<P> The Eighteenth Amendment prohibiting the sale and manufacturing of alcohol first took effect in Cleveland on May 27, 1919 . However, it was not well - enforced . One policeman even said, "Hell, I'm not going to arrest nobody for doing what I like to do myself ." Cleveland alcohol stocks declined when the Prohibition Bureau sent an administrator and federal agents as the amendment and the Volstead Act became law in January 1920 . With prohibition, Cleveland, like other major American cities saw the development of organized crime . Little Italy's Mayfield Road Mob was notorious for smuggling bootleg alcohol out of Canada to Cleveland . The mob's members included Joe Tonardo, Nathan Weisenburg, the seven Porello brothers (four of whom were killed), Moses Donley, Paul Hackett, and J.J. Schleimer . These names and Milano, Furgus, and O'Boyle held the same connotation as Al Capone in Chicago . Speakeasies began appearing all over the city . An anti-Prohibition group found 2,545 such locations throughout Cleveland . </P> <P> On October 24, 1929, the stock market crashed, plunging the entire nation into the Great Depression . If Prohibition had been unpopular in Cleveland in its early days, it was even more unpopular during the Depression . Tired of gang wars in Cleveland and Chicago, Fred G. Clark founded an anti-gang, anti-Prohibition group called the Crusaders . The group formed "battalions" of "militant young men" into chapters nationwide . Cleveland became their national headquarters, and by 1932 the Crusaders claimed one million members . The Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform was another group formed in Cleveland that also rose to prominence . </P> <P> When Franklin D. Roosevelt became president, Prohibition appeared to be near an end . Together, the Crusaders, the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, and the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform formed the Ohio Repeal Council, and Prohibition was finally repealed in Cleveland on December 23, 1933 . </P> <P> However, this solved the least of Cleveland's problems . Harry L. Davis, who had previously served as mayor, returned and was elected again . Davis exhibited increasing incompetence in office and the city became a haven for criminal activity . The police department was corrupt, prostitution and illegal gambling were rampant, and organized crime was still abundant . </P>

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