Crazy Facts About Prohibition on Long Island

LongIsland.com

Fact: During Prohibition, Freeport Point Shipyard built patrol boats for the Coast Guard side-by-side with vessels for the rum runners they were chasing down.

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Photo: Nassau County Police Department, George F. Maher Museum.

For 13 years from 1920 until 1933 America was bone-dry, meaning that after the 18th Amendment was passed not a drop of liquor, beer, or wine was to be found in this country, creating a utopian society where men, women, and children were healthier, crime-free, and all became devoutly religious. Yeah, not really. The era was marked by debauchery, regular folks enriching themselves by smuggling illicit contraband, a rise in organized crime, and bartenders having to create innovative ways to mask the horrid flavor of homebrewed spirits with juices and other ingredients ushering in the modern age of cocktail-making (so actually something good came out of all this!)

 

Long Island was a hotbed of the rum running, speakeasies, and violent crime that followed in the wake of the experiment with enforced temperance in the United States. Below we have put together some crazy and historical facts about Long Island during Prohibition.

 

The 18th Amendment and Rising Crime

  • On January 16, 1919, states ratified the 18th Amendment ushering in the Prohibition Era
  • Congress passed the National Prohibition Act AKA the Volstead Act in 1919
  • The law went into effect in January 1920
  • As a result speakeasies popped up everywhere and Long Island was no exception
  • Criminal activity and organized crime around bootlegging increased on Long Island during prohibition
  • In the day, “malt shops” actually legally sold the ingredients to make alcohol at home although the brewing of beer and distilling liquor was still illegal
  • According to reports, Harold Schackman opened a malt shop in Patchogue in 1927 that was so successful he opened a second location in Riverhead on Peconic Avenue the next year
  • Federal agents raided his shop in 1933
  • Suffolk County District Attorney Alexander Blue is quoted as saying in the 1920s: “It is a recognized fact that the landing of liquor on the shore of Suffolk County has added materially in keeping New York City wet.”
  • Trucks that shipped illegal liquor to New York City were often disguised as newspaper trucks or bakery delivery trucks
  • Long Island farmers and fishermen were enlisted to help transport booze often making up to $150 for storing liquor in a barn
  • Nearly one third of all liquor that found its way into Manhattan came from Long Island
  • The Klu Klux Klan on Long Island joined with law enforcement to help enforce prohibition - often acting without official police authority

Claudio’s on the day of Prohibition repeal in 1933. Photo: Claudio's Website.

 

Speakeasies

  • Famous performer “Texas” Guinan ran a speakeasy called Texas Guinan’s Show Palace (later known as La Casa Guinan) on Merrick Road in Valley Stream
  • In 1923, Port Washington’s Cove Inn, was raided by police who arrested the owner and bartender, seizing 38 barrels of ale, 142 cartons of beer, and liquor
  • Claudio’s restaurant in Greenport kept its bar stocked with smuggled liquor during Prohibition
  • During Prohibition, Claudio’s became a fine dining restaurant on the ground floors with a lively upstairs bar for imbibing illegal spirits, according to its website
  • Booze was brought in by bootleggers by boat through hidden trap doors behind the bar, one of which still exists to this day
  • There was a speakeasy inside Riverhead’s J.J. Sullivan Hotel
  • A trap door that is still in the building today was used to pass liquor to a bakery next door
  • Members of Tammany Hall often drank at the hotel
  • J.J. Sullivan Hotel is now called Tweed’s, named after William Marcy Tweed AKA "Boss" Tweed
  • Canoe Place Inn in Hampton Bays, Savage’s Hotel in Zachs Bay and Wantaugh’s Sea Breeze Inn were also popular speakeasies
  • In Port Jefferson, Barker’s Hotel, the Evergreen, the American House and Bennett’s Restaurant all served liquor
  • According to an article by Port Jefferson village historian Ken Brady, “William Thompson, who ran the Ardencraig Bowling Alleys and Billiard Parlor, was twice convicted and fined for selling whiskey to shell-shocked veterans from the Vocational Training Institute at the Plant Hotel, now the site of Port Jefferson High School.”
  • According to the Freeport Library, in 1929 a reporter for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle by the name of Wilbur E. Rogers listed 15 speakeasies in Freeport and their locations:
    • Buffalo Avenue (run by Lulu Agard). Raided in July 1929
    • Casino Pool (run by Dominick Ferrara). Raided October 1920; April 30, 1921; and August 1921
    • Gordon Marine Club (run by John Jacobson) Raided July 1929
    • Newton Boulevard (run by Nicholas La Scala). Raided February 1925
    • 154 South Main Street (run by James Tiernan). Raided in 1932
    • Ray Street (run by Algot Luthander). Raided March 1929
    • South Columbus Avenue (run by Salvador Fiscella). Raided in July 1922
    • South Grove Street (now Guy Lombardo Avenue) (Run by Joseph Troutman). Raided March 1929
    • 280 Arthur Street (run by Elmer Bechtold). Raided in 1932
    • 300 Club located at 300 West Merrick Road. (run by Nellie Watson, and Henry Kothe). Scene of a double homicide in 1926
    • 360 Atlantic Avenue (run by Jacob Ulrich). Raided March 1929
  • An article in the Suffolk County News from 1930 reported on coordinated raids at speakeasies on Long Island. “A group of 40 Federal agents, led by William C. Nolan, Deputy Prohibition Administrator for Brooklyn, swept down on Long Island during the weekend, raiding 13 places in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, arresting 25 men and confiscating several truckloads of beer, whiskey, gin and win.”

Rum Runners

  • Because of its miles of shoreline and proximity to New York City, Long Island became a significant part of booze smuggling during prohibition
  • Long Island has more than 1,600 mile of shoreline
  • Local baymen, with their knowledge of the waterways, became important part of the network of rum runners
  • According to the Long Island History Journal, “Captain Bill McCoy pioneered rum running in the first years of Prohibition when he loaded a former fishing schooner with foreign liquor and anchored three miles off Long Island in May 1921”
  • All sorts of vessels joined him in transporting foreign liquor to Long Island’s South Shore
  • The vessels became known as Rum Row
  • Since the vessels were registered in forriegn countries the Coast Guard was initially helpless to enforce the law against the rumrunners
  • Enforcement was increased as Congress put money into the Coast Guard’s efforts by building more boats to patrol the waters
  • Criminals weren’t the only ones benefiting from Prohibition, Freeport Point Shipyard in Freeport built both patrol boats for the Coast Guard and boats for rum runners during Prohibition side-by-side
  • Gangster Dutch Schultz purchased three 42-foot rum running boats from Freeport Point Shipyard
  • Long Beach was a notorious rum running spot and it is rumored that corrupt officials would use the city’s clock tower to signal bootleggers it was ok to offload their booze
  • According to the Montauk Lighthouse Historical Society post, on February 15, 1932, “11 men were arrested as rumrunners when their Canadian-registered ship, the Algie, was grounded on Shagwong Reef near Montauk Point carrying between $75,000 and $200,000 worth of rye and scotch whisky, It was believed the Algie grounded when it "was trying to slip into Fort Pond Bay to land its cargo," according to a Brooklyn Times-Union newspaper report at the time
  • In 1927, a lumber schooner called the W T Bell was converted into a rum-runner
  • During a gale storm the W T Bell went aground near Bayville with a cargo of $500,000 worth of bootleg scotch and whisky, according to Glen Cover Historian Daniel E Russell
  • After being rescued the crew disappeared and residents went to check the ship and found the stash of whiskey
  • Rusell reports that “The ship was a rum-runner, smuggling what would be one of the largest shipments of illegal scotch and whiskey ever to hit the north shore of Long Island.”
  • The ship was blown up with dynamite by the Coast Guard
  • On board was found 50 kegs of whiskey of 25 gallons each, 200 kegs of scotch of 15 gallons each, and 337 kegs of malt extract of 16 gallons each
  • Total value of the seized cargo was $420,680
  • This did not include the liquor that was looted from the ship by locals before authorities got there
  • A New York Times article in 1927 about the wreck carried the headline “Rum Ship Wrecked, Townsfolk Save Crew, Then Brave Raging Sea to Share in Liquor
  • The story reported that “Howard E. Taylor, chief of the Bayville Fire Department, and his men rescued the crew of six from the two-masted schooner W. T. Bell, which was blown ashore by the wind from Long Island Sound at 2 A. M. today and wrecked about 100 feet off the Summer estate of Winslow S. Pierce, lawyer and financier.”
  • In 1931, the Artemis - a notorious rumrunner craft - rammed a Coast Guard patrol boat off Orient Point
  • The Artemis escaped after being shot at by authorities
  • The boat reportedly was equipped with three 12-cylinder Liberty motors and achieved a speed of 45 MPH
  • The crew made it to shore and were taken to the hospital
  • A Coast Guard airplane spotted the run runner but it was towed away before authorities could seize it
  • According to a newspaper report from August 28, 1931 in the Port Jefferson Times Echo, the Artemis was then spotted being hauled out of the water in Port Jefferson for repairs at Long Island Shipyard inc, on Surf Avenue in the village
  • Nine machine gun bullets through the windshield were counted
  • No liquor was found on board
  • The Artemis was rebuilt and went into service as a ferry to Fire Island, renamed the South Bay Courier
  • An 85-foot tugboat called Lizzie D was used as a rum runner until it sank in 1922
  • The wreck was found in 1977 and visited by divers over the years
  • Divers have recovered bottles of whiskey from the wreck
  • A historical account says that North Shore rum runners were emboldened because “there were only two Coast Guard boats patrolling the entire North Shore and the coves and terrain made it difficult to be detected”
  • Bay Houses were used by rum runners to stash booze overnight and then unload cargo later
 

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