Any town where there was money to be made, including Boston, Detroit and Philadelphia. But the real Mob capitals were Chicago and, later, Las Vegas.
On 16 January 1920 the selling of alcohol was banned throughout the United States. Bootlegging and liquor distribution became a national obsession. Owning a speakeasy meant breaking the law – but despite this, more illegal drinking dens opened up during Prohibition than were shut down by the authorities. To stay open, they needed a supply of illegally brewed alcohol, and they needed to be able to bribe the police. That was where the gangsters came in.
The Italian families, with their business-like family hierarchies, were uniquely placed to capitalise on Prohibition. Suddenly, crime paid. In New York, the "Broadway Mob", controlled by Lucky Luciano, was raking in millions of dollars from the production of alcohol. But it was in Al "Scarface" Capone's Chicago that crime began to dominate ordinary city life, and where tourists can still get a feel of what it was like in the heyday of the mobsters.
Alfonse Capone was born in New York City on 17 January 1899. Like many poor Brooklynites, he was involved in gangland crime. He was arrested for at least two murders, but such was the corruption in New York that he never stood trial. He moved west to Illinois and became a bouncer in a brothel a few miles south-east of Chicago. One belligerent client caught him with a knife, giving him the mouth to ear scar which lead to a nickname he hated – Scarface.
Capone soon acquired a reputation for ruthlessness. He proved adept at arranging the bribes, murders and maimings that accompanied Prohibition. But in 1930 it all went wrong: Eliot Ness's crime-busting unit, the Untouchables, brought him down.
I was thinking of a romantic getaway to Chicago
Chicago and St Valentine's Day are indelibly linked in many people's minds, though not necessarily for the right reasons. On 14 February 1929, at the SMC Cartage Company warehouse at 2122 North Clark Street, Al Capone knocked off six members of the rival Irish North Side Gang in one spray of submachine-gun fire. The intended target was their boss, Bugs Moran, who survived, recognising the hand of big Al. "Only Capone kills like that," he growled. The fact that the hitmen had been dressed as policeman added to the public fascination that grew up around the slayings. The warehouse became a tourist attraction, at least until it was demolished in 1967. Mob fans can still make the pilgrimage: a fenced-off lawn belonging to a nursing home marks the spot.
Chicago is still living under the shadow of this Mob reputation; so much so that its tourist offices balk at the suggestion that people might travel there to relive its murky past. John Dillinger, a Mob gunman dubbed Public Enemy Number One by FBI boss J Edgar Hoover, was murdered outside the Biograph cinema at 2433 North Lincoln Avenue (001 773 348 4123) in 1934. Apparently, passers-by soaked their handkerchiefs in the blood running from his body. These days, however, the art deco cinema isn't quite so X-rated – it's as likely to be showing The Lord of the Rings as Gangs of New York.
How did the police nail the bad guys?
"Welcome to Chicago – this town stinks like a whorehouse at low tide," is how Sean Connery greets Kevin Costner in The Untouchables. Costner played Eliot Ness, perhaps the only "good guy" to become as famous as the villains he pursued (he often invited the press along to witness his busts). The murderous Capone was eventually nabbed for the rather prosaic crime of tax evasion. Chicago's Untouchables Tour (001 773 881 1195, www.gangstertour.com), puts you in Ness's shoes, and takes in all the notable Prohibition-era hit spots, including Al Capone's old hideouts, which are scattered throughout the city. Tickets cost $22 (£13.50) per person.
Simply getting around Chicago can remind you of the battle between the good guys and the Mob: its main public transport is the El, an elevated railway, as featured in The Sting, when Robert Redford outwits a dim cop by scampering along the roof of one of the stations. The dilapidated raised tracks of the El still define the city centre – the Loop.
You'll have to head out beyond the Loop, indeed beyond Chicago itself, for a drink in a proper speakeasy. Al Capone's Hideaway and Steakhouse at 35W 337 Riverside Drive, near St Charles, to the west of Chicago (001 888 72273223, www.speakeasycigarco.com) was built in 1920. It immediately started brewing its own beer to capitalise on the Prohibition market. Al Capone took over in 1925. These days, the restaurant is open daily, serving starters of "Sicilian Bullets" (Italian-style chicken wings) and "Capone Dynamite Sticks" (Italian Style Mozzarella Sticks) for $4.95 (£3).
Where did Capone end up?
Capone and other mobster professionals such as Machine Gun Kelly did their time in Alcatraz, the forbidding prison on a mist-shrouded lump of rock that rises from the centre of San Francisco Bay. The prison opened in 1934 (Capone was transferred there the same year) and soon had a reputation for absorbing the most hardened members of the US's prison population. Escape really was impossible, due to the rough waters around the penitentiary. Legend has it that nine escaping inmates made it as far as the sea; none reached the shore alive. Alcatraz shut up shop in 1963, but these days it's one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Bay Area.
Regular ferry tours (001 415 705 5555, www.blueandgoldfleet.com) run to The Rock each day, with each round trip lasting about two-and-a-half hours. Tickets cost $13.25 (£9) per person. The double-decked ranks of tiny cells are bleak enough, but combined with the echoing exercise yard, and the tantalising views of San Francisco (apparently, on clear nights, inmates could occasionally hear the sound of parties being held on the mainland) you get a real sense of the horror of being held captive there. Al Capone certainly didn't thrive; he'd been driven insane by chronic syphilis by the time he was released in 1939. Perhaps Sean Connery was making amends when he later shot chunks out of Alcatraz in The Rock, alongside Nicholas Cage. Capone was penniless when he died. His body rests in an unmarked plot in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Chicago.
I've packed my sharp suit and my baseball bat. now what?
Plenty of tour operators sell short breaks to New York and Chicago. If you prefer to organise things yourself, the cheapest fares to both cities are usually available on Air India from Heathrow. To reach Las Vegas, the only airline with direct flights is Virgin Atlantic. While in Las Vegas, you could make the 273 mile drive up to The Two Bunch Palms resort, near Desert Hot Springs, California (001 760 329 8791, www.twobunchpalms.com), once Al Capone's luxury retreat. The Al Capone suite, which has two beds, two baths and its own gun tower above it, costs $555 (£350) per night. But do be careful: Brits don't necessarily blend in well with Italian Mafia types. Hugh Grant's excruciating mobster accent in Mickey Blue Eyes should remain a lesson to us all.
How the mafia built Las Vegas
Gamblers, gangsters and ol' blue eyes himself
Las Vegas was built on Mob money in the Forties, fuelled by Nevada's loosening of the gambling laws in 1931. The Mob had been involved in gambling since the introduction of slot machines in the 1880s.
By the Twenties, New York Mafioso Frank Costello had equipped his one-armed bandits with little wooden chairs so that children could participate; it's been estimated that even during the Great Depression the slots were earning Costello around $18m a year.
Gangster Bugsy Siegel opened the Flamingo resort, 3555 Las Vegas Boulevard (001 702 733 3111, www.flamingolasvegas.com) with $6m of Mob money in 1946. He was gunned down by his ex-colleagues the next year, when it didn't turn a profit. But his death provoked a surge of interest in the city. Punters liked the idea that they were gambling in the presence of mobsters, and soon Las Vegas was paying off.
By the Fifties, resorts such as The Sands were largely Mob controlled. Caesar's Palace might have boasted classical decor, but in the words of veteran comedian Alan King, "I wouldn't say it was exactly Roman – more kind of early Sicilian."
The FBI stepped in to rehabilitate the place in the Eighties, and these days the city has cleaned up its act, returning control of the casinos to legitimate owners. But gambling is still the beating heart of "Sin City", and the Strip is the neon wonderland associated with films such as Casino and Ocean's Eleven.
Everything has been up-scaled: from its humble beginnings in the Nevada desert, Siegal's Flamingo now has 3,600 rooms and a squadron of real flamingos to keep the punters entertained.
Of course, Ol' Blue Eyes occasionally dusted down a tune or two for them. Frank Sinatra's relations with the Mafia are still the subject of debate, but it is certainly true that he went out of his way to be seen with gangsters. He was close to New York Mafioso Lucky Luciano, and during his career he spent time with gangsters such as Las Vegas's Meyer Lansky and the king of the slots, Frank Costello (rubbed out, 1957). Sinatra's career is closely associated with Vegas: his residence at Caesar's Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Boulevard (001 702 731 7110, www.caesars.com) in 1967 earned him a staggering $100,000 per week
