The boys were certainly on top of their game. On this day, at the height of Prohibition, the Feds announced that 26,620 people had been caught and fined for having and/or drinking booze. Big deal. Between 1921 and 23 New York City caught 6,000 violators. 27 were convicted. It was quickly discovered that Prohibition was not a very good deal. California grape growers increased their grape production by 700% to meet the demand for bootleg wine. The violence from gangs put many citizens in the line of fire. Ships with distilleries would sit off shore in international waters making product and then figuring out ways to get it to market. Poor equipment and ingredients often made the booze poisonous – lead got added from bad pipes and strange stuff got added to stretch it out – like embalming fluid. Yum. Binge drinking dramatically increased as demonstrated by a quote from a Federal Agent, “People didn’t go to speakeasies, give a password, and pay high prices for a poor quality product just to drink a beer. They went there to get drunk.” Even the Temperance people realized it was causing more harm than good.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 09:12:19 +0000