Meyer Lansky: Prohibition And Organized Crime

1844 Words8 Pages
Meyer Lansky: Prohibition & Organized Crime [your name] [course #: course name] [date] Meyer Lansky's real name was Meyer Suchowljansky. He was born on July 04, 1902 in Russia, and died in Miami Beach, Florida on January 15, 1983. Lansky is Jewish, and while many Jewish Americans made positive contributions to the Jewish culture and American life, he became a powerful figure in organized crime. It was during Prohibition that he made a name for himself. Lansky lived in "the volatile streets of the Lower East Side that lured Lansky into crime" . In other words, he was born into poverty, and it was difficult for him to find a job when he reached a working age. It was due to his struggles with poverty that he sought to…show more content…
Lansky helped to develop a network of "moonshiners", the manufacturers, and distributors. Furthermore, he helped to establish a link between the manufacturers, the distributors, and the speakeasies. This would shorten the fermentation process, enabling them to sell the “booze” more quickly . The quicker they sold the “booze” the less likely they were to get caught, or arrested. Due to the “poisonous” ingredients, “fatalities increased by more than 500 percent” . This appalling statistic did not deter “moonshiners” or “bootleggers.” In fact, the underground industry grew exponentially, because of the demand for the product, as well as the amount of money that one could potentially make. Lansky did the accounting for major crime bosses during…show more content…
To elaborate, “gangsters” controlled parts of specific neighborhoods throughout different cities. In other words, if neighborhood ‘A’ was his domain, and he sold alcohol to all the “speakeasies” in that neighborhood, no one else could conduct similar business ventures in his “territory” . If a “gangster” wanted to expand his “territory”, he would have to have a war with one of the other “gangsters.” Lansky helped criminal organizations expand because of his meticulous accounting. This led to bloodshed on the streets in many cities. Some of the victims were members of rival gangs. However, most of the victims were innocent bystanders who got caught in the war. Even police officers who were murdered weren’t innocent. They took bribes, and warned the “gangsters” if the federal officials were going to raid their “joint” then people would get killed
Show More
Related

  • The American Mafia In The 1900's

    1018 Words  | 5 Pages

    United States of America is infamously known to have been the home of perhaps the strongest Mafia community from the early to mid-1900s. Through this article we’ll take a look at what led to the rise of such a dominant, powerful and most importantly, organized underworld in the United States, and the various consequences it had on the economy as well as politics. The American Mafia in the early 1900s was essentially an extension of the Italian Camorra of the time. The majority of the Italians who immigrated

    Read More

  • Mussolini Mafia Influence

    1563 Words  | 7 Pages

    would decreased the amount of crime in the country and keep America on course to return to its ‘white roots’. The United States Government was way off the mark with this, Prohibition gave opportunities for up and coming bosses of the underworld for a chance to make some money and rise to the top of the underworld. “Prohibition was the mother of organized crime” . Prior to Prohibition, Italian gangsters were amongst the least respected organizations of organized crime. The Italian gangs were near the

    Read More

More about Meyer Lansky: Prohibition And Organized Crime

Open Document