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As waves of Jewish and Italian immigrants began to flood into American cities, figures like Monk Eastman and Paul Kelly recognized the possibilities within organized crime. Kelly's Five Points Gang and Eastman's gang clashed violently but were also entangled with corrupt political structures like Tammany Hall. Their conflicts were not merely ethnic; they signified the growing complexity of urban criminality in America.
The Impact of Prohibition
The defining moment for organized crime came with the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919, which instated Prohibition and outlawed alcohol nationwide. Alcohol had always been deeply ingrained in American culture, and the suddenly illegal status of liquor rapidly empowered gangs, allowing them to fill the void left by legal businesses.