1 00:00:00,920 --> 00:00:02,920 Speaker 1: Hey there, it's your host ed helms. 2 00:00:02,920 --> 00:00:03,120 Speaker 2: Here. 3 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:06,320 Speaker 1: Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I wanted 4 00:00:06,320 --> 00:00:09,440 Speaker 1: to remind you that my brand new book is coming 5 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:13,360 Speaker 1: out on April twenty ninth. It's called Snaffo, The Definitive 6 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:16,920 Speaker 1: Guide to History's Greatest screw Ups, and you can pre 7 00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:21,799 Speaker 1: order it right now at snaffoodashbook dot com. Trust me, 8 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,520 Speaker 1: if you like this show, you're gonna love this book. 9 00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:28,639 Speaker 1: It's got all the wild disasters spectacular face plants we 10 00:00:28,760 --> 00:00:32,360 Speaker 1: just couldn't squeeze into this podcast. And here's the kicker. 11 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:36,800 Speaker 1: I am also going on tour to celebrate that's right. 12 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:40,519 Speaker 1: I'm coming to New York, DC, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, 13 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:44,480 Speaker 1: San Francisco, and my hometown Los Angeles. So if you've 14 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:46,720 Speaker 1: ever wanted to see me stumble through a live Q 15 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:49,520 Speaker 1: and A or dramatically read about a kiddie cat getting 16 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:53,920 Speaker 1: turned into a CIA operative, now's your chance again. Head 17 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: to snaffoo dashbook dot com to pre order the book 18 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:01,040 Speaker 1: and check out all the tour details and dates, or 19 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:04,200 Speaker 1: just click the link in the show notes. That'll work too. Okay, 20 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,959 Speaker 1: that's it, on with the chaos. This is Snaffou Season 21 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:15,440 Speaker 1: three Formula six last time on Snaffou, the temperance movement 22 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:21,560 Speaker 1: swept America. Every abolitionist was a teetotal Mabel Walker. Willebrandt 23 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:24,000 Speaker 1: was hired to lead prohibition enforcement. 24 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:27,000 Speaker 3: There's one way it can be done, get at the 25 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:28,039 Speaker 3: source of supply. 26 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: And much of prohibition enforcement falls strangely to the US 27 00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:35,280 Speaker 1: Treasury Department, which. 28 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:36,440 Speaker 4: Is another way of saying we're going to use it 29 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 4: for political payoffs. 30 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 1: It's nineteen eighteen in France, the Western Front. Yep, we're 31 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:55,920 Speaker 1: a long way from the speakeasies of New York, but 32 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:58,800 Speaker 1: we're here in the rolling French countryside to meet a 33 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:02,680 Speaker 1: new character in our He's sitting inside a combat tank 34 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:07,920 Speaker 1: clattering across the bloody battlefield. His name George Cassidy, and 35 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:13,880 Speaker 1: he's under attack. The tank rolls down a slope as 36 00:02:13,919 --> 00:02:17,520 Speaker 1: shells explode around it, and then it sinks into a 37 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 1: crater of mud. Its steel armor shields George and his 38 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:27,640 Speaker 1: crew from the bright yellow bursts of artillery flame, but 39 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:31,240 Speaker 1: it can't protect them from the mist that's engulfed the field. 40 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:39,919 Speaker 1: World War one's most insidious weapon, mustard gas. On the battlefield. 41 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,640 Speaker 1: Poison gas was turning war into a new kind of nightmare. 42 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:47,959 Speaker 1: Both Germany and the US were experimenting with lethal gases 43 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 1: that were quickly becoming the deadliest instruments in the history 44 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:56,960 Speaker 1: of warfare. The Great War had a nickname the Chemist's War, 45 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:03,280 Speaker 1: and now Mustard gas seeps into George Cassidy's tank and 46 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:07,600 Speaker 1: into the eyes, noses, and lungs of the tankers. George 47 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:09,800 Speaker 1: and his two crewmates choke at the controls as the 48 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:14,400 Speaker 1: machine grinds to a halt. The deadly mist causes the 49 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:19,080 Speaker 1: tankers to go blind, vomit, and start losing consciousness. The 50 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:23,200 Speaker 1: other two men pass out. George holds on, but poisoned 51 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:26,120 Speaker 1: by the gas. George is too weak to move, blinking 52 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:28,760 Speaker 1: and struggling to breathe while the battle rages around him. 53 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:36,320 Speaker 1: His crewmates have fallen silent. Finally, footsteps approach the tank. 54 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: George hears hands banging on the outside, shouts shadows over 55 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:45,000 Speaker 1: the viewport as men peer inside. George's heart stops. Is 56 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:48,880 Speaker 1: it the enemy? The door swings open, and thank god, 57 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:53,520 Speaker 1: it's the Yanks. George is rescued, carried up out of 58 00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:56,120 Speaker 1: the crater in the pool of gas. George makes it 59 00:03:56,160 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 1: off the battlefield alive, but He's devastated to find out 60 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:09,160 Speaker 1: he's the only survivor from his crew. In nineteen nineteen, 61 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:12,520 Speaker 1: when a million American soldiers in France begin the journey home, 62 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:16,240 Speaker 1: George is among the troops packed like sardines into fleets 63 00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: of liners and cargo ships, leaving the blood soaked trenches 64 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:24,040 Speaker 1: of the Western Front behind them. As he gazes across 65 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: the Atlantic, George coughs. His lungs are pocked with chemical burns. 66 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:31,520 Speaker 1: For the rest of his life, every cough reminds him 67 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:34,400 Speaker 1: of the horrors he'd faced in the war, horrors that 68 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:38,480 Speaker 1: showed how scientific advancements could be co opted to create 69 00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 1: weapons of mass murder. But now George is heading home, 70 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:46,320 Speaker 1: and soon he'll be starting a new life. As the 71 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:48,960 Speaker 1: shores of the good old us of A come into view, 72 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: George is pondering a very important question, Where the hell 73 00:04:54,600 --> 00:05:03,719 Speaker 1: can he get a drink back home? That question was 74 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:07,080 Speaker 1: at the center of another raging war, one in which 75 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:10,680 Speaker 1: he would soon find himself smack dab in the middle. 76 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:22,160 Speaker 1: I'm Ed Helms and this is Snaffo, a show about 77 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:26,640 Speaker 1: history's greatest screw ups. This is season three, The story 78 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:30,880 Speaker 1: of Formula six. How Prohibition's war on alcohol went so 79 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:36,279 Speaker 1: off the rails the government wound up poisoning its own people. 80 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:40,919 Speaker 1: Today we're riding shotgun with the bootleggers, because men like 81 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:43,679 Speaker 1: George Cassidy didn't come home from the fight in France 82 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:47,440 Speaker 1: just to take the new laws laying down. As Mabel 83 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:52,200 Speaker 1: Walker Willebrandt became prohibitions champion, George Cassidy would become one 84 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:56,159 Speaker 1: of its greatest defires, and the two sides they represented 85 00:05:56,480 --> 00:06:19,160 Speaker 1: were about to clash. In nineteen twenty two, two years 86 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:22,799 Speaker 1: into Prohibition, Mabel Walker Willebrandt was settling into her gig 87 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:26,120 Speaker 1: as head honcho of Prohibition Enforcement to get a sense 88 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:30,120 Speaker 1: of how the new US Assistant Attorney General approached her job. 89 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:32,320 Speaker 1: There are a few things about her you should know. 90 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:37,719 Speaker 1: Little Mabel grew up crisscrossing the Great Plains in a 91 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:41,880 Speaker 1: nine by twelve foot tent pitched in the fields of Kansas, Missouri, 92 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:46,000 Speaker 1: and Oklahoma. Her family was always on the move, fleeing 93 00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:50,160 Speaker 1: the latest natural disaster, tornadoes, ice storms, that kind of stuff. 94 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:54,200 Speaker 1: Mabel's earliest memory from childhood was of a flash flood 95 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:57,119 Speaker 1: rushing through their tent, her mom taking the kitchen table 96 00:06:57,120 --> 00:06:59,320 Speaker 1: and using it as a raft to keep her daughter 97 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:03,159 Speaker 1: Afloat alive. A little like that time my cub scout 98 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:06,240 Speaker 1: trip got rained out, except I had a home to 99 00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:10,200 Speaker 1: go back to. That experience had quite an impact on 100 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:10,960 Speaker 1: young Mabel. 101 00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:13,280 Speaker 4: She was a very serious woman. 102 00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:16,720 Speaker 1: You don't say, Daniel, okrint. She woke up every day. 103 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:19,120 Speaker 4: The first thing she did was taken an ice cold bath, 104 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:21,880 Speaker 4: which gives an indication. I think of how tough she was. 105 00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:25,080 Speaker 1: Cold lunging is all the rage these days. I guess 106 00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:28,680 Speaker 1: Mabel was just ahead of the curve. In any case, 107 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:30,960 Speaker 1: the Ice Queen didn't get to become the highest ranking 108 00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:33,440 Speaker 1: woman in the United States government by waking up each 109 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:36,680 Speaker 1: day to whistling birds opening her bedroom shades and the 110 00:07:36,680 --> 00:07:40,000 Speaker 1: soft glow of the morning sun. No, she woke up 111 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:45,680 Speaker 1: every morning with her goddamn game face on. For starters, 112 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:49,280 Speaker 1: it wasn't just Satan's last stronghold, New York City that 113 00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:53,560 Speaker 1: was flouting the law. In Mabel's backyard, the supposed Dry 114 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:58,640 Speaker 1: Citadel speakeasies were popping up on every corner. By some estimates, 115 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:02,600 Speaker 1: there were three thousand in the nation's capital. But Mabel's 116 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:07,760 Speaker 1: headaches extended well beyond the metropolises. Of the Northeast. Also 117 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:12,320 Speaker 1: thumbing its nose at Prohibition was the fine city of Savannah, Georgia, 118 00:08:12,840 --> 00:08:16,480 Speaker 1: which had turned into an unofficial headquarters for illegal drinking. 119 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:22,120 Speaker 1: Booze was flowing, and so were the criminals delivering it. Bootleggers, 120 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,360 Speaker 1: as they were called. The term goes back to the 121 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:28,080 Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, when traders slid their flasks of liquor into 122 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:34,920 Speaker 1: their boots. During Prohibition, bootlegging became a household term banks 123 00:08:34,920 --> 00:08:38,040 Speaker 1: in no small part to the notorious Georgia syndicate, the 124 00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:41,800 Speaker 1: Savannah Four. Their leader was a guy named Willie Harr. 125 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:44,840 Speaker 1: Willie owned and controlled a fleet of ships that transported 126 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:48,760 Speaker 1: liquor from Scotland and France to another British territory, the Bahamas. 127 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:51,760 Speaker 1: From there it was shipped to a dozen different states 128 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:54,840 Speaker 1: in the US, often hidden in secret man made caves 129 00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:58,280 Speaker 1: up and down the US coast. Willie Harr didn't exactly 130 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:01,280 Speaker 1: keep a low profile. His nick name was the Admiral 131 00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:05,800 Speaker 1: of Bootleggers, and his Savannah Four had a recreational baseball squad. 132 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:11,360 Speaker 1: Their team name presumably slapped across their uniforms, the Bootlegger Team. 133 00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:13,640 Speaker 1: I assume they were part of an all criminal baseball 134 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:18,080 Speaker 1: league along with the tax Dodgers. Sorry, I had to 135 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:21,920 Speaker 1: go there. Mabel was determined to bust them up and 136 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:25,920 Speaker 1: even sent a dozen Prohibition Bureau agents to Savannah to 137 00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:30,199 Speaker 1: do the job. But Willy Harr's ring had judges politicians, 138 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:34,720 Speaker 1: and it turns out prohibition agents on its payroll, and 139 00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:38,080 Speaker 1: those agents, convinced to look the other way, came back 140 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:41,400 Speaker 1: from Savannah empty handed. I hope they at least brought 141 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:45,120 Speaker 1: back some bootlegger team swag for Mabel. Willie Harror would 142 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:47,760 Speaker 1: have a future run in with Mabel. Put a pin 143 00:09:47,840 --> 00:09:50,720 Speaker 1: in that for a second. But as brazen as Horror 144 00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:53,920 Speaker 1: in the Savannah four might have been, the most brazen 145 00:09:54,000 --> 00:10:00,240 Speaker 1: bootlegger of all was operating right under Mabel's nose, which 146 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:02,480 Speaker 1: brings us back to good old George Cassidy. 147 00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:07,320 Speaker 2: On the ship coming back, they had a poll about 148 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:09,840 Speaker 2: who was in favor of prohibition, and out of the 149 00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:13,679 Speaker 2: two thousand, five hundred guys on the troop carrier, only 150 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:15,760 Speaker 2: ninety eight wanted prohibition. 151 00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:19,520 Speaker 1: After George got off the ship from France, he headed 152 00:10:19,520 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: home to Virginia, and he had plenty of stories for 153 00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:23,000 Speaker 1: his pals. 154 00:10:23,320 --> 00:10:25,240 Speaker 2: He was just so damn gregarious. 155 00:10:25,559 --> 00:10:27,560 Speaker 1: That's Fred Cassidy, George's son. 156 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:31,120 Speaker 2: He didn't give a shit who you were, where you were, from, 157 00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:34,480 Speaker 2: what you did, or any of that stuff. Come on up, 158 00:10:34,559 --> 00:10:36,160 Speaker 2: have a drink with me, you know, and we'll have 159 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:38,480 Speaker 2: a good time. We'll talk about all kinds of stuff. 160 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:40,280 Speaker 1: George party then style. 161 00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:43,000 Speaker 2: He was a dapper dude. If you ever saw him 162 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:46,680 Speaker 2: in his Irish War Veterans' National Commander's uniform, you would 163 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:50,200 Speaker 2: have thought he was a general of the most powerful 164 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:51,720 Speaker 2: army in the world or something. 165 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:56,160 Speaker 1: George also had a signature greenfelt hat that gave him 166 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:59,920 Speaker 1: an unmistakable look. A snappily dressed party animal with a 167 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:03,640 Speaker 1: trove of war stories, Georgie was one of a kind, 168 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:08,280 Speaker 1: but he struggled to transition back to civilian life. Why 169 00:11:09,400 --> 00:11:14,199 Speaker 1: poison The mustard gas George had sucked in destroyed his lungs, 170 00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:16,920 Speaker 1: which made it hard for him to find work. Before 171 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,079 Speaker 1: the war, George had been a brakeman on the Pennsylvania Railroad. 172 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:23,120 Speaker 2: When he came back, he couldn't pass their physical to 173 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:23,920 Speaker 2: get rehired. 174 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:28,040 Speaker 1: George couldn't find a steady gig anywhere else either. He 175 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:30,360 Speaker 1: put his body on the line for his home country, 176 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:34,720 Speaker 1: and now it was letting him down. When he finally 177 00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:37,040 Speaker 1: did find work, it wasn't the kind of job that 178 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:41,400 Speaker 1: had his parents bursting with pride. You see, George didn't 179 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:44,480 Speaker 1: grow up in a household of drinkers, really the opposite. 180 00:11:44,559 --> 00:11:48,240 Speaker 1: George's Irish American father had been sober for decades. His mom, 181 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:51,000 Speaker 1: a brit made herself at home in the USA by 182 00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 1: becoming a proud card carrying member of the Women's Christian 183 00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:57,800 Speaker 1: Temperance Union. But none of that rubbed off on George. 184 00:11:58,320 --> 00:12:02,720 Speaker 2: He liked to imbibe. Everybody around my dad liked to imbibe. 185 00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:05,760 Speaker 1: Which isn't a surprise given George was from the moonshining 186 00:12:05,840 --> 00:12:07,000 Speaker 1: capital of the world. 187 00:12:08,679 --> 00:12:11,680 Speaker 2: There was a ton of moonshining going on in Virginia. 188 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:15,880 Speaker 2: A lot of the Virginia farmers have their stills out 189 00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:17,720 Speaker 2: in a discrete. 190 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:21,800 Speaker 1: Area in Appalachia. Moonshining had been prevalent since the Civil War, 191 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:26,079 Speaker 1: when moonshiners distilled illegal liquor at night, and then drivers 192 00:12:26,280 --> 00:12:31,000 Speaker 1: or bootleggers smuggled it across the region. When prohibition passed, 193 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:34,319 Speaker 1: this was all supposed to get shut down right. Well, 194 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:37,160 Speaker 1: turns out it ain't so easy. To change an entire 195 00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:41,200 Speaker 1: culture overnight. But that was essentially the task facing the 196 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:45,680 Speaker 1: prohibition agents under Mabel Walker Willebrandt a tall order in 197 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:49,160 Speaker 1: a place like Franklin County, Virginia, nestled in the beautiful 198 00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:52,880 Speaker 1: Blue Ridge Mountains, where ninety nine out of every hundred 199 00:12:52,920 --> 00:12:57,240 Speaker 1: people were connected to the moonshine business. One agent reported 200 00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:00,720 Speaker 1: back to DC on the pointlessness of even bothering the rests. 201 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:03,840 Speaker 5: I'm sorry to report that at this time it is 202 00:13:04,160 --> 00:13:06,559 Speaker 5: almost impossible to get a conviction. 203 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:07,120 Speaker 1: In any case. 204 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:11,679 Speaker 5: Juries are in sympathy with the bootlegger and the moonshiner. 205 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:16,880 Speaker 1: And you know when the moonshiners themselves included judges, politicians, 206 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,320 Speaker 1: and the local police, how are you supposed to stop that? 207 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:24,160 Speaker 1: People like George came back from the war looking for 208 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:27,800 Speaker 1: work and saw an opportunity. Here's one American artillery captain 209 00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:30,080 Speaker 1: who was in the Reserve Corps writing to his fiance. 210 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:33,560 Speaker 5: It looks to me like the moonshine business is going 211 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:36,160 Speaker 5: to be pretty good. Some of us want to get 212 00:13:36,160 --> 00:13:38,800 Speaker 5: in on the ground floor. At least we want to 213 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:40,760 Speaker 5: get in there in time to lay in us alive 214 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:41,920 Speaker 5: for future consumption. 215 00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:47,000 Speaker 1: That's thirty four year old future president Harry Truman. Fellas 216 00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:51,160 Speaker 1: Like Harry saw bootlegging as a lucrative investment opportunity, George 217 00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:54,760 Speaker 1: Cassidy saw it as something else, a lifeline. You see, 218 00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:57,880 Speaker 1: George was running out of options. He was a disabled 219 00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:00,760 Speaker 1: veteran out of work, which is why ship liquor from 220 00:14:00,760 --> 00:14:04,640 Speaker 1: his neighborhood to money drinkers across DC felt like a 221 00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:11,080 Speaker 1: necessary career choice. He started small, just a couple of 222 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:14,959 Speaker 1: bottles for friends and friends of friends, then a few more, 223 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:19,600 Speaker 1: and a few more. His Blue Ridge Virginia product must 224 00:14:19,600 --> 00:14:23,320 Speaker 1: have been pretty good, because pretty soon the orders were 225 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:27,440 Speaker 1: flowing one way, and George kept the moonshine flowing the other. 226 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:34,440 Speaker 1: George's lifeline was becoming a gold mine because George's clients, well, 227 00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:36,360 Speaker 1: they were the kind of people who liked to meet 228 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:41,760 Speaker 1: at the Hotel Varnum in Washington, d C. The Varnum's 229 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:44,320 Speaker 1: a grand old hotel at the corner of C Street 230 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:50,480 Speaker 1: in New Jersey Avenue, a meeting place. Outside, George sees 231 00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:53,360 Speaker 1: two well dressed white men. He gets out and shakes 232 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:56,880 Speaker 1: their hands, then heads around back to make a delivery. 233 00:14:57,760 --> 00:15:02,920 Speaker 1: He hands off a small paper package for his next delivery, 234 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,840 Speaker 1: George grabs two bags out of his trunk, one in 235 00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:09,240 Speaker 1: each hand. George walks along New Jersey Avenue, nodding and 236 00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:13,640 Speaker 1: smiling to passers by. He was the friendly sort. George 237 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:17,680 Speaker 1: then crosses the street at Independence Avenue towards his next stop, 238 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:23,320 Speaker 1: a white building with a very large, very conspicuous dome. Yeah, 239 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:25,640 Speaker 1: it's probably the one you're thinking of. That would be 240 00:15:25,840 --> 00:15:31,200 Speaker 1: the US Capitol building. George's delivery route doesn't take him 241 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:34,960 Speaker 1: into the Capitol itself, but rather into the surrounding buildings 242 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:39,120 Speaker 1: where members of Congress have their offices. Stepping into the 243 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:42,040 Speaker 1: House Office building, George gives a nod to the security 244 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:47,360 Speaker 1: fellaws at the door, and with his bags full of booze, 245 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:53,240 Speaker 1: walks right in. That's right. Among the buyers for George's 246 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:57,400 Speaker 1: top quality of Virginia hooch are the nation's lawmakers. His 247 00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:02,239 Speaker 1: clientele are powerful men of every political party and persuasion. 248 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:07,720 Speaker 1: You see, George isn't just any bootlegger. He's become the 249 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:16,440 Speaker 1: go to bootlegger for Congress. And Congress well they're pretty thirsty. Now. 250 00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:19,280 Speaker 1: Mabel's not blind to this. She makes regular visits to 251 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:22,400 Speaker 1: the Capitol. Sometimes she even sits in the gallery of 252 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 1: the Senate Chamber room to hear the nation's lawmakers present 253 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:26,400 Speaker 1: their plans. 254 00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:29,720 Speaker 3: During the closing days of a recent session, a senator 255 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:33,800 Speaker 3: objected to and prevented the passage of important legislation while 256 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:36,800 Speaker 3: in such a condition of intoxication that he had to 257 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:40,360 Speaker 3: hold his desk to keep himself upright. I have become 258 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:43,520 Speaker 3: well acquainted with the fact that many Congressmen and senators 259 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:46,960 Speaker 3: who vote for the bills designed to aid prohibition enforcement 260 00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:49,800 Speaker 3: are persistent violators of the law. 261 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:53,600 Speaker 1: As people across the country were now drinking more than ever, 262 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:58,080 Speaker 1: and bootleggers across the Eastern Seaboard were running wild, Congress 263 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:01,440 Speaker 1: was too shitfaced to even pretend that they were going 264 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:04,880 Speaker 1: to do something about it. Mabel's corrupt bureau agents were 265 00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:08,040 Speaker 1: proving to be just as worthless. It was time for 266 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:10,800 Speaker 1: Mabel to take things into her own hands. 267 00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:24,320 Speaker 6: The early twentieth century is a uniquely poisonous time for 268 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:25,480 Speaker 6: a number of reasons. 269 00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:29,840 Speaker 1: That's historian Deborah Blum. She says that everywhere across the country, 270 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:32,800 Speaker 1: from Mabel's DC to New York all the way to 271 00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:36,919 Speaker 1: San Francisco, industrial chemistry was becoming more and more a 272 00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:40,720 Speaker 1: part of everyday life for everyday Americans. 273 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:44,359 Speaker 6: We're seeing the rise of industrial chemistry, and there's a 274 00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:49,480 Speaker 6: telluge of new chemical compounds created by industries in the 275 00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:52,480 Speaker 6: United States, which is, you know, one of the countries 276 00:17:52,480 --> 00:17:56,880 Speaker 6: that really takes the forefront of the industrial manufacturing age chemistry, 277 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,000 Speaker 6: figuring out that they can take all of these poisonous 278 00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:04,200 Speaker 6: substances that occur in nature and recreate the mental. 279 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:09,159 Speaker 1: Laboratory arsenic mercury, chloroform, carbolic acid. I would go on, 280 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:11,280 Speaker 1: but the last time I had a close encounter with 281 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:15,480 Speaker 1: a beaker, I was watching the Muppets. No no, no, no, Beaker. 282 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:17,800 Speaker 1: I told you never to talk to me like that, 283 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:23,280 Speaker 1: because I can't understand it. That's a little shout out 284 00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:26,320 Speaker 1: to my eighties kids out there. Point is, products of 285 00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:33,040 Speaker 1: rapidly advancing chemistry were everywhere in pharmacies, doctors' offices, grocery stores, kitchens, 286 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:38,199 Speaker 1: and of course also in bars, where speakeasy back rooms 287 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:41,520 Speaker 1: were starting to look a lot more like chemistry labs. 288 00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:46,600 Speaker 1: The reason classy clubs were hiring actual chemists to make 289 00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:49,040 Speaker 1: sure that the illegal liquor they were serving to high 290 00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:53,120 Speaker 1: end customers wasn't toxic and was only going to fuck 291 00:18:53,160 --> 00:19:02,800 Speaker 1: you up the right way. This is the prohibition, you know, 292 00:19:03,640 --> 00:19:06,719 Speaker 1: the razzle dazzle of the flappers under the electric lights, 293 00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:09,200 Speaker 1: where the big band served up bouncy rhythms and the 294 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:13,960 Speaker 1: bartenders served up potent cocktails. At least that's the front room. 295 00:19:14,359 --> 00:19:16,760 Speaker 1: But the back room it was all chemistry. 296 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:17,080 Speaker 2: Baby. 297 00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:21,080 Speaker 1: Remember, clean and legal alcohol had all been poured into 298 00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:25,240 Speaker 1: the sewers at this point what was left could be dodgy. 299 00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:30,080 Speaker 1: So to keep their customers safe, top speakeasy managers would 300 00:19:30,119 --> 00:19:31,320 Speaker 1: turn to chemistry. 301 00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:35,920 Speaker 3: Hello, I'm here to interview for the chemist position. 302 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:40,879 Speaker 1: I require one dollars payment. Oh, wise guy, A, so 303 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:42,600 Speaker 1: you want your patrons dead? 304 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:44,399 Speaker 5: I'll take you to the bus. 305 00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:48,240 Speaker 1: But what if you were running a bar and couldn't 306 00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:52,360 Speaker 1: afford the high fees of a newly in demand chemical brainiac, 307 00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:55,600 Speaker 1: Or if you were a drinker who didn't have pockets 308 00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:58,359 Speaker 1: deep enough to order your cocktails in the main dining 309 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:01,320 Speaker 1: room of the Cotton Club and plenty of New York 310 00:20:01,359 --> 00:20:05,119 Speaker 1: neighborhoods back alley liquor was flowing just as freely, But 311 00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:08,800 Speaker 1: no lab coated expert with a safety checklist was looking 312 00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:13,480 Speaker 1: out for you. As Deborah Blum says America's poorer drinkers 313 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:16,960 Speaker 1: would rather overlook the dubious origins of their booze and 314 00:20:17,080 --> 00:20:21,600 Speaker 1: literally stomach the risk. People were seemingly so eager for 315 00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:24,040 Speaker 1: a drink that they just didn't care there was a 316 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:25,879 Speaker 1: chance it could land them in the hospital. 317 00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:30,119 Speaker 6: Unless you're rich, you're drinking whatever you can get your 318 00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:33,960 Speaker 6: hands on. So one of the cocktails of the Bowery, 319 00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:36,359 Speaker 6: which is a really poor neighborhood in New York, was 320 00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:40,000 Speaker 6: called smoke, and that was fuel, alcohol and water. 321 00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:42,920 Speaker 1: You could get your smoke in the back of drug 322 00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:45,720 Speaker 1: stores or paint stores. I know the scene in Lower 323 00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:48,320 Speaker 1: Manhattan has always been a bit edgy, but even without 324 00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:52,120 Speaker 1: the spiky hair and the dog collars, this was grizzly stuff. 325 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:54,760 Speaker 1: There was also the infamous ginger jake. 326 00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:59,760 Speaker 6: You see ginger Jake, which was another formula genda by 327 00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:04,919 Speaker 6: bliggers that actually mimics the symptoms of Parkinson's. Or you 328 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:08,800 Speaker 6: see the cocktail called d Rail in which they were 329 00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:13,040 Speaker 6: siphoning off some of the industrial alcohols from the railroads 330 00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:15,280 Speaker 6: and serving it up in drinks. 331 00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:20,040 Speaker 1: These drinks could kill during one stretch over a few months. 332 00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:24,159 Speaker 1: Debts from Smoke averaged one a day. When prohibition agents 333 00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:26,960 Speaker 1: managed to track down the suppliers for the deadly cocktail, 334 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:30,960 Speaker 1: they discovered the drinks were served straight from cans stenseled 335 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:33,240 Speaker 1: with the word poison on them. 336 00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:37,360 Speaker 6: This acceptance of risk that came with prohibition at these 337 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,679 Speaker 6: levels is kind of horrifying, but it was there, and 338 00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:41,280 Speaker 6: it was real. 339 00:21:42,119 --> 00:21:46,000 Speaker 1: It's that risk big spenders were paying to avoid pay 340 00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:48,879 Speaker 1: the cover charge to get into a big club. You 341 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:51,800 Speaker 1: were betting the owner had paid a nerdy chemist to 342 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:54,919 Speaker 1: make damn sure your gin and tonic was not a 343 00:21:55,040 --> 00:22:00,880 Speaker 1: gin intoxic. These back room chemists were clearly breaking the law, 344 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:05,320 Speaker 1: but a lot of them actually saw themselves as humanitarians. 345 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:08,240 Speaker 1: Every time they caught a dangerous tocsin and a gallon 346 00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:10,840 Speaker 1: of hooch and kept it out of a drinker's mouth, Well, 347 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:12,720 Speaker 1: what'd you get. 348 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:13,800 Speaker 6: That under the seat? 349 00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:17,400 Speaker 1: Can you believe it? It's still half full. They had 350 00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:20,400 Speaker 1: done some good, and in part because they were so 351 00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:23,600 Speaker 1: successful at keeping the party going in New York City 352 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:27,040 Speaker 1: and state officials started to ask themselves, why don't we 353 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:28,520 Speaker 1: just stop pretending here? 354 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:35,080 Speaker 4: New York repealed its version of the amendment in nineteen 355 00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:39,320 Speaker 4: twenty two, so from that point forward, New York officially 356 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:41,520 Speaker 4: was not supporting prohibition. 357 00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:46,800 Speaker 1: So yeah, under the eighteenth Amendment, any state could just 358 00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:50,080 Speaker 1: stick their middle finger up to prohibition if they had 359 00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:53,000 Speaker 1: the votes to repeal it, which is exactly what New 360 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,879 Speaker 1: York state lawmakers did. They weren't going to do any 361 00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,480 Speaker 1: cracking down. New York cops weren't going to be making 362 00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:02,200 Speaker 1: any arrest and even if they did, New York judges 363 00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:04,320 Speaker 1: weren't going to throw the book at any club owners. 364 00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:07,680 Speaker 1: Better a law or no. There was simply too much 365 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,680 Speaker 1: money in the liquor game. So in effect, New York 366 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:14,560 Speaker 1: became a sanctuary city for American drinkers. And if you 367 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:16,919 Speaker 1: were a chemist in the city breaking the law on 368 00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:19,880 Speaker 1: a daily basis, you could rest easy knowing that your 369 00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:23,600 Speaker 1: community had your back, not only that they were downright 370 00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:27,560 Speaker 1: grateful to you for saving them from ginger Jake and derail. 371 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:31,000 Speaker 1: Even the cops, the mayor, and the governor were on 372 00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:34,520 Speaker 1: your side. And the good liquor it was still there 373 00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,679 Speaker 1: for the drinking if you had the right chemists in 374 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:38,240 Speaker 1: your pocket. 375 00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:44,280 Speaker 2: Bobby, just believe of worries on the whole move and. 376 00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:45,720 Speaker 6: World may go dry. 377 00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:49,200 Speaker 1: Her dad made as well. 378 00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:52,680 Speaker 6: As they left the old sales to the bootlegger. 379 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:56,960 Speaker 1: Daughter down in Washington. When news reached the office of 380 00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:59,840 Speaker 1: the Department of Justice that the Big Apple was flipping 381 00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:06,200 Speaker 1: on off prohibition, Mabel Walker Willebrant was you guessed it pissed. 382 00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:24,880 Speaker 1: A Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn, I can picture our pal 383 00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:28,520 Speaker 1: Alexandra Getler in his favorite living room chair, dressed in 384 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:31,240 Speaker 1: a suit and tie. Of course, the number one song 385 00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:34,560 Speaker 1: from the most famous band in America, the Paul Whiteman Band, 386 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:38,280 Speaker 1: is buzzing in the background. Gettler's smoking a stogie as 387 00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:42,000 Speaker 1: he scans baseball box scores from the morning paper, knowing 388 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:44,320 Speaker 1: Hew he probably had some skin in the games too. 389 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:47,840 Speaker 1: A bit of a gambler, Getler couldn't resist a juicy 390 00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:50,040 Speaker 1: over under, and he had a regular card game with 391 00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:54,080 Speaker 1: his pals. His other second home besides the lab was 392 00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:58,600 Speaker 1: the horse track. Getler was also a ruthlessly competitive bowler, 393 00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:02,640 Speaker 1: a spirit also brought to his work at Bellevue. When 394 00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:05,880 Speaker 1: a new mystery arrived at his doorstep. He couldn't stand 395 00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:09,800 Speaker 1: the idea of a poisoner outwitting him and his sleuthing partner, 396 00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:14,480 Speaker 1: Charles Norris. On this beautiful spring afternoon. Perhaps Alexander is 397 00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:17,240 Speaker 1: scribbling down his latest betting card, when all of a 398 00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:21,840 Speaker 1: sudden he gets a call from Norris. There's a new case, 399 00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:29,040 Speaker 1: and oh is al gonna love this one. In nineteen 400 00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:32,880 Speaker 1: twenty two, our Sherlock and Watson have been a very 401 00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:36,199 Speaker 1: busy duo, solving all kinds of crimes, and many of 402 00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:38,560 Speaker 1: them having nothing to do with the hooch on the streets. 403 00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,400 Speaker 1: But each mystery Getler solves, he learns a little more 404 00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:46,480 Speaker 1: about the poisons permeating American life. On this day, when 405 00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:49,720 Speaker 1: Getler arrives at his lab, two dead bodies are waiting 406 00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:55,040 Speaker 1: for him. He scans the police report. Here are the facts. 407 00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:58,439 Speaker 1: Inside an apartment in Brooklyn, police had found a couple 408 00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:01,000 Speaker 1: in street clothes lying on the floor of their bathroom. 409 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:05,000 Speaker 1: Their faces were blue, their lips covered with blood. The couple, 410 00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:08,040 Speaker 1: according to the following day's New York Times, was quote 411 00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:12,320 Speaker 1: dead from poison. Gettler reviews the report. The police on 412 00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:16,040 Speaker 1: the scene had suspected suicide, but there was no corroborating 413 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,239 Speaker 1: evidence of any kind in the apartment. Gettler takes one 414 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:22,600 Speaker 1: look at the dead bodies and quickly suspects something else 415 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:25,840 Speaker 1: is at play here a chemical substance that was now 416 00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:32,399 Speaker 1: seemingly everywhere and was frighteningly lethal. Cyanide, like mustard gas, 417 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:34,959 Speaker 1: cyanide was used in World War One as a chemical 418 00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:38,520 Speaker 1: warfare agent. It had long been known as a dangerous poison, 419 00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:41,200 Speaker 1: but little did the public know it was also becoming 420 00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:46,240 Speaker 1: a killer in households. Fumigators used it to disinfect apartment buildings, 421 00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:50,679 Speaker 1: emitting gas that could, say, suddenly kill an unsuspecting couple 422 00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:54,840 Speaker 1: eating breakfast. Gettler's sure cyanide is the cause of death, 423 00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:58,040 Speaker 1: even though he hadn't found any signs that cyanide had 424 00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:01,600 Speaker 1: been ingested and the police had found no empty bottles 425 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,760 Speaker 1: of cyanide anywhere in the apartment. But he checks back 426 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:09,280 Speaker 1: with the police, and soon investigators realize that Getler was right. 427 00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:14,200 Speaker 1: Pest control folks had just spent an afternoon Spryan's cyanide 428 00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:18,000 Speaker 1: gas around the apartment. They realized the dead couple hadn't 429 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:26,119 Speaker 1: swallowed cyanide, they had inhaled it. Case closed, but Getler's 430 00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:28,040 Speaker 1: work isn't quite done. 431 00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:33,800 Speaker 6: Gettler goes on to write the fundamental paper on cyanide 432 00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:36,320 Speaker 6: and its toxicity and how we find it in a 433 00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:38,240 Speaker 6: body it's still cited today. 434 00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:42,120 Speaker 1: I'm telling you, this guy is a true badass. It 435 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:46,040 Speaker 1: was impossible for the newly invented science of toxicology to 436 00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,760 Speaker 1: keep up with the deluge of modern poisons, but Getler 437 00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:53,000 Speaker 1: was doing his damnedest, and the New York City Medical 438 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:56,880 Speaker 1: Examiner's Office was beginning to earn nationwide respect for their 439 00:27:56,920 --> 00:28:01,800 Speaker 1: work uncovering the hidden poisons endangering public health, and they 440 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,880 Speaker 1: were doing so with virtually no support from the government. 441 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,840 Speaker 1: The office's staff under Norris was in fact smaller than 442 00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:11,840 Speaker 1: what it was under the New York Corner who preceded him. 443 00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:15,440 Speaker 1: Their office at Bellevue was still a ramshackle quote unquote 444 00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:19,560 Speaker 1: country club. All the labs new equipment was still paid 445 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:23,560 Speaker 1: for by Norris himself. Norris and Getler were working around 446 00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:26,920 Speaker 1: the clock, but they sure weren't making bootlegger chemist money. 447 00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,960 Speaker 1: Gettler was making three thousand bucks a year, which today 448 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:34,120 Speaker 1: would be equivalent to a fifty five thousand dollars salary 449 00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:37,760 Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. No wonder he lived with his in laws. 450 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,120 Speaker 1: So as poisons in the air were becoming more sophisticated, 451 00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:45,040 Speaker 1: the case load of the Medical Examiner's Office was getting 452 00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:48,960 Speaker 1: bigger and in nineteen twenty two, one particular case caught 453 00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:53,440 Speaker 1: their eye, the case of Robert Doyle. Doyle was a 454 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:57,480 Speaker 1: veteran of World War One, like the tanker turned bootlegger 455 00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:00,680 Speaker 1: George Cassidy, and like so many of them who came 456 00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:04,080 Speaker 1: back from Europe, Doyle found jobs were scarce in his 457 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:08,080 Speaker 1: hometown Boston, so he left his wife and daughter and 458 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:10,920 Speaker 1: came down to New York City, the biggest city in 459 00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:14,720 Speaker 1: the world, the thriving metropolis where it seemed like everyone 460 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:18,600 Speaker 1: was making money, and he tried to get a job, 461 00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:23,760 Speaker 1: but no one hired Doyle. He didn't have George Cassidy's gregarious, 462 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:28,280 Speaker 1: entrepreneurial spirit, I guess, or his smoky Mountain liquor hookups. 463 00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:32,040 Speaker 1: He didn't have Alexander Getler's brains or his bustling Brooklyn 464 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:35,760 Speaker 1: community to rely on. In New York, Doyle found himself 465 00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:39,800 Speaker 1: turned away from every job, be it bartender, garbage collection, 466 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:43,479 Speaker 1: even cleaning the sewers, away from his loved ones, and 467 00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,560 Speaker 1: getting desperate. Doyle had reached for some chemical comfort to 468 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:50,680 Speaker 1: drown his sorrows, buying liquor in an unfamiliar city. He 469 00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:54,040 Speaker 1: didn't know who to trust, He didn't know whose libations 470 00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:59,400 Speaker 1: might be toxic, but he bought a drink anyway. One night, 471 00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:02,080 Speaker 1: neighbors in and his boarding house heard shouts coming from 472 00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:08,080 Speaker 1: his locked room. Someone or something was killing Doyle. They 473 00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:10,560 Speaker 1: forced the door and rushed inside to help him, but 474 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,560 Speaker 1: found him crawling on the floor, rubbing his eyes and moaning, 475 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:17,320 Speaker 1: I'm blind, I can't see. First, they sent for a doctor, 476 00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:20,440 Speaker 1: but he didn't have any answers, so they bundled Doyle 477 00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:24,720 Speaker 1: into a car and sent him to the hospital Bellevue. 478 00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:28,959 Speaker 1: Doyle was wheeled into the er. This would be the 479 00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:31,880 Speaker 1: part of the Gray's Anatomy episode where you'd hear the 480 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:36,040 Speaker 1: heartbeat monitor beeping until it slowly fades and flatlines. But 481 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:39,560 Speaker 1: this is the nineteen twenties. There's nothing quite that fancy yet. 482 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:48,880 Speaker 1: Just Doyle didn't make it. When he died at Bellevue, 483 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:51,240 Speaker 1: they moved him out of the line of patients waiting 484 00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:55,080 Speaker 1: for treatment and into the line of corpses waiting for analysis. 485 00:30:55,640 --> 00:31:01,920 Speaker 1: Analysis by Alexander Gettler. Now it was up to Getler 486 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:06,440 Speaker 1: to determine who was behind this. For years, he had 487 00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:10,360 Speaker 1: worried home distillers would accidentally poison themselves with their moonshine. 488 00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:12,800 Speaker 1: But these deaths were stacking up in a way that 489 00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:16,000 Speaker 1: didn't add up. Gettler knew about all the brain power 490 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:19,080 Speaker 1: in advanced chemistry that was going into making industrial alcohol 491 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,719 Speaker 1: drinkable and not kill you. In theory, the supply was 492 00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:26,680 Speaker 1: becoming safer, and yet the body count was only growing. 493 00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:31,000 Speaker 1: Robert Doyle's death occurred as poison alcohol deaths rippled across 494 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:35,280 Speaker 1: the country, from New York to Washington, d c. To Toledo, Ohio. 495 00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:40,160 Speaker 1: This was proof people like Robert Doyle weren't dying simply 496 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,880 Speaker 1: because of their own reckless thirst for alcohol. No, these 497 00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:48,000 Speaker 1: people were dying from poisons, and their deaths, now in 498 00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:50,720 Speaker 1: the hundreds and very soon to be in the thousands, 499 00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:57,160 Speaker 1: were no accident. Next time on SNAFU. 500 00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:00,320 Speaker 4: Harry Doherty, the Attorney General who was the immediate boss 501 00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:04,000 Speaker 4: to Mabel Willebrandt, he was a a drunk and be corrupt. 502 00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:07,720 Speaker 1: One of the craziest stories here man like an incredibly 503 00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:10,840 Speaker 1: successful defense attorney becomes the biggest bootlegger ever. 504 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:13,640 Speaker 4: The fact that there were only twenty six hundred prohibitionations 505 00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:16,400 Speaker 4: covering the entire Canadian border, of the Mexican border and 506 00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,560 Speaker 4: both coasts It's Ridiculous. 507 00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:26,920 Speaker 1: Snafu is a production of iHeartRadio, Film Nation Entertainment and 508 00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:31,240 Speaker 1: Pacific Electric Picture Company in association with Gilded Audio. It's 509 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:35,560 Speaker 1: executive produced by me Ed Helms, Milan Papelka, Mike Falbo, 510 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:40,360 Speaker 1: Whitney Donaldson, and Dylan Fagan. Our lead producers are Carl 511 00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:44,640 Speaker 1: Nellis and Alyssa Martino. This episode was written by Nevin Kalapoly, 512 00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:47,960 Speaker 1: Albert Chen and Carl Nellis, with additional writing and story 513 00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:51,840 Speaker 1: editing from Alissa Martino and Ed Helms. Additional production from 514 00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:55,360 Speaker 1: Stephen wood. Tory Smith is our associate producer. Our story 515 00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:58,960 Speaker 1: editor is nicki Stein. Our production assistants are Nevin Callapoly 516 00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:02,560 Speaker 1: and a kimmedy A. Fact checking by Charles Richter. Our 517 00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:06,240 Speaker 1: creative executive is Brett Harris, Editing, music and sound design 518 00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:10,000 Speaker 1: by Ben Chug Engineering and technical direction by Nick Dooley 519 00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:14,200 Speaker 1: Andrew Chug is Gilded Audio's creative director. The music by 520 00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:17,800 Speaker 1: Dan Rosatto. The role of Mabel Walker willa Brandt was 521 00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:22,000 Speaker 1: played by Carrie Bische. Special thanks to Alison Cohen, Daniel 522 00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:23,760 Speaker 1: Welsh and Ben Rizak.