0:02

You're listening to American Shadows, a

0:04

production of I Heart Radio and Grim

0:06

and Mild from Aaron Minkey.

0:18

To anyone passing by, the small store

0:21

on Third Avenue never seemed to be open.

0:23

Locals knew better, though. Behind

0:26

the unlocked screen door and stacks

0:28

of filthy boxes, proprietor Tony

0:30

Marino operated a small speakeasy.

0:33

The place didn't look like much, just four

0:36

tables, a sofa that doubled as Tony's

0:38

bed, and apply wood bar along

0:40

the back. Times

0:42

were hard in the winter of the

0:45

end of both the Great Depression and Prohibition

0:47

were still a year away. On

0:50

most days when customers paid,

0:52

That is, Tony made enough to occasionally

0:55

pay bar keep Red Murphy and stay

0:57

out of the breadlines. On

0:59

a cold January night, four

1:01

of the speakeasies regulars joined Red and

1:04

Tony at the bar, undertaker

1:06

Francis Pasqual, Daniel Kreisberg,

1:08

Tough, Tony Bestone, and Joe Magleone.

1:12

Like everyone else, the men were doing what they

1:14

could to keep themselves afloat. Tough

1:16

times often inspired creative ways

1:19

to make a little money on the side, and the

1:21

men had come up with a doozy.

1:26

The idea had actually come to them back in the

1:28

summer, but now more than seven

1:30

months later, it still hadn't earned

1:32

them a cent. Not only

1:34

that, but the expenses kept piling up.

1:37

The men began to think their money maker was more

1:39

of a money pit. Red

1:42

poured every one another drink as they discussed

1:44

their options. Should they start over,

1:47

and, to make matters worse, Mike, a

1:49

real regular at the bar, had vanished

1:51

a week before. Until

1:54

then, you could set a watch by Mike, and

1:56

without him their plan would fail. Days

2:00

had scoured the papers and called around

2:02

looking for a sign of him. Tony even

2:04

called the local hospitals and morgues, but found

2:07

nothing. Francis had reached

2:09

a level of desperation the others hadn't seen

2:11

before. Maybe they needed someone

2:13

else, he suggested, anyone that

2:16

would solve part of their problem, but

2:18

not without additional risks. So

2:21

the men down to their liquor and complained

2:23

that the whole thing had become too challenging, too

2:25

complicated. And that's

2:27

when the door blew open, bringing in a

2:30

blast of winter air and with it

2:32

Mike man. Mike said,

2:35

I sure, I am dying for a drink, And

2:38

that was their problem. You see, Mike

2:41

had more lives than an alley cat. So

2:44

as he settled down at the bar, eager

2:46

to tell his friends what had happened to him, the

2:48

men around him wondered just how many

2:50

times would they have to kill him?

2:53

Because some people, it seems, just

2:55

don't know when their time is up. I'm

2:59

Lauren Vogelball, Welcome to

3:01

American Shadows. Before

3:10

he showed up at the speakeasy, no one had

3:13

known much about Mike malloy. He had

3:15

once told them that he came from Ireland, but he

3:17

had no friends or family to speak of, and

3:20

like many of the men in the Bronx at the time, Mike

3:23

was rarely employed and certainly

3:25

down on his luck. He had once

3:27

been a firefighter, but alcoholism had

3:29

cost him his job. Now he

3:31

did whatever he could, working the occasional

3:33

gig as a janitor or a garbage collector.

3:36

Where he went or slept when he wasn't at

3:38

the speakeasy was anyone's guests. He

3:41

lived a hard life, Yet every

3:44

morning, like the one back in July two,

3:48

Mike often walked into the speakeasy with

3:50

a smile on his face. Another

3:52

morning's morning, if you don't mind, he'd say in

3:54

his thick Irish brogue. He'd

3:57

slide up to the bar and drink until Tony's

3:59

arm tired of pouring or he passed

4:02

out. It could honestly go either

4:04

way. This

4:06

particular morning, though, it was the ladder,

4:09

and now he lay snoozing at the foot of

4:11

the bar. Mike, along

4:13

with others like him, lived and died

4:15

on the streets. If the winters

4:17

didn't kill them more, they didn't starve to death,

4:20

then the drink got them. No

4:22

one noticed guys like Mike, and

4:24

it seemed as if no one cared, and

4:27

that had sparked the idea. Tony

4:30

had been letting Mike drink on credit for a while,

4:33

but he rarely paid anymore. Tony

4:35

turned to Francis and the others, shaking his head.

4:38

Business is bad, Francis

4:41

regarded Mike's disheveled sleeping form,

4:44

and why don't you take out insurance on Mike.

4:47

The men looked quizzically at Francis. I'll

4:49

take care of the rest, he added. One

4:52

by one. The men nodded. This

4:55

could work. In fact, Tony

4:57

had done this before with a homeless woman. He

5:00

had befriended her and then convinced her to take

5:02

out a life insurance policy with none other

5:04

than himself as the beneficiary, and

5:07

had gotten away with it too. No

5:09

one seemed to miss people like her. The

5:12

men huddled closer, working up the details.

5:16

Francis would befriend Mike, and all Tony

5:18

needed to do was supply the alcohol. Tony

5:21

glanced over at Mike, currently snoring

5:23

on the Speakeasies floor. Mike

5:26

was fifty and looked sixty. He's

5:28

all in, Tony said, he ain't got much longer

5:30

to go anyhow. The stuff is getting him.

5:34

The stuff, as Tony put it,

5:36

was alcohol that contained any number

5:38

of things that could kill a person, namely

5:40

methodon also known as wood alcohol.

5:44

Most came from bootleggers who stole industrial

5:46

grain alcohol to make whisky, another liquor.

5:49

In nineteen twenty seven, the government, in

5:52

an effort to thwart bootleggers, had mandated

5:54

that all cleaning supply manufacturers

5:56

double the amount of wood alcohol in their products.

6:00

But that's not all. Some formulas

6:02

from federal officials even had producers add

6:04

kerosene and puritying to give alcohol

6:06

a truly unpleasant taste, with

6:08

the side effect of potentially poisoning the drinker.

6:12

None of that, however, stopped people from

6:14

drinking bathtub gin, moonshine

6:16

and whatever the bootleggers made. Drinking

6:19

was risky and people were dying all over

6:21

the place, so why not Mike.

6:25

The six men figured the job would be easy.

6:27

They smiled and toasted to their new

6:29

side hustle, the murder Trust, they

6:32

called it. We should finish

6:34

it all up in a couple of weeks, Tony said,

6:37

and anyone looking at Mike would agree. He

6:39

drank the worst of the bootleg whiskey.

6:42

People were not only dying on the stuff he drank,

6:44

they were going blind, having seizures. Some

6:47

even became paralyzed. Mike

6:49

was already on his way out the way he drank.

6:53

It didn't take long to get things going. Whenever

6:55

Mike showed up, the men slapped him on the back

6:57

and welcomed him at the bar. Tony

7:00

and Red kept the drinks flowing, starting

7:02

with higher grade stuff, but then gradually

7:04

adding more wood alcohol. Mike

7:07

never noticed. On one

7:09

such night, they told Mike that Tony was running

7:11

for office and handed him a petition design

7:14

and Mike, who thought these men were his friends,

7:16

never read a word. If he had,

7:18

he would have seen had signed an insurance policy

7:21

application. Mike was happy

7:23

to help them out. He had once told another

7:25

patron they were the only friends he had in

7:27

the world. While

7:30

the men waited on insurance approval, Mike

7:32

drank and drank some more.

7:35

But when the insurance agency's reply finally

7:37

came back, it stated that they were denying

7:39

the application. Mike was a

7:41

bad risk, they said, and refused to

7:43

ensure him. Apparently alcoholics

7:46

and the prohibition era weren't good investments.

7:49

A second insurance company echoed the first.

7:53

Finally, a third agency, who had never

7:55

met Mike, agreed, and the gang took

7:57

out three policies on Mike, as

7:59

well as a double indemnity clause. If

8:02

Mike died, they'd get close to eight hundred

8:04

dollars worth over thirty thousand

8:06

today. Tony passed

8:08

to the good news to the others. With the double

8:11

indemnity clause, which offers an additional

8:13

payout in the case of accidental death, they

8:15

stood to make a nice little profit. But

8:18

Mike didn't die for

8:21

months. He drank his fill of whiskey laced

8:23

with wood alcohol, wiped his mouth on a dirty

8:25

shirt sleeve, thanked Tony for his gracious

8:27

gift and then left. If

8:29

anything, Mike seemed happier, and he

8:32

even looked healthier. Tony

8:34

worried he would go bankrupt, and

8:36

Francis complained that the monthly cost of the

8:38

insurance premiums had started eating into their future

8:41

profits, so the men doubled

8:43

down their efforts. One

8:45

night, a short while later, Red slid

8:48

a shot glass over to Mike. New

8:50

stuff came in, he told the man, and

8:52

Mike grinned and drank it down. Red

8:56

refilled it a few more times, each one

8:58

vanishing into Mike's open mouth. Smooth,

9:01

the drunk said, and then promptly

9:03

collapsed. They dragged

9:05

Mike to a cotton the back, thinking they'd have to

9:08

pay off a doctor on the death certificate. And

9:10

the new stuff was of their own concoction,

9:12

you see, wood grain alcohol

9:15

laced with anti freeze. But

9:17

Mike didn't die. An

9:20

hour later, he shuffled back to the bar and

9:22

asked for more. So the

9:24

men added even more anti freeze, as

9:26

well as rat poison and finally turpentine,

9:30

but Mike just kept drinking, happy

9:32

to have finally found friends. To

9:35

him, this was the good life. But

9:38

what they needed was a new plan. Mike

9:41

loved seafood, so why not spike some oysters

9:43

with d natured alcohol. All the

9:45

men agreed Mike was as good as dead. The

9:48

next time Mike joined them at the bar, they served

9:50

him a meal of the oysters. They waited

9:52

patiently as he ate each one, savoring

9:54

every bite. Two dozen oysters

9:57

later, he licked his fingers and washed

9:59

it all down with more tainted alcohol. Here

10:01

it comes. The men thought, there's no way

10:04

this could fail. But Mike

10:06

just belched, banked his hosts,

10:08

and left, and just like

10:10

clockwork, he showed up the next night

10:12

for more of the same. Oh,

10:15

there were a few close calls, or so

10:17

the men thought. One night, after

10:19

Mike collapsed onto the floor, Francis

10:21

knelt beside his body and checked for a pulse.

10:24

He was still alive, but barely. The

10:27

rise and fall of his chest had slowed,

10:29

and his breathing was ragged. So the men

10:32

played cards and waited. But

10:34

wouldn't you know it, Mike began

10:37

to snore, eventually sleeping

10:39

off the liquor. Upon waking,

10:41

he rubbed his eyes, got to his feet and

10:43

said, boy, and I got a

10:45

thirst, give me some more of the old regular Milad.

10:48

Frustrated, the gang held another planning

10:51

meeting. This time they let

10:53

a can of sardines spoil for a few

10:55

days. Not satisfied the food

10:57

alone would do the trick, though, Red added

10:59

shrap knoll and made it into a sandwich.

11:02

All that metal would surely tear Mike's

11:04

insides to ribbons. But he

11:06

ate the sandwich and liked it so much that he asked

11:09

for another. Annoyed,

11:11

the gang ditched their concoction of laced

11:13

whiskey and upgraded to straight what alcohol.

11:16

It was a death sentence for sure, but

11:18

Mike proved them wrong. Months

11:21

of free alcohol, alcohol that had killed

11:23

upwards of fifty that are Americans,

11:26

mind you, and Mike handled it

11:28

like it was afternoon tea. For

11:30

the members of the Murder Trust, it was

11:32

time to get serious. It

11:42

had been snowing hard that winter, but

11:44

that didn't stop Mike from showing up

11:47

for his daily round of free drinks. The

11:49

men came up with another plan. If

11:52

the alcohol, spoiled food, and shrapnel

11:55

didn't kill him, then maybe a New

11:57

York winter could. One

11:59

night, after Mike passed out, Tony

12:01

and Frances lugged him into a car and

12:04

drove to a nearby park. There

12:06

they hauled him out, dragged him through multiple

12:08

snow banks, and then laid him out on a

12:10

park bench. For good measure,

12:12

they stripped off his shirt and doused him

12:14

with five gallons of water. Mike

12:17

never woke up through the whole process. Good

12:20

riddance, the men thought, as they left him there

12:22

to die, and someone would find

12:25

just another homeless drunk frozen to death

12:27

on the bench tomorrow. With

12:29

the deed completed, the men went home.

12:32

The following morning, Tony went into the speakeasy's

12:34

basement for stock. They're

12:37

resting on a cot, was Mike, I

12:39

have a wee bit of a chill, he said. He

12:42

went on to explain that he certainly had

12:44

tied one on the night before, in

12:46

fact, had ended up half naked on a park bench.

12:49

The police had found him before he had caught his death

12:51

of cold, and drove him to a welfare house.

12:54

The good people there had supplied him with new clothing,

12:57

and then had walked the quarter mile back to

12:59

Tony's speak easy. By

13:01

this time, Tony was in a hot blooded

13:03

rage. He'd go bankrupt with Mike drinking

13:06

so much so a week

13:08

later, Tony did what any desperate

13:11

scumbag in his situation would do. He

13:13

hired a hit man. At

13:16

first, he tried to hire a professional, but

13:18

the guy proved too steep, so

13:20

the men asked another speakeasy regular,

13:23

one Eddie Smith, if he would do the job.

13:26

Eddie seemed a logical choice to his

13:29

shady reputation was well known. All

13:31

he needed to do was run down Mike with his

13:34

car and they'd pay him two hundred dollars

13:36

cash. Eddie listened,

13:38

but ultimately walked away from the offer

13:41

undaunted. The members of the Murder Trust

13:43

tried a third time, finding success

13:46

with a cab driver named Harry Green known

13:48

as Hershey. This time,

13:50

the men dropped the price a hundred

13:52

and fifty dollars for the hit, and Hershey

13:55

still took the offer. The

13:57

following night, Tony and the others loaded

14:00

Mike up with the usual drink until he blacked

14:02

out. Then Tony, Francis

14:04

and her She took Mike for a ride in the back of the

14:06

cab. They drove to a dark

14:08

side street and tossed him out into the middle

14:10

of the road, and then her She drove

14:13

down the road and circled back with

14:15

the cab bearing down on him. Mike woke

14:18

up and got to his feet. The cab

14:20

struck him, sending him onto the sidewalk. Her

14:23

She turned the cab around and came at his target

14:25

again. Mike dodged the cab

14:27

a second time, though so her She circled

14:29

around once more. Mike,

14:32

teetering on his feet, managed to leap

14:34

out of the way again. On the fourth

14:36

round, her She hit the gas and barreled

14:38

toward Mike. His body thudded

14:41

heavily against the cab, rolled

14:43

over the hood, and landed behind the vehicle

14:45

with a softer but audible thud.

14:48

But her she wasn't done yet, Oh no. He

14:51

wanted to make sure Mike wasn't coming back from

14:53

this one, and of course there was a hundred

14:55

and fifty dollars at stake, so

14:58

he threw the cab into reverse and backed

15:00

over Mike. Hershey then pulled

15:02

over and they all got out. They

15:05

had to be sure as they

15:07

approached to get a better look, though headlights

15:09

shone from down the street. The

15:12

three men jumped back in the cabin took off, leaving

15:14

the driver of the other car to either run

15:17

Mike over again or at least discover

15:19

his body. Either way, the

15:21

deed was done and in a day

15:23

or two they'd file for the insurance.

15:27

Days went by with no sign of Mike. Nothing

15:29

in the newspapers either, although that wasn't

15:32

definitive proof. After all,

15:34

Mike was a homeless drunk. Maybe

15:36

the papers didn't feel that his loss was very newsworthy.

15:40

And this is why our group of co

15:42

conspirators were panicking that January

15:44

evening in three. Mike's

15:47

body hadn't shown up at any funeral home, nor

15:49

at any morgue that Tony contacted, nor

15:52

even the hospitals. And no body

15:54

meant no proof Mike was dead. No

15:57

death certificate, no insurance payout.

16:00

As Red poured the drinks, they frantically

16:02

discussed their options. Francis

16:04

suggested finding some other drunk,

16:06

any drunk, who they could pass off as Mike,

16:09

But as the men lamented how complicated

16:12

things had become, the door opened and

16:15

Mike limped into the bar. Astounded

16:18

and curious, they listened to his story.

16:21

Mike told them that he had been in the hospital.

16:23

A card hit him and had him bad, he said,

16:26

and for the life of him, he couldn't recall

16:28

much of it. He had no idea

16:30

how he had gotten to the side street, or how

16:32

had managed to get hit so hard. He

16:35

had a fractured skull, a concussion, and

16:37

a broken shoulder. All he

16:39

knew was just how darn lucky

16:41

he was to be alive. Now,

16:44

at this point, you'd think the gang would

16:46

just give up, cancel the policy

16:49

and the offer of free booze, and let Mike

16:51

live out his days. The money

16:53

they stood to earn hardly seemed worth

16:55

the risk anymore. But they weren't

16:57

going to give up now, not after all they'd

17:00

been through. A showdown was

17:02

coming. Mike Malloy was

17:04

just another derelict drunk, and there

17:06

is no way that allow him to outsmart

17:08

them. So collectively,

17:11

the members of the Murder Trust decided that they

17:13

needed to put an end to Mike once

17:15

and for all. Besides,

17:17

they had one more idea. No

17:20

one could live forever, not even

17:22

Mike. Mike

17:33

got hammered on February twenty

17:35

two, I

17:37

mean blackout drunk. He

17:39

had help, of course, Tony, Francis,

17:42

Red and Daniel were all there to challenge

17:44

him to a drinking contest. Mike

17:47

could hardly turn down a little fun with his best

17:49

friends, especially when it involved

17:51

free drinks. Tony

17:53

naturally drank whiskey, but Mike

17:56

drank would alcohol, and naturally,

17:58

Tony won the contest. When Mike keeled

18:01

over at the bar out

18:03

but still not dead. Then

18:06

they lifted Mike off the floor, out the

18:08

door and carried him down the street

18:10

to a room they rented at a nearby hotel

18:12

on Fulton. Once

18:14

in the room, they dropped him on the floor. As

18:17

Mike lay snoring, the men put a rubber

18:19

hose into the side of his mouth, wrapped

18:22

his head in a towel, and connected the other end

18:24

of the hose to the gaslight. And

18:26

then they turned on the gas and waited.

18:30

This time there was no escape. It

18:33

only took minutes from Mike the durable

18:35

to die from carbon monoxide poisoning.

18:38

After that, the four men lifted his lifeless

18:41

body and put him in the bed. With

18:43

the job complete at last, they returned

18:45

to the speakeasy, where the entire gang

18:48

celebrated their success. The

18:51

next day, they sent Red to the hotel. He

18:53

feigned shock upon finding Mike's cold body.

18:56

Francis called a doctor, a crooked one.

18:58

They paid fifty dollars to write up a false report,

19:01

and the doctor signed off on the death certificate.

19:04

He listed the cause of death as pneumonia.

19:07

Francis being the undertaker, didn't

19:10

bother embalming Mike, and just

19:12

two days later they buried him in a twelve

19:14

dollar pine box in a pauper's grave plot

19:17

in Westchester County's Ferncliff Cemetery.

19:20

No fanfare, no special funeral,

19:22

no one mourning at his graveside. At

19:25

long last, the gang was rid of Mike

19:28

without wasting another moment. They filed for the

19:30

payout, but the insurance company told

19:32

them they'd have to wait a week between Mike's death

19:34

and sending the check. Oh

19:37

and there was one more catch. They

19:39

also wanted to see the body. Mike

19:43

may have been a drunk and forgettable to some,

19:46

but not everyone. The insurance

19:48

agent thought Mike's quick burial was suspicious

19:51

and withheld the money until an inquiry could

19:53

be conducted. And the insurance

19:55

agent wasn't the only one who was on to the

19:57

gang. You see, during

20:00

card games and drinks and other Bronx bars,

20:02

people had been talking about the man who refused

20:05

to die. That heard it firsthand

20:07

from Tony's regulars. It seems

20:10

that bits and pieces of the murder Trust

20:12

gang's conversations had been overheard

20:14

at the small speakeasy. And

20:17

then there was the cab driver, Hershey.

20:20

The gang had stiffed him, paying just twenty

20:22

dollars of the hundred and fifty that they owed him.

20:25

Disgruntled insiders are always

20:27

likely to talk, and talk he did,

20:30

not to the police, of course, but to

20:32

just about everyone else. Even

20:35

the professional hit man chimed in, telling

20:37

patrons and various bars that had been approached

20:39

to kill Mike, but Tony and the others

20:41

couldn't afford him.

20:44

Before long, everyone in the area

20:46

along Third Avenue was talking about

20:48

Mike the Durable. The story

20:50

was so incredible that even the beat cops had

20:52

caught wind of it, and one of them

20:55

passed the story along to a homicide

20:57

detective. After a

20:59

little sleuthing, the detective realized

21:01

this wasn't some off the wall fabrication, and

21:03

he contacted the Bronx's district attorney.

21:06

Before long, Mike's death was under investigation

21:09

from the insurance company and the Bronx

21:11

authorities. Meanwhile,

21:14

the talk on the street set the gang on edge.

21:17

Joe Maglione and Tony Bastone

21:19

got into a heated argument one night over

21:21

how much Bastone's part in the scheme was worth.

21:24

Joe felt sixty five dollars was fair.

21:27

The men took it outside, and

21:29

with Red looking on, Joe shot

21:32

and killed Bastone right there in front

21:34

of the speakeasy. Both Red

21:36

and Joe were taken into custody by the police

21:38

that night. On

21:40

May night, the d A had Mike's body

21:43

exhumed. The coroner knew immediately

21:45

that Mike hadn't died of pneumonia. The

21:48

color of his skin strongly suggested

21:50

monoxide poisoning. An

21:52

autopsy and toxicology reports soon

21:54

proved this, and within

21:56

two days the four remaining members

21:59

of the murder Trusts were arrested and indicted

22:02

for murder. Police

22:04

also arrested Harry Hershey Greene and

22:06

charged him with felonious assault, and

22:09

the doctor who had falsified the death certificate

22:11

was arrested and charged as well. Upon

22:14

their arrest, Tony Marino, Frances

22:16

Pasqual, Daniel Kreisberg, and Red

22:19

Murphy all pled insanity.

22:22

When the judge didn't buy their plea, they turned

22:24

on each other and then, in a last

22:26

ditch effort to explain themselves blamed

22:29

the only dead member of their gang, Tony

22:31

Bastone. He had forced them into

22:33

the plot and was a known gangster, They said,

22:35

of course, it wasn't like he could defend himself

22:39

by this time, though. The badly botched

22:41

insurance fraud and murtyr scheme fooled no

22:43

one, and honestly they had told

22:45

so many lies who would believe them at this point

22:49

it didn't work. All of them were

22:51

charged with Mike Malloy's death, except

22:53

for Joe, who was already facing charges

22:55

for the murder of Baston. Joe

22:57

was found guilty of that crime and sentence

23:00

to fifteen years in prison. Despite

23:03

the mountain of evidence. He proclaimed

23:05

his innocence to the bitter end, saying

23:07

it had only killed Bastone in self defense.

23:10

The others, however, met a

23:12

different fate. The

23:27

d A sought the death penalty for Mike

23:29

Malloy's murder, and the jury spent

23:31

little time seeing through the men's lives.

23:34

They were quickly found guilty, and

23:36

Tony Marino, Francis Pasqual, Daniel

23:39

Kreisberg, and Red Murphy were all

23:41

sentenced to the sing Sing Correctional Facility

23:43

to await their execution. Justice

23:46

had finally come for Mike malloy.

23:49

In the summer of ninety four, all

23:52

four of the men were sent to the electric chair,

23:55

and as of highlighting the resilience

23:57

of Mike, the durable, the chair known

23:59

as Old Barque, was successful. Like killing

24:01

the members of the Murder Trust on the first

24:04

try. Mike is

24:06

gone, of course, but he's not forgotten.

24:09

He was reburied, and his story lives on

24:11

in history, not only for being

24:13

the most tenacious of murder victims,

24:16

but also for becoming the first death that

24:18

the New York Medical Examiner's Office ever

24:20

investigated. Mike

24:22

lived a hard life, that much is

24:24

true. But even though the Murder

24:27

Trust killed him, he still managed

24:29

to outsmart the people who called themselves

24:31

as friends. Despite their

24:33

plotting, their lies, and their deception,

24:36

Mike could have offered them one piece of advice.

24:40

Honesty isn't always enjoyable, but

24:42

it's a lot easier than the alternative. Deception.

24:46

You see, is hard work, and

24:48

that's the truth. We can all raise a glass

24:51

too. There's

24:57

more to this story. Stick around after

24:59

this brief sponsor break to hear all about

25:01

it. The

25:07

Prohibition era lasted from ninety

25:11

three. It was an attempt by the government

25:13

to reduce crime, improved family

25:15

life, and prevent industrial accidents,

25:17

among other things. After all,

25:20

statistics showed that the average man drank

25:22

half a pint of whiskey a day, and

25:24

since it was so readily available and cheap,

25:27

alcoholism was on the rise, but

25:30

the US was making a lot of money off

25:32

of taxing alcohol. People

25:34

found a solution though, running everything

25:37

underground and paying off the politicians,

25:39

judges, and police. And

25:42

while the materials used by most bootleggers

25:44

were tainted to reduce the allure, it

25:47

didn't stop people. And it

25:49

turns out that even while Congress was

25:51

voting to ban alcohol, it was thriving

25:54

in the city around them.

25:56

Some estimates put the number of speakeasies

25:58

in Washington, d C. At that time at around

26:00

three thousand, and they were close to five

26:02

thousand bootleggers working to make and

26:05

sell the stuff. The biggest

26:07

supplier to those on Capitol Hill was George

26:09

Cassidy, also known as the Man

26:12

with the Green Hat due to the green felt

26:14

hat he always wore. He

26:16

had become DC's most prolific bootlegger

26:18

after his return from World War One, all

26:21

while serving a very small highly

26:23

select number of clients members

26:26

of Congress. Like

26:28

many bootleggers, George didn't go completely

26:31

unscathed. He was eventually

26:33

busted for supplying liquor and was sentenced

26:35

to eighteen months in jail, but

26:37

he never spent a single night there.

26:40

You see, every evening he would check out

26:42

of his cell, go home to his business, sleep

26:45

in his own bed, and then check back into

26:47

jail in the morning and

26:49

George's clients. Unsurprisingly,

26:52

not a single member of Congress was ever

26:54

charged. During

26:57

the days as he served his sentence, George

26:59

had a lot of time on his hands, so

27:02

in October of nineteen thirty he

27:04

wrote detailed notes on his dealings

27:06

with Congress. He never named

27:08

a single politician, though he was a

27:10

proper gentleman after all. Still,

27:14

it wouldn't take much speculation to

27:16

uncover those names. You see.

27:18

By George's account, of

27:21

Congress were drinkers of hard alcohol despite

27:23

what they voted for, and of course

27:26

they got the good stuff, while most other Americans

27:28

were left with the tainted stuff that could kill

27:30

them. Critics used George's

27:33

findings and ran newspaper articles

27:35

in the week before midterm elections that year,

27:38

when all the votes were in. The results showed

27:40

just how disastrous the confessions

27:42

of the Man with the Green Hat had been for

27:44

supporters of prohibition. In

27:46

fact, historians believe that George and his

27:49

notes might have even paved the way for repeal

27:52

in the cases of the Murder Trust and those hypocritical

27:55

politicians. I think that this

27:57

line from Sir Walter Scott sums

27:59

up the eam of both quite nicely. Oh

28:02

what a tangled web we weave when

28:04

we first practice to to see. Oh

28:08

and one more thing before we go. While

28:11

George Cassidy doesn't have a statue or

28:13

monument in d C, he does

28:15

have a place dedicated to him,

28:17

a Gin distillery aptly named

28:20

the Green Hat. American

28:28

Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum.

28:31

This episode was written by Michelle Muto

28:33

with researcher Robin Miniter, and

28:36

produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor

28:38

Young, with executive producers Aaron

28:40

Minky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.

28:43

To learn more about the show, visit grim and mil

28:45

dot com. For more podcasts

28:48

from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio

28:50

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

28:52

you get your podcasts.