"i found out what your ‘drug-stores' were." he turned to us and spoke rapidly. "he and this wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. that's one of his little stunts. i picked him for a bootlegger the first time i saw him, and i wasn't wrong." gatsby doesn't deny tom's accusation. obviously tom has gathered too much damaging information about him, and the more tom talks the worse it seems to everyone present . tom has found out that gatsby, with wolfsheim and others, is involved in other illegal activities. the fact that gatsby had bootlegging operations in the gangster-ridden city of chicago makes him seem especially corrupt, because that city was known for mobster rule, criminals like al capone, and frequent murders. page