Key Question 3: Crime and corruption

Question 1

When was the Volstead Act implimented?

Answer 1

1919

Question 2

What was the Volstead Act?

Answer 2

The legalisation of alcohol without definition.

Question 3

When was the Eighteenth Amendment?

Answer 3

16 January 1920

Question 4

What was the Eighteenth Amendment?

Answer 4

The constitutional implementation of prohibition and implementing punishments for breaking the law.

Question 5

Who supported prohibition?

Answer 5

The Anti-Saloon League, Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Methodists and Baptists church.

Question 6

Why did religious groups support prohibition?

Answer 6

They proclaimed alcohol to be of the devil and it disobeyed Christianity.

Question 7

People who sold alcohol were?

Answer 7

Bootleggers

Question 8

Who were Rum-runners?

Answer 8

People who smuggled alcohol into the USA from Canada and Mexico.

Question 9

Who were Moonshiners?

Answer 9

People who distilled their own alcohol from their home.

Question 10

What were speakeasies?

Answer 10

Illegal drinking bars.

Question 11

How many Speakeasies were in New York by 1925?

Answer 11

10, 000 Speakeasies

Question 12

What would gangsters do to avoid arrest?

Answer 12

Bribery of police officers, judges and politicians to turn a blind eye.

Question 13

Who was Prohibition Commissioner in 1921?

Answer 13

John F. Kramer

Question 14

What was the Prohibition Commissioner?

Answer 14

An informant who employed agents to close speakeasies and support the failing legal system.

Question 15

How many agents did Kramer employ?

Answer 15

A cohort of 3, 000 agents.

Question 16

Why were agents ineffective?

Answer 16

Their low salary and small number made agents easy to bribe.

Question 17

When and where was Al Capone born?

Answer 17

Brooklyn, New York, 1899, to an immigrant family.

Question 18

What was Al Capone’s ‘gang’ focused upon?

Answer 18

A multi-million dollar bootlegging, prostitution and gambling racket acting out of Chicago during the 1920’s.

Question 19

When was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre?

Answer 19

February 14, 1929

Question 20

Where was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre?

Answer 20

A garage in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois

Question 21

What happened in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre?

Answer 21

Seven members of ‘Bugs’ Moran North Side Gang were machine gunned against a garage wall by four rivals posing as police.

Question 22

Who was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre ascribed to?

Answer 22

Al Capone despite residing at his Florida mansion at the time.

Question 23

What was the result of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre?

Answer 23

Nothing, there was too little evidence and the perpetrators were never convicted.

Question 24

When was Warren G. Harding elected?

Answer 24

President of the USA in 1920.

Question 25

Why was Harding labelled as weak?

Answer 25

Influential positions were given to friends and peers in the cabinet.

Question 26

What was The Ohio Gang?

Answer 26

Politicians in power during Harding’s administration.

Question 27

What was the problem with The Ohio Gang?

Answer 27

In a series of events, the group betrayed public trust in scandals.

Question 28

What was the Teapot Dome Scandal?

Answer 28

The sale of Teapot Dome and Elk Hills Oil reserves set aside by President Wilson. Albert B. Fall leased these without competition to Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny.

Question 29

When was the Teapot Dome Scandal?

Answer 29

1922

Question 30

When did Harding die?

Answer 30

1924

Question 31

What were The Ohio Gang found guilty of?

Answer 31

• Charles R. Forbes guilty of fraud, conspiracy and bribery in the Veterans’ Bureau.
• Albert B. Fall Guilty of Teapot Dome
• Harry M. Daugherty guilty of illegal sale of alcohol, licenses and pardons to offenders.