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Speaker 1: Hey there, it's your host ed helms.

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Speaker 2: Here.

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Speaker 1: Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I wanted

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Speaker 1: to remind you that my brand new book is coming

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Speaker 1: out on April twenty ninth. It's called Snaffo, The Definitive

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Speaker 1: Guide to History's Greatest screw Ups, and you can pre

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Speaker 1: order it right now at snaffoodashbook dot com. Trust me,

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Speaker 1: if you like this show, you're gonna love this book.

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Speaker 1: It's got all the wild disasters spectacular face plants we

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Speaker 1: just couldn't squeeze into this podcast. And here's the kicker.

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Speaker 1: I am also going on tour to celebrate that's right.

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Speaker 1: I'm coming to New York, DC, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago,

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Speaker 1: San Francisco, and my hometown Los Angeles. So if you've

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Speaker 1: ever wanted to see me stumble through a live Q

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Speaker 1: and A or dramatically read about a kiddie cat getting

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Speaker 1: turned into a CIA operative, now's your chance again. Head

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Speaker 1: to snaffoo dashbook dot com to pre order the book

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Speaker 1: and check out all the tour details in day, or

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Speaker 1: just click the link in the show notes. That'll work too. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that's it, on with the chaos. This is Snaffoo Season

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Speaker 1: three formula six. Previously on Snaffoo. The head of prohibition

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Speaker 1: Enforcement cracked down on bootleggers.

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Speaker 3: Mabel Walker Willebrant was a very serious woman, and she

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Speaker 3: woke up every day. The first thing she did was

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Speaker 3: takeing an ice cold bath.

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Speaker 1: World War One soldier George Cassidy became the top bootlegger

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Speaker 1: to Congress. He was a dapper dude.

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Speaker 3: You would have thought he was a general of the

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Speaker 3: most powerful army in the world or something.

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Speaker 1: And as deaths from alcohol began to rise, American drinkers

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Speaker 1: kept right on drinking.

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Speaker 4: The acceptance of risk that came with prohibition at these

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Speaker 4: levels is kind of horrifying, but it was there, and

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Speaker 4: it was real.

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Speaker 1: On an November afternoon in nineteen twenty two, Assistant Attorney

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Speaker 1: General Mabel Walker Willibrandt takes a trip to the Capitol Building.

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Speaker 1: I imagine her with a bulging briefcase, maybe a couple

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Speaker 1: of clerks scrambling along behind her trying to keep up.

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Speaker 1: They're carrying everything she needs for the case she's about

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Speaker 1: to argue. She climbs the stone steps and crosses into

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Speaker 1: the shade of white stone columns, then enters a red

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Speaker 1: carpeted two story chamber with a domed ceiling. It's the

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Speaker 1: old Senate Chamber, which in nineteen twenty two was home

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Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court. And today Mabel is presenting her

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Speaker 1: case before the nine Supreme Court justices. It's her big moment.

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Speaker 1: The gallery is packed for a court case that's made

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Speaker 1: national news, the United States versus George Remis. So far,

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Speaker 1: prohibition enforcement wasn't going so well. It wasn't going well

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Speaker 1: in the liquor capital of America, New York City, where

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Speaker 1: the bodies were piling up at Alexander Getler's lab. And

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Speaker 1: it wasn't going well in the nation's actual capital, Washington,

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Speaker 1: d C. Where speakeasies were popping up on every corner

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Speaker 1: and business was booming for the bootleggers, and no bootlegger

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Speaker 1: was making a bigger profit than George Remas. Remis wasn't

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Speaker 1: just a bootlegger. He was a lawyer and a pharmacist too,

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Speaker 1: a trifecta that made him one of the richest men

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Speaker 1: in America. Since the start of Prohibition, Remus had been

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Speaker 1: building an illegal alcohol empire that rivaled al Capones, which

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Speaker 1: made him the target of Mabel Walker Willebrandt. When she

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Speaker 1: faced George Remas in court. Mabel was determined that this

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Speaker 1: would be a turning point in her war. Remus was

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Speaker 1: a big fish, and Mabel was going to gut him.

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Speaker 1: With the whole nation watching, I'm Ed Helms and this

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Speaker 1: is Snafu, a show about history's greatest screw ups. This

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Speaker 1: season a dark tale from the heart of the Prohibition

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Speaker 1: era Formula six, how prohibitions war on alcohol went so

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Speaker 1: off the rails the government wound up poisoning its own people. Today,

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Speaker 1: we'll follow Mabel Walker Willebrandt in Washington, d C. As

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Speaker 1: she faces one formidable challenge after another. Her bosses are drunks,

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Speaker 1: her agents are incompetent, and she's about to realize that

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Speaker 1: across the government and even within her own Department of Justice,

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Speaker 1: she can't trust anyone.

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Speaker 3: She was a lone warrior.

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Speaker 1: That's historian and author Dan Grint.

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Speaker 3: And she really had an uphill battle for a bunch

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Speaker 3: of reasons.

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Speaker 1: As you may remember, Mabel was surrounded at her job

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Speaker 1: by straight up drunks, starting with the President.

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Speaker 3: Harding drank a lot. Harry Dougherty, the Attorney General, who

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Speaker 3: was the immediate boss to Mabel wille Brandt, he was

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Speaker 3: a a drunk and be corrupt.

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Speaker 1: And again, like we said before, the guy leading the

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Speaker 1: Treasury Department and supervising the Prohibition Bureau owned a whiskey company.

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Speaker 1: So when it came time for Mabel to do some

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Speaker 1: basic stuff like higher clerks for legal research, well, she

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Speaker 1: hit a wall.

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Speaker 3: She didn't have much in the way of financial support.

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Speaker 3: And one of the things that was indicative of the

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Speaker 3: attitude of the dryes is that they passed these laws

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Speaker 3: but gave no money for enforcement.

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Speaker 1: She didn't have anywhere near the manpower she needed to

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Speaker 1: stop the alcohol coming across two borders and sixty thousand

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Speaker 1: miles of open coastline.

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Speaker 3: The fact that they were only twenty six hundred prohibitionations

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Speaker 3: covering the entire Canadian border, the Mexican border, and both coasts,

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Speaker 3: it's ridiculous.

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Speaker 1: And as for that army of agents, even that man

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Speaker 1: power was quickly dwindling. Hundreds of agents were being dismissed

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Speaker 1: around the country for brazen corruption, and even the ones

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Speaker 1: who weren't corrupt were pretty much useless. Sure they were

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Speaker 1: given guns and cars, but little or no training to

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Speaker 1: do the actual job.

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Speaker 3: Someone said about the Canadian border, you know you can't

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Speaker 3: stop a liquid from leaking through a dotted line that

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Speaker 3: dotted line on the map.

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Speaker 1: So what could Mabel actually do from behind her barge

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Speaker 1: sized mahogany desk in Room five oh one at the

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Speaker 1: Department of Justice.

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Speaker 3: Well, she had the power to bring indictments, the.

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Speaker 1: Power of the courts, and as you may remember, her

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Speaker 1: job was to work with the bespectacled accountants at the IRS,

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Speaker 1: a group of agents supremely qualified to crack down on

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Speaker 1: inflated tax deductions, but maybe not so much collecting the

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Speaker 1: evidence of illicit bootlegging.

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Speaker 5: Open up IRS, No one's here.

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Speaker 1: Oh shit, Look there's a whole case of shar truth.

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Speaker 3: We should collect that.

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Speaker 6: Can't let good evidence go to waste.

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Speaker 1: I like the way you enforced the law. But Mabel

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Speaker 1: was undeterred, and in the fall of nineteen twenty two,

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Speaker 1: she decided to get creative. She came up with a

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Speaker 1: plan to round up every last bootlegger, and she was

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Speaker 1: gonna start by going after the biggest bootlegger of all,

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Speaker 1: George Remis.

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Speaker 6: Yes, you're under arrest for violating Title two of the

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Speaker 6: Volstad Act.

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Speaker 1: You ever watch Boardwalk Empire When the show's writer creator

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Speaker 1: Terry Winter began researching George Remis. He couldn't believe what

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Speaker 1: he found.

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Speaker 2: Here's Terry George Ramis one of the craziest stories here,

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Speaker 2: Like an incredibly successful defense attorney becomes like the biggest

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Speaker 2: bootlegger ever.

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Speaker 1: You're making a mistake. No, can't do this. Limis doesn't

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Speaker 1: get arrested. In the show, Remis is a large, bald,

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Speaker 1: rich weirdo who, yes, you heard it right, refers to

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Speaker 1: himself in the third person.

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Speaker 2: And he's like, like, if I made that up, you'd

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Speaker 2: got like, come on, and this absolutely all happened.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, all of that's true, including the third person thing.

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Speaker 1: His parties were so over the top that people think

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Speaker 1: he may have been the inspiration for the Great Gatsby.

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Speaker 3: The whole city packed into automobiles and all weekend, every

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Speaker 3: weekend ended up at Gatspie's.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty two, no one in America owned more

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Speaker 1: of the illegal alcohol trade than Remus. At one point,

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Speaker 1: he controlled thirty percent of the liquor making its way

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Speaker 1: into America.

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Speaker 6: Because he had bought up a whole bunch of huge

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Speaker 6: rick houses full of whiskey.

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Speaker 1: That's historian Garrett Peck. Remus's warehouse stored twenty five million

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Speaker 1: dollars worth of alcohol, which he sold and distributed using

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Speaker 1: a prohibition loophole from ad sintle alcohol.

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Speaker 6: And then he'd bribed people so he could have three

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Speaker 6: or four times as much as that he could distribute,

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Speaker 6: and he was legally allowed to. So he made a fortune, yeah,

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Speaker 6: despite by being able to sell alcohol without any taxes

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Speaker 6: on it.

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Speaker 1: Since Remus did all the illegal selling without paying taxes, obviously,

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Speaker 1: Mabel saw an opportunity. Maybe she could actually use tax

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Speaker 1: law in her favor. He could exploit loopholes in prohibition law,

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Speaker 1: but maybe she could finally bust Remis through the unforgiving

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Speaker 1: tax code. And this wasn't just about Remus. She wanted

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Speaker 1: to send a message to all of the bootleggers across

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Speaker 1: the country. One way or another, she was coming for them.

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Speaker 1: With those black robed justices staring down from their tufted

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Speaker 1: leather thrones, the room can be an intimidating place. But

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Speaker 1: for Mabel, Nah, She's unflappable, so cool in the courtroom

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Speaker 1: that people joke she has ice in her veins. All

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Speaker 1: that is to say, Mabel is tough, and it was

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Speaker 1: a good thing too. The new York papers lined up

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Speaker 1: against her in their coverage of a Supreme Court hearing.

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Speaker 1: One newspaper reported that Mabel wasn't quote exactly pretty because

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Speaker 1: her features were quote too large and too serious for that,

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Speaker 1: and she suffered from a quote suggestion of plumpness, which

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Speaker 1: is what I might call a suggestion of shitty, misogynistic journalism.

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Speaker 1: And to top it all off, they couldn't even get

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Speaker 1: her job title right. One paper called her the woman

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Speaker 1: assistant of the Attorney General, but she's actually assistant Attorney General.

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Speaker 1: These things matter. Just ask Dwight shrut.

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Speaker 5: I am now sempi, which is assistant.

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Speaker 6: Sense assistant to the sense.

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Speaker 1: That's pretty cool, assistant sense. Mabel wasn't shy about her

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Speaker 1: disdain for how she and other women in the working

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Speaker 1: world had to deal with what she called girly girly stuff.

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Speaker 1: She once sat down for an interview with a literary

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Speaker 1: magazine called The Smart Set, basically the nineteen twenties version

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Speaker 1: of an Instagram Live.

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Speaker 5: A boy must do the job well and develop personality.

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Speaker 5: A girl must do the job well and develop personality,

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Speaker 5: plus break down skepticism about her ability walk the type

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Speaker 5: rope of sexlessness without loss of her essential charm make

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Speaker 5: the hard choice between giving up children and home life

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Speaker 5: in order to advance or having them in the face

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Speaker 5: of increased prejudice.

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Speaker 1: So when Mabel faces down bootleggers like George Remus in court,

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Speaker 1: she knows the guy in front of her isn't her

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Speaker 1: only opponent, but she's undaunted. She's got to get shit done,

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Speaker 1: and now before the Supreme Court, she makes a stirring case.

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Speaker 1: Where other prosecutors might have overlooked tax law as a hammer,

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Speaker 1: I mean, let's be honest, it's pretty boring, obscure stuff.

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Speaker 1: Mabel saw nothing but potential. Her approach was ingenia and

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Speaker 1: her arguments impassioned.

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Speaker 5: The tax penalties outlined in internal revenue laws are highly

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Speaker 5: important in the enforcement of prohibition. The government isn't giving

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Speaker 5: it stamp of approval to an illicit business by taxing them.

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Speaker 5: An illegitimate business should not be exempt from paying taxes

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Speaker 5: that legitimate businesses should pay. They must pay up too.

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Speaker 1: George Remas he was making a fortune because he was

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Speaker 1: selling liquor without paying taxes on it. This was bold.

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Speaker 1: No one had the audacity or imagination to prosecute any

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Speaker 1: major crime figures for income tax evasion, but Mabel determined. Unflinching,

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Speaker 1: Mabel decided that if it was going to take tax

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Speaker 1: law to enforce prohibition, then so be it. After arguments

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Speaker 1: concluded and the Justices began deliberations, Mabel was on edge

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Speaker 1: because this trial clearly wasn't just about Remus. This was

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Speaker 1: about all the fat cat bootleggers in a Mana America,

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Speaker 1: including a fella named Willie Harr, remember him, leader of

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Speaker 1: the massive bootlegging operation the Savannah Four down in Georgia,

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Speaker 1: and also captain of the vaunted and audaciously meta recreational

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Speaker 1: baseball squad, the Bootlegger Team. Well, Harr and his whole

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Speaker 1: gang were anxiously following Remis's trial from Savannah, knowing that

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Speaker 1: their fate was tied to Remises. This is because Mabel

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Speaker 1: had also charged Harr with the same crime, having determined

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Speaker 1: the Savannah Four owed two million dollars in unpaid taxes

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Speaker 1: from their illegal bootlegging. If the Supreme Court ruled in

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Speaker 1: Mabel's favor and decided bootleggers had to pay taxes, well,

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Speaker 1: that could be the ballgame for Horror and the Bootlegger team.

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Speaker 1: Of course, a few days later, Chief Justice Oliver Wendell

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Speaker 1: Holmes renders the court's decision. First, some bad news for Mabel.

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Speaker 1: Remus's arrest in this case had occurred a year earlier,

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Speaker 1: in October nineteen twenty one. The tax statutes that Mabel

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Speaker 1: was resting her entire case on they had passed a

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Speaker 1: month later in November, so Remus is exempt. The law

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Speaker 1: Mabel was trying to slap onto him didn't even apply.

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Speaker 1: She missed her shot by a month. For now, Remus

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Speaker 1: was still a free man. That might seem like a

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Speaker 1: setback for Mabel, but she's a creature of the law.

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Speaker 1: She knows that hidden under the surface of a defeat,

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Speaker 1: victories can be one piece by piece, and in this

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Speaker 1: case there was a surprise twist. Even though Remis got

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Speaker 1: out on a technicality, the Justice is decided that Mabel

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Speaker 1: was actually right. In addition to all their other crimes,

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Speaker 1: bootleggers also owed taxes on their ill gotten revenue, and

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Speaker 1: if they didn't pay up, it was another mark against them,

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Speaker 1: one that came with serious jail time. And that decision

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Speaker 1: reverberated all the way down to Savannah. And that is

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Speaker 1: a win for Mabel because she sees the potential of

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Speaker 1: this ruling to dramatically change prohibition enforcement. So even though

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Speaker 1: George Remis is acquitted, Mabel emerges from the old Senate

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Speaker 1: Chamber ecstatic. Think about this. She's having trouble locking up

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Speaker 1: bootleggers because it's virtually impossible to catch them red handed,

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Speaker 1: but this gives her a whole new angle of attack.

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Speaker 1: If she can prove they've been doing business and not

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Speaker 1: paying taxes on the income, she can lock them up

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Speaker 1: without ever having to enter a keg into evidence boom.

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Speaker 1: And even though Remis had just gotten off the hook,

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Speaker 1: he was bound to keep bootlegging, and he probably wasn't

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Speaker 1: going to just start paying taxes, so it wouldn't be

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Speaker 1: long until Mabel would see him in court again. Investigating,

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Speaker 1: Mabel can feel the tide beginning to turn. I can

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Speaker 1: picture Mabel now striding out of that capital with a

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Speaker 1: bouncing her step, bursting with pride, which is sadly ironic,

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Speaker 1: because somewhere across town, a man is strolling along carrying

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Speaker 1: a suitcase with a smile. He tips his green hat

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Speaker 1: to the people he passes. He's on his way to

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Speaker 1: make a delivery and casually undermine everything she's fighting for.

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Speaker 1: This green headed fellow would be George Cassidy, merrily strolling

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Speaker 1: through the halls of Congress. Because business is good, George

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Speaker 1: is averaging two dozen deliveries a day. A bottle of

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Speaker 1: sweet red Vermouth to a congressman, two bottles of red

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Speaker 1: star Gin to a junior senator, a case of Duncan

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Speaker 1: Harwood's Canadian whiskey for the house speaker. Yep, those are

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Speaker 1: some big ass suitcases that George hal's around. His delivery's done.

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Speaker 1: He now takes the stairs down to the basement and

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Speaker 1: finally arrives at an unassuming door. George takes out his keys,

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Speaker 1: unlocks the door, steps in, and flips on the lights.

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Speaker 1: The windowless room has a mahogany poker table, swivel chairs,

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Speaker 1: and lots and lots of bottles of booze. Welcome to

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Speaker 1: George's office, you see. A few months ago, one of

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Speaker 1: George's clients, a congressman, hooked George up with an office

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Speaker 1: which quickly became the warehouse for some of the best

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Speaker 1: liquor in town. Not that his clients could tell the

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Speaker 1: difference between a McCallan eighteen seventy eight and at George's

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Speaker 1: bathtub nineteen twenty two. These politicians may have considered themselves connoisseurs,

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Speaker 1: but they had no idea. They were just drinking a

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Speaker 1: cheap blend with some food coloring. At the time, only

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Speaker 1: George himself knew just how much water he was using

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Speaker 1: to cut the imported alcohol. The congressman start marching in.

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Speaker 1: One of these men of high taste is one of

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Speaker 1: George's most loyal customers. When he walks into George's tavern,

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Speaker 1: hopefully in a straight line, his colleagues joke, get out

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Speaker 1: the corn and put up the rye. He's known around

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Speaker 1: the Capitol as a bottle of day man. George serves

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Speaker 1: him a tall glass of his special elixir all the

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Speaker 1: way to the brim and the crazy thing. Rumor had

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Speaker 1: it that he was one of the most eloquent speakers

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Speaker 1: on the House floor.

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Speaker 4: I would like to make an inquiry to the Senate

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Speaker 4: for the purpose of understanding just the scope of this resolution.

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Speaker 1: John Nance Garner. He would later become Speaker of the

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Speaker 1: House and then Vice President of the United States under FDR.

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Speaker 1: Add this guide to the list of lushes that surrounded

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Speaker 1: Mabel Walker Willebrandt as she tried to do her job.

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Speaker 1: Back in George's office, the boys are getting comfortable this

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Speaker 1: fully operational speakeas he is home to a secret congressional

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00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:08,119
Speaker 1: drinking club. They even have a name for themselves, the

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00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:13,159
Speaker 1: Barflies Association or BFA for short. Washington sure loves a

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Speaker 1: three letter bureau.

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Speaker 6: We had a whole closet full of alcohol there he'd

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Speaker 6: sell to everyone, and also that people could come down

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Speaker 6: and play cards with him. Mind you, this is a

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Speaker 6: guy with a third grade education, and yet he was

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00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:24,479
Speaker 6: enormously charming.

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Speaker 1: That's Garrett Peck again.

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Speaker 6: He was on a first name basis with all these

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Speaker 6: different congressmen and they liked him. He knew how to

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00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:33,040
Speaker 6: put all the congressmen at ease. They had to sit

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Speaker 6: there and talk politics. They could just come down and

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Speaker 6: shoot the breeze with him and play some poker.

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Speaker 1: At George's office. The nights are late. Sometimes George comes home,

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Speaker 1: sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes the party continues elsewhere outside the Capitol,

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Speaker 1: like on this particular night, as we followed George from

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Speaker 1: the House Office building to a Victorian townhouse on a

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Speaker 1: tree lined just blocks from the White House. This is

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00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:07,840
Speaker 1: K Street and the house is made of green limestone

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Speaker 1: with one big magnolia tree out front. It has a

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Speaker 1: nickname the Little green House. Every night, the Little Greenhouse

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Speaker 1: is full of men smoking, playing poker, and you guessed it, drinking.

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Speaker 1: There's always plenty of liquor on hand, the best stuff,

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Speaker 1: thanks to cases streaming in on wells fargo wagons driven

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Speaker 1: by armed guards. The regulars were men in high places,

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Speaker 1: George's lawmaking pals, sure, but also the Prohibition Commissioner, the

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Speaker 1: Attorney General, and even on occasion, the President himself. George

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00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:47,040
Speaker 1: didn't supply the Little Greenhouse, but he was a welcome guest,

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Speaker 1: along with several of his bootlegging compatriots, including the most

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Speaker 1: notorious bootlegger of all, the bald guy in the resplendent suit,

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Speaker 1: George Remus. The Little Greenhouse was where guys like George

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Speaker 1: Remis could ask for favors, like for a big stack

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Speaker 1: of permits that gave them access to some booze. You see,

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Speaker 1: under prohibition law there were still allowances made for a

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00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:15,439
Speaker 1: few kinds of alcohol. It was permitted for sale for

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00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:19,200
Speaker 1: religious ceremonies and medical purposes as long as you had

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Speaker 1: a permit. And there was one regular at the Little

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Speaker 1: Greenhouse who had bags stuffed with those permits and could

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00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:29,120
Speaker 1: fix it up for bootleggers. He was, in fact, one

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Speaker 1: of George Remas's pals. He was the man with black

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Speaker 1: wire glasses and a bushy mustache standing in a corner

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Speaker 1: of the room. It was a face that Mabel Walker

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Speaker 1: Willebrandt would have known well because he was a doj

350
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Speaker 1: man named Jess Smith. See. Jess was the right hand

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Speaker 1: man of the Attorney General, a fixer for the entire

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Speaker 1: Department of Justice, and his office was literally next door

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Speaker 1: to Mabels. And Jess was always happy to oblige the

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Speaker 1: fellows he met in the Little Greenhouse. It seemed like

355
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:05,040
Speaker 1: Jess almost relished undermining Mabel's work. He was happy to

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00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:07,760
Speaker 1: give out permits and even make promises of immunity to

357
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Speaker 1: loads of bootleggers like Remus, happily handing him wads of

358
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 1: cash in return. But all this wheeling and dealing was

359
00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:18,960
Speaker 1: about to catch up with Jess Smith, and it was

360
00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:22,320
Speaker 1: only a matter of time before Mabel caught wind of

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Speaker 1: all his shenanigans. In May of nineteen twenty three, a

362
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:36,480
Speaker 1: few months after her big legal win, Mabel Walker willebrand

363
00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:40,280
Speaker 1: had big plans. She was going to take a vacation,

364
00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:45,080
Speaker 1: and she deserved it. Mabel was still on cloud nine

365
00:22:45,119 --> 00:22:48,240
Speaker 1: over her Supreme Court win. She wrote to her parents.

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Speaker 5: It was a gorgeous victory and one of which I

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Speaker 5: am prouder than of anything I've done so far.

368
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Speaker 1: And months after the Supreme Court decision, Mabel actually went

369
00:22:56,720 --> 00:23:00,480
Speaker 1: after George Remas again, and this time she ailed him

370
00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:03,560
Speaker 1: on the tax evasion charges. This case had been a

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00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:08,040
Speaker 1: simple one conviction in no time flat. Yep, George was

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00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:11,040
Speaker 1: headed to the slammer, and not only him, Willie Harror

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Speaker 1: had been convicted of breaking tax law too. Willie was

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Speaker 1: also going to prison. It had taken some careful maneuvering

375
00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:21,399
Speaker 1: and some patience, but Mabel had lined him up and

376
00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:25,080
Speaker 1: knocked him down. So she was in a mood to celebrate.

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Speaker 1: Her bags were packed. She was headed west for a

378
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Speaker 1: few days of R and R, you know, a little

379
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:33,679
Speaker 1: me time in those ice baths. Mabel was just about

380
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:39,080
Speaker 1: out the door when her phone rang, the Attorney General

381
00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:42,639
Speaker 1: on the line with news about her colleague Jess Smith.

382
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:46,560
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that guy at the office with the weird mustache.

383
00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:49,240
Speaker 1: What about him could possibly warrant a call from the

384
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Speaker 1: Attorney General? Well. She recalls that the Attorney General and

385
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Speaker 1: Jess are pretty buddy buddy. They even share an apartment

386
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Speaker 1: at the Wardman Park Inn. It's the swank kest place

387
00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:04,199
Speaker 1: in town, with its white gloved bell hops, chandeliers the

388
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:08,000
Speaker 1: size of Merry Go rounds, and gold plated atrium. It

389
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:12,320
Speaker 1: was a hotel hotspot and home to DC's upper crust,

390
00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 1: a place for meetings and soares would go on into

391
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:19,760
Speaker 1: the night. He tells her that in the wee hours

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00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:23,840
Speaker 1: of last night, May nineteenth, nineteen twenty three, a gunshot

393
00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 1: rang out across the hotel's sixth floor. It came from

394
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Speaker 1: a corner suite, the Attorney General's own apartment, the very

395
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Speaker 1: one he shares with Jess Smith, as fate would have it,

396
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:42,000
Speaker 1: Directly below Darty's sixth floor suite lives the director of

397
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Speaker 1: the fed's brand spank anew Bureau of Investigation, which is

398
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:50,199
Speaker 1: the predecessor to the FBI. Moments after the gunshot, the

399
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,200
Speaker 1: director of the bureau is on the scene with I'm

400
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:58,600
Speaker 1: assuming a very bad case of BedHead. The bureau director

401
00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:01,520
Speaker 1: enters the suite to find a body twisted on the floor.

402
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,119
Speaker 1: The man on the floor is wearing black rimmed glasses

403
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:09,679
Speaker 1: and a bushy mustache. It's not Attorney General Dharty. The

404
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:12,960
Speaker 1: guy is in his pajamas, lying on the blood soaked carpet.

405
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:16,159
Speaker 1: There's a hole shot through his right temple, and his

406
00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:19,199
Speaker 1: head is in a garbage can a top ashes of

407
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:24,159
Speaker 1: burned papers. The man isn't famous, he isn't even a politician,

408
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:27,320
Speaker 1: and his death is quickly ruled by the Bureau director

409
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:32,320
Speaker 1: as a suicide. But things don't really add up, like

410
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:35,600
Speaker 1: how on earth could a man shoot himself and have

411
00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:39,959
Speaker 1: his head end up inside a wastebasket. Why was the

412
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:43,520
Speaker 1: weapon a gun, missing from the scene when the cops arrived,

413
00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:46,840
Speaker 1: And why was Jess carrying around his will in his

414
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,879
Speaker 1: pocket to be magically discovered by police hours later like

415
00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:56,320
Speaker 1: a gift on Christmas Morning To an analytical mind like Mabel's.

416
00:25:56,760 --> 00:26:00,800
Speaker 1: The pieces weren't adding up until as the dig deeper

417
00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:05,680
Speaker 1: into Smith's stuff, they discover evidence that Jess Smith may

418
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:10,840
Speaker 1: have been at the center of something quite criminal. Turns out,

419
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 1: Smith was carrying a long list of bootleggers from across

420
00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:17,919
Speaker 1: the country. George Remis Yep, he was on there. Also,

421
00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:20,960
Speaker 1: Jess Smith had something that was a little unusual for

422
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:25,119
Speaker 1: an employee of the Department of Justice. Wads and wads

423
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:34,000
Speaker 1: of cash back at the DOJ, Rumors are flying around

424
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:38,920
Speaker 1: the office about what exactly was behind Smith's quote unquote suicide.

425
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:41,239
Speaker 1: Maybe Smith and someone at the Department of Justice had

426
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:44,320
Speaker 1: a falling out, and maybe Smith threatened to expose the

427
00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 1: corruption that was going on behind closed doors. Maybe George

428
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:51,320
Speaker 1: Remis was getting back at Smith after his arrest. A

429
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:53,720
Speaker 1: hit job by a big bootlegger wouldn't be out of

430
00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:58,400
Speaker 1: the question. Now. Mabel and Jess, they weren't tight, even

431
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,199
Speaker 1: though Jess's office was right now to hers at the DOJ.

432
00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: She knew that Jess pushed papers and dealt with permits,

433
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:08,320
Speaker 1: but she didn't know what Jess did with those permits,

434
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:12,199
Speaker 1: and Mabels certainly didn't know that Jess was chummy with

435
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:20,720
Speaker 1: George Remis. Her mind was reeling after the phone call,

436
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:24,479
Speaker 1: Attorney General Dharty summoned Mabel to his office. He was

437
00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:27,640
Speaker 1: probably smelling a bit suspicious himself after a late night

438
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:30,359
Speaker 1: at the Little Greenhouse. Was that a hint of oak

439
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 1: aged corn whiskey under the reek of cigar smoke? I

440
00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 1: imagine him dramatically spinning around in his chair to pass

441
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:41,879
Speaker 1: along some unfortunate news. Yes, it was true. Jess was

442
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:44,720
Speaker 1: in the pockets of every big time bootlegger in America,

443
00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:48,440
Speaker 1: running his operations from out of his DOJ office right

444
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 1: next to Mabels. Not only that, Jess was involved in

445
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:56,920
Speaker 1: another totally different but equally massive bribery scandal for completely

446
00:27:56,960 --> 00:27:59,959
Speaker 1: different crimes. Turns out there was a lot of corrupt

447
00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:03,919
Speaker 1: under that mustache. Yep. Darty admitted to Mabel that the

448
00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:07,480
Speaker 1: DOJ was one big old shit show, which is why

449
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:11,560
Speaker 1: he said he would totally understand if Mabel wanted to

450
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:16,520
Speaker 1: hand in her resignation, And as you can probably imagine,

451
00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:24,280
Speaker 1: Mabel went bananas. Vacation totally canceled. Basically, while she had

452
00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:27,560
Speaker 1: been fighting Remus in court, her office neighbor had apparently

453
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 1: been at Remas's beck and call, and now Darty was

454
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:35,920
Speaker 1: asking her if she wanted to step down. Mabel had

455
00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:39,520
Speaker 1: no intention of quitting, and she told her boss exactly

456
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 1: that her war was just beginning. She had her Supreme

457
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:48,000
Speaker 1: Court win, and she had this too. George Remis was

458
00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:51,840
Speaker 1: headed to a federal penitentiary in Atlanta, so was Willie Harr,

459
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 1: the country's biggest bootleggers were going down, and Mabel was

460
00:28:57,720 --> 00:28:59,720
Speaker 1: going to make sure both were going to do hard

461
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:03,280
Speaker 1: time like any other criminal. As Remus was making furious

462
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:06,680
Speaker 1: attempts to get his conviction overturned, Mabel went straight to

463
00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 1: President Coolidge to smash Remus's hopes, writing, I am.

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00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 5: Of the emphatic opinion that no respite should be given

465
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:16,720
Speaker 5: George Remas or any of the defendants convicted with him.

466
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:20,240
Speaker 5: George Remas and his group of co conspirators are defiant,

467
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 5: dangerous law breakers. He has exhibited a rare ability to

468
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:28,400
Speaker 5: surround himself as seemingly respectable and unimportant citizens while he

469
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 5: hides behind their operations. In my opinion, it would be

470
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,640
Speaker 5: a grave mistake to treat these defendants in any manner

471
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:37,800
Speaker 5: differently than the thousands of offenders convicted of much lesser

472
00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 5: crimes under the liquor laws.

473
00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 1: She got her wish. Remus was locked away behind bars

474
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia. But then one morning a few months later,

475
00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 1: Mabel got a call from an agent down south. He

476
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 1: had a little update on how her pal Remas was

477
00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:56,480
Speaker 1: doing down there in Atlanta. Turns out, old Georgie Remas

478
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:01,840
Speaker 1: was doing pretty good. Sure George Remas was technically in prison,

479
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:04,240
Speaker 1: just in the part of the prison that was more

480
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:08,560
Speaker 1: like I don't know Versailles. Thanks to his connections, George

481
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:12,080
Speaker 1: was living like Marie Antoinette. He had his own quarters,

482
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:15,720
Speaker 1: his own kitchen, his own private bath. He dined separate

483
00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,720
Speaker 1: from the rest of the inmates except for one guy.

484
00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:22,960
Speaker 1: To add insult injury. His dining mate was Willie Harr.

485
00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:27,280
Speaker 1: Remas and Harr were dining each night on linen tablecloths

486
00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:31,440
Speaker 1: with fresh floral centerpieces, and playing games of high limit

487
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:36,960
Speaker 1: poker with a minimum bet set at fifty dollars. Their

488
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 1: section of the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary would soon have its

489
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 1: own nickname, Millionaires Row, and within two years, both men

490
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:50,960
Speaker 1: would be out to pick up right where they left off. Now,

491
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:53,760
Speaker 1: as Mabel sank into her ice cold bath in her

492
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:57,400
Speaker 1: DC apartment, she couldn't help but think of George Remas

493
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:02,440
Speaker 1: dining on steak, chomping on a cigar, having the last laugh.

494
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:06,479
Speaker 1: No matter how hard she was trying, she was really

495
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:09,520
Speaker 1: losing her fight with the bootleggers. Not only were her

496
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 1: colleagues at the Justice Department worthless in supporting her, they

497
00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:18,480
Speaker 1: were actively undermining her at every turn, and that's when

498
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:26,720
Speaker 1: the Ice Queen finally cracked. Doing things by the book

499
00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:29,680
Speaker 1: at the Department of Justice wasn't getting the job done.

500
00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:33,480
Speaker 1: Arrests convictions not only were they heart as hell to get,

501
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:38,040
Speaker 1: they hardly meant anything when the consequences were well luxurious.

502
00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 1: The Ice Queen's head was cold, but it was also

503
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:45,880
Speaker 1: clear if she was ever going to get American bootleggers

504
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:49,040
Speaker 1: and drinkers to respect the law, she was going to

505
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:54,600
Speaker 1: have to take new measures, more extreme measures. The consequences

506
00:31:54,600 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 1: for breaking prohibition law would have to hurt. It's next

507
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 1: time on Snaffoo. He loved to show off.

508
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 4: If you could have the opportunity to show off his

509
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:09,960
Speaker 4: sharp shooting skills, he would. There are rumors that he

510
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 4: would shoot apples at the top of people's heads. Governor

511
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 4: recognized the fact that if we're going to have prohbission agents,

512
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 4: we need people that are fearless. Richard Hart was somebody

513
00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:29,560
Speaker 4: who fit that to a tee.

514
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:33,640
Speaker 1: Snafu is a production of iHeartRadio, Film, Nation Entertainment, and

515
00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:37,960
Speaker 1: Pacific Electric Picture Company in association with Gilded Audio. It's

516
00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 1: executive produced by me Ed Helms Milan Papelka, Mike Falbo,

517
00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: Whitney Donaldson, and Dylan Fagan. Our lead producers are Carl

518
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:50,440
Speaker 1: Nellis and Alyssa Martino. This episode was written by Albert

519
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:53,200
Speaker 1: Chin and Carl Nellis, with additional writing and story editing

520
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:57,320
Speaker 1: from Alyssa Martino and Ed Helms. Additional production from Stephen Wood.

521
00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:00,560
Speaker 1: Tory Smith is our associate producer. Our story editor is

522
00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:04,160
Speaker 1: nicky Stein. Our production assistants are Nevin Callopoly and a

523
00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:08,120
Speaker 1: kimmedy Ekpo. Fact checking by Charles Richter. Our creative executive

524
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:11,480
Speaker 1: is Brett Harris. Editing, music and sound design by Ben

525
00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:16,080
Speaker 1: Chug Engineering and technical direction by Nick Dooley Andrew Chug

526
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:20,160
Speaker 1: is Gilded Audio's creative director. The music by Dan Rosatto.

527
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 1: The role of Mabel Walker will Brandt was played by

528
00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:27,560
Speaker 1: Carrie Bische. Special thanks to Alison Cohen, Daniel Welsh, and

529
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: Ben Ryzak