Prohibition created more crime because it led to corruption and the “cure” was worse than the original problem (Sifakis 725). The number of crimes increased during Prohibition, which made organized crime very "popular". Many criminal groups regularly made money through illegal actions such as the consumption and sale of alcohol (Organized Crime and Prohibition 1). Alcohol increased organized crime during Prohibition due to loopholes in the 18th Amendment, speakeasies, prescription drugs, and bootlegging. Moonshine was one of the main reasons why organized crime began (Organized Crime and Prohibition 1). Smuggling consisted of the illegal introduction of alcohol into the country from outside the borders. However, sometimes illegal alcohol was obtained in the United States (Sifakis 725). Organized crime can be defined as illegal, for-profit activity on a city, state, and even international scale (Beehner 1). The crime rate increased because profit motivated people to get involved in illegal activities (Organized Crime and Prohibition 1). Prohibition helped organized crime because, although alcohol was illegal, its availability through these criminal groups, gangs, satisfied people's need for alcohol (Sifakis 725). Bootlegging was a major pastime in America, especially during Prohibition. A bootlegger was someone who engaged in illegal deliveries of alcohol. Criminals used smuggling activities as a business to obtain as much profit as one person could make. They prospered most during the Prohibition era, from January 16, 1920 until the repeal of the 18th Amendment on December 3, 1933. Most of the moonshine was brought...... middle of paper ......fifty-four gallons of methyl alcohol to produce a huge batch of moonshine. This alcohol was sold all over Atlanta and even in a nightclub on Auburn Avenue. A man named Eliza Foster went to a nightclub on Auburn Avenue and drank a few shots. Half an hour later he fell dead. The same night a man died in his car with a bottle of the same batch next to him and a little old lady died in her rocking chair with a bottle of bad alcohol spilled at her feet. As a result of this bad alcohol, thirteen people died that night and hundreds more were left feeling miserable, sick, and even blind, at Grady Memorial Hospital. Ultimately, forty-two people died from bad alcohol, although more than five hundred were affected by it (112). After mass poisonings, legal alcohol consumption increased by 51.2 percent in Atlanta (113).