13. Creating the American Mafia
The well-meaning idea of Prohibition backfired spectacularly. It was a huge boost to organized crime in general, and to Italian organized crime in particular. In Prohibition’s world, Italian gangsters were particularly well-positioned to prosper, because they were set apart from other ethnic criminals by their links to the Italian and Sicilian mafia. Thanks to those Old Country connections, ethnic Italian criminals in America could draw upon a tradition of sophisticated, hierarchical, and disciplined criminal organizations.
In addition to an effective model, they also had access to experienced personnel who could readily duplicate the Old Country’s system in the US. By the time Prohibition was repealed in 1933, modern organized crime, and the Italian-American mafia, had become well established and well-nigh ineradicable. They remain with us to this day.