WEBVTT - S3E5: Double Barrel 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:02.960 Hey there, it's your host ed helms. 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:03.200 Here. 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:06.400 Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I wanted 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:09.479 to remind you that my brand new book is coming 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:13.400 out on April twenty ninth. It's called Snaffo, The Definitive 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:17.000 Guide to History's Greatest screw Ups, and you can pre 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:21.880 order it right now at snafudashbook dot com. Trust me, 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.600 if you like this show, you're gonna love this book. 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:28.680 It's got all the wild disasters spectacular face plants we 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:32.440 just couldn't squeeze into this podcast. And here's the kicker. 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:36.880 I am also going on tour to celebrate. That's right. 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.600 I'm coming to New York, DC, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.560 San Francisco, and my hometown Los Angeles. So if you've 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:46.760 ever wanted to see me stumble through a live Q 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.560 and A or dramatically read about a kiddie cat getting 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:53.960 turned into a CIA operative, now's your chance again. Head 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.600 to snafu dashbook dot com to pre order the book 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:01.120 and check out all the tour details and day, or 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:04.280 just click the link in the show notes. That'll work too. Okay, 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:08.040 that's it, on with the chaos. This is Snaffoo Season 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:16.680 three Formula six. Last time on Snaffoo, Mabel Walker Willebrandt's 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:22.440 wet opponents were scary powerful, especially in court. George ramis 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:26.000 one of the craziest stories you hear, like an incredibly 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.920 successful defense attorney becomes like the biggest bootlegger ever. But 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.120 even when Mabel won her cases, it felt like she 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:37.680 was always just one step behind the sprawling bootleg business. 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.240 She didn't have much in the way of financial support. 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:42.320 And one of the things that was indicative of the 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:45.720 attitude of the dries is that they passed these laws 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:47.360 but gave no money for enforcement. 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.480 Playing by the rules just couldn't hold back the tide 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:52.760 of liquor washing over America. 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:55.840 The fact that there were only twenty six hundred prohibitionations 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.520 covering the entire Canadian border, of the Mexican border, and 0:01:58.640 --> 0:01:59.520 both coasts. 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:00.800 It's ridiculous. 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.760 There's a storm rolling in over the little town of Homer, Nebraska, 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.000 in the creek bottoms and river beds that criss crossed 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.280 the eastern border of the state. The water starts to 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:24.480 rise and it all runs downhill towards Homer. It's nineteen 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:27.880 nineteen and one of Homer's newest residents a man named 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:32.120 Richard Hart is riding home with some neighbors. He didn't 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.440 grow up in Nebraska. He was the kind of kid 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:37.120 who fell in love with the wild West. When he 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:39.360 was a teenager, he ran off to be a cowboy, 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:41.960 a bit of a thrill seeker. His journey took him 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.960 from the ranch to the circus to the life of 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.680 a soldier in the Great War. When he came back 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.840 from the war, he took a train west and Homer 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:55.639 is where he landed. A few of his new German 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:59.239 American neighbors, the Wench family, opened their doors to him, 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.960 car doors. At least they're giving him a lift. He's 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.239 crammed in the car with Mama Wench and a few 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.480 of her kids, including the oldest daughter, twenty year old Kathleen. 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.480 They're on the road winding along the Missouri River when 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:16.640 the oncoming storm overtakes them. 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:20.880 Homer is very close to the Missouri River. When Richard arrived, 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:21.600 there was flood. 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.359 This is Richard's great grandson, Corey Hart. And no, it's 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.720 not the eighties rockstar Corey Hart, who wears sunglasses at night, 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.560 much to the disappointment of my inner ten year old. 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.440 So families in Homer, Nebraska know all too well how 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:40.240 the area is prone to flooding, and this one is 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:45.360 really bad. Water rises up and crashes into the little town. 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.960 Dozens of houses are destroyed and some are even completely 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:55.280 washed away. For Richard and the Winch family in the car, 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:57.280 the situation gets dire. 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.600 What didn't realize is that a car that the n 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:03.760 was also beginning to be overtaken by that flood. 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.120 The storm pounds on the hood of the car, but 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:09.720 through the rain they see a girl walking on the 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.520 side of the road. They pull over to let her 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:18.400 in and tell her it's not safe outside, But before 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.240 they can get the car moving again, they're caught in 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.800 a surge of water. It rises up under them, lifting 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.599 the car and sweeping the whole thing into the current. 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:31.040 The little girl is terrified, and in a moment of panic, 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:35.560 she jumps out of the car and she's instantly flushed downstream. 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.880 And so Richard saw what was happening and jumped in 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:39.679 to say the girl. 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.320 He swims hard and stays in control despite the raging 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.279 flood around him. When he catches up to her, he 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.119 finds she's caught on a tangle of barbed wire fence 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:53.600 invisible under the murky brown surface. Working quickly, Richard untangles 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.799 her and swims on. He drags her to the far bank. 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:58.440 Then he turns back to the river. 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.720 Kathleen Lynch was in the vehicle that was floating away, 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:05.400 but Richard and another individual and Homer, we're able to 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:07.560 jump in and pull that car to safety. 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.800 Richard bites the river yet again to save Kathleen's life 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:15.800 and drag the Winch family car back to dry land. Yes, 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.360 you heard that right. He pulls a car from a 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:24.200 raging flood one of those super human adrenaline rushes, I guess. 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:27.440 So it was his bravery that really caught the eye 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.520 of Kathleen and said that this is a guy that 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:31.440 I want to be with. 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.520 Maybe a little bit of transference going on here, but 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:37.320 I'm kind of falling in love with this guy right now. 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.599 I mean, who wouldn't. As the flood cleared and the 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:45.000 story spread, the town of Homer decided Richard Hart was 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.120 just the kind of hero they needed. He may have 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.719 still been an outsider, but they made this rugged twenty 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:57.359 something their town marshal, and just in the nick of time, 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.000 because there was another flood coming. The floodud of illegal 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:05.040 liquor that Alexander Gettler warned about. It wasn't just in 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:09.080 the big cities like New York, it was coast to coast. 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.840 When Mabel Walker, Willebrant and the Bureau boys looked west 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:18.320 for agents to fight the alcohol flood in Nebraska, Richard 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:22.239 volunteered as a lawman. He was known for toting not one, 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:26.200 but two guns, which gave him the Wild West nickname 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:31.440 of every little Cowpoke's Dreams, Richard two Gun Heart. He 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:34.720 became a soldier in the Dry Army. As the leaders 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.320 of the Dry cause grew more and more desperate to 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:41.120 fight the influx of booze. It would put Richard shoulder 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.880 to shoulder with some of the most vicious forces in America. 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:56.160 I met Helms And this is Snaffo, a show about 0:06:56.200 --> 0:07:00.680 history's greatest screw ups. This is season three, story of 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:04.800 Formula six. How prohibitions war on alcohol went so off 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:14.960 the rails the government wound up poisoning its own people. Today, 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:17.960 we're leaving Norris and Gettler in New York and James 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.559 Duran and Mabel Walker Willebrandt in DC, and we're taking 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.440 a trip out west to see how things are going 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:29.120 with prohibition agents. Far Afield a place where classic yahoo 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.040 gun slinging methods were used, methods that would shock the 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:43.640 public and eventually stain the dry cause. So this two 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:48.680 gun nickname. In the years before World War One, Richard 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.160 had ridden and ranched across the West. His childhood dream 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.320 was to be a cowboy, and gosh darn it, he 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:58.160 pulled it off. He criss crossed the American planes, on 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:03.080 cattle drives, and even traveling circuses. He was used to long, 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:06.400 lonely days on horseback, broken up by shows where his 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:10.240 trick shooting and skills as a wrestler brought cheering crowds 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:16.360 to their feet. As his great grandson Corey says, a 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.600 little of the circus showman stuck with him throughout his life. 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:23.200 He even bought himself two pearl handled cult forty fives. 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.480 You love to show off, and so if you could 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:31.440 have the opportunity to show off his sharp shooting skills, 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:35.080 he would. There are rumors that he would shoot apples 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.720 at the top of people's heads. If you think, if 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.240 Richard Hart, it's a thing, it's always two guns. It's 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.599 two guns, you know, and so Why are you not 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:45.400 going to call someone like that, two gun heart? 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.400 It just fits Richard. Two gun Heart. It's pretty good. 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.720 You gotta admit, I've been workshopping Eddie near Sighted Helms 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:55.520 for a while, but the focus group around my kitchen 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:59.320 table is not a fan. For some reason. Richard, though, 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.040 was living out his childhood dream, the hero of the 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:07.160 story he'd always imagined. When World War One took Richard, 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.440 George Cassidy, and a couple of million others over to France, 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.960 the Great War made Richard an honest to goodness soldier. 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:19.160 But afterwards, as he's heading out west, he just gets 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.880 off on this stop in Nebraska and sees this town Homer, 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:27.080 and knew this was a point far enough west where 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.800 that lifestyle still existed, so he could. 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:32.200 Continue this mission in his life to be a cowboy. 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.199 Now, by this point, there weren't a ton of old 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:42.080 West cowboys still bopping around out there. Wild Bill, Buffalo Bill, 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.640 all the old bills. That's an older generation. It's the 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.600 stories that kept them alive, you know. The wave of 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:54.480 legacy sequels to classic nineties flicks Twister, Terminator, Jurassic Park, Jumanji. 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.360 It was kind of like that Richard loved the Wild 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.600 West shows when he was a kid, and he was 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:02.880 determined and to live out the sequel Western law man 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:09.800 still shooting. When National Prohibition came to Nebraska town, Marshall 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:13.080 Richard two gun Heart had his chance. 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.120 Governor recognized the fact that if we're going to have 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.800 prohbition agents, we need people that are fearless, and Richard 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:21.720 Hart was somebody who fit that to a tee. 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:24.880 Toting a gun into the hills to face down enemies 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:27.720 of the law. It was a dream come true for Richard. 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.320 But once he had his prohibition badge pinned to his chest, 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:35.640 he found he was facing a lot worse than circus clowns. 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.640 I believe was around nineteen twenty, and it was a 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:41.280 really really bad rain storm. 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.240 Damn mother, and Nature's got it out for this guy, huh. 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.080 In any case, Richard hits the highway with a prisoner 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:49.400 in tow, a man he had scooped up in a 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.680 recent raid on a moonshine. Still, he's trying to take 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.320 the man to link in, Nebraska, but he. 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.760 Got north and south missed up, so instead of going 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.000 back to take this criminal in, he ended up going 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:01.720 I believe that towards the South Dkota border. 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:05.280 Now, when he pulled into the little town of Spencer, 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.120 Richard could have you know, realized he went the wrong 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:12.680 way and turned around. But not our two gun. He 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:15.920 was like double or nothing, So he started asking around 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.520 for some white mule. The locals, proud of the kick 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:23.200 in their neighborhood, moonshine knew exactly what he meant and 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.839 helpfully pointed him to the best distillery in town. When 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.920 the owner offered him a drink, Richard arrested him. Then 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:33.559 he went back and also arrested the guy who gave 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.839 him directions. Maybe a little too thorough for a spur 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:39.880 of the moment operation, but that's just me, two Gun. 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:44.199 He was always in for double or nothing. So Richard 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:46.800 crams all three guys in his car and hauls them 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.640 off to the local jail. But when he gets there. 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:53.000 Found out that there wouldn't book either of them. 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.880 And that's because the guy he had just arrested for 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:57.319 trying to sell him alcohol. 0:11:57.760 --> 0:11:59.400 Yeah, one of them a town marshall. 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:04.240 He's the town marshal of Spencer, the tiny town they're in. 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:08.200 So instead of accepting his arrest, this Spencer Marshall and 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:12.680 another officer played a little Uno reverse card and put 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:17.000 Richard under arrest for disturbing the peace. They squared off 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:18.720 and tried to shout each other down. 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:21.040 You're under arrest. 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:22.640 Now you're under arrest. 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:29.079 Oh you, no you no you now you And the 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:31.040 guy who had the best seat in the house, the 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.800 original prisoner Richard had dragged along for the ride. Apparently 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.520 that guy found the entire thing hilarious. 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.360 There's really discouraging for him. It was the pinnacle of 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:45.280 him understanding how much corruption there was. This is not 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:47.480 my law, and that was the excuse that a lot 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:48.520 of people used. 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:54.240 But like Mabel, Richard had decided that prohibition was his law. 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.839 It was in the constitution now, which meant two gun 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:00.920 was free to have a root and dute in times, 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:04.600 smacking down all manner of miscreants, scoff laws, and ne'er 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:11.240 do wells. Just because a flood of Americans had decided 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.960 to break the law was no reason to hold back 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:18.440 on enforcing it. Richard had beaten floods before. But if 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:21.360 there was one burr under two guns saddle, it was 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:26.520 Kathleen's family, his in laws. You see, the Winches owned 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:29.160 a grocery store, and they also did a little bruin 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.800 on the side, or you know, maybe kind of a lot. 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.440 There were good times, but then there were times when 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.440 the alcohol just kind of took over. 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.839 That's Corey's dad, Jeff, Richard's grandson. 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.880 When one of Kathleen's brother had too much alcohol, it 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.480 was my uncle Harold. He would drink more than he 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:49.680 should have all the time. 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:52.360 When the Winches got to drinking, I can just see 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.319 Richard pulling his hat down over his eyes, like, seriously, 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.160 right in front of me. Come on, you're putting me 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.600 on the spot here. I mean, if you're pouring a 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.920 beer under the prohibition agent's nose, that's going to make 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.800 Christmas a little tense. But Richard was doing his best 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:09.679 to keep some tensil on the Tan and Baum because 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.000 there was one line he didn't cross. He never actually 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:17.000 arrested the Winches for their home brewing. Always seems weird 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.400 to me when people just roll with so much hypocrisy, 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:21.720 But then again, it was his in laws, and as 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:23.760 much as we all want to arrest our in laws, 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:29.080 it's probably better we don't. But Richard justified it to himself. 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.400 And besides, it's not like there was a shortage of 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:35.640 cases for him to take on. And in nineteen twenty three, 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:39.360 he would take a case that would put Richard in 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:40.720 over his head. 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:53.520 If he couldn't use his gun, he would use his 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:59.480 fist to apprehend these criminals and bootleggers. That was something 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:03.480 he really d himself with and this instance it went wrong. 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.520 It was October of nineteen twenty three. Back in New York, 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.280 Alexander Gettler is starting to earn a reputation as a 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.840 forensic sherlock. He's just published a groundbreaking study on the 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.480 deadly solvent Benzene, which, to his horror, he's finding in 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:22.160 dead bodies in his laboratory at Bellevue, though he's not 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:27.000 yet sure why. Meanwhile, in d C. Babel, Walker Willebrant 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.520 is just starting to unravel the epic corruption all around 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.400 her at the Department of Justice. And back in the 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:39.240 Heartland No pun Intended, Richard Hart catches a break too. 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.160 He gets a tip about a bootlegger smuggling liquor onto 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:45.720 the Winnebago reservation near Homer. He meets with some of 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:48.360 the Winnebago men who are willing to help him stop 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:50.080 the flow. Of liquor into their community. 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:54.600 He selected two of them to go to kind of 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.120 a bootleg operation and try to scorse some alcohol. 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:01.400 The operation kicks off when Richard and his guys get 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.480 the details of a midnight rendezvous between a rum runner 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:09.640 and his local customers. They're going to intervene. Richard parks 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.840 out of site nearby while his comrades roll into the 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:14.560 meetup posing his customers. 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:17.280 The idea was that as soon as able to come out, 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.320 he and another officer that was with him with him 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:22.480 make the arrest. 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:26.960 But the liquor crew gets suspicious something's a little off. 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:31.080 They refuse to sell anything to Richard's accomplices, who come 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.600 back to him empty handed. There's nothing Richard can use 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:37.520 to make an arrest for someone else. That might be 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:41.360 the end of it a failed operation, but Richard isn't done. 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:45.800 He wants to nab his bootlegger. He continues to lie 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:48.840 and wait nearby, and sure enough, a couple of hours later, 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:53.280 more cars pull up. This time, Richard doesn't try any tricks. 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:56.040 He decides he's just gonna let the deal go down 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:58.400 and then scoop up one of the customers to get 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:02.080 his evidence and the meetup is over. The cluster of 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:06.920 cars splits up. Richard and his partner give chase, so. 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:10.239 They're chasing after what they think is the bootlegger. 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.840 Vehicle Richard's partner is driving. He pulls them alongside the 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.280 car they think is hauling liquor, a big, beautiful Buick. 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.359 Richard leans out and tells the bootlegger to pull over, 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:24.120 but he doesn't, so Richard ups the ante so. 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.640 He's actually out on the railing board telling this bootlegger 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:30.920 to stop. He went stop so that he started firing 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:34.480 shots into the air, and then the car that they're 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:35.560 chasing sped off. 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.560 Now the chase is really on, and the Buick, unlike 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:45.560 Buick's up today, is fast, like really fast. It starts 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:50.080 to pull away. Frustrated, Richard stops firing warning shots in 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:53.240 the air and levels his gun directly at the car. 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:57.359 He shoots his partner with one hand on the wheel, 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.600 leans out the driver's side window, and starts shooting too. 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.640 In an attempt to try to stop that car by 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:05.400 trying to take out the tires. 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:11.520 Richard shoots and hits the Buick. The shot doesn't at 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:15.000 the tire, it goes through the back window and hits 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.080 the driver. 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.280 He actually shot the driver through the mouth, and so 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:26.480 when it came to the vehicle and realized, oh, this 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:28.199 is not the person that they were actually trying to. 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:32.840 Chase, Richard had made a terrible mistake. 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:37.280 Tried to take that individual to the hospital, but is 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:38.159 a lethal shot. 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:41.959 As Richard and his partner learned about the man they 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.520 had killed, they were mortified. Not only was he not 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.359 the bootlegger they were hunting, he didn't have any liquor 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.480 on him at all. Sure, he was there probably to 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:54.879 buy a drink, but there was no actual evidence that 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:56.359 he was taking part in a crime. 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:01.480 And then then found out that this was also World 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:05.840 War One veteran, was married, had a child that was 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.919 very young, it's less than a year old, and was 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.119 a hero to the community for being that World War 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:14.960 One veteran was very well liked. 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:18.560 And that led to something new for Richard because in 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.560 the man's hometown, Sioux City, Iowa, there was a righteous 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.040 uproar against Richard. 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.119 He had to have a court appearance because they were 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:29.320 charging him with manslaughter. 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.679 Led by the murdered man's grieving widow, a crowd of 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:37.720 thousands gathered in downtown Sioux City in protest. Some in 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:40.199 the crowd were even muttering that they should kill Richard 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:41.240 in return. 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:43.560 And so he was under a lot of heat, so 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:44.560 he had to lay. 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:49.080 Low, and that cleared the scene for another batch of 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:54.520 foot soldiers, even more willing to enforce prohibition, not with handcuffs, 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:59.520 but with hand guns. Remember it was no secret at 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:03.679 this point that the prohibition enforcement effort was a complete debacle. 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:08.480 In Washington, Mabel was burning with white hot rage. The 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.880 gall of George remas the king of bootleggers, doing time 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:15.239 for tax evasion by playing poker with his pals and 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:19.600 dining on Filet Mignon on Millionaire's row. The treachery of 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:24.120 that slime ball Jess Smith, Mabel's DOJ officemate, whose pockets 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.439 were lined by the country's biggest bootleggers. They were proof 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:31.840 that playing by the rules got you nowhere. The dry 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:34.800 warriors in Mabel's DOJ and the prohibition agents and the 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:39.959 treasury came to a startling conclusion, due process not working, 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.800 They're done with it. In order to uphold the prohibition laws, 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:47.919 they were ready to dispense with all the other pesky laws, 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:52.720 and so they saddled up with the Ku Klux Klan. 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:02.120 Mobile Alabama, one of the South's oldest port cities, where 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:05.880 the Gulf of Mexico lapsed gently at white sand beaches 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:11.080 and the spinach stip comes with crawfish. We'll get to 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:13.800 the Klan in a minute, but before we do, you 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.480 got to understand that as a gateway to the Caribbean 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:19.719 in nineteen twenty three, Mobile was home to a whole 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:23.439 economy of rum runners and bootleggers. And you know who 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:28.119 hated that, Good old Mabel Walker Willebrandt. She was determined 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:31.120 to cast a net into those waters and drag them out, 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:37.280 gasping and flopping. But she had a problem. As always, 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:39.320 her man on the ground was supposed to be the 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.520 US Attorney, a federal government lawyer who could lead the charge, 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:45.680 to organize the prosecution, get the legal ducks in a row, 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.320 you know all that stuff. But the US Attorney in 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:52.320 Alabama was in way over his head. After a good run, 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.720 and we're talking one hundred and seventeen indictments against big 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:59.840 timers and Mobile, the liquor cabal flipped the script and 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:04.480 rested him. That uno reverse card really does come in 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:05.840 handy sometimes, doesn't it. 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:07.760 Local tas. 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.800 Local judges didn't want to prosecute prohibition cases. 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:14.040 That's historian Tom Pegram. 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:18.080 Their local communities weren't in favor of them. Juries would 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:21.119 turn people loose or there would be like very small fines. 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.200 And in nineteen twenty three, when Mabel wanted to sweep 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.840 the liquor out of Alabama, this was exactly what she faced. 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:32.280 So she set up what she called a flying squad. 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:36.280 She put together a handpicked crew of officers and lawyers 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:39.600 in Washington who could travel south and leave the corrupt 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:44.080 local officials out of the legal proceedings. All on their own. 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:46.760 They would plan a raid, scoop up the purpse, collect 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:50.360 the evidence, and slam the wets into jail cells. 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:52.239 This is where the clan comes in. 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:58.840 Actually the clan, those fucking guys seriously well yeah, See 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:01.520 In the fall of nineteen twenty, while Richard Hard was 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:05.240 shooting at fleeing cars, Mabel was picking the new head 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:08.800 coach for her liquor busting team in Alabama. She needed 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:12.920 someone beyond the reach of the mobile good old boys network, 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:17.479 and she landed on a lawyer named Hugo Black. Hugo 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:19.520 made his bones as a defense lawyer for the Ku 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:23.920 Klux Klan. One klansman, a Methodist minister had gunned down 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:27.280 a Catholic priest. Hugo Black argued it was done in 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:32.000 self defense, since the two men had scuffled the day before. 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:36.040 So what did Mabel take from all this? Well, in 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:38.680 the War of the Wets against the Dryes, the Catholic 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:43.080 communities generally held onto their drinking traditions. They were wets 0:23:43.880 --> 0:23:47.920 in classic the enemy of my enemy is my friend logic. 0:23:48.680 --> 0:23:53.120 Hugo was on her side, and the Klan, well, they 0:23:53.160 --> 0:23:54.760 were only too eager to help. 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:57.480