The Mafia: Wealth and Politics in the 1920 Essay -- Essays Papers

The maffia Wealth and Politics in the 1920 MAFIA - a secret necktie having for its object the illicit pull strings of any enterprise, legitimate or illegitimate, which it decides to interpenetrate (Allen 6). The decade of the 1920s was full of deception, corruption, and degeneration. The very embodiment of these qualities was the institution of the Italian-American maffia. The join began in Sicily and spread to encompass United States politics and the national economy. The express war era left the nation in a deferral and vulnerable to organized crime. Changes in the countrys attitudes and outlooks on the future paved the bureau for organized crime on a large scale. People were in addition preoccupied with bootleg booze, sexual promiscuity, and get-rich-quick schemes to notice the downward spiral of the governments reputability and integrity. The decadence of the decade and the feel good mentality of Americas youth provided opportunities the active underwo rld leaders sought in order to gain control of the syndicate. The mafia supplied America with the vices it longed for and in return America let the Mafia get away with murder. Not only did the syndicate accumulate queen but also profited financially through prostitution, gambling, and bootlegging. These activities were the foundations of the Outfits financial and political empires. Mafia cause soon began to eclipse the authority of the law enforcement agencies, and the struggle among responsibility and autonomy began. Governmental corruption was a standard work in the 1920s. In reference to a question on the underworlds power Don Calo, a Mafia chief replied, between the law and the Mafia, the antecedent is not the most to be feared (... ...h (Allen 14). Many informants are willing to indicate to a specific incident but not to the entirety. Their fear of retaliation from the Outfit is much greater than their fear of the government. Even today, the only affair kno wn with any degree of certainty is that the influence of the Mafia did not end with the 1920s. Works Cited - Allen, Edward J. Merchants of Menace-The Mafia A Study of Organized hatred Springfield, Ill Thomas, 1962. - Bequai, August. Organized Crime Washington Library of Congress, 1979. - Charles Lucky Luciano. http//www.well.com/substance abuser/mod79/gangsters/luciano.html (3-25-98). - Contempt of Court. Alphonse Capone, aka. Al, Scarface. http//www.fbi.gov/famcases/capone.htm (3-27-98). - Gardiner, John A. The Politics of Corruption New York Russell Sage Foundation, 1970.