With the passing of the prohibition the 20's marked a huge change in the way gangsters went on with their everyday business. Bootlegging became a really successful business for a lot of the mobsters in this era. Some even making millions of dollars supplying alcohol to speakeasies around the country. Gangsters could earn a living by scaring their neighborhood into small but wide spread price increases for groceries and services, then skimming their profits from the providers. In the 1920s gangsters were the icon for the self-made-man.