1930 Mafia

The American Mafia in the 1930s was in great difficulty. It was a time when Federal and state investigators launched a major crackdown on organized crime that resulted in one spectacular narcotics conviction. Thomas Dewey’s in the year 1936 organized crime investigators indicted Luciano himself on sixty-two counts of forced prostitution. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics managed to gather enough evidence on Luciano’s involvement in the drug traffic to indict him on a narcotics charge. Even then the bureau and Dewey’s investigators felt that the forced prostitution charge would be more likely to offend public sensibilities and secure a conviction. They were absolutely right. While Luciano’s modernization of the profession was quite beneficial, he had lost control over his employees, and three of his prostitutes testified against him and was awarded a thirty-to fifty-year jail term by The New York court.

The “Outfit” crime family in Chicago has an interesting and quite successful history. It has ruled organized crime in the city and its surrounding areas since the end of Prohibition. Before this there were different competing gangs or individuals involved in bootlegging and activities.

From early to mid mid-1930s the major gangland killings were at rise. The gangsters who refused to give up ownership of their rackets while keeping a percentage of the action were eliminated while those who gave up became expendable. The name of Jack McGurn fell in the second category. The new arrangements broke him and he was killed in February 1936. A decrease was noticed in the number of mouths to be fed by the gangland pie.

After the death of six Moran men the Capone takeover of the North Side took place in 1931. Soon after this the Capone moved in on Moran’s allies on the Northwest Side and in the Northern suburbs, including Roger Touhy. And, the gang wars finally ended!

Tags: 1930, 1930 Mafia, Mafia 1930