The Great Depression
After the stock market crashed in 1929, many people lost everything they owned. there were many recorded suicides, and by 1932, 25% of Americas labour force was out of work.
Al Capone was known for being one of the first people to start the opening of soup kitchens, which is a place that people without money can go and eat for free. historians conclude that Al was attempting to clear his name a bit in doing this, while others say that he did it out of the kindness in his heart. Life in the 30sat the beginning of 1929, Al Capones bootleggin business was veraged to be worth 62,000,000 US dollars (nowadays US dollars would be around 1,000,000,000). it was after he reached this point that he decided it was time to take things up a notch; he was going to remove his competition from the picture, for good.
George "Bugs" Moran was the leader of another mob in Chicago. For al Capone to be able to expand his business, he had to do one thing; take George out of the picture. Even thought al was living in palm beach at this time, he gave the order to one of his trusted colleague Machine gun mgurn to eliminate George. Al capone had decided that the best method of doing this would be to start with the petty thugs of the mob, and work their way up until they eventually killed. this led to one of the most famous mass murders in U.S. history, the St. valentines day massacre. Even though Al Capone was known to have murdered or ordered the murder of over 500 people, in the end, he got locked up for only refusing to pay taxes. |
a soup kitchen in the 1930s. it was a place where you could go and get a meal, and a coffee for free.
another example of a soup kitchen in the 1930s.
many people were starving at this time, with 1/4 of the population out of work. |