[lit-ideas] FW: Michigan
- From: "Veronica Caley" <vcaley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 17:45:32 -0400
Please see below.
Veronica Caley
vcaley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: Veronica Caley
To: Caley Veronica
Sent: 7/31/2005 5:10:02 PM
Subject: Michigan
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Life in Michigan
Blind pigs like this one at 932 E. Columbia flourished all over the city
during prohibition. In 1929, illegal liquor was second only to the auto
industry in Detroit in terms of revenue -- $215 million.
How Prohibition made Detroit a bootlegger's dream town
By Jenny Nolan / The Detroit News
In 1916, under the growing influence of an anti-drinking movement, Michigan
approved a statewide prohibition of the sale of beer, liquor or wine, to take
place beginning May 1, 1917. The powers that be, however, had not taken into
account the neighborly hospitality of nearby Ohioans, and Toledo, just 60 miles
from Detroit, turned on the spigots for smugglers.
False floorboards in automobiles, second gas tanks, hidden compartments,
even false bottomed shopping baskets and suitcases, not to mention camouflaged
flasks and hot water bottles were all employed as the entrepreneurial and the
thirsty navigated the Dixie Highway between Detroit and the Ohio border. It was
a sort of dress rehearsal of ingenuity and audacity for the much larger
operations to come.
Michigan laws and judges were lenient, however, with the fine for the
first offense set at $20, and in 1919, the Damon Law, the enforcement vehicle
for Michigan's prohibition, was ruled unconstitutional. Smuggling arrests
stopped, judges freed prisoners, and for two months, Ohio to Michigan roads
were a stream of traffic. In April, Ohio outlawed the manufacture and sale of
booze and Monroe, the center of operations for smugglers, returned to sleepier
times.
The fervor for prohibition was sweeping the country, though, and in 1917
the 18th amendment was passed and by January of 1919 had been ratified by three
fourths of the states. The Volstead Act provided the federal vehicle for
enforcement, and prohibition officially began January 16 of 1920. Federal
agent Abe Lezotte nails a "closed" sign to a blind pig after padlocking the
building in 1929.
Ohio's earlier hospitality was now echoed by our neighbor to the north,
Canada. Although individual provinces, including Ontario, had outlawed the
retail sale of liquor, the federal government approved and licensed
distilleries and breweries, of which there were 45 in Ontario alone in 1920, to
manufacture, distribute, and export.
With the Detroit River less than a mile across in some places, and 28
miles long with thousands of coves and hiding places along the shore and among
the islands, it was a smugglers dream. Along with Lake St. Clair and the St.
Clair River, these waterways carried 75% of the liquor supplied to the United
States during Prohibition.
Ingenuity carried the day: cargo was dragged beneath boats, old
underground tunnels from boathouse to house were reopened, sunken houseboats
hid underwater cable delivery systems, and even a pipeline was built. Between
Peche Island and the foot of Alter Road, an electronically controlled cable
hauled metal cylinders filled with up to 50 gallons of booze. A pipeline was
constructed between a distillery in Windsor and a Detroit bottler. In winter,
with the ice frozen, anyone from a single skater towing a sled to a loaded
caravan of 75 cars could be seen.
Enterprising individual efforts and congenial business relationships soon
gave way to more organized, and more lethal groups ready to reap the profits.
The Licavolis, Bommaritos, Lucidos and Zerillis brought a Sicilian flavor
to east side efforts, while the Tallman gang led the west side. The Purple Gang
had the run of the town and were unmatched in ruthlessness. Corruption became
commonplace and payoffs to police, politicians and judges were rampant. On the
day of a raid it was not unusual for half the scheduled squad to call in sick.
State and federal forces were slightly less corruptible, but there was so much
illegal activity that it was impossible to stem the tide.
Federal agents and Detroit police dump cases of beer overboard after stopping
a boatload of bootleggers in the Detroit River in August of 1929.
Illegal liquor was the second biggest business in Detroit at $215 million
a year in 1929, just behind automobiles. Public opinion was against the liquor
ban and no mayor was elected in Detroit who expressed favorable views of
prohibition. There were as many as 25,000 blind pigs operating in the Detroit
area. People drank everywhere, from speakeasies to private clubs to established
restaurants to storefronts, and of course they drank at home. Cocktail parties
were the rage in society circles, and workmen wanted beer with their lunch or
dinner. You could buy a shot from a car in the parking lots of the Hamtramck
auto plants or in one of the four hundred 'soft drink parlors' licensed in that
city in 1923. Open flaunting of the unpopular law was pandemic.
Nick Schaefer ran a blind pig across the street from Police Headquarters,
above a bail bondsman's office. Reporters and police alike frequented the place
for its famous potato soup and free lunch. Free lunches were common in blind
pigs. Meant to draw in customers, lunch was offered free with the purchase of a
glass or two of beer.
When the state police raided the Deutsches Haus at Mack and Maxwell, they
arrested Detroit Mayor John Smith, Michigan Congressman Robert Clancy and
Sheriff Edward Stein. From St. Clair Shores' Blossom Heath on Jefferson to
Little Harry's downtown, to the Green Lantern Club in Ecorse, Detroit's most
upstanding citizens fed the coffers of the gangs that were reaping huge
fortunes from their appetite for alcohol.
Stills provided the liquor not brought in from Canada. Despite the threat
of police or federal raids, and the dangers of explosions, stills were well
worth the risks and losses. Commercial breweries that were allowed to produce
'near beer' had to first produce real beer, then remove the alcohol. This was a
practice begging for exploitation. Illegal commercial enterprises, often run by
the various gangs poured out millions of gallons and home stills were
everywhere.
Reporters covered the war between the authorities and the bootleggers and
between rival gangs, with a vengeance. Two new dailies joined the News, Free
Press and Times in covering the mayhem. Competition was fierce and extras were
printed almost continuously. Impartiality was the order of the day and
reporters were ordered to buy a drink for every one they were bought, and to
get both sides of the story. Many of the reporters drank in the same blind pigs
as the bootleggers; they needed to know the gangs as well as the police.
The gangs meanwhile grew increasingly violent and brazen. Hijacking and
kidnapping were rampant, as was murder of rivals. Innocent pleasure boaters or
fisherman could hardly go on the river or lake for fear of stray bullets from
the Customs agents or gangs. The innocent as well as the guilty were subjected
to searches of their property, homes and persons. Prostitution and gambling
went hand in hand with the speakeasies.
Outrage of the citizenry at the violence spawned by prohibition, along
with the absurdity of trying to stifle a universal thirst, and anger at
imperiled civil liberties eventually combined to move public opinion towards
the repeal of this experiment in legislation of social policy, and on May 11,
1933 beer was made legal. Seven months later, on the day before New Years Eve,
The manufacture and sale of liquor were legalized in Michigan.
This fisherman's house at the lower end of Mud Island in the Detroit River and
the partially submerged boathouse at right were a terminal for an underwater
cable system that carried illegal booze along the river bottom.
Search Rearview Mirror
More Life in Michigan
Let's get ready to rumble: Cruising in the Motor City
The great Michigan UFO chase
The toy train that rules Christmas
Detroit's giant stove and tire
The Detroit News Spelling Bee
Of soda fountains and ice cream parlors
Detroit's Infamous Purple Gang
How Prohibition made Detroit a bootlegger's dream town
Detroit's Polar Bears and their confusing war
Paradise Valley and Black Bottom
Detroit's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The war between Michigan and Ohio
Michigan's mysterious Indian mounds
The crosstown mob wars of 1930-31
Where Detroit's elite met to eat
Once bustling iron town now mines tourism
Sailing on Lake St. Clair's icy winter winds
Michigan -- the home of Noah's Ark?
The Detroit News Hiking Club
Detroit's killer heat wave of 1936
Some haunting tales from Detroit's past
The origins of the Goodfellows: 'No kiddie without a Christmas'
Detroit's worst snowstorms
The Michigan State Fair
Detroit's amusement parks
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Veronica Caley
vcaley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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