Kyle Sakai, Chris Mojumdar, Philip Kitamura
A Literary Look Into Society pd. 1
9/29/12
Crime In the 1920s
In the 1920s, criminal activity was booming. Many people profited from crimes such as Sleepy Bill, Billy Maharg, Al Capone, George Remus, and Albert Fall. The most profitable and infamous crimes were the World Series, bootlegging, and the Teapot Dome Scandal. The 1920’s was a very corrupt time in American history.
The first World Series was held in 1903, and the annual contest between the two top teams quickly became one of the most anticipated events in America. Attendance to baseball games kept rising, and following World War I, there was another boom in popularity. In the year 1919, attendance records being set in many baseball fields. The World Series that year was expected to be profitable and it was, generating 50% more profit than any other World Series to date. It was such a big event, with so much money flowing around, that if someone could actually know the outcome beforehand, they could make a pretty large profit. There was no single mastermind behind the idea of the fix; it was more a collaboration of ideas. Two men, however, stood out above the rest: William Thomas "Sleepy Bill" Burns and Billy Maharg. Burns was an ex-major league pitcher and he was the connection to the players. Maharg was the gambler with his underground connections. With big money and even bigger dreams, those two men approached two of the White Sox players, Pitcher Ed Cicotte and First Baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil, about throwing the World Series. The players realized that it would take more than just two of them to ensure a proper fix. Shortly after speaking to a few of their teammates, they added six more into their plot: pitcher Lefty Williams, centerfielder Happy Felsch, shortstop Swede Risberg, third baseman Buck Weaver, utility man Fred McMullin, and one of the best and most popular stars ever, leftfielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. However, in order to pay off eight men, Burns and Maharg would need to come up with a larger amount of money, and quickly. They hit up "The Big Bankroll" Arnold Rothstein for a vital loan, along with about half a dozen others. In the end, the gamblers bet nearly half a million dollars on the Reds, while agreeing to pay the players $100,000 to split amongst themselves. Baseball players’ salaries were modest in those days even for the times. When the $100,000 was split up, each player was going to take home at least a years' worth of pay. It was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fill up their wallets. And so what if it was illegal? No one would ever find out. Unfortunately, that is where the plot went wrong. A lot of people were needed to raise enough money to make the fix profitable as well as pay off the players, and that meant more people knowing about the scandal. All those people, of course, bet on the Reds, and they also told their friends to do the same. As the word got around, the heavy betting, a sudden change in the odds, and loose lips all combined to raise suspicion. According to some accounts, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson told the owner of the White Sox, Charles Comiskey, of the fix, but he was ignored. The Series was played, and despite efforts by the other 17 players on the team, the fix was a success, and the fans couldn't even tell the Series had been thrown. Word continued to spread, and rumors lingered throughout the next season. Finally, late in 1920, the eight players dubbed the "Black Sox" were indicted. The scandal couldn't have come at a worse time. A post-war depression was starting to sink in, there was public disillusionment, and racial tensions were reaching a boiling point. The need of America for its good old national pastime was at its peak, and the fix ruined even that for the public. The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball says, "Baseball suffered a near-fatal blow upon the revelation that the infamous Chicago 'Black Sox' had thrown the 1919 Series…" As for the die-hard fans,