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Bureau of Prohibition. Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol, c.1921.

Bureau of Prohibition

The Bureau of Prohibition (or Prohibition Unit) was the federal law enforcement agency formed to enforce the National Prohibition Act of 1919, commonly known as the Volstead Act, which backed up the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution regarding the prohibition of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. Prohibition in the United States. Detroit police inspecting equipment found in a clandestine brewery during the Prohibition era Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933.[1] The dry movement, led by rural Protestants and social Progressives in the Democratic and Republican parties, was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League. Prohibition was mandated under the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited.

Private ownership and consumption of alcohol was not made illegal under federal law; however, in many areas local laws were more strict, with some states banning possession outright. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the introduction of alcohol prohibition and its subsequent enforcement in law was a hotly-debated issue. James Colosimo. Frankie Yale. Francesco Ioele (January 22, 1893 – July 1, 1928), better known as Frankie Uale or Frankie Yale, was a Brooklyn gangster and original employer of Al Capone before the latter moved to Chicago.[1][2][3] Biography[edit] Early life[edit] Born in Southern Italy, Francesco Ioele (yo-ay-lee) and his family arrived in America c. 1900.

As a teenager, Ioele was befriended by John Torrio, who ushered him into the Five Points Gang and groomed him for a life of crime. Shortly after Torrio left for Chicago in 1909, Ioele "Americanized" his last name to Uale. Brooklyn crime boss[edit] Like his mentor Johnny Torrio, Yale was one of a new breed of gangster who believed in putting business ahead of ego. Enoch L. Johnson. Enoch Lewis "Nucky" Johnson (January 20, 1883 – December 9, 1968) was an Atlantic City, New Jersey political boss and racketeer.

Enoch L. Johnson

Johnny Torrio. John "Papa Johnny" Torrio, born Giovanni Torrio (January 20, 1882 – April 16, 1957), also known as "The Fox" and as "The Immune", was an Italian-American mobster who helped build the criminal empire known as the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s that was later inherited by his protégé, Al Capone.[1][2] He also put forth the idea of the National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s and later became an unofficial adviser to the Genovese crime family.

Johnny Torrio

Biography[edit] Early life[edit] Torrio's birthplace is a topic of debate. He was born in southern Italy and possible sites of his birth are Naples,[3] Amalfi (Campania),[4] Orsara di Puglia (Apulia)[5] and Irsina (Basilicata).[6] After his father died when he was two years old, Torrio emigrated to New York City with his widowed mother. She remarried thereafter. Lucky Luciano. Early life[edit] Salvatore Lucania was born on November 24, 1897 in Lercara Friddi, Sicily.[3][4] Luciano's parents, Antonio and Rosalia Lucania, had four other children: Bartolomeo (born 1890), Giuseppe (born 1898), Filippia (born 1901), and Concetta.

Lucky Luciano

Luciano's father worked in a sulfur mine in Sicily.[5] When Luciano was 10 years old (1907), the family immigrated to the United States.[6][7] They settled in New York City in the borough of Manhattan on its Lower East Side, a popular destination for Italian immigrants.[8] At age 14, Luciano dropped out of school and started a job delivering hats, earning $7 per week. However, after winning $244 in a dice game, Luciano quit his job and went to earning money on the street.[5] That same year, Luciano's parents sent him to the Brooklyn Truant School.[9] While a teenager, Luciano started his own gang. It is not clear how Luciano earned the nickname "Lucky". Al Capone.

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone (/æl kəˈpoʊn/; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate.

Al Capone

The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently also became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities, such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early 1920s to 1931. Born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City to Italian immigrants, Capone became involved with gang activity at a young age after having been expelled from school at age 14.[2] In his early twenties, he moved to Chicago to take advantage of a new opportunity to make money smuggling illegal alcoholic beverages into the city during Prohibition.

He also engaged in various other criminal activities, including bribery of government figures and prostitution. Despite his illegitimate occupation, Capone became a highly visible public figure. Early life. Arnold Rothstein. According to crime writer Leo Katcher, Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top.

Arnold Rothstein