George Moran's Case Of Bugs Mor Organized Crime

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Recommended: The age of prohibition

Pierre Youssef
Doc. Murtagh
Soc. Perspectives on Crim
April 24 2014
Organized Crime
George Moran, better known as Bugs Moran was born on August 21 1891. He became affiliated with several gangs shortly after moving to the north side of Chicago. He was nineteen years old at the time. Before he turned twenty-one, he had already been incarcerated three times. His parents were of French and catholic descent. His father was from Alsace-Lorraine, and his mother from Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada. Many believe that Moran chose to turn to life of crime late in his teenage years. However, his jump into organized crime began as a result of prohibition.
In the year 1920, Prohibition was established. It was came with the 18th amendment. This banned the distribution of alcoholic beverages. Criminals saw this as an opportunity. It was a way to make easy cash. Criminals would import it, manufacture it, steal the product, and then sell it for a lot of profit. Alcohol was extremely popular, and there was a lot of business to be made. Especially since there was no legal competition since it was now banned, there would be no tax on the product and merely all the money made was for the person to keep. Bootlegging was the name given to this criminal behavior. Criminals and gangsters were flourishing with all the profits that were being made from bootlegging alcohol.
Dean O’Banion was amongst those who were getting wealthy by bootlegging alcohol. He was the leader of the North Side Gang, a group of mostly Irish gangsters, the gang Bugs Moran would be in control of later in his life. However, O’Banion wasn’t alone in Chicago. Johnny Torrio, and his right side man Al ‘Scarface’ Capone, had moved to the South Side of Chicago. They would be Bugs Moran’s bi...

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... saw the men walk into his shop, he was not suspicious of anything. He figured that the men were here to pick out the flowers for Merlo’s funeral. One of the men put his hand out for a handshake, and that is when the other two took out their guns, and shot O’Banion to his death. The killers fled, and they had left the North Side Gang without a commander. O’Banions death lead Capone and Torrio to believe that they would go on with their business peacefully. Little did they know that Moran was going to take revenge on whoever was responsible for his commander’s death.
Bugs Moran had emerged. He was quickly making his way up in the ranks of the North Side Gang. He had a hatred for Capone. Him and Earl Weiss continued to give Capone and his South Side Gang trouble. They even had a turf war, and the price paid was their friends, and for Capone, it was also his freedom.

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