Speaker 1: Hey there, it's your host ed helms.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I wanted
Speaker 1: to remind you that my brand new book is coming
Speaker 1: out on April twenty ninth. It's called Snaffo, The Definitive
Speaker 1: Guide to History's Greatest screw Ups, and you can pre
Speaker 1: order it right now at snafudashbook dot com. Trust me,
Speaker 1: if you like this show, you're gonna love this book.
Speaker 1: It's got all the wild disasters spectacular face plants we
Speaker 1: just couldn't squeeze into this podcast. And here's the kicker.
Speaker 1: I am also going on tour to celebrate. That's right.
Speaker 1: I'm coming to New York, DC, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago,
Speaker 1: San Francisco, and my hometown Los Angeles. So if you've
Speaker 1: ever wanted to see me stumble through a live Q
Speaker 1: and A or dramatically read about a kiddie cat getting
Speaker 1: turned into a CIA operative, now's your chance again. Head
Speaker 1: to snafu dashbook dot com to pre order the book
Speaker 1: and check out all the tour details and day, or
Speaker 1: just click the link in the show notes. That'll work too. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's it, on with the chaos. This is Snaffoo Season
Speaker 1: three Formula six. Last time on Snaffoo, Mabel Walker Willebrandt's
Speaker 1: wet opponents were scary powerful, especially in court. George ramis
Speaker 1: one of the craziest stories you hear, like an incredibly
Speaker 1: successful defense attorney becomes like the biggest bootlegger ever. But
Speaker 1: even when Mabel won her cases, it felt like she
Speaker 1: was always just one step behind the sprawling bootleg business.
Speaker 3: She didn't have much in the way of financial support.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that was indicative of the
Speaker 3: attitude of the dries is that they passed these laws
Speaker 3: but gave no money for enforcement.
Speaker 1: Playing by the rules just couldn't hold back the tide
Speaker 1: of liquor washing over America.
Speaker 3: The fact that there were only twenty six hundred prohibitionations
Speaker 3: covering the entire Canadian border, of the Mexican border, and
Speaker 3: both coasts.
Speaker 2: It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: There's a storm rolling in over the little town of Homer, Nebraska,
Speaker 1: in the creek bottoms and river beds that criss crossed
Speaker 1: the eastern border of the state. The water starts to
Speaker 1: rise and it all runs downhill towards Homer. It's nineteen
Speaker 1: nineteen and one of Homer's newest residents a man named
Speaker 1: Richard Hart is riding home with some neighbors. He didn't
Speaker 1: grow up in Nebraska. He was the kind of kid
Speaker 1: who fell in love with the wild West. When he
Speaker 1: was a teenager, he ran off to be a cowboy,
Speaker 1: a bit of a thrill seeker. His journey took him
Speaker 1: from the ranch to the circus to the life of
Speaker 1: a soldier in the Great War. When he came back
Speaker 1: from the war, he took a train west and Homer
Speaker 1: is where he landed. A few of his new German
Speaker 1: American neighbors, the Wench family, opened their doors to him,
Speaker 1: car doors. At least they're giving him a lift. He's
Speaker 1: crammed in the car with Mama Wench and a few
Speaker 1: of her kids, including the oldest daughter, twenty year old Kathleen.
Speaker 1: They're on the road winding along the Missouri River when
Speaker 1: the oncoming storm overtakes them.
Speaker 4: Homer is very close to the Missouri River. When Richard arrived,
Speaker 4: there was flood.
Speaker 1: This is Richard's great grandson, Corey Hart. And no, it's
Speaker 1: not the eighties rockstar Corey Hart, who wears sunglasses at night,
Speaker 1: much to the disappointment of my inner ten year old.
Speaker 1: So families in Homer, Nebraska know all too well how
Speaker 1: the area is prone to flooding, and this one is
Speaker 1: really bad. Water rises up and crashes into the little town.
Speaker 1: Dozens of houses are destroyed and some are even completely
Speaker 1: washed away. For Richard and the Winch family in the car,
Speaker 1: the situation gets dire.
Speaker 4: What didn't realize is that a car that the n
Speaker 4: was also beginning to be overtaken by that flood.
Speaker 1: The storm pounds on the hood of the car, but
Speaker 1: through the rain they see a girl walking on the
Speaker 1: side of the road. They pull over to let her
Speaker 1: in and tell her it's not safe outside, But before
Speaker 1: they can get the car moving again, they're caught in
Speaker 1: a surge of water. It rises up under them, lifting
Speaker 1: the car and sweeping the whole thing into the current.
Speaker 1: The little girl is terrified, and in a moment of panic,
Speaker 1: she jumps out of the car and she's instantly flushed downstream.
Speaker 4: And so Richard saw what was happening and jumped in
Speaker 4: to say the girl.
Speaker 1: He swims hard and stays in control despite the raging
Speaker 1: flood around him. When he catches up to her, he
Speaker 1: finds she's caught on a tangle of barbed wire fence
Speaker 1: invisible under the murky brown surface. Working quickly, Richard untangles
Speaker 1: her and swims on. He drags her to the far bank.
Speaker 1: Then he turns back to the river.
Speaker 4: Kathleen Lynch was in the vehicle that was floating away,
Speaker 4: but Richard and another individual and Homer, we're able to
Speaker 4: jump in and pull that car to safety.
Speaker 1: Richard bites the river yet again to save Kathleen's life
Speaker 1: and drag the Winch family car back to dry land. Yes,
Speaker 1: you heard that right. He pulls a car from a
Speaker 1: raging flood one of those super human adrenaline rushes, I guess.
Speaker 4: So it was his bravery that really caught the eye
Speaker 4: of Kathleen and said that this is a guy that
Speaker 4: I want to be with.
Speaker 1: Maybe a little bit of transference going on here, but
Speaker 1: I'm kind of falling in love with this guy right now.
Speaker 1: I mean, who wouldn't. As the flood cleared and the
Speaker 1: story spread, the town of Homer decided Richard Hart was
Speaker 1: just the kind of hero they needed. He may have
Speaker 1: still been an outsider, but they made this rugged twenty
Speaker 1: something their town marshal, and just in the nick of time,
Speaker 1: because there was another flood coming. The floodud of illegal
Speaker 1: liquor that Alexander Gettler warned about. It wasn't just in
Speaker 1: the big cities like New York, it was coast to coast.
Speaker 1: When Mabel Walker, Willebrant and the Bureau boys looked west
Speaker 1: for agents to fight the alcohol flood in Nebraska, Richard
Speaker 1: volunteered as a lawman. He was known for toting not one,
Speaker 1: but two guns, which gave him the Wild West nickname
Speaker 1: of every little Cowpoke's Dreams, Richard two Gun Heart. He
Speaker 1: became a soldier in the Dry Army. As the leaders
Speaker 1: of the Dry cause grew more and more desperate to
Speaker 1: fight the influx of booze. It would put Richard shoulder
Speaker 1: to shoulder with some of the most vicious forces in America.
Speaker 1: I met Helms And this is Snaffo, a show about
Speaker 1: history's greatest screw ups. This is season three, story of
Speaker 1: Formula six. How prohibitions war on alcohol went so off
Speaker 1: the rails the government wound up poisoning its own people. Today,
Speaker 1: we're leaving Norris and Gettler in New York and James
Speaker 1: Duran and Mabel Walker Willebrandt in DC, and we're taking
Speaker 1: a trip out west to see how things are going
Speaker 1: with prohibition agents. Far Afield a place where classic yahoo
Speaker 1: gun slinging methods were used, methods that would shock the
Speaker 1: public and eventually stain the dry cause. So this two
Speaker 1: gun nickname. In the years before World War One, Richard
Speaker 1: had ridden and ranched across the West. His childhood dream
Speaker 1: was to be a cowboy, and gosh darn it, he
Speaker 1: pulled it off. He criss crossed the American planes, on
Speaker 1: cattle drives, and even traveling circuses. He was used to long,
Speaker 1: lonely days on horseback, broken up by shows where his
Speaker 1: trick shooting and skills as a wrestler brought cheering crowds
Speaker 1: to their feet. As his great grandson Corey says, a
Speaker 1: little of the circus showman stuck with him throughout his life.
Speaker 1: He even bought himself two pearl handled cult forty fives.
Speaker 4: You love to show off, and so if you could
Speaker 4: have the opportunity to show off his sharp shooting skills,
Speaker 4: he would. There are rumors that he would shoot apples
Speaker 4: at the top of people's heads. If you think, if
Speaker 4: Richard Hart, it's a thing, it's always two guns. It's
Speaker 4: two guns, you know, and so Why are you not
Speaker 4: going to call someone like that, two gun heart?
Speaker 1: It just fits Richard. Two gun Heart. It's pretty good.
Speaker 1: You gotta admit, I've been workshopping Eddie near Sighted Helms
Speaker 1: for a while, but the focus group around my kitchen
Speaker 1: table is not a fan. For some reason. Richard, though,
Speaker 1: was living out his childhood dream, the hero of the
Speaker 1: story he'd always imagined. When World War One took Richard,
Speaker 1: George Cassidy, and a couple of million others over to France,
Speaker 1: the Great War made Richard an honest to goodness soldier.
Speaker 5: But afterwards, as he's heading out west, he just gets
Speaker 5: off on this stop in Nebraska and sees this town Homer,
Speaker 5: and knew this was a point far enough west where
Speaker 5: that lifestyle still existed, so he could.
Speaker 2: Continue this mission in his life to be a cowboy.
Speaker 1: Now, by this point, there weren't a ton of old
Speaker 1: West cowboys still bopping around out there. Wild Bill, Buffalo Bill,
Speaker 1: all the old bills. That's an older generation. It's the
Speaker 1: stories that kept them alive, you know. The wave of
Speaker 1: legacy sequels to classic nineties flicks Twister, Terminator, Jurassic Park, Jumanji.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like that Richard loved the Wild
Speaker 1: West shows when he was a kid, and he was
Speaker 1: determined and to live out the sequel Western law man
Speaker 1: still shooting. When National Prohibition came to Nebraska town, Marshall
Speaker 1: Richard two gun Heart had his chance.
Speaker 4: Governor recognized the fact that if we're going to have
Speaker 4: prohbition agents, we need people that are fearless, and Richard
Speaker 4: Hart was somebody who fit that to a tee.
Speaker 1: Toting a gun into the hills to face down enemies
Speaker 1: of the law. It was a dream come true for Richard.
Speaker 1: But once he had his prohibition badge pinned to his chest,
Speaker 1: he found he was facing a lot worse than circus clowns.
Speaker 4: I believe was around nineteen twenty, and it was a
Speaker 4: really really bad rain storm.
Speaker 1: Damn mother, and Nature's got it out for this guy, huh.
Speaker 1: In any case, Richard hits the highway with a prisoner
Speaker 1: in tow, a man he had scooped up in a
Speaker 1: recent raid on a moonshine. Still, he's trying to take
Speaker 1: the man to link in, Nebraska, but he.
Speaker 4: Got north and south missed up, so instead of going
Speaker 4: back to take this criminal in, he ended up going
Speaker 4: I believe that towards the South Dkota border.
Speaker 1: Now, when he pulled into the little town of Spencer,
Speaker 1: Richard could have you know, realized he went the wrong
Speaker 1: way and turned around. But not our two gun. He
Speaker 1: was like double or nothing, So he started asking around
Speaker 1: for some white mule. The locals, proud of the kick
Speaker 1: in their neighborhood, moonshine knew exactly what he meant and
Speaker 1: helpfully pointed him to the best distillery in town. When
Speaker 1: the owner offered him a drink, Richard arrested him. Then
Speaker 1: he went back and also arrested the guy who gave
Speaker 1: him directions. Maybe a little too thorough for a spur
Speaker 1: of the moment operation, but that's just me, two Gun.
Speaker 1: He was always in for double or nothing. So Richard
Speaker 1: crams all three guys in his car and hauls them
Speaker 1: off to the local jail. But when he gets there.
Speaker 2: Found out that there wouldn't book either of them.
Speaker 1: And that's because the guy he had just arrested for
Speaker 1: trying to sell him alcohol.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one of them a town marshall.
Speaker 1: He's the town marshal of Spencer, the tiny town they're in.
Speaker 1: So instead of accepting his arrest, this Spencer Marshall and
Speaker 1: another officer played a little Uno reverse card and put
Speaker 1: Richard under arrest for disturbing the peace. They squared off
Speaker 1: and tried to shout each other down.
Speaker 6: You're under arrest.
Speaker 7: Now you're under arrest.
Speaker 1: Oh you, no you no you now you And the
Speaker 1: guy who had the best seat in the house, the
Speaker 1: original prisoner Richard had dragged along for the ride. Apparently
Speaker 1: that guy found the entire thing hilarious.
Speaker 4: There's really discouraging for him. It was the pinnacle of
Speaker 4: him understanding how much corruption there was. This is not
Speaker 4: my law, and that was the excuse that a lot
Speaker 4: of people used.
Speaker 1: But like Mabel, Richard had decided that prohibition was his law.
Speaker 1: It was in the constitution now, which meant two gun
Speaker 1: was free to have a root and dute in times,
Speaker 1: smacking down all manner of miscreants, scoff laws, and ne'er
Speaker 1: do wells. Just because a flood of Americans had decided
Speaker 1: to break the law was no reason to hold back
Speaker 1: on enforcing it. Richard had beaten floods before. But if
Speaker 1: there was one burr under two guns saddle, it was
Speaker 1: Kathleen's family, his in laws. You see, the Winches owned
Speaker 1: a grocery store, and they also did a little bruin
Speaker 1: on the side, or you know, maybe kind of a lot.
Speaker 8: There were good times, but then there were times when
Speaker 8: the alcohol just kind of took over.
Speaker 1: That's Corey's dad, Jeff, Richard's grandson.
Speaker 8: When one of Kathleen's brother had too much alcohol, it
Speaker 8: was my uncle Harold. He would drink more than he
Speaker 8: should have all the time.
Speaker 1: When the Winches got to drinking, I can just see
Speaker 1: Richard pulling his hat down over his eyes, like, seriously,
Speaker 1: right in front of me. Come on, you're putting me
Speaker 1: on the spot here. I mean, if you're pouring a
Speaker 1: beer under the prohibition agent's nose, that's going to make
Speaker 1: Christmas a little tense. But Richard was doing his best
Speaker 1: to keep some tensil on the Tan and Baum because
Speaker 1: there was one line he didn't cross. He never actually
Speaker 1: arrested the Winches for their home brewing. Always seems weird
Speaker 1: to me when people just roll with so much hypocrisy,
Speaker 1: But then again, it was his in laws, and as
Speaker 1: much as we all want to arrest our in laws,
Speaker 1: it's probably better we don't. But Richard justified it to himself.
Speaker 1: And besides, it's not like there was a shortage of
Speaker 1: cases for him to take on. And in nineteen twenty three,
Speaker 1: he would take a case that would put Richard in
Speaker 1: over his head.
Speaker 4: If he couldn't use his gun, he would use his
Speaker 4: fist to apprehend these criminals and bootleggers. That was something
Speaker 4: he really d himself with and this instance it went wrong.
Speaker 1: It was October of nineteen twenty three. Back in New York,
Speaker 1: Alexander Gettler is starting to earn a reputation as a
Speaker 1: forensic sherlock. He's just published a groundbreaking study on the
Speaker 1: deadly solvent Benzene, which, to his horror, he's finding in
Speaker 1: dead bodies in his laboratory at Bellevue, though he's not
Speaker 1: yet sure why. Meanwhile, in d C. Babel, Walker Willebrant
Speaker 1: is just starting to unravel the epic corruption all around
Speaker 1: her at the Department of Justice. And back in the
Speaker 1: Heartland No pun Intended, Richard Hart catches a break too.
Speaker 1: He gets a tip about a bootlegger smuggling liquor onto
Speaker 1: the Winnebago reservation near Homer. He meets with some of
Speaker 1: the Winnebago men who are willing to help him stop
Speaker 1: the flow. Of liquor into their community.
Speaker 4: He selected two of them to go to kind of
Speaker 4: a bootleg operation and try to scorse some alcohol.
Speaker 1: The operation kicks off when Richard and his guys get
Speaker 1: the details of a midnight rendezvous between a rum runner
Speaker 1: and his local customers. They're going to intervene. Richard parks
Speaker 1: out of site nearby while his comrades roll into the
Speaker 1: meetup posing his customers.
Speaker 4: The idea was that as soon as able to come out,
Speaker 4: he and another officer that was with him with him
Speaker 4: make the arrest.
Speaker 1: But the liquor crew gets suspicious something's a little off.
Speaker 1: They refuse to sell anything to Richard's accomplices, who come
Speaker 1: back to him empty handed. There's nothing Richard can use
Speaker 1: to make an arrest for someone else. That might be
Speaker 1: the end of it a failed operation, but Richard isn't done.
Speaker 1: He wants to nab his bootlegger. He continues to lie
Speaker 1: and wait nearby, and sure enough, a couple of hours later,
Speaker 1: more cars pull up. This time, Richard doesn't try any tricks.
Speaker 1: He decides he's just gonna let the deal go down
Speaker 1: and then scoop up one of the customers to get
Speaker 1: his evidence and the meetup is over. The cluster of
Speaker 1: cars splits up. Richard and his partner give chase, so.
Speaker 2: They're chasing after what they think is the bootlegger.
Speaker 1: Vehicle Richard's partner is driving. He pulls them alongside the
Speaker 1: car they think is hauling liquor, a big, beautiful Buick.
Speaker 1: Richard leans out and tells the bootlegger to pull over,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't, so Richard ups the ante so.
Speaker 4: He's actually out on the railing board telling this bootlegger
Speaker 4: to stop. He went stop so that he started firing
Speaker 4: shots into the air, and then the car that they're
Speaker 4: chasing sped off.
Speaker 1: Now the chase is really on, and the Buick, unlike
Speaker 1: Buick's up today, is fast, like really fast. It starts
Speaker 1: to pull away. Frustrated, Richard stops firing warning shots in
Speaker 1: the air and levels his gun directly at the car.
Speaker 1: He shoots his partner with one hand on the wheel,
Speaker 1: leans out the driver's side window, and starts shooting too.
Speaker 4: In an attempt to try to stop that car by
Speaker 4: trying to take out the tires.
Speaker 1: Richard shoots and hits the Buick. The shot doesn't at
Speaker 1: the tire, it goes through the back window and hits
Speaker 1: the driver.
Speaker 4: He actually shot the driver through the mouth, and so
Speaker 4: when it came to the vehicle and realized, oh, this
Speaker 4: is not the person that they were actually trying to.
Speaker 1: Chase, Richard had made a terrible mistake.
Speaker 4: Tried to take that individual to the hospital, but is
Speaker 4: a lethal shot.
Speaker 1: As Richard and his partner learned about the man they
Speaker 1: had killed, they were mortified. Not only was he not
Speaker 1: the bootlegger they were hunting, he didn't have any liquor
Speaker 1: on him at all. Sure, he was there probably to
Speaker 1: buy a drink, but there was no actual evidence that
Speaker 1: he was taking part in a crime.
Speaker 2: And then then found out that this was also World
Speaker 2: War One veteran, was married, had a child that was
Speaker 2: very young, it's less than a year old, and was
Speaker 2: a hero to the community for being that World War
Speaker 2: One veteran was very well liked.
Speaker 1: And that led to something new for Richard because in
Speaker 1: the man's hometown, Sioux City, Iowa, there was a righteous
Speaker 1: uproar against Richard.
Speaker 4: He had to have a court appearance because they were
Speaker 4: charging him with manslaughter.
Speaker 1: Led by the murdered man's grieving widow, a crowd of
Speaker 1: thousands gathered in downtown Sioux City in protest. Some in
Speaker 1: the crowd were even muttering that they should kill Richard
Speaker 1: in return.
Speaker 2: And so he was under a lot of heat, so
Speaker 2: he had to lay.
Speaker 1: Low, and that cleared the scene for another batch of
Speaker 1: foot soldiers, even more willing to enforce prohibition, not with handcuffs,
Speaker 1: but with hand guns. Remember it was no secret at
Speaker 1: this point that the prohibition enforcement effort was a complete debacle.
Speaker 1: In Washington, Mabel was burning with white hot rage. The
Speaker 1: gall of George remas the king of bootleggers, doing time
Speaker 1: for tax evasion by playing poker with his pals and
Speaker 1: dining on Filet Mignon on Millionaire's row. The treachery of
Speaker 1: that slime ball Jess Smith, Mabel's DOJ officemate, whose pockets
Speaker 1: were lined by the country's biggest bootleggers. They were proof
Speaker 1: that playing by the rules got you nowhere. The dry
Speaker 1: warriors in Mabel's DOJ and the prohibition agents and the
Speaker 1: treasury came to a startling conclusion, due process not working,
Speaker 1: They're done with it. In order to uphold the prohibition laws,
Speaker 1: they were ready to dispense with all the other pesky laws,
Speaker 1: and so they saddled up with the Ku Klux Klan.
Speaker 1: Mobile Alabama, one of the South's oldest port cities, where
Speaker 1: the Gulf of Mexico lapsed gently at white sand beaches
Speaker 1: and the spinach stip comes with crawfish. We'll get to
Speaker 1: the Klan in a minute, but before we do, you
Speaker 1: got to understand that as a gateway to the Caribbean
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty three, Mobile was home to a whole
Speaker 1: economy of rum runners and bootleggers. And you know who
Speaker 1: hated that, Good old Mabel Walker Willebrandt. She was determined
Speaker 1: to cast a net into those waters and drag them out,
Speaker 1: gasping and flopping. But she had a problem. As always,
Speaker 1: her man on the ground was supposed to be the
Speaker 1: US Attorney, a federal government lawyer who could lead the charge,
Speaker 1: to organize the prosecution, get the legal ducks in a row,
Speaker 1: you know all that stuff. But the US Attorney in
Speaker 1: Alabama was in way over his head. After a good run,
Speaker 1: and we're talking one hundred and seventeen indictments against big
Speaker 1: timers and Mobile, the liquor cabal flipped the script and
Speaker 1: rested him. That uno reverse card really does come in
Speaker 1: handy sometimes, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: Local tas.
Speaker 9: Local judges didn't want to prosecute prohibition cases.
Speaker 1: That's historian Tom Pegram.
Speaker 9: Their local communities weren't in favor of them. Juries would
Speaker 9: turn people loose or there would be like very small fines.
Speaker 1: And in nineteen twenty three, when Mabel wanted to sweep
Speaker 1: the liquor out of Alabama, this was exactly what she faced.
Speaker 1: So she set up what she called a flying squad.
Speaker 1: She put together a handpicked crew of officers and lawyers
Speaker 1: in Washington who could travel south and leave the corrupt
Speaker 1: local officials out of the legal proceedings. All on their own.
Speaker 1: They would plan a raid, scoop up the purpse, collect
Speaker 1: the evidence, and slam the wets into jail cells.
Speaker 2: This is where the clan comes in.
Speaker 1: Actually the clan, those fucking guys seriously well yeah, See
Speaker 1: In the fall of nineteen twenty, while Richard Hard was
Speaker 1: shooting at fleeing cars, Mabel was picking the new head
Speaker 1: coach for her liquor busting team in Alabama. She needed
Speaker 1: someone beyond the reach of the mobile good old boys network,
Speaker 1: and she landed on a lawyer named Hugo Black. Hugo
Speaker 1: made his bones as a defense lawyer for the Ku
Speaker 1: Klux Klan. One klansman, a Methodist minister had gunned down
Speaker 1: a Catholic priest. Hugo Black argued it was done in
Speaker 1: self defense, since the two men had scuffled the day before.
Speaker 1: So what did Mabel take from all this? Well, in
Speaker 1: the War of the Wets against the Dryes, the Catholic
Speaker 1: communities generally held onto their drinking traditions. They were wets
Speaker 1: in classic the enemy of my enemy is my friend logic.
Speaker 1: Hugo was on her side, and the Klan, well, they
Speaker 1: were only too eager to help.
Speaker 9: The Klan started to say, hey, you know, we'll help
Speaker 9: with investigations. And even though a lot of clan drank,
Speaker 9: the argument was, once it's in the Constitution, it has
Speaker 9: to be enforced, and if it's not enforced, that destabilizes
Speaker 9: American democracy. And then guess what, who are the most
Speaker 9: likely violators of prohibition? All the groups we already don't like?
Speaker 1: Who did the clan target pretty much anyone who wasn't
Speaker 1: white and Protestant, anyone who wasn't already cut in the
Speaker 1: mold of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. We're talking immigrants,
Speaker 1: Black Americans, Jews, Catholics, everyone the Dry movement was trying
Speaker 1: to squeeze. The Klan was like, hey, you're giving us
Speaker 1: an excuse to just beat up all the people we
Speaker 1: don't like.
Speaker 4: Right on.
Speaker 1: So when Mabel sees a lawyer ready to dive into
Speaker 1: the culture war by stretching the meaning of self defense
Speaker 1: to an unbelievable breaking point, all to defend murderous clansmen,
Speaker 1: she sees the kind of conviction she's been looking for.
Speaker 1: One reporter asked her how she justified working with the Klan,
Speaker 1: and Mabel.
Speaker 10: Said, I have no objection to people dressing up in
Speaker 10: sheets if they enjoyed that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: So this is crazy, right. I mean, yeah, Mabel's been
Speaker 1: the Ice Queen and all that, but there's a difference
Speaker 1: between cold and cutthroat. There's a difference between coordinating with
Speaker 1: the Coastguard to stop rum runners and teaming up with
Speaker 1: the nation's most powerful cabal of racist murderers. Mabel was
Speaker 1: at the end of her rope. She decided she was
Speaker 1: ready and willing to cross that line. Since Mabel recruited
Speaker 1: actual official prosecutors from the KKK, well, it sent a
Speaker 1: signal to the clan across the nation. So clan members
Speaker 1: from Illinois made a trip to the Treasury offices in Washington,
Speaker 1: and they found the doors wide open to them. They
Speaker 1: told the Treasury officials that they had plenty of foot
Speaker 1: soldiers ready and willing to rain hell on bootleggers back
Speaker 1: at home. The Prohibition Commissioner liked the offer, sent a
Speaker 1: few of his division chiefs and gave them the order
Speaker 1: deputized the clansmen and unleash them on southern Illinois. And
Speaker 1: that brings us to two Gun. No, not Richard Hart,
Speaker 1: there was actually a different guy with that nickname too,
Speaker 1: Two Gun Glenn Young another two gun in the nineteen twenties.
Speaker 1: What can I say? This is America. There's at least
Speaker 1: two guns for every guy that wants them. Here's where
Speaker 1: both two guns line up. By nineteen twenty three, two
Speaker 1: Gun Glen Young had already been on trial for murdering
Speaker 1: bootleggers across southern Illinois. In fact, he added mankiller to
Speaker 1: his nickname. So in nineteen twenty three, the Klan in
Speaker 1: southern Illinois asked guys like two Gun Man Killer to
Speaker 1: come on down to the city of Heron and crush
Speaker 1: a pesky problem for them. Immigrant Italian mine workers had
Speaker 1: been fighting with the mine company that ran the place.
Speaker 1: Those fights had gotten bloody, workers had already been killed,
Speaker 1: so the clan figure that putting a couple more guns
Speaker 1: to work was exactly what they needed. So in December
Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty three, over five hundred Clan raiders deputized
Speaker 1: as prohibition agents, swept down through the Italian immigrant homes.
Speaker 1: But what they did was the opposite of law enforcement.
Speaker 1: It was straight up terrorism. One Italian recalled the scene
Speaker 1: when a gang of armed clansmen broke into his home.
Speaker 1: They smashed up his kitchen. They even drank his wine,
Speaker 1: mocking him before they dragged him to jail. After two
Speaker 1: major raids by the clan, now turned into federal agents,
Speaker 1: two gunman Killer took up residents as the de facto
Speaker 1: military dictator of the county. The violence continued home invasions, beatings, shootings,
Speaker 1: kidnapped locals were paraded downtown by Clan gunmen. But if
Speaker 1: they thought this was going to win support for their cause,
Speaker 1: they miscalculated badly. The blood they spilled it shocked the public.
Speaker 1: Klan took over the city.
Speaker 7: Drys and Wets Clan and anti clan contending forces ironhel
Speaker 7: Glen Young continues as acting chief of police.
Speaker 1: As the violence escalated, the clan mounted machine guns on
Speaker 1: downtown buildings. Attacks and hospitals left the walls riddled with
Speaker 1: bullet holes. Desperate cries went out for the army and
Speaker 1: the National Guard to step in and stop the violence.
Speaker 1: Military forces swept in to take control. Papers across the nation,
Speaker 1: from Fresno to Baltimore carried stories of the fighting.
Speaker 7: Guardsman patrol streets, Glen Young Clan Dry Raider held after
Speaker 7: fight last night.
Speaker 1: Dry Agent under arrest.
Speaker 7: Raids and Illinois result in charges of assault against Young.
Speaker 1: The blood spilled by two gun Man killer Glen Young
Speaker 1: and others like him stained the Dry cause. Many prohibition
Speaker 1: supporters didn't think it had to come at such a
Speaker 1: violent price. Supporters of the law started to waver, if
Speaker 1: this is what it took to enforce prohibition, was it
Speaker 1: really worth it? But the most hardcore Dries, well, they
Speaker 1: thought the fight hadn't gone far enough, and they made
Speaker 1: that clear in their defense of Richard two gun Heart.
Speaker 1: The violence in Illinois shocked the nation, but in spite
Speaker 1: of that, Richard two gun Heart still had allies.
Speaker 4: Surprisingly with the entire community against him and him fearing
Speaker 4: for his life. It was the Women's Christian Temperance Union
Speaker 4: came to his defense and so they were able to
Speaker 4: pay for two Dunhart's attorney to give him an attorney.
Speaker 1: This lawyer hired by the WCTU wasn't just going to
Speaker 1: defend Richard in the court of law. He was also
Speaker 1: going to defend him in the court of public opinion.
Speaker 7: This is not a question of the guilt or innocence
Speaker 7: of heart. It is an issue of the enforcement of
Speaker 7: the law. Enforcement officers are too timid. Now if an
Speaker 7: enforcement officer is convicted of such a charge, it will
Speaker 7: make bootleggers secure.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: I want to spend a minute here, because this is key.
Speaker 1: This guy, the defense lawyer for Richard Hart, is saying
Speaker 1: that whether or not Richard shot this guy doesn't really
Speaker 1: matter because in his view, that's what it takes to
Speaker 1: enforce the law. He's saying prohibition officers should not get
Speaker 1: in trouble for gunning down suspects. But that's not all.
Speaker 1: He's also saying that it's a damn shame. Most officers
Speaker 1: are too scared to do what Richard had done. Think
Speaker 1: about it. He's saying this in the context of everything
Speaker 1: we've talked about. Violence was already rampant. Prohibition agents had
Speaker 1: been killing people for years, and that's what he's saying
Speaker 1: was too timid. I mean, holy shit. And remember it
Speaker 1: was the Women's Christian Temperance Union who paid for this
Speaker 1: lawyer to defend Richard with this argument. In fact, throughout
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, the WCTU had made it clear they
Speaker 1: were pretty much okay with violence against bootleggers. In their
Speaker 1: way of thinking, the only way to hold back the
Speaker 1: tide of liquor flooding the country was to unleash a
Speaker 1: hail of bullets to them. Richard Hart's guns weren't only justified,
Speaker 1: they were sanctified.
Speaker 4: Saying that by putting him, by putting a prohibition agent
Speaker 4: Touguenhart on trout or manslaughter, it's making him a martyr
Speaker 4: of probition.
Speaker 1: But there was one person in this moment who was wavering.
Speaker 1: You might be surprised to hear it was Mabel Walker Willebrandt.
Speaker 1: She wanted prohibition enforced, and in principle she was okay
Speaker 1: with the violent tactics. I mean, heck, she was running
Speaker 1: cover in the papers as the Klan did the dirty work,
Speaker 1: but as the f of prohibition, she could tell the
Speaker 1: bad press was undermining her cause. She welcomed citizen vigilantes
Speaker 1: taking up arms on behalf of prohibition, but from the
Speaker 1: nerve center in the Department of Justice, she could see
Speaker 1: how crowds across the country were growing more and more
Speaker 1: angry with the bloodshed. Mabel launched an inquiry into the shooting.
Speaker 1: From the beginning, she had fought.
Speaker 4: For these fearless, high integrity men that were willing to
Speaker 4: do this very dangerous job that the majority of the
Speaker 4: US were not in favor of.
Speaker 1: So when Mabel realized how badly it was backfiring to
Speaker 1: have cowboys and clan cops shooting their way through liquor busts,
Speaker 1: she and the Women's Christian Temperance Union parted ways. The
Speaker 1: WCTU had been powerful in previous years, but they won
Speaker 1: their battles by getting into the papers. To Mabel's eyes,
Speaker 1: it was bad press, I imagine that made her, you know,
Speaker 1: pretty annoyed. Prohibitions already unpopular now a backlash against too
Speaker 1: much violence was only going to make her job harder,
Speaker 1: so she tried to get out ahead of it.
Speaker 10: I condemn as atrocious, wholly unwarranted, and entirely unnecessary some
Speaker 10: of the killing by prohibition agents.
Speaker 1: Did you catch that? She said? She condemns some of
Speaker 1: the killings. Some that is so telling to me. How
Speaker 1: about all the killing, Mabel? Does killing someone for bootlegging
Speaker 1: really feel like a punishment that fits the crime? And
Speaker 1: what about that old right to trial by jury? What
Speaker 1: about innocent until proven guilty? What about you know, the
Speaker 1: rest of the law. Well, none of that was what
Speaker 1: Mabel was worried about. Nope, She's only worried about some
Speaker 1: of the killings, apparently, just the ones that lead to
Speaker 1: bad press. Like Richard Harts. She wrote directly to the
Speaker 1: US attorney handling his case, calling Richard.
Speaker 10: Guilty of carelessness and indifference to consequences.
Speaker 2: I think that that really did strike him.
Speaker 4: Here was something that he was proud of, being two gun,
Speaker 4: always getting a man, using tough guy ways to get.
Speaker 1: A Before Richard stood trial, the Coroner's jury of Nebraska
Speaker 1: decided not to pursue the manslaughter case against him. But
Speaker 1: the damage to the dry Cause was done by Richard
Speaker 1: and by other reckless, violent or downright vicious enforcers. If
Speaker 1: the judge was lenient in Richard's case, Mabel was more harsh.
Speaker 4: He was forcing payback essentially his salary for that crime,
Speaker 4: and saying that he was careless and reckless in his behavior.
Speaker 1: Car chases, gunfights, massacres. It was time for the circus
Speaker 1: to end. If prohibition was going to win, killing bootleggers
Speaker 1: in the open where the blood was practically splattering on bystanders,
Speaker 1: kind of worked against the cause. Mabel needed to shut
Speaker 1: that down. Enforcing prohibition with arrests and court cases that
Speaker 1: wasn't enough. Enforcing prohibition with guns in the stre oh
Speaker 1: that was backfiring. The Ice Queen needed something different, something
Speaker 1: that would scare the bootleggers and speakeasy drinkers so bad
Speaker 1: they would stop on their own. All the better if
Speaker 1: this could all be done quietly, which brings us back
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, out of the public eye where lawyers
Speaker 1: like Mabel were arguing over murder, Back into James Durand's lab,
Speaker 1: back to chemistry. Because deep in the bowels of the
Speaker 1: Treasury Department, the prohibition enforcers, led by Duran were also
Speaker 1: taking aim at drinkers. It was in their beakers and
Speaker 1: test tubes that the next assault on Americans began to
Speaker 1: take shape. That's next time on SNAFU, and.
Speaker 6: He writes this letter where he talks about how the
Speaker 6: poison is settled in his legs and he can't get
Speaker 6: up without falling over. His signature is just so scratsheet.
Speaker 6: I mean you can tell that he's shaking.
Speaker 1: Snafu is a production of iHeartRadio, Film, Nation Entertainment, and
Speaker 1: Pacific Electric Picture Company in association with Gilded Audio. It's
Speaker 1: executive produced by me Ed Helms, Milan Papelka, Mike Falbo,
Speaker 1: Whitney Donaldson, and Dylan Fagan. Our lead producers are Carl
Speaker 1: Nellis and Alyssa Martino. This episode was written by Albert Chen,
Speaker 1: Carl Nellis and Nevin Callapoly, with additional writing and story
Speaker 1: editing from Alyssa Martino and Ed Helms. Additional production from
Speaker 1: Stephen Wood, Olivia Canny, and Kelsey Albright. Torry Smith is
Speaker 1: our associate producer. Our story editor is Nicki Stein. Our
Speaker 1: production assistants are Nevin Kalapoly and a kimminy Ekpo. Fact
Speaker 1: checking by Charles Richter. Our creative executive is Brett Harris, editing,
Speaker 1: music and sound design by Ben chug Engineering and technical
Speaker 1: direction by Nick Dooley Andrew chug Is Gilded Audio's creative director.
Speaker 1: Theme music by Dan Rosatto. The role of Mabel Walker
Speaker 1: willa Brandt was played by Kerrie Bische. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Alison Cohen, Daniel Welsh, and Ben Ryzac