It had a growing reputation for politicized investigations. In the early twenties, the agency was no model of efficiency. In the young Bureau of Investigation, things were not much better. And their jurisdictions stopped abruptly at their borders. More often than not, local police forces were hobbled by the lack of modern tools and training. Dealing with the bootlegging and speakeasies was challenging enough, but the “Roaring Twenties” also saw bank robbery, kidnapping, auto theft, gambling, and drug trafficking become increasingly common crimes. On the other side was law enforcement, which was outgunned (literally) and ill-prepared at this point in history to take on the surging national crime wave.
By 1926, more than 12,000 murders were taking place every year across America. Rival gangs led by the powerful Al “Scarface” Capone and the hot-headed George “Bugs” Moran turned the city streets into a virtual war zone with their gangland clashes. With wallets bursting from bootlegging profits, gangs outfitted themselves with “Tommy” guns and operated with impunity by paying off politicians and police alike. In one big city alone- Chicago-an estimated 1,300 gangs had spread like a deadly virus by the mid-1920s. There was no easy cure.
Chicago 1930 bad fps professional#
On the one side was a rising tide of professional criminals, made richer and bolder by Prohibition, which had turned the nation “dry” in 1920. It wasn’t much of a fight, really-at least at the start.
The “war to end all wars” was over, but a new one was just beginning-on the streets of America.
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