Three weeks in a row, I was privileged to interview three exceptional authors, Lisa Alexander Griffin, Evelyn M. Byrne, and Gay Ingram. If you missed those interviews, please check out the archives because you missed a real treat. I'd like to get back on track this week and share some interesting facts about the 1920's era, the setting for my novel.
If you know me, you know I'm a history buff. Any kind of history, but especially history pertaining to what I am writing. Everytime I work in my manuscript, I become more fascinated with life in the Roaring Twenties, the time my grandparents lived, a time of beginnings. My characters come alive so much more vividly when I allow myself to travel back to that era.
This week, I want to talk about a VILLAIN in my novel. Not the main villain, (the guy you meet first) but the one who executes the plan.
Yes, that's right, a gangster! Let's find out a bit more about them.
The 1920 era was also called the Jazz Age, and the young people wanted alcohol. The problem was...the 18th amendment banned, the sale, transportation, and manufacture of alcohol. Millions, however, chose to ignore the law. This illegal commodity had a large market in the major cities, and the gangsters provided it. I think we all know one of the more famous gangsters, Al Capone of Chicago. He was 'Public Enemy Number 1', and in 1920 worked for Johnny Torrio. By 1925 Torrio, after being almost killed by a rival, decided to make Capone his own boss and handed the business over to him.
Two years later, Capone was earning $60 million a year from alcohol, but another $45 million in other rackets. Wow! He bribed policeman and important politicians within Chicago. Arming thugs and patrolling election booths cost him around $75 million, but assured his policticians were re-elected. Because of the rival gangs and violence, Capone was surrounded by body-guards all of the time and used an armour plated limousine to travel in.
By 1931, the law caught up with him and charged him with tax evasion. He got 11 years in jail. After he was released, his health failed, and he retired in his Florida mansion. He died January 25, 1947 of an apoplectic stroke.
My novel is set in Detroit, Michigan, so Capone probably wasn't around that area, but gangsters were all too real. My main villain, overcome with jealousy, seeks to hire this unsavory type.
Of course, we can't talk about gangsters without talking about Prohibition and the 'speakeasy', a bar where illegal alcohol was sold.
It's not positively confirmed, but the term 'speakeasy' could have originated in 1888 in Pennsylvania because of a Brooks High-License Act. The law raised the state's fee for a saloon license from $50 to $500. Some bars stayed alive by operating illegally. One Kate Hester, in a town outside of Pittsburgh, refused to pay the fee, but kept a low profile. She would hush her customers when they got rowdy by whispering, "Speak easy, boys! Speak easy!" The term became common and spread like wildfire.
I had a couple more interesting facts to share, but I had so much fun with these two, that I am going to save the others for my next post. Yes, I do have a gangster and a really nasty villain in my novel and writing about them has been alot of fun. Does my heroine get mixed up with these guys? Hmm. We'll see.
Patty Wiseman, Romance Author
