It is not often in this day and age that criminals become famous.  They aren't honored and respected, yet feared by the public, as the mobsters of the 1920s were.  Times have changed, and with the times, the criminals have changed as well. 

​   In the 1920s, mobsters were like celebrities, people could not get enough of them.  While they were feared, the American public loved giving them publicity.  These men were part of organized crime rings and often "controlled" large cities.  They were not the dirty ragged criminals of today either, these men were well dressed, well respected "business men," who were said to have risen from the slums and turned successful.  Mobsters started to become more apparent in the late 1910s after prohibition had been passed.  Many of these men started out as bootleggers, people who sold alcohol illegally during the times of prohibition. 

   There were many famous mobsters during the 1920s, Johnny Torrio, Big Jim Colosimo, George Bugs Moran, all who controlled specific cities.  They organized crimes and illegal acts, and had many people who helped them with their illicit operations.  There were plenty of well known mobsters, but perhaps the most famous was Al "Scarface" Capone, who ran the city of Chicago for many years.