Mafia:
With alcohol being made illegal through Prohibition, the public turned to the criminal element to supply them with their spirits. Gang warfare during Prohibition over territory between the Sicilian, Jewish, and Irish Gangs left many dead and the Mafia on top.

The largest syndicate during the Dirty 30s! is the Mafia, with their influence being felt throughout major cities across the United States. During prohibition the mafia had a monopoly on bootleg liquor and a controlling interest in loan sharking & gambling. In the early 30s with the end of prohibition in sight, a war broke out in the mafia ranks which lead to new leadership and a new direction for the mafia which included prostitution and the heroin trade.

The Mafia is set up in a hierarchy, being held together with strongly enforced bonds of honor and loyalty, which included the Omerta, a code of silence that is a promise not to reveal any Mafia secrets or members even under threat of torture or death (See Murder Inc., below). Within this hierarchy are several smaller gangs that keeps the leaders as far away from the crimes as possible.  Some of these leaders moved into the limelight and gained celebrity status as "Public Enemies". 

Murder Inc., a Murder-for-Hire gang responsible for the killing of dispensable lackeys and informers, was the enforcement arm of the syndicate, meaning they didn't kill anyone outside of the organization.

The Teamsters Union's upper echelon was heavily influenced by the Mafia in the 1930s, and the United States government encouraged its involvement as a way to battle the influence of the communists & the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations). 

Nazis:
Though not a major force in America, they still had a presence here and groups of pro Nazi supporters tried to influence policies. The most notorious being the "German-American bund" lead by Fritz Kuhn. The bund, organized in 1936, had evolved from a series of nationwide German-American groups that formed following World War I. These groups envisioned a day when the US would be ruled by Nazism.

In 1936 the German-American bund developed Camp Siegfried on Long Island, NY where they proclaim in a brochure that ''You will meet people who think as you do.'' By 1937, up to 40,000 bundists would arrive at the camp. It was from this camp that the Nazis party itself is believed to set up operations. Those joining the bund were required to swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler.

Though Kuhn claimed to have over 480,000 followers, records show they only had 8500 members and 5000 "sympathizers". 

Overseas, however, the Nazi party was gaining strength and by 1939 they had invaded Poland and started WWII. 

Communists:
Believing Karl Marx's prediction about the fall of capitalism, communists envisioned the overthrow the capitalist system and implementing the communist one. The communists strongly influenced the union movement, rising through the ranks of the CIO, organizing labor strikes and urging black and white workers to 'unite and fight'. Blacks were heavily recruited, citing the same hardships that the two groups shared.

In the 1930s the communists spearheaded a broad-based American movement that tried to separate itself from the Soviet model. The Popular Front allied with non-communists in the political and economic arenas, specifically the Democratic party, to garner more strength.

Hollywood leftists embraced the Popular Front movement with open arms and donated heavily to their cause. The communists used this newfound alliance as a way to control the movie industry. 

The influence of the communists & socialists in some of the New Deal programs were seen as a partial success, but the revolution they had hoped for never materialized.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK):
Organized in 1865, The Klan is alive an well in the Dirty 30s! though their numbers have dwindled from 4,000,000 at their peak in 1925 to 30,000 in the 1930s after the conviction of Klan leader, David C. Stephenson for second-degree murder in 1925. Those that remained with the organization terrorized new immigrants, blacks and Catholics, while complaining that the government had too many Jews and Catholics.