ORGANIZED CRIME

Organized Crime

Organized Crime

History of Organized Crime

The word mafia is derived from the word mafie. Mafie were a group of soldiers, in Italy, that were basically guns for hire. "The Mafia arose in Sicily during the late Middle Ages, where it possibly began as a secret organization dedicated to overthrowing the rule of the various foreign conquerors of the island"( "Mafia."). Their job was to protect their bosses' land, much like the cowboys of the Wild West protected their landowners' cattle and land. Eventually, the Mafie became so powerful they overthrew their bosses and started to become what is now known as the mafia.

They became the law of the land, took money from the landowners, and started protection rackets. Protection rackets arise when a landowner pays a group money in order for them to keep their property safe. These groups eventually spread into the United States and settled down in cities like New York, Chicago and the State of New Jersey. These areas happened to be terrific places to work from because, quite frankly, they are areas that have shipping ports(Albanese, 2008). Chicago is a town rich in gangster history. Prohibition, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and bootlegging are just a few examples of organized crime in the City of Chicago. Even today, organized crime has a role in Chicago's society.

St. Valentine's Day Massacre

On the evening of February 14, 1929, in North Chicago, seven men were found shot to death inside the S.M.C Cartage Co. garage. They had been lined up against a wall, with their backs to their executioners and shot to death. With the exception of Dr. Reinhardt H. Schwimmer, these men were mobsters working under the leadership of Chicago gangster and bootlegger "Bugs" Moran. "Dr Reinhardt H Schwimmer was a successful young Chicago optometrist who apparently found associating with local gangsters exciting." It would be his undoing" (Farnam). "Bugs" was the head of a large crime family in Chicago.

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre took place during the height of prohibition as a result of the never-ending competition between gangster rivals Al "Scarface" Capone and George "Bugs" Moran. Both men were blood-thirsty gangster leaders who did not care for the authorities in Chicago. When police discovered the dead bodies splattered on the floor of this garage, it seemed at first glance, that not a single person could have survived the pure force of the attack. However, this proved to be untrue. When one police officer came across what he thought to be the corpse of Frank Gusenberg, he was lying there breathing heavily and choking on his own blood. Immediately, the unconscious victim was hurried to a nearby hospital.

The investigation's only possible lead eventually woke up and when he was asked who did it he said, "I not gonna talk." He later died from his extensive injuries before he could tell the police who committed this heinous crime. (Mowry, 2005)

Investigators on the scene found the Valentine's Day Massacre to be somewhat ...