Jonathan Eig

And when prohibition comes, suddenly there's this opportunity that he never dreamed of to make far more money than he ever imagined.

And he's already comfortable breaking the law.

Prohibition created this opportunity to go beyond the usual stuff, the brothels and the casinos.

Suddenly, prohibition gives these two-bit hoods a chance to get into a much bigger business, to take over one of the largest industries in America, the beer and wine and alcohol business.

So they're flying by the seat of their pants.

And every city has somebody like Capone.

Every city has lots of Capones.

The challenge is that they're not sophisticated businessmen, obviously.

They're having to do all of this quickly, improvisationally, and they're making it up as they go along.

So the businesses become incredibly sprawling, incredibly loosely organized, and it really just depends on your tolerance for chaos to run one of these organizations.

So do you believe that Capone had tolerance for chaos?

Yeah, Capone had huge tolerance for chaos.

He had to.

I mean, think about it.

He's ordering beer for his customers, for his bars, for his saloons, for his brothels.

You know, where can you find this stuff?

They're paying people to manufacture gin in their basements.

And he doesn't own the brothels.

He doesn't own the bars, the speakeasies, the casinos.

He's just taking a cut of all these businesses.