WEBVTT - The Good Bootlegger: Roy Olmstead 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.320 Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.720 --> 0:00:05.080 Zarin Elizabeth. 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:05.720 How are you? 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:07.080 I'm doing well. 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:09.280 How are you pal? I'm good good. 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:10.280 How is your heart good? 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:14.640 My heart is pumping full, it's working, it's full, it's rhythmic, 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:18.040 full of beans, full of vinegar. How's your heart? 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:22.159 None of those apply to hearts, But I like it. 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:23.920 You're creative. 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:25.680 I am full of it. I'm full of everything. 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:29.320 Yeah. My heart's just steady, working and trying to lay low. 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:30.520 My heart overflows. 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:32.760 It doesn't want to get an attitude like my kidneys. 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:37.920 Well, it's good. Our organs are all operating in good 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:38.760 working order. 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:40.360 That's what the doctor's say. 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.720 Congratulations, you know it's ridiculous. 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:46.880 I'm so glad you asked I do Oh good? 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:47.480 Please share. 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.320 Have you ever watched the TV show Webster, Yeah with 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:54.880 the Little Kid, Yeah, yeah, Manuel Lewis, Yes, yes, yes, 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.440 So do you know anything about the final episode of 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:02.400 that series? Final episode it was a crossover event The 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:03.279 Very Fast. 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:05.080 With Homicide Life on the Street. 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:08.720 Practically, no, no, it was not. But the last episode 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:14.840 of the sixth season was called web Trek because Webster 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:19.039 gets beamed aboard the US as Enterprise. What and there 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:20.960 he is the new one, the new like the new 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:25.920 Star Trek Next Generation Picard totally with Lieutenant Wharf, the 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:31.240 klingon with the wrinkled head. So Webster's chilling with him. 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.440 And yes, it's like a wait. 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.920 So that those universes overlap. 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:40.240 Apparently, so Webster is part of the official Star Trek 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:44.640 cannon because he was like there on like the bridge, 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:46.640 like he's not just like they don't come down to 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:47.160 visit him. 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:51.360 He goes, and then just the rest of his family 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:52.480 is like, I don't know what happened. 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:55.640 And then he gets like a featured like in the 0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:00.800 Next Generation episode essentially because there's also it's like a 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:01.280 whole thing. 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:03.520 Well then they just kill them off. What happened after? 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:05.840 I don't know what happened. I want to know what 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.200 web because remember they're also in different centuries. So this 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:12.799 is like the second time Star Trek has gone back 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:14.560 to the eighties, because they do it in Star Trek 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.240 four with the Whales with the original cast and then 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:20.280 the new cast, like we're also going back to the 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.880 eighties and we're picking up a small black orphan. 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:25.400 You have to find this episode. 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.440 There you go. It's ridiculous. 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:32.080 That is ridiculous. That should be an episode us watching 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.000 that episode. Do you want to know what else is ridiculous? 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:35.720 Please? 0:02:35.960 --> 0:03:00.880 The illusion of privacy? That's ridiculous. This is is ridiculous 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:05.240 crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers. Heis and 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:09.160 cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free and one 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:10.640 hundred percent ridiculous. 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:11.720 I know you heard that. 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:15.880 I know I told you recently about Popcorn Sutton. I 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.040 loved him down in Dirty Bootlegger Moonshine, Oh, I love it. 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.760 He was the best. He was a rascal went through 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:24.760 and that's par for the course when it comes to 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:29.160 like the bootlegging type. Sure, yeah, but not always all 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:31.520 always for book counts. I have a guy for you 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:35.440 today who runs that full Vonnegut story arc on the 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:39.240 chalkboard that used to do. His story is a roller 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:43.480 coaster and a study in human nature and redemption. Today, 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:47.960 I'm going to tell you all about Roy Olmsted So. 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.560 He was born in eighteen eighty six to a good 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:52.600 family in Beaver City, Nebraska. 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:56.840 Beaver City, Nebraska, beaver City, population fourteen Salt. 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.920 Of the Earth nineteen oh four. He's eighteen years old 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.400 and he picked up stakes, and he moved to Seattle. Why, 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:04.520 I don't know. 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:06.800 The railroad went there, sure. 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:09.000 And once there, well, I mean it was like he 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:15.240 was going to start the grunge movement. Yeah, he gets 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:18.560 there and he becomes a police officer, as you do. 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:22.760 So Seattle, which has a notoriously like suspect police department 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:23.200 at the time. 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:25.560 He was a cop in Seattle around the same time 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.160 my great great grandpa was a cop in San Francisco. 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:34.000 And so while my police organization, well my ancestor was 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.280 as crooked as they come, Olmsted was a straight arrow. 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.480 He worked his way up to lieutenant or as they say, 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.400 across the pond lieutenant. I just love saying that. 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.200 Also, by the way, on West coast police departments, you 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:48.719 ever wondered why there's not a lot of big mob 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.880 organization on the West Coast because the police were doing 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.080 They were in charge of the squad, in charge of 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:55.520 the vice. 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.840 Yes, we got lock exactly. They're like, this is our turf. 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.480 The Seattle Post Intelligencer had this like later profile of him, 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.000 and they said he had quote a knack for police work, 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:12.279 and he impressed superiors with his professionalism and intelligence. He 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:17.000 dutifully participated in busts and raids of rum smugglers and 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.920 noted when members of the quote Dry Squad were arrested 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:24.160 for stealing from the confiscated goods or taking bribes, were saying, yeah, 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:25.840 so he squealed on his coworkers. 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.440 Well you know he got it, Rye squad. 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:33.680 I see who you are. He's a snitch. This is 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:37.920 before prohibition, mind you, because in nineteen sixteen Washington State 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:38.680 banned alcohol. 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:38.960 Yeah. 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:39.880 Early, they were early on. 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:41.320 The three years ahead of the curve. 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:43.640 So because those boomtowns, you know, they were. 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:47.960 Suffering through heavens. Yeah, So then prohibition kicked in nationwide 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:52.120 and that became Olmsted's like primary focus is a big job. 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:55.680 And sharing a border with Canada meant that Washington and 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.960 Seattle were a main point of entry for booze as 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:00.280 it made its way into the state. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:02.560 All those waterways. Oh yeah, you can imagine. 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:06.760 So Olmsted saw what he was attempting to dismantle. So 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.359 there's this huge market willing to pay above top dollar 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.400 for liquor, and then the bootleggers are like kind of 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:17.080 disorganized and almost bumbling, and so we have this huge 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:21.120 treasure trove of high quality alcohol just miles away. He 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:25.120 couldn't help but see the situation and the opportunity. He 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:28.960 was organized, he's driven, he's creative in his thinking, like 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:30.800 he's the man for the job. 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.839 He's like, wait a minute, on the wrong. 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:39.520 Side of this, So he figures like I'm a dip 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:43.560 my toe in per the New Yorker quote. In nineteen twenty, 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:46.200 with the onset of prohibition, the thirty three year old 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:49.480 married father of two ventured to the other side of 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:53.320 the law, making midnight runs to retrieve imported Canadian liquor 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:55.160 from tugboats in the Puget Sound. 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:57.560 Oh there you go, so woo. 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:02.040 He's off to the races until he March twenty second, 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.200 nineteen twenty two months. 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.480 After prohibition at the beginning. 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.040 Into effect, he got busted. 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:11.040 Three months he had. 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:13.320 Managed to like skip around all these roadblocks that were 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.520 set up by the cops. But then he was eventually spotted, recognized, arrested. 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.000 Early because I mean, he's busting other people, and then 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:23.120 they make it officially. He's like, okay, let me get 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:23.560 in on this. 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:27.200 And now that it's a federal crime to get busted. 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.800 So he lost his job obviously, and he wound up 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:33.400 pleading guilty, had to pay a five hundred dollars fine, 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:36.680 and he may have lost his job and some cash, 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.520 but he gained the respect and admiration of the public 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:41.280 and he became a folk hero. 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:42.080 Really. 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.200 Everyone loved the fact that this cop flipped over and 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.920 was running booze. They're like, this is great. Yeah, and 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.200 a folk here working for us, Yes, and he can't 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:56.440 just abandon his calling, like what makes him the celebrity 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.360 he is, So he went all in. He headed up 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.320 to Canada to do some deals. Okay, so, thanks to 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:06.080 prohibition and like other economic forces, Canada and Mexico were 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:09.800 starting to establish trade relations and Olmsteed won it in 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:13.520 on that kind of He went up to Canada under 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:17.440 the pretense of buying liquor for import into Mexico. He 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:18.480 was going to be a middleman. 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:20.800 So they're cutting out the US and it'd be like, 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:22.040 we both still drink. 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:26.080 We're civilized, we can where adults were grown. Yeah, we 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:28.800 can handle our whiskey and tequila, right, And he's like, guys, 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:32.400 I'll be your import export dude, Like I'm your middleman 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.400 and I'm just trying to get Canada's quality stock to 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:38.640 the good folks down Mexico Way, and the Canadians are 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.840 like capital idea, let's do it. And then they all 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:45.760 high fived and signed the deal is amazing. So Olmsted 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.520 bought his cargo, had it loaded onto ships with manifests 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.160 indicating Mexico as the destination. And what I would imagine 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:58.000 was probably like port of Lazaro Cardenas in Machoicon. That's 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.160 like the big dog one down there. So as the 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.040 ships were heading out to the Pacific Ocean via the 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.480 Salish Sea, they made a detour and they would slip 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:11.000 into the Puget Sound under cover of darkness, never making 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:13.840 it to the open water the Pacific, never making it 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:20.080 south of Washington State, never went down to Mexico. The sound. 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:22.920 Puget Sound is full of islands and inlets and coats, 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.920 and some more difficult to access than others. So he 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:30.360 had crews at a bunch of locations all along the sound, 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.280 tucked in where like nosy, lookie louse couldn't see it. 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:35.360 Oh yeah, I mean, you know, it's like gray skies, 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:37.520 it's like lots of day. 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.920 And so they were there to intercept that Canadian liquor 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.080 for sale. And distribution right here in the US of A. 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:49.520 So Olmsted had this whole network of guys, rum runners 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.199 in their fast boats. He had heavies to carry the 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.240 boxes of booze from the boats to waiting cars and trucks, 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:59.520 drivers to speed down back roads. Workers on a farm 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:03.000 that served as a storage facility, loading and unloading the 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:04.959 disguised payload in the barns. 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:06.520 His distribution centers. 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:10.760 Say, insiders at bars and restaurants and speakeasies like get 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:11.360 up one to pay. 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:12.040 Oh. 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:16.479 Yeah. He had lawyers, dispatchers, clerks. The ships had skippers 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:21.160 and navigators. There were bottlers for the wholesale purchases. He 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:26.400 was a systems loaders, drivers, deliveryment, bill collectors, salesmen, all 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.400 part of the Olmsted machine. And as Shirley Manson saying 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.920 in Garbage, I'm only happy when it rains. That was Olmsted, like. 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:39.440 He loved bad Seattle weather. That's his favorite, yeah, because 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.559 that's when the Coastguard was least likely to be on patrol. 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:45.600 And so one location he loved to use when the 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:50.480 weather was bad was Darcy Island, and it's in this 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:53.720 strait right off Vancouver Island. It was used as a 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:57.320 leper colony for Chinese immigrants up until nineteen twenty four, 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.560 and that's around when he's using it. So we call 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:05.600 leprosy Hanson's disease today. Yeah. In other words, a lazaretto 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:09.480 is what this was. And when they closed it, they 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:13.360 moved the last remaining five or so afflicted to another island, 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:16.640 and that one was tending to an outbreak of Hanson's 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:21.360 among duke Bores. You ever heard of them? No, you're 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:23.960 curious like I was when reading about this in an 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:27.640 old newspaper. Thanks to newspapers dot Com. Check this out. 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:31.760 So the duke Bors translates to spirit wrestlers, and they 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:38.160 are spiritual Christian ethno religious group of Russian origin, strict pacifists. 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:42.880 They believe in egalitarianism, They reject institutional church authority. 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:44.240 Were were they the Newdists? 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:48.000 No? No, So they ran from religious persecution in Russia 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.360 made their way to Western Canada around the turn of 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.640 the twentieth century. But they refused to take an oath 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.640 of allegiance to the British crown, and they didn't believe 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:00.560 in individual land ownership, just communal living. So they made 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:05.839 their way to the west coutine and boundary regions of 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:09.400 British Columbia where people would just leave alone. So then 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:13.640 they had this outbreak of leprosy of Hanson's disease, and 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:16.640 they had to be isolated and put on a lazaretto 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.480 on an island in the Sound. So back at Darcy Island, 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.120 I think Olmsted was using the island in the final 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.840 days of the colony and then after it shuttered, so 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.200 there would be all these row houses along the shore, 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:33.720 newly empty and like makeshift graves still fresh. Wow, and 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.720 these loading and people. I was reading up on the 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:39.720 island as part of my dedication to side Quest, and 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.880 I found this really interesting article in British Columbia magazine 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.720 about it. It's like it's a tragic place, obviously, and 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.000 the author even admits that it carries like a strange, 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:54.960 ominous energy to this day. But for our purposes here today, 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:58.959 this bit I found helpful. Quote. Below, the water around 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:03.360 the island's shores lurk numerous hazards, while above it erratic 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.560 moody currents break on reefs and shoals. George Mercer, who 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.400 was an ecologist with Parks Canada for more than three 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.439 decades before retiring in twenty twelve, knows Darcy Island. Well, 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.440 it's notorious. When there's a tide, you can see it 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.160 from the air, and it's just wild. You have ripped 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:24.160 tides all around, submerged rocks and powerful tides and currents. 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:28.360 Boaters and kayakers have to really choose their time. Mercer, 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.679 who has since retired, has now turned his hand to 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:36.000 writing popular mysteries based on some of these parks. Yeah, okay, 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.040 so that's so Darcy Island. It's super treacherous. But he's 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:41.400 got all these guys who know everything like the back 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:43.679 of their hands, and they're willing to go on to 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.719 this spooky island with terrible conditions. 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:49.160 Oh and it's not like the wet leprosy like there's bandages. 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:51.880 It's all past. So it's just no real danger to 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:52.280 the people. 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:54.280 At this point in the papers when I was looking 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:56.360 it up, they're like they had hit like a treatment 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.240 for it. Okay, And so that was what made a 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:01.240 big change why they were able to kind. But you 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:04.520 know the at Darcy Island when it was the Chinese 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.679 immigrants there, they people went once a year to give 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.040 them or twice a year something you had to supplies, 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.000 and then when they finally got a treatment, then they 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.440 dropped doctors and treated them, and then like you know, 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:17.320 we're able to kind of move forward. And like I said, 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:19.760 they took the last remaining people put them over in 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.840 the other lazaretto. But so we got Darcy Island and 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.800 there's Olmsted's gang unloading four thousand sacks of whiskey at 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:31.160 a time onto the shore, waiting for quick boats to 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:35.360 take smaller loads into Puget Sound. So everyone from his 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:39.760 fellow crooks to the federal agents pursuing him called Olmsted 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:44.720 quote the good bootlegger. Yeah, because he was as honest 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.920 a criminal as there could be. So he never watered 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.280 down his whiskey or blended it with cheap or like 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:55.040 poisonous filler. He stuck solely to running alcohol. More than 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:59.080 once he was offered entrance into other criminal enterprises drugs, 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:03.680 prostitution always declined. And what puts him in the ridiculous 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:07.480 crime Hall of Mummayhn is that he was never violent. 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.720 He told his men that if they were caught, they 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:14.240 needed to use bribes. No violence, It's like economic violence. 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:16.400 Okay. So he was just like Johnny applesy for liquor. 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.800 Yes, and he wouldn't let any of his organization carry weapons. 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:22.720 And he was known to say, quote, no amount of 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:24.960 money is worth a human life. That's what you would 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:25.840 tell him. Right. 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:30.000 So here here, mummy, yeah right. 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.440 So it's the early nineteen twenties. His business is booming. 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:36.160 Guys making two hundred grand a month. Do you want 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.520 me to blow your socks off, Sarian, that's almost four 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:42.400 million today a month a month. 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:46.560 Drug dealing, zim, Yeah, it is so drug deal. 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:54.000 It wasn't Harlem exactly. It wasn't surprising then that he 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:57.400 was one of the biggest employers in all of Seattle. 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.960 Oh magine, Washington state. Other than logging. 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:04.240 He had the mayor Doc Brown in his pocket. He 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:08.800 was buddies with the chief of Police Brown, Doc Brown. Yeah. 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.160 He could pretty much conduct business out in the open. 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:13.080 It was no big deal. And it got to the 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.560 point where he could like unload whiskey in the middle 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.920 of the day from trucks marked fresh fish. It didn't matter. 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:26.520 According to according to Seattle's NPR station k u o 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:29.920 W quote, he was very approachable if you saw him 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:31.560 on the street and wanted to talk to him. You 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.000 could stop and take a picture with you, or shake 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:35.480 your hand, chat with you for a bit. 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.040 Just a nice guy, an amiable officer, friendly who's now 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:39.680 a run runner. 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:41.920 No one got in his way, and not because he 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:45.120 was a tough guy. He was just charismatic, straightforward. He 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:49.360 knew what people wanted. Both booze and a legendary figure 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:52.960 to talk about. Back to k U O W quote. 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:57.280 The founders of a major airplane manufacturer were customers reputedly 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.240 at a prominent gentlemen's club in downtown Seattle. Was a 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.960 customer of Olmsted, as were speakeasies all over town, from 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:08.360 those in the central district to those in the city's 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:12.359 most exclusive neighborhoods. It really was. Olmsted really served a 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.520 clientele that covered the demographic bases of our city. Seattle 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.359 was a boomtown in the nineteen twenties. Oh yeah, oh yeah. 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:21.399 Have you ever seen the president of Seattle before it 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:23.800 was a town? These spikes of hills and they're not 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:24.800 like hills, are like. 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:30.040 Crazy, exactly exactly. Let's stop for a second. Imagine what 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:34.480 Seattle in the twenties must have been like spikes of hills, boomtown. 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:36.920 Log roll like the actual skid row. They had an 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:38.080 actual skid row. 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:40.520 So let's daydream a little and when we come back, 0:17:40.840 --> 0:18:07.200 more of the Olmsted machine. Sarah Elizabeth, where was I? 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:08.879 Where were you? 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:12.400 I was Roy Olmstead. So he is a big deal 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:16.440 running a big operation. He had an office in downtown Seattle, 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:17.960 one block from the Federal Building. 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:19.040 M hm uh. 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:22.320 And there were three telephone lines installed in his office, 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.280 which was like a big deal totally. According to the 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.920 New Yorker quote, one of his men, a former taxi dispatcher, 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.159 sat during business hours at a roll top desk, taking 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:36.679 and making calls, keeping meticulous records of each transaction. If 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.400 a serious matter arose, such as an employee's arrest, Olmsted 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:42.879 himself called a friend on the Seattle Police Force to 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:43.680 have it squashed. 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.560 Of course, he's got tons of friends on these Yeah, 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:48.440 he is a former coworkers. I mean yeah. So it's 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:50.000 like and he didn't go out badly. 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.719 Yeah, well yeah, I got I like fire on police. 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:56.200 He didn't like beat anybody up. He didn't take anybody 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:56.920 down with him. 0:18:57.000 --> 0:18:59.080 And you know they're all thinking the same thing, like 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:00.000 this is easy money. 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.000 Yeah, it's just like there's some pool money. 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.240 So at this point he's only interacting with Seattle PD. 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:10.040 But then the Feds got window. There was just too 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:14.359 much alcohol flowing through Seattle like something had to be done, 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:18.080 and the FEDS loved busting guys like him, so the 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:23.119 Feds descended on Seattle. They had developed quite a wiretap 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.640 system by this point, and sometime in nineteen twenty four 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:27.880 they wired Olmsted. 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:29.040 Oh so we're still prehover. 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:32.560 Yeah, So a guy dressed in the uniform of a 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:37.320 telephone repairman went into Olmsted's office building. He got the 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:40.560 place all wired up and slipped out and they started 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:45.640 listening and listening, and then Mayor Doc Brown went out 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:49.240 of town for a week. Perfect opportunity. So the Feds 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:52.800 they got to acting Mayor Bertha Landis and pulled her 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.919 in on the operation. She fired the corrupt chief of 0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.919 police and tried to close every single speakeasy. 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.080 I says, he's a real tea total I'll give you 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:03.640 the warrants. 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.240 Yeah. Then the Feds swooped in and went after every 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:12.040 illicit operation they could. Seattle's prohibition director, William Whitney, he 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:17.000 hired this freelance wire tapper, Richard Fryant, that's a job 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:20.679 to say you have freelance wire tapper. So after a 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:24.520 couple days, Fryant goes up to Olmsted, holds out this 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.879 heavy stack of paper and he's like, these are the 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:32.000 pages of verbatim transcripts of conversations from your office phone. 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:34.600 And Fryan's like, you can have them. This is the 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:37.520 only copy for ten grand. So it's like two hundred 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:41.080 thousand dollars today, and so he lets Olmsted flip through 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:43.640 to make sure they're the real deal. This is from 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:46.600 The New Yorker. A call from a cop to a 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.600 worker at Olmsted's headquarters down under Fifth Avenue Bridge is 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:52.560 a car with seven gallons of moonshine in it, and 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:54.960 I was wondering if it's yours. No, I don't think 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:57.920 it's ours, because we don't handle moonshine. A call from 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:01.600 Olmsted to the police station. Hello, Roy, what's on your mind? 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.080 One of your fellows picked up one of my boys. 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.040 I don't give a damn what they do, but I 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:09.119 wanted to know before he's booked. I'll take care of 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:12.399 it for you, Roy. A joking stange between Olmsted and 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:16.679 the dispatcher. The Federals will get you one of these days. No, 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.640 those sons are too slow to catch cold Olmsted equipped, 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.359 so he keeps as cool, right, he's reading on, reading on. 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.480 He's not ruffled because he'd been a cop. He knew 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:30.840 about evidence, and he knew what was admissible, and wire 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.719 tapping was illegal in the state of Washington. Oh really, 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.840 none of this would stick. Yeah, So he told Fryant 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:38.800 to kick rocks. Just get out of here, dude. 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:40.680 But it's not gonna be stayed charges, right, It's gonna 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:41.679 be federal charges. 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:44.159