Editing Organized crime (section)

===Nineteenth century===
During the [[Victorian era]], criminals and gangs started to form organizations which would collectively become London's criminal underworld.<ref name="Victoria 1">{{cite web|url=http://surrey-shore.freeservers.com/VicCrime.htm|title=MENACE, MAYHEM, AND MORIARTY! CRIME IN VICTORIAN LONDON|publisher=Surrey Shores|author=Barton, William A.}}</ref> Criminal societies in the underworld started to develop their own ranks and groups which were sometimes called ''families'' and were often made up of lower-classes and operated on pick-pocketry, prostitution, forgery and counterfeiting, commercial burglary and even money laundering schemes.<ref name="Victoria 1"/><ref name="Victoria 2">{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/The-Victorian-Roots-of-Organized-Crime-2954000.php|title=THE VICTORIAN UNDERWORLD|newspaper=SF Gate|author=Thomas, Donald}}</ref> Unique also were the use of slang and argots used by Victorian criminal societies to distinguish each other, like those propagated by street gangs like the [[Peaky Blinders]].<ref name="Halls">{{cite news|url=http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/peaky-blinders-real-story|work=GQ|title=The Peaky Blinders are a romanticised myth|last=Halls|first=Eleanor|access-date=30 December 2017}}</ref><ref name="Peak">{{cite news|author=Larner, Tony|title=When Peaky Blinders Ruled Streets with Fear|work=Sunday Mercury|date= 1 August 2010|page= 14}}</ref> One of the most infamous crime bosses in the Victorian underworld was [[Adam Worth]], who was nicknamed "the Napoleon of the criminal world" or "the Napoleon of Crime" and became the inspiration behind the popular character of [[Professor Moriarty]].<ref name="Victoria 1"/><ref>Macintyre, Ben (1997). ''The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth'', Master Thief. Delta. p. 6-7. {{ISBN|0-385-31993-2}}</ref>

Organized crime in the United States first came to prominence in the [[Old West]] and historians such as Brian J. Robb and Erin H. Turner traced the first organized crime syndicates to the [[Cochise County Cowboys|Coschise Cowboy Gang]] and the [[Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch|Wild Bunch]].<ref>Robb, Brian J. ''A Brief History of Gangsters''. Running Press (January 6, 2015). Chapter 1: Lawlessness in the Old West. {{ISBN|978-0762454761}}</ref><ref>Turner, Erin H. ''Badasses of the Old West: True Stories of Outlaws on the Edge''. TwoDot; First edition (September 18, 2009). p. 132. {{ISBN|978-0762754663}}</ref> The Cochise Cowboys, though loosely organized, were unique for their criminal operations in the Mexican border, in which they would steal and sell cattle as well smuggled contraband goods in between the countries.<ref>Alexander, Bob. ''Bad Company and Burnt Powder: Justice and Injustice in the Old Southwest (Frances B. Vick Series)''. University of North Texas Press; 1st edition (July 10, 2014). p. 259-261. {{ISBN|978-1574415667}}</ref> In the Old west there were other examples of gangs that operated in ways similar to an organized crime syndicate such as the [[Innocents (gang)|Innocents gang]], the [[Jim Miller (outlaw)|Jim Miller gang]], the [[Soapy Smith|Soapy Smith gang]], the [[Belle Starr|Belle Starr gang]] and the Bob Dozier gang.