From the 1930s into about 1940, Chicago had something called the Chicago Milk Wars, which sounds fake but was very real. After Prohibition ended, the mob, including people tied to Al Capone’s organization, suddenly needed a new way to make money now that bootlegging was drying up… so naturally they decided, “let’s get into milk.” They started buying up dairy companies and trying to force businesses to use their cheaper, non-union delivery services. The problem was Chicago already had the Milk Wagon Drivers Union, Local 753, and those guys were built different because instead of backing down they said, “absolutely not” to the mob. So for years there was this bizarre turf war between the mob and union milkmen.
Milk trucks got hijacked, deliveries got dumped into the river, dairies got bombed, drivers got jumped in the street, and both sides kept escalating. And the wildest part is this wasn’t just random violence, it was all because milk pricing was a disaster during the Depression. Farmers were making almost nothing, consumers were paying inflated prices, and everyone wanted control of the profit in the middle. Eventually the federal government had to step in and break everything up because Chicago had become so violently corrupt over dairy… So just remember: there was once a period in American history where union milkmen were literally fighting the mafia in the streets over milk routes.