Prohibition in the United States created new opportunities
for organized crime to make profits even they couldn’t imagine. It did not take
long for the mobsters to push out the independent bootleggers and take control
of the whole operation inside the United States. Their tentacles then reached
into St. Pierre and Newfoundland, both of which has become legalized
transhipment ports for liquor – a real rum-runner’s heaven!
During the era a Prohibition in the United States, Al Capone
emerged as the top mobster in the country; Capone controlled the politicians,
police, bootleggers, prostitution and smuggling, with his syndicates reaching
into Newfoundland in a big way.
In Rumrunners and Mobsters: Prohibition’s 100th
Anniversary in Newfoundland, Jack Fitzgerald leaves no stone unturned as he
chronicles Prohibition in Newfoundland from start to finish, while exposing
mobster involvement.