Episode 159

Scofflaws, Moonshiners, Bootleggers, and Crime Lords

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“6 Autos and 9 Men Held in Roundup.” The Seattle Times. (Seattle, WA) March 22, 1920.

Abbott, Karen. The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America. New York: Crown, 2019.

Apoyan, Jackie. “Ten Alternative Products Made by Breweries during Prohibition.” The Mob Museum. January 17, 2021. Accessed at: https://themobmuseum.org/blog/ten-alternative-products-made-by-breweries-during-prohibition/.

Appel, Jacob M. “‘Physicians Are Not Bootleggers’: The Short, Peculiar Life of the Medicinal Alcohol Movement.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 82, no. 2 (2008): 355–86. Accessed at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44448552.

Arksey, Laura. “Prohibition: Booze Routes to Spokane.” HistoryLink. March 9, 2011. Accessed at: https://www.historylink.org/File/9702.

Batchelor, Bob. The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition’s Evil Genius. New York: Diversion Books, 2020.

“Behind a False Wall, Find 10 Gals. of Moon.” The Butte Daily Post. (Butte, MT) March 29, 1922. Accessed at: https://www.newspapers.com/image/958434510/.

Blocker, Jr, Jack S. “Did Prohibition Really Work? Alcohol Prohibition as a Public Health Innovation.” Am J Public Health 96, no. 2 (February 2006). Accessed at: https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2005.065409.

“Butte Woman Fined for Making Liquor.” The Great Falls Leader. (Great Falls, MT) November 15, 1922. Accessed at: https://www.newspapers.com/image/1018432106/.

“Cabaret Gunmen Kill ‘King’ Solomon. Boston Racketeer is Shot by Four in Roxbury After Ignoring a Warning. 3 Held for Questioning. Victim Was Under Indictment in Brooklyn as One of Heads of a Liquor-Smuggling Plot.” The New York Times. (New York, NY) January 25, 1933. Accessed at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1933/01/25/104292080.html.

Cawthorne, Nigel. Mafia: The History of the Mob. London: Arcturus Publishing, 2012.

Chase, Candace. “Pioneer Reflects on Century of Life.” Daily Inter Lake. March 1, 2010. Accessed at: https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2010/mar/01/pioneer-reflects-on-century-of-life-6/.

Clark, Norman H. “Roy Olmstead, a Rumrunning King on Puget Sound.” The Pacific Northwest Quarterly 54, no. 3 (1963): 89–103. Accessed at: http://www.jstor.org.byu.idm.oclc.org/stable/40487821.

Comte, Julien. “‘Let the Federal Men Raid’: Bootlegging and Prohibition Enforcement in Pittsburgh.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 77, no. 2 (2010): 166–92. Accessed at: https://doi.org/10.5325/pennhistory.77.2.0166.

Einstein, Isidor. Prohibition Agent No 1. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1932.

“Einstein, Nemesis of Bootleggers, Uses More Disguises than Sherlock Holmes.” The Buffalo Times. (Buffalo, NY) August 12, 1922. Accessed at: https://www.newspapers.com/image/441073789/.

Ellison, Betty Boles. The Early Laps of Stock Car Racing: A History of the Sport and Business through 1974. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2014.

“Etymology - ‘Mafia.’” University of Michigan. Accessed July 6, 2024 at: https://public.websites.umich.edu/~themafia/etymology.htm.

Febre, Matthew. “Tequileros and Moonshiners: Prohibition in Texas.” Ibid. A Student History Journal 13 (Spring 2020). Accessed at: https://twu.edu/media/documents/history-government/Tequileros-and-Moonshiners--Prohibition-in-Texas.pdf.

Feight, Andrew. “George Remus - ‘King of the Bootleggers’ - in the Boneyfiddle.” Scioto Historical. Accessed July 6, 2024 at: https://sciotohistorical.org/items/show/170.

“George Remus Kills Wife. Principals and Witness in Eden Park Shooting” The Cincinnati Post. (Cincinnati, OH) October 6, 1927. Accessed at: https://www.newspapers.com/image/761846947.

Golway, Terry. I Never Did Like Politics: How Fiorello La Guardia Became America’s Mayor, and Why He Still Matters. New York: St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2024.

Grey, Eli. “Throwback Thursday: Cincinnati’s Most Notorious Bootlegger.” January 7, 2021. Accessed at: https://chpl.org/blogs/post/throwback-thursday-george-remus.

Henriod, Joe. “Jack ‘Legs’ Diamond: The Clay Pigeon of the Underworld.” The Mob Museum. Accessed July 6, 2024 at: https://themobmuseum.org/blog/jack-legs-diamond-the-clay-pigeon-of-the-underworld/.

Hess, Henner. Mafia & Mafiosi: Origin, Power, and Myth. New York: New York University Press, 1998.

Holden, Brad. “Prohibition in the Puget Sound Region (1916-1933).” HistoryLink. November 18, 2019. Accessed at: https://www.historylink.org/File/20904.

 “Isador ‘Izzy’ Einstein.” Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Accessed at: https://www.atf.gov/our-history/isador-izzy-einstein.

“Jack ‘Legs’ Diamond.” Gale Biography Online Collection. March 1, 1999. Accessed at: https://link-gale-com.byu.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/K1650000020/BIC?u=byuprovo&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=f27b756a.

Joselit, Jenna Weissman. Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community. 1900-1940. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1983.

“Joseph Kennedy and the New York Underworld during Prohibition.” The Gotham Center for New York City History. February 28, 2020. Accessed at: https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/joseph-kennedy-and-the-new-york-underworld-during-prohibition.

“Judge to Investigate Before Giving Custody of Child to Litigants.” The Butte Miner. (Butte, MT) June 27, 1922. Accessed at: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-butte-miner-andrew-maud-vogen-divo/93102086/.

Lacey, Robert. Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1992.

Layton, Stanford J, editor. Utah’s Lawless Fringe: Stories of True Crime. Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 2001. Accessed at: http://archive.org/details/utahslawlessfrin0000unse.

“Lieut. Olmstead and Sergt. Clark In Federal Hands.” Seattle Union Record.  (Seattle, WA) March 22, 1920. Accessed at: https://www.newspapers.com/image/932953355/.

“‘Little Augie’ Slain by Rival Gangsters. ‘Kid Dropper’ Gunmen Also Shoot Down His Bodyguard in Lower East Side Street. Scores Flee Line of Fire. Vengeance for a Recent Murder the Motive – Fear Seals Lips of the Witnesses” The New York Times. (New York, NY) October 16, 1927. Accessed at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/10/16/101508336.html.

McClary, Daryl C. “Olmstead, Roy (1886-1966).” Historylink. November 13, 2002. Accessed at: https://www.historylink.org/File/4015.

Mcgirr, Lisa. The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.

Miller, Tom. “Daytonian in Manhattan: The Remodeled Yorkville Casino - 210-214 East 86th Street.” Daytonian in Manhattan (blog). September 11, 2021. Accessed at: https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-remodeled-yorkville-casino-210-214.html.

Miron, Jeffrey A., and Jeffrey Zwiebel. “Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition.” Working Paper. Working Paper Series. National Bureau of Economic Research. April 1991. Accessed at: https://doi.org/10.3386/w3675.

“Miss Remus Tells of Mother’s Murder. Weeps on Stand as Stepfather Listens Impassively in Prisoners’ Dock. But He Evades Her Eyes. Victim Was Beaten After She Had Been Dragged From Taxi and Shot, She Says. Alienists Present Report. Findings Are Said to Hold the Defendant Sane – State’s Case is Nearing End.” The New York Times. (New York, NY) November 26, 1927. Page 17. Accessed at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/11/26/issue.html.

Moore, Stephen T. Bootleggers and Borders. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2014.

Murphy, Mary. “Bootlegging Mothers and Drinking Daughters: Gender and Prohibition in Butte, Montana.” American Quarterly 46, no. 2 (1994): 174–94. Accessed at: https://doi.org/10.2307/2713337.

“NASCAR Rooted in Prohibition Bootlegging.” Prohibition: An Interactive History. Accessed July 6, 2024 at: https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/prohibition-potpourri/nascar-and-prohibition/.

Nash, Jay Robert. Bloodletters and Badmen: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present. New York: M. Evans And Company, 1973. Accessed at: http://archive.org/details/bloodlettersbadm0000jayr.

National Association of Distillers and Wholesale Dealers (U.S.). Publicity Dept. The Anti-Prohibition Manual : A Summary of Facts and Figures Dealing with Prohibition. Cincinnati, OH: The Association, 1917. Accessed at: http://archive.org/details/antiprohibitionm17nati.

Newark, Tim. Boardwalk Gangster: The Real Lucky Luciano. New York: St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2011.

“Officials Raid Farm Destroy Stills and Quantity of ‘Moon. Haul is Estimated at $5,000; Plant in Operation When Officers Arrive.” The Butte Miner. (Butte, MT) October 15, 1922. Accessed at: https://www.newspapers.com/image/348823851/.

“Olmstead v. United States.” Oyez. Accessed July 6, 2024 at: https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/277us438.

“Only Big Quarry Now Sought for Federal Agents. Sudden Swith of Three Montana Agents to General Agents with Roving Commissions, Latest Surprise” The Butte Daily Post. (Butte, MT) May 5, 1922. Accessed at: https://www.newspapers.com/image/958372677/.

“Prohibition Profits Transformed the Mob.” Prohibition: An Interactive History. Accessed July 6, 2024 at: https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-rise-of-organized-crime/the-mob-during-prohibition/.

“Prohibition. Episode 2, A Nation of Scofflaws. The PBS Video Collection.” [United States]: PBS. 2011. Accessed at: http://umass.kanopystreaming.com/node/136468.

“Racket Chief Slain By Gangster Gunfire. Giuseppe Masseria, Known as Joe the Boss, Shot Mysteriously in Coney Island Cafe. ‘Bigger Than Al Capone.’ Police Say He Was Leader in Every Kind of Racket – He Escaped Death Many Times.” The New York Times. (New York, NY) April 16, 1931. Accessed at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/04/16/96193033.html.

Reppetto, Thomas. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2005.

Rockaway, Robert A. “The Notorious Purple Gang: Detroit’s All-Jewish Prohibition Era Mob.” Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 20 (March 1, 2001): 113–30. Accessed at: https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:170957164.

Rudolph, Katie. “From Brewery to Pottery: The Coors Porcelain Company.” Denver Public Library Special Collections and Archives. September 21, 2015. Accessed at: https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/brewery-pottery-coors-porcelain-company.

“Scofflaw.” PBS. 2011. Accessed at: https://www.pbs.org/video/prohibition-scofflaw/.

Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Checkmark Books, 2010. Accessed at: http://archive.org/details/mafiaencyclopedi00sifa_0.

“‘Skiing Whisky’ Is Latest Stunt of Moonshiners.” The Montana Record-Herald. (Helena, MT) May 5, 1922. Accessed at: https://www.newspapers.com/image/954369141/.

“Still Found in Isolated Hills. Not as Large as Some but Cleverly Arranged Is Officers’ Latest Discovery.” The Butte Miner. (Butte, MT) December 29, 1922. Accessed at: https://www.newspapers.com/image/348732766/.

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Tonelli, Bill. Mob Fest ’29: The True Story Behind the Birth of Organized Crime. San Francisco: Byliner Inc., 2012.

Uguen-Csenge, Eva. “100 Years after the End of Alcohol Prohibition, Advocates Push for Drug Decriminalization.” CBC News. June 15, 2021. Accessed at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/100-years-after-the-end-of-alcohol-prohibition-advocates-push-for-drug-decriminalization-1.6065512.

“United States Census, 1920: Entry for Ben Holter and Clara P Holter, 1920.” FamilySearch. Accessed July 6, 2024 at: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M83P-FQ8.

Whalen, Robert Weldon. Murder, Inc., and the Moral Life: Gangsters and Gangbusters in La Guardia’s New York. New York: Fordham University Press, 2016.