1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,000 Speaker 1: Are you with me on this? We all love those 2 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: stories that glorify the Roaring twenties when folks whispered a 3 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:11,480 Speaker 1: magic password to get into speakeasies and gin joints for 4 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:15,360 Speaker 1: some illicit partying during Prohibition, But it wasn't all a 5 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:20,279 Speaker 1: roaring good time. Would our government purposely poison the public 6 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:22,320 Speaker 1: to try to stop them from drinking? 7 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:24,640 Speaker 2: Guess what? Turns out? 8 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:28,960 Speaker 1: The FEDS ordered industrial alcohol makers to add poison to 9 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:32,840 Speaker 1: what they sold to scare the public to death, maybe 10 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:36,640 Speaker 1: killing as many as fifty thousand and blinding or paralyzing 11 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:42,480 Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands more. I'm Patty Steele dying for a drink. Literally. 12 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:51,720 Speaker 1: Next on the backstory, We're back with the backstory. Okay, 13 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 1: do you know much about Prohibition? When the government outlawed 14 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:59,280 Speaker 1: alcohol for thirteen years starting in nineteen twenty, did you 15 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:03,800 Speaker 1: know the FED it's mandated that industrial alcohol makers add 16 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:07,840 Speaker 1: poison to what they made to keep people from drinking it. 17 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:11,600 Speaker 1: It killed as many as fifty thousand and maimed hundreds 18 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:14,959 Speaker 1: of thousands. We've kind of seen what that world looked 19 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:18,479 Speaker 1: like in movies like The Untouchables and The Great Gatsby, 20 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:23,240 Speaker 1: and also on TV. Shows like Boardwalk Empire. Prohibition era 21 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:27,880 Speaker 1: gangsters included al Capone, who took in sixty million dollars 22 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: a year during those years. But one of the most 23 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:35,080 Speaker 1: amazing and not so well known stories about Prohibition is 24 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:38,840 Speaker 1: how the FEDS tried to control access to alcohol for 25 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:42,160 Speaker 1: folks who just wanted to party. When the government wants 26 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:45,000 Speaker 1: to control us, they have all sorts of crazy ways 27 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 1: to enforce laws, right, but during Prohibition it got way 28 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: darker again. Their approach left by some accounts, fifty thousand 29 00:01:54,440 --> 00:02:00,200 Speaker 1: dead and possibly hundreds of thousands permanently impacted by condition 30 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:04,559 Speaker 1: like paralysis and blindness. Now, how the heck did that happen? 31 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:09,119 Speaker 1: Mass poisoning? Yeah, the government didn't just try to talk 32 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:11,800 Speaker 1: people out at drinking, or even just find them or 33 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:15,880 Speaker 1: put them in jail. They actually poisoned the legal industrial 34 00:02:15,919 --> 00:02:20,519 Speaker 1: alcohol being made that bootleggers were turning into hooh. Now, 35 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,200 Speaker 1: imagine you're desperate for a drink, but there's none to 36 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:26,920 Speaker 1: be had. If you're really desperate, yeah, might even sip 37 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:28,920 Speaker 1: a little bit of rubbing alcohol. 38 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:29,440 Speaker 2: Yuck. 39 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:34,240 Speaker 1: So the FEDS decide to mandate that all industrial alcohol 40 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:39,680 Speaker 1: had to be denatured by adding iodine chloroform, even gasoline 41 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: and kerosene to make it really nauseating and in some 42 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:46,600 Speaker 1: cases deadly. Now, if you were a bootlegger, you saw 43 00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: a big market for illegal booze, so you'd hijack trucks 44 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: transporting the industrial stuff and try to make it more 45 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,760 Speaker 1: drinkable taste wise, by adding all sorts of chemicals to 46 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:00,520 Speaker 1: improve the flavor. And they did a little boiling to 47 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:03,919 Speaker 1: try and remove the bad stuff, but you simply. 48 00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:05,240 Speaker 2: Couldn't remove all the poison. 49 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 1: People still drank it, making gangsters like al Capone impossibly rich. 50 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:13,320 Speaker 1: He was just twenty six years old when he got 51 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:17,359 Speaker 1: started and was soon taking in sixty million bucks a year. 52 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:21,720 Speaker 1: Guess what, that's well over a billion dollars in today's world. 53 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:22,640 Speaker 2: Now. 54 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: Experts say prohibition led to the rise of really powerful 55 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 1: organized crime syndicates. They were obviously raking in money like 56 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 1: nobody's business, and that organized crime world never really recovered 57 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 1: economically after the end of Prohibition killed off their cash cow. 58 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:44,960 Speaker 1: It was the Roaring twenties. Everybody wanted to party. 59 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:47,320 Speaker 2: Where did they go? Well, guess what? 60 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:51,800 Speaker 1: There were thirty two thousand speakeasies in New York City 61 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:55,720 Speaker 1: alone by the way speakeasies got their name from how 62 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:58,680 Speaker 1: quietly you had to whisper the password to get in, 63 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:01,840 Speaker 1: so nearby cops couldn't hear you and figure out how 64 00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 1: to get in themselves. And those speakeasies would also add 65 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:09,680 Speaker 1: things to improve the flavor, like ginger ale, coca cola, sugar, 66 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:14,440 Speaker 1: and lemon, which gave rise to cocktails. Before that, drinkers 67 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:17,280 Speaker 1: were just doing straight shots, I guess and get this. 68 00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:21,839 Speaker 1: Before speakeasies, most folks went to bars and taverns, but 69 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: most of them didn't allow women in as customers, just 70 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:29,560 Speaker 1: as entertainment. But speakeasies were looking for as many customers 71 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:33,200 Speaker 1: as possible, so women were totally welcome to come in 72 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:37,280 Speaker 1: to party and toss back a few of those poisonous cocktails. 73 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:40,960 Speaker 1: By nineteen twenty three, the government decided they had to 74 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:44,239 Speaker 1: make it even more poisonous, so they ordered the folks 75 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:48,680 Speaker 1: that made the industrial stuff to add four percent wood alcohol, 76 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:53,120 Speaker 1: which is incredibly poisonous to humans, even in really tiny amounts, 77 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:57,919 Speaker 1: but they didn't mandate any warning labels. Again, people drank it, 78 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:01,479 Speaker 1: and anywhere from ten thousand on up to fifty thousand 79 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:04,719 Speaker 1: or more were killed because of it. In addition, with 80 00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands becoming blind or paralyzed. On fairness, not 81 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:12,560 Speaker 1: everybody thought it was a good idea to poison alcohol. 82 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:16,960 Speaker 1: One senator called it legalized murder, but a supporter from 83 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:20,440 Speaker 1: the Anti Saloon League said legal alcohol had killed a 84 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 1: lot more people than the government's new program, and that 85 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:27,480 Speaker 1: quote air quotes here, the FEDS were under no obligation 86 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:30,799 Speaker 1: to supply people with safe alcohol when it had been banned. 87 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:33,839 Speaker 1: He went on to say, the person who drinks this 88 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:39,479 Speaker 1: industrial alcohol is deliberately committing suicide. And the government's lee 89 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:42,840 Speaker 1: guy in the prohibition effort, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, 90 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:47,640 Speaker 1: Seymour Lohmann, said publicly that the fringes of society that 91 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:51,680 Speaker 1: drink were dying off fast from poison hooch, and that 92 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:55,040 Speaker 1: if the result is a sober America, a good job 93 00:05:55,279 --> 00:06:00,200 Speaker 1: has been done. Really wow, allowing maybe tens of thousands 94 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:03,760 Speaker 1: of people to die and possibly hundreds of thousands to 95 00:06:03,839 --> 00:06:08,719 Speaker 1: be permanently disabled by poisoning our vices. Yikes, And we 96 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:11,240 Speaker 1: think the present day government is rough on us. 97 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:14,039 Speaker 2: I hope you like the backstory with Patty Steele. 98 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:17,159 Speaker 1: I would love it if you would subscribe or follow 99 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, and feel 100 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:23,680 Speaker 1: free to DM me like James did if you have 101 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:26,240 Speaker 1: a story you would like me to cover. On Facebook, 102 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:33,000 Speaker 1: It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm 103 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:37,600 Speaker 1: Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, 104 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:41,640 Speaker 1: the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer 105 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:45,000 Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new 106 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:48,560 Speaker 1: episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out 107 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:52,040 Speaker 1: to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram 108 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:55,280 Speaker 1: at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. 109 00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:58,640 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the 110 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:01,680 Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.