politics
Walker: From iconic to ironic and the rise of Roosevelt (1931–1932)
The year of the three mayors, the return of La Guardia and the end of an era (1932–1933)
Conclusion
Appendix: Graphs
Bibliography
Index
