BOOTLEGGINGIn 1919 the Eighteenth Amendment was passed, this amendment made the consumption and sale of alcohol illegal. A group of people referred to as "moral reformers" believed that banning the sale and consumption of alcohol would better protect people's lives and make them better (Rose). Businesses, especially industrial ones, believed that productivity would be better if workers could stay sober. The Volsted Act was passed shortly after the Eighteenth Amendment to ensure it was enforced since local authorities failed to do so; there were only fifteen hundred officers to enforce the law and the law was also underfunded. As a result, prohibition was not sufficiently enforced and rates of organized crime increased as gangsters and mafiosi began to enter the contraband trade (Rose). Chicago was the height of bootlegging and Al Capone took advantage of it. Capone had moved to Chicago in 1919 with Johnny Torrio (Rose). Once in Chicago, he rose through the ranks of the gangster life; Capone went from gang member to Johnny Torrio's right-hand man to boss (Encyclopedia of World Biography). As the boss of one of the largest organized crime mafias, he has proven himself as an entrepreneur. Capone quickly became the boss of Chicago's largest speakeasies, bookmakers' clubs, brothels, gambling houses and racetracks, where he smuggled alcohol. Capone was known as this bigwig after he and Torrio organized the assassination of former mob boss Colissimo and after Torrio left him in charge when he fled the country (Encyclopedia of World Biography); Capone had the honor of being the manager of the liquor trade in Chicago. (Rose) Chicagoans were against the Prohibition Act from the beginning; they...... middle of paper...... In 1938, Capone was transferred to Terminal Island Prison in Southern California to complete his sentence after it was discovered that he had suffered from syphilis for many years ( Al Capone on Alcatraz). In 1939 he was released into the care of his brother and his wife, his mental state slowly deteriorated and on January 25, 1947, Al Capone died at his Florida mansion (Phelps & Lehman). CONCLUSION Al Capone was a criminal who did what he had to do to get to the top and stay there. He didn't care who he killed because he caused hundreds of deaths and he didn't care who he made a deal with because he corrupted many. He really didn't care about the law because he had broken it for a while. decade by smuggling. Between gangsters, smuggling, murder and corruption, he was brought to justice for tax evasion. Capone was just a relentless criminal.