As a result, by the late 1920s organized crime was established and prospering. Gangsters such as Alphonse Capone (1899–1947) dominated entire cities and became heroes of mythical proportions. Then, beginning in 1933, midwestern outlaws began roaring through America's heartland, robbing banks and outsmarting the hapless local police. For a while these outlaws seemed like modern Robin Hoods to people who had lost all their savings in bank closures. It seemed that Americans had accepted a certain amount of lawlessness in the nation.
After Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) was inaugurated as president in March 1933, he introduced a New Deal for Americans. The New Deal was a series of programs designed to bring relief, recovery, and reform to the United States. By that time, the Prohibition amendment was recognized as a failure. A new amendment, the Twenty-First, was in the process of being ratified (approved) by the states. It would in effect repeal the Eighteenth Amendment and again legalize liquor. As soon as liquor became legal, the gangsters who had been supplying it on the sly would no longer be needed. This came as a relief to many Americans who had begun to view crime differently.
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