bootlegging
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bootlegging,
in the United States, the illegal distribution or production of liquor and other highly taxed goods. First practiced when liquor taxes were high, bootlegging was instrumental in defeating early attempts to regulate the liquor business by taxation. After the appearance of local and state option, those areas that voted to prohibit liquor were supplied with bootlegged liquor. There was also considerable smuggling from foreign countries in order to evade customs duties. In the period of prohibitionprohibition,legal prevention of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages, the extreme of the regulatory liquor laws. The modern movement for prohibition had its main growth in the United States and developed largely as a result of the agitation of
..... Click the link for more information. (1920–33) these activities increased greatly, and by 1930 they were well organized as a large illegitimate industry. Certain areas were dominated by gangs that fought to defend or extend their territory. Infamous gangsters such as Al CaponeCapone, Al
(Alfonso or Alphonse Capone) , 1899–1947, American gangster, b. Naples, Italy. Brought up in New York City, he became connected with organized crime and was the subject of murder investigations.
..... Click the link for more information. in Chicago and Legs Diamond in New York City were heavily involved in bootlegging. The retail outlet in the prohibition period was the speakeasy, though a house-to-house delivery system to established customers was also well developed. A high degree of organization also prevailed in international liquor smugglingsmuggling,
illegal transport across state or national boundaries of goods or persons liable to customs or to prohibition. Smuggling has been carried on in nearly all nations and has occasionally been adopted as an instrument of national policy, as by Great Britain against Spain
..... Click the link for more information. . The combination of graft and violence accompanying this industry became so intolerable that it was an important factor in the final repeal of prohibition. Bootlegging remains a practice in many areas where prohibition is still in practice. Other highly taxed products may also become a target for bootleggers, e.g., a system of bootlegging untaxed cigarettes into New York City existed in the early 1970s.
Bibliography
See K. Allsop, The Bootleggers (1961, repr. 1970); A. Sinclair, Prohibition: The Era of Excess (1962, repr. 1964); H. Waters, Smugglers of Spirits (1971).