All Information From- History.com, OverSimplified (Prohibition Video), and Simple History (St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1929) )
True crime is something people either love learning about or something they can live without. Within our community here at Greenwood, many people enjoy learning about true crime. I was able to ask a few faculty members and students their opinion on the subject. When asked if they liked true crime all said yes. Mrs. Flanders elaborated on this by saying “I am a true crime fan, but I don't focus on too many famous cases but on Real People. Guilty or Accused, Kids Behind Bars, Trial Science.” Also when asked what kind of crime they were most interested in learning the general consensus was murder, but Mrs. Flanders prefers fraud and the trials themselves.
True crime covers a wide variety of topics and cases. Every staff member and student had a different answer when it came to a case or part(s) of a case that shocked, confused, or intrigued them the most.
Jordyn Turnbaugh- The Muffin Man
Violet Owen- Zodiac
Bobbi- A parent who kills their spouse and children to be in another relationship.
Mrs. Flanders- How long it takes for crimes to be processed in court.
A case that has recently captured my attention and interest is the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. All the people I asked had heard of it, except one, but none of them knew any details.
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre became the last straw for the American people and brought about the end of the prohibition era. Beginning in the early 19th century, people began to question alcohol’s role in society. Massachusetts passed a temperance law outlawing the sale of alcohol under 15 gallons. It was later repealed, but set a precedent for temperance and prohibition legislation in the states. By the beginning of the Civil War, several states had their own prohibition laws.
From 1873 to 1874 the Women’s Crusade was started. Originating in Ohio, women would march in cities and pray outside of saloons in mass. Schools were shut down and business dropped because of these women. In one case, they were even hosed down by firefighters.
Following the Women's Crusade was the Women's Christian Temperance Union or
WCTU. Concerned not only with alcohol, but with other issues as well, they worked to set up drinking fountains in parks, teach children the dangers of drinking, and create homes for women with drinking disorders. They were so influential that some drugstores agreed to stop filling alcohol prescriptions and many saloons closed for good. Men had even started to join and gave up drinking. In 1881 Kansas outlawed alcohol but illegal saloons were still open and authorities did next to nothing about it. A woman named Carrie Nation took matters into her own hands. She went from town to town with a hatchet and a bag of smashers, rocks and bottles, and destroyed saloons. She was arrested several times and hoped her unusual tactics would spread, which they never did. After a while the WCTU began to slow. Since women were out protesting, no one was taking care of the household. They got things started and were replaced with the Anti-Saloon League, which was a political pressure group run by Wayne Wheeler.
The Anti-Saloon League was only interested in alcohol. To gain support they exploited people’s fears. Factory owners were told alcohol made their workers lazy and workers were told it kept them subjugated. Black people were told it hindered their progress and white people were told it made black people brutes. In the end, completely opposing sides agreed that alcohol was bad. The Anti-Saloon League became so influential that in Ohio, they were able to replace the governor and seventy representatives with prohibitionists. Politicians were scared of Wheeler and those who enjoyed alcohol pretended not to.
Once World War I rolled around, anti-German sentiment furthered prohibitionists. Some of the biggest brewers were German and drinking became associated with pro-German treason. Temporary prohibition laws were also put in place to save grain. The only thing standing in prohibition's way was that taxes on alcohol made up around 40% of the government's yearly revenue. A new income tax was created to make up for the loss.
The Volstead Acts written by Wheeler were introduced to Congress as an amendment in 1913. It was approved by both the Senate and the House of Representatives in 1917. It was ratified by the states in 1919. Prohibition got rid of America’s fifth largest industry and lost jobs for hundreds of immigrants.
Though most prohibitionists only wanted hard liquor outlawed, anything over 0.5% was illegal. Though alcohol itself was illegal, the sale and manufacture was not. Any alcohol from before the law went into effect was allowed to be kept. Medical whiskey and sacramental wine was still permitted, leading to a surge of prescriptions and rabbis. Products like Vine-Glo, which was a dehydrated block of grape juice, hit the shelves and people created their own illegal wine.
Another issue quickly arose. Prohibition was extremely hard to enforce and little funding went towards actually enforcing it. The Bureau of Prohibition was created to be the main enforcers but it only had 1,500 agents, meaning each agent was assigned to 70,666 Americans.
All of this resulted in a massive crime surge. Illegal stills popped up everywhere, even in the home of prohibition supporting politicians. Toxins were added to common products used by moonshiners as a deterrent, which resulted in large amounts of illness and death.
Rum Row was a massive floating market just outside the U.S.’s maritime limit. Rum Runners smuggled alcohol by the sea and many bootleggers got rich, sold whiskey in Congress, and were able to bribe police. Many police officers became just as rich as bootleggers. None of these can compare to the notoriety of mobsters and gangsters.
Though the 1920s, mostly commonly referred to as the roaring twenties, are known for speakeasies and general partying, names like Al Capone have gone down in history. Though gang life was highly romanticized and many mobsters became public icons, violence surged. Raids, hits, territory disputes, and open gun fights in the streets were a regular occurrence. Chicago was one of the worst cities to live in.
On February 14th, 1929 five members of the North Side Gang and two associates were shot. Bugs Moran was Al Capone’s long standing rival. Bugs once attacked Capone at a hotel in Cicero, Illinois, showering the building with 1,000+ bullets. Bugs was meant to meet with his associates at the garage in Chicago but ended up in a nearby coffee shop, after seeing a circling police car. A man looking like Moran entered the building, and this is believed to have triggered the ensuing events.
Four men dressed as police officers entered the building, disarmed the men, lined them up, and opened fire. All were shot with machine guns and two were finished with a shotgun. Frank Gusenberg was the lone survivor. When questioned by police Gusenberg kept his code of silence telling the cop, “No one shot me.” He died a few hours later.
The officers were found to be fake and Capone was blamed. Nothing was able to be connected back to him, like all many other crimes. He was eventually arrested for tax evasion. To this day the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre is unsolved.
People were done with prohibition and called for its repeal. The Great Depression caused many to push that the production of alcohol could create vital jobs and revenue. The Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform, led by Pauline Sabin, gained one and a half million in two years. A lifelong republican Pauline Sabin helped back the democratic candidate, Franklin D. Roosevelt. After taking office FDR created the Beer Permit Act, which allowed alcohol to be legal until the 21st Amendment was ratified. It was ratified in 1933, bringing an end to the prohibition era.