0:01

Hey there, it's your host ed helms.

0:03

Here.

0:03

Real quick, before we dive into this episode,

0:05

I wanted to remind you that my brand

0:08

new book is coming out on April

0:10

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0:12

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0:15

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0:20

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0:24

It's got all the wild disasters

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the tour details and day, or

1:01

just click the link in the show notes. That'll work too.

1:03

Okay, that's it, on with the chaos.

1:06

This is Snaffoo Season three

1:08

Formula six. Last

1:13

time on Snaffoo, Mabel

1:15

Walker Willebrandt's wet opponents were

1:18

scary powerful, especially

1:20

in court. George ramis one

1:22

of the craziest stories you hear,

1:25

like an incredibly successful defense attorney

1:27

becomes like the biggest bootlegger

1:29

ever. But even when Mabel won her cases,

1:32

it felt like she was always just

1:34

one step behind the sprawling

1:36

bootleg business.

1:37

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

1:40

And one of the things that was indicative of the

1:42

attitude of the dries is that they

1:44

passed these laws but gave no money

1:46

for enforcement.

1:47

Playing by the rules just couldn't hold

1:49

back the tide of liquor washing

1:51

over America.

1:53

The fact that there were only twenty six hundred prohibitionations

1:55

covering the entire Canadian border, of the Mexican

1:58

border, and both coasts.

2:00

It's ridiculous.

2:07

There's a storm rolling in over the little town

2:09

of Homer, Nebraska, in the creek

2:11

bottoms and river beds that criss crossed

2:14

the eastern border of the state. The water

2:16

starts to rise and

2:19

it all runs downhill towards

2:21

Homer. It's

2:24

nineteen nineteen and one of Homer's

2:26

newest residents a man named Richard

2:28

Hart is riding home with some

2:30

neighbors. He didn't grow up

2:32

in Nebraska. He was the kind of kid who

2:34

fell in love with the wild West. When

2:37

he was a teenager, he ran off to be a cowboy,

2:39

a bit of a thrill seeker. His journey took

2:41

him from the ranch to the circus to

2:44

the life of a soldier in the Great

2:46

War. When he came back

2:48

from the war, he took a train west

2:51

and Homer is where he landed. A

2:54

few of his new German American neighbors,

2:56

the Wench family, opened their doors

2:58

to him, car doors. At least

3:02

they're giving him a lift. He's crammed in

3:04

the car with Mama Wench and a few of her

3:06

kids, including the oldest daughter,

3:09

twenty year old Kathleen. They're

3:11

on the road winding along the Missouri River

3:14

when the oncoming storm overtakes

3:16

them.

3:17

Homer is very close to the Missouri River.

3:19

When Richard arrived, there was flood.

3:22

This is Richard's great grandson, Corey

3:24

Hart. And no, it's not the eighties

3:27

rockstar Corey Hart, who wears sunglasses

3:29

at night, much to the disappointment of

3:31

my inner ten year old. So families

3:33

in Homer, Nebraska know all too well

3:36

how the area is prone to flooding,

3:38

and this one is really bad.

3:42

Water rises up and crashes into the

3:44

little town. Dozens of houses

3:46

are destroyed and some are even completely

3:49

washed away.

3:53

For Richard and the Winch family in the car,

3:55

the situation gets dire.

3:58

What didn't realize is that a car that the n

4:00

was also beginning to be overtaken by

4:03

that flood.

4:04

The storm pounds on the hood of the car,

4:07

but through the rain they see a girl walking

4:09

on the side of the road. They

4:11

pull over to let her in and tell her it's

4:13

not safe outside, But

4:18

before they can get the car moving again, they're

4:20

caught in a surge of water. It

4:23

rises up under them, lifting the car

4:25

and sweeping the whole thing into the current.

4:28

The little girl is terrified, and in

4:30

a moment of panic, she jumps out

4:32

of the car and she's instantly

4:34

flushed downstream.

4:35

And so Richard saw what was happening

4:38

and jumped in to say the girl.

4:39

He swims hard and stays in control

4:42

despite the raging flood around him.

4:44

When he catches up to her, he finds

4:46

she's caught on a tangle of barbed wire

4:48

fence invisible under the murky brown surface.

4:51

Working quickly, Richard untangles her

4:54

and swims on. He drags her

4:56

to the far bank. Then he turns back to

4:58

the river.

4:58

Kathleen Lynch was in the vehicle that

5:00

was floating away, but Richard and

5:03

another individual and Homer, we're able

5:05

to jump in and pull that car to safety.

5:08

Richard bites the river yet again to

5:10

save Kathleen's life and drag

5:12

the Winch family car back to dry

5:14

land. Yes, you heard that right.

5:17

He pulls a car from a

5:19

raging flood one of those super

5:21

human adrenaline rushes, I guess.

5:24

So it was his bravery that really

5:26

caught the eye of Kathleen and

5:29

said that this is a guy that I want to be with.

5:32

Maybe a little bit of transference going on here,

5:34

but I'm kind of falling in love with this

5:36

guy right now. I mean, who wouldn't.

5:39

As the flood cleared and the story spread,

5:41

the town of Homer decided Richard

5:44

Hart was just the kind of hero

5:46

they needed. He may have still

5:48

been an outsider, but they made

5:50

this rugged twenty something their town marshal,

5:56

and just in the nick of time, because there

5:58

was another flood coming. The floodud

6:00

of illegal liquor that Alexander

6:02

Gettler warned about. It wasn't

6:04

just in the big cities like New York, it

6:07

was coast to coast. When

6:11

Mabel Walker, Willebrant and the Bureau boys

6:13

looked west for agents to fight

6:15

the alcohol flood in Nebraska,

6:17

Richard volunteered as a lawman.

6:20

He was known for toting not one, but

6:22

two guns, which gave him the

6:25

Wild West nickname of every little Cowpoke's

6:27

Dreams, Richard two

6:29

Gun Heart. He became

6:31

a soldier in the Dry Army. As

6:34

the leaders of the Dry cause grew more

6:36

and more desperate to fight the influx of

6:38

booze. It would put Richard shoulder

6:41

to shoulder with some of the most vicious

6:43

forces in America. I

6:52

met Helms And this is Snaffo,

6:55

a show about history's greatest

6:57

screw ups. This is season

6:59

three, story of Formula six.

7:01

How prohibitions war on alcohol went

7:04

so off the rails the government

7:06

wound up poisoning its own

7:08

people. Today,

7:15

we're leaving Norris and Gettler in New York and

7:17

James Duran and Mabel Walker Willebrandt

7:19

in DC, and we're taking a trip

7:22

out west to see how things are

7:24

going with prohibition agents. Far Afield

7:26

a place where classic yahoo

7:29

gun slinging methods were used, methods

7:31

that would shock the public and

7:34

eventually stain the dry

7:36

cause. So

7:43

this two gun nickname. In

7:46

the years before World War One, Richard

7:48

had ridden and ranched across the West.

7:51

His childhood dream was to be a cowboy, and

7:53

gosh darn it, he pulled it off. He

7:56

criss crossed the American planes, on cattle

7:58

drives, and even traveling

8:00

circuses. He was used to

8:02

long, lonely days on horseback, broken

8:05

up by shows where his trick shooting and

8:07

skills as a wrestler brought cheering

8:09

crowds to their feet. As

8:14

his great grandson Corey says, a little

8:16

of the circus showman stuck with him

8:18

throughout his life. He even bought himself

8:20

two pearl handled cult forty fives.

8:25

You love to show off, and so if

8:28

you could have the opportunity to show off his

8:30

sharp shooting skills, he would. There are

8:32

rumors that he would shoot apples

8:35

at the top of people's heads. If

8:38

you think, if Richard Hart, it's a thing,

8:40

it's always two guns. It's two guns, you know, and

8:42

so Why are you not going to call someone like that, two gun

8:45

heart?

8:46

It just fits Richard. Two gun

8:48

Heart. It's pretty good. You gotta admit, I've

8:50

been workshopping Eddie near Sighted Helms

8:52

for a while, but the focus group

8:54

around my kitchen table is not a

8:56

fan. For some reason. Richard,

8:59

though, was living out his childhood dream,

9:01

the hero of the story he'd always imagined.

9:05

When World War One took Richard, George

9:07

Cassidy, and a couple of million others over

9:09

to France, the Great War made

9:12

Richard an honest to goodness soldier.

9:14

But afterwards, as he's

9:16

heading out west, he just

9:18

gets off on this stop in Nebraska

9:21

and sees this town Homer, and knew this

9:23

was a point far enough west

9:26

where that lifestyle still existed,

9:29

so he could.

9:29

Continue this mission in his life to be a

9:31

cowboy.

9:35

Now, by this point, there weren't a ton of old

9:37

West cowboys still bopping around

9:39

out there. Wild Bill, Buffalo

9:41

Bill, all the old bills. That's

9:43

an older generation. It's the stories

9:46

that kept them alive, you know. The wave

9:48

of legacy sequels to classic nineties

9:50

flicks Twister, Terminator, Jurassic

9:53

Park, Jumanji. It was

9:55

kind of like that Richard loved the Wild

9:57

West shows when he was a kid, and he

9:59

was determined and to live out the sequel Western

10:02

law man still shooting.

10:06

When National Prohibition came to Nebraska

10:09

town, Marshall Richard two gun

10:11

Heart had his chance.

10:13

Governor recognized the fact that if

10:15

we're going to have prohbition agents, we need people

10:17

that are fearless, and Richard

10:19

Hart was somebody who fit that to a tee.

10:22

Toting a gun into the hills to face down

10:24

enemies of the law. It was a dream

10:26

come true for Richard. But once

10:28

he had his prohibition badge pinned to his chest,

10:31

he found he was facing a lot

10:33

worse than circus clowns.

10:35

I believe was around nineteen twenty, and

10:38

it was a really really bad rain storm.

10:41

Damn mother, and Nature's got it out for this guy, huh.

10:44

In any case, Richard hits the highway

10:46

with a prisoner in tow, a man he

10:48

had scooped up in a recent raid on a moonshine.

10:50

Still, he's trying to take the man

10:53

to link in, Nebraska, but he.

10:55

Got north and south missed up, so instead

10:57

of going back to take this criminal in, he ended

10:59

up going I believe that towards the South Dkota border.

11:02

Now, when he pulled into the little town of Spencer,

11:05

Richard could have you know, realized

11:07

he went the wrong way and turned

11:09

around. But not our two gun.

11:12

He was like double or nothing, So

11:14

he started asking around for some white

11:16

mule. The locals, proud

11:18

of the kick in their neighborhood, moonshine

11:21

knew exactly what he meant and helpfully

11:23

pointed him to the best distillery in town.

11:26

When the owner offered him a drink, Richard

11:29

arrested him. Then he went back

11:32

and also arrested the guy who gave him directions.

11:34

Maybe a little too thorough for a spur of

11:36

the moment operation, but that's just me,

11:39

two Gun. He was always

11:41

in for double or nothing. So

11:43

Richard crams all three guys in his car

11:46

and hauls them off to the local jail. But

11:48

when he gets there.

11:50

Found out that there wouldn't book either of

11:52

them.

11:53

And that's because the guy he had just arrested

11:55

for trying to sell him alcohol.

11:57

Yeah, one of them a town marshall.

11:59

He's the town marshal of

12:02

Spencer, the tiny town they're in.

12:05

So instead of accepting his arrest, this Spencer

12:07

Marshall and another officer played

12:10

a little Uno reverse card and

12:12

put Richard under arrest for disturbing

12:15

the peace. They squared off and

12:17

tried to shout each other down.

12:19

You're under arrest.

12:21

Now you're under arrest.

12:22

Oh you, no you no

12:25

you now you And

12:29

the guy who had the best seat in the house, the

12:31

original prisoner Richard had dragged along

12:33

for the ride. Apparently that guy

12:35

found the entire thing hilarious.

12:39

There's really discouraging for him. It was the

12:41

pinnacle of him understanding how much corruption

12:44

there was. This is not my law, and that

12:46

was the excuse that a lot of people used.

12:49

But like Mabel, Richard had decided that

12:52

prohibition was his law.

12:55

It was in the constitution now, which

12:57

meant two gun was free to have

12:59

a root and dute in times, smacking

13:01

down all manner of miscreants, scoff

13:03

laws, and ne'er do wells.

13:09

Just because a flood of Americans had decided

13:11

to break the law was no reason

13:13

to hold back on enforcing it. Richard

13:16

had beaten floods before. But

13:18

if there was one burr under two guns saddle,

13:21

it was Kathleen's family, his

13:23

in laws. You see, the

13:25

Winches owned a grocery store, and

13:27

they also did a little bruin on the side,

13:30

or you know, maybe kind of a lot.

13:33

There were good times, but then there were times when

13:35

the alcohol just kind of took

13:38

over.

13:38

That's Corey's dad, Jeff, Richard's

13:41

grandson.

13:42

When one of Kathleen's brother had too much

13:44

alcohol, it was my uncle

13:46

Harold. He would drink more than he should

13:48

have all the time.

13:50

When the Winches got to drinking, I can just see

13:52

Richard pulling his hat down over his eyes, like, seriously,

13:55

right in front of me. Come on, you're putting me on the spot

13:57

here. I mean, if you're pouring a beer

14:00

under the prohibition agent's nose, that's

14:02

going to make Christmas a little tense. But

14:05

Richard was doing his best to keep some tensil

14:08

on the Tan and Baum because there

14:10

was one line he didn't cross. He

14:12

never actually arrested the Winches for their home

14:14

brewing. Always seems

14:16

weird to me when people just roll with so much hypocrisy,

14:19

But then again, it was his in laws, and as much

14:21

as we all want to arrest our in laws, it's

14:24

probably better we don't. But

14:27

Richard justified it to himself. And

14:29

besides, it's not like there was a shortage of cases

14:31

for him to take on. And

14:34

in nineteen twenty three, he would take

14:36

a case that would put Richard

14:39

in over his head.

14:51

If he couldn't use his gun, he would use

14:53

his fist to apprehend these

14:56

criminals and bootleggers.

14:58

That was something he really d himself with and

15:01

this instance it went wrong.

15:05

It was October of nineteen twenty three.

15:07

Back in New York, Alexander Gettler is

15:09

starting to earn a reputation as a forensic

15:11

sherlock. He's just published a groundbreaking

15:14

study on the deadly solvent Benzene,

15:16

which, to his horror, he's finding in dead

15:18

bodies in his laboratory at Bellevue,

15:21

though he's not yet sure why. Meanwhile,

15:24

in d C. Babel, Walker Willebrant

15:27

is just starting to unravel the

15:29

epic corruption all around her

15:31

at the Department of Justice. And

15:33

back in the Heartland No pun Intended,

15:36

Richard Hart catches a break too.

15:39

He gets a tip about a bootlegger smuggling

15:41

liquor onto the Winnebago reservation near

15:43

Homer. He meets with some of the

15:45

Winnebago men who are willing to help him

15:48

stop the flow. Of liquor into their community.

15:50

He selected two of them to go

15:53

to kind of a bootleg

15:55

operation and try to scorse

15:57

some alcohol.

15:58

The operation kicks off when Richard and his

16:00

guys get the details of a midnight rendezvous

16:03

between a rum runner and his local

16:05

customers. They're going to

16:07

intervene. Richard parks out

16:09

of site nearby while his comrades

16:12

roll into the meetup posing his customers.

16:15

The idea was that as soon as able to come out,

16:17

he and another officer that

16:19

was with him with him make the arrest.

16:22

But the liquor crew gets suspicious

16:25

something's a little off. They refuse

16:28

to sell anything to Richard's accomplices,

16:30

who come back to him empty handed. There's

16:33

nothing Richard can use to make an arrest

16:36

for someone else. That might be the end of it a

16:38

failed operation, but Richard isn't

16:40

done. He wants to nab his bootlegger.

16:44

He continues to lie and wait nearby,

16:46

and sure enough, a couple of hours later, more

16:49

cars pull up. This time,

16:51

Richard doesn't try any tricks. He decides

16:54

he's just gonna let the deal go down and

16:56

then scoop up one of the customers to get his

16:58

evidence and the meetup

17:00

is over. The cluster of cars

17:02

splits up. Richard and his partner

17:05

give chase, so.

17:06

They're chasing after what they think is the

17:09

bootlegger.

17:09

Vehicle Richard's partner is driving.

17:12

He pulls them alongside the car they

17:14

think is hauling liquor, a big, beautiful

17:16

Buick. Richard leans out and tells

17:19

the bootlegger to pull over, but he doesn't,

17:21

so Richard ups the ante so.

17:24

He's actually out on the railing board telling

17:26

this bootlegger to stop.

17:29

He went stop so that he started firing shots

17:31

into the air, and then the car

17:34

that they're chasing sped off.

17:36

Now the chase is really on, and

17:39

the Buick, unlike Buick's up

17:41

today, is fast, like

17:43

really fast. It starts to pull

17:45

away. Frustrated, Richard

17:48

stops firing warning shots in the air

17:51

and levels his gun directly at the car.

17:53

He shoots his

17:55

partner with one hand on the wheel, leans out

17:57

the driver's side window, and starts

18:00

shooting too.

18:01

In an attempt to try to stop that car

18:03

by trying to take out the tires.

18:06

Richard shoots and hits the Buick. The

18:10

shot doesn't at the tire, it goes

18:12

through the back window and hits

18:15

the driver.

18:21

He actually shot the driver through

18:23

the mouth, and so when it came to the vehicle and

18:25

realized, oh, this is not the person that they were actually

18:27

trying to.

18:28

Chase, Richard

18:31

had made a terrible mistake.

18:33

Tried to take that individual to

18:35

the hospital, but is a lethal shot.

18:39

As Richard and his partner learned about the man

18:41

they had killed, they were mortified.

18:44

Not only was he not the bootlegger they were hunting,

18:47

he didn't have any liquor on him at all. Sure,

18:50

he was there probably to buy a drink,

18:52

but there was no actual evidence that

18:54

he was taking part in a crime.

18:57

And then then found out that this

19:00

was also World War One veteran, was

19:03

married, had a child

19:05

that was very young, it's less than

19:07

a year old, and was

19:09

a hero to the community for

19:12

being that World War One veteran was very well liked.

19:15

And that led to something new for Richard

19:18

because in the man's hometown, Sioux

19:20

City, Iowa, there was a righteous

19:22

uproar against Richard.

19:25

He had to have a court appearance because they

19:28

were charging him with manslaughter.

19:30

Led by the murdered man's grieving widow,

19:33

a crowd of thousands gathered in downtown

19:35

Sioux City in protest. Some

19:37

in the crowd were even muttering that they should kill

19:39

Richard in return.

19:41

And so he was under a lot of heat, so

19:43

he had to lay.

19:44

Low, and that

19:46

cleared the scene for another batch

19:48

of foot soldiers, even more

19:51

willing to enforce prohibition, not

19:53

with handcuffs, but with hand

19:55

guns. Remember

19:58

it was no secret at this point that the

20:00

prohibition enforcement effort was

20:02

a complete debacle. In

20:05

Washington, Mabel was burning with white

20:07

hot rage. The gall of George

20:09

remas the king of bootleggers, doing

20:11

time for tax evasion by playing poker

20:14

with his pals and dining on Filet Mignon

20:16

on Millionaire's row. The

20:18

treachery of that slime ball Jess

20:20

Smith, Mabel's DOJ officemate,

20:23

whose pockets were lined by the country's

20:25

biggest bootleggers. They were proof

20:27

that playing by the rules got

20:29

you nowhere. The dry

20:31

warriors in Mabel's DOJ and the prohibition

20:34

agents and the treasury came to a startling

20:36

conclusion, due process

20:39

not working, They're done with it.

20:41

In order to uphold the prohibition laws,

20:44

they were ready to dispense with

20:46

all the other pesky laws, and

20:49

so they saddled up with

20:51

the Ku Klux Klan. Mobile

20:58

Alabama, one of the South's oldest

21:01

port cities, where the Gulf of Mexico

21:03

lapsed gently at white sand beaches

21:06

and the spinach stip comes with crawfish.

21:10

We'll get to the Klan in a minute, but before

21:12

we do, you got to understand that as

21:15

a gateway to the Caribbean in nineteen twenty

21:17

three, Mobile was home to a whole

21:19

economy of rum runners and bootleggers.

21:22

And you know who hated that, Good

21:24

old Mabel Walker Willebrandt. She

21:27

was determined to cast a net into

21:29

those waters and drag them out, gasping

21:32

and flopping. But

21:35

she had a problem. As always,

21:37

her man on the ground was supposed to be the US Attorney,

21:40

a federal government lawyer who could lead the

21:42

charge, to organize the prosecution, get

21:44

the legal ducks in a row, you know all that stuff.

21:47

But the US Attorney in Alabama was

21:49

in way over his head. After

21:51

a good run, and we're talking one hundred and

21:53

seventeen indictments against big timers

21:56

and Mobile, the liquor cabal

21:58

flipped the script and rested

22:00

him. That uno

22:02

reverse card really does come in handy sometimes,

22:05

doesn't it.

22:06

Local tas.

22:08

Local judges didn't want to prosecute

22:10

prohibition cases.

22:12

That's historian Tom Pegram.

22:14

Their local communities weren't in favor of

22:16

them. Juries would turn people

22:18

loose or there would be like very small

22:20

fines.

22:21

And in nineteen twenty three, when Mabel wanted

22:23

to sweep the liquor out of Alabama, this

22:26

was exactly what she faced. So

22:28

she set up what she called a flying

22:31

squad. She

22:33

put together a handpicked crew of officers

22:35

and lawyers in Washington who could travel

22:37

south and leave the corrupt local

22:40

officials out of the legal proceedings.

22:43

All on their own. They would plan a raid, scoop

22:45

up the purpse, collect the evidence, and

22:47

slam the wets into jail cells.

22:51

This is where the clan comes in.

22:52

Actually the clan, those

22:54

fucking guys seriously well

22:57

yeah, See In the fall

22:59

of nineteen twenty, while Richard Hard was

23:01

shooting at fleeing cars, Mabel

23:04

was picking the new head coach for her liquor

23:06

busting team in Alabama. She

23:08

needed someone beyond the reach of

23:10

the mobile good old boys network,

23:13

and she landed on a lawyer named

23:15

Hugo Black. Hugo made

23:17

his bones as a defense lawyer for the Ku Klux

23:20

Klan. One klansman, a Methodist

23:22

minister had gunned down a Catholic

23:24

priest. Hugo Black argued

23:26

it was done in self defense, since

23:29

the two men had scuffled the day

23:31

before. So

23:33

what did Mabel take from all this? Well, in

23:36

the War of the Wets against the Dryes, the

23:38

Catholic communities generally held onto

23:40

their drinking traditions. They

23:42

were wets in classic

23:45

the enemy of my enemy is my friend

23:47

logic. Hugo was

23:49

on her side, and the Klan,

23:52

well, they were only too eager

23:54

to help.

23:55

The Klan started to say, hey, you know, we'll

23:57

help with investigations. And even though

23:59

a lot of clan drank, the argument

24:02

was, once it's in the Constitution, it

24:04

has to be enforced, and if

24:06

it's not enforced, that destabilizes

24:10

American democracy. And then guess

24:12

what, who are the most likely violators

24:15

of prohibition? All the groups

24:17

we already don't like?

24:19

Who did the clan target pretty

24:21

much anyone who wasn't white and

24:24

Protestant, anyone who wasn't

24:26

already cut in the mold of the Women's Christian

24:29

Temperance Union. We're talking immigrants,

24:31

Black Americans, Jews, Catholics,

24:34

everyone the Dry movement was trying

24:36

to squeeze. The Klan was like, hey,

24:39

you're giving us an excuse to just beat up all

24:41

the people we don't like.

24:42

Right on.

24:44

So when Mabel sees a lawyer ready to dive

24:46

into the culture war by stretching the meaning

24:48

of self defense to an unbelievable

24:50

breaking point, all to defend

24:53

murderous clansmen, she sees

24:55

the kind of conviction she's been looking

24:57

for. One reporter asked her how

24:59

she justified working with the Klan, and

25:01

Mabel.

25:02

Said, I have no objection to people dressing

25:04

up in sheets if they enjoyed that sort of thing.

25:07

So this is crazy, right. I

25:09

mean, yeah, Mabel's been the Ice

25:11

Queen and all that, but there's a difference between

25:14

cold and cutthroat. There's

25:16

a difference between coordinating with the

25:18

Coastguard to stop rum runners and

25:20

teaming up with the nation's most powerful

25:23

cabal of racist murderers.

25:26

Mabel was at the end of her rope.

25:28

She decided she was ready and

25:30

willing to cross that line.

25:33

Since Mabel recruited actual official

25:36

prosecutors from the KKK, well,

25:39

it sent a signal to the clan across

25:41

the nation. So clan members from Illinois

25:43

made a trip to the Treasury offices in Washington,

25:46

and they found the doors wide open

25:48

to them. They told the Treasury officials

25:51

that they had plenty of foot soldiers

25:53

ready and willing to rain hell on bootleggers

25:56

back at home. The Prohibition Commissioner

25:58

liked the offer, sent a few of his division

26:01

chiefs and gave them the order deputized

26:03

the clansmen and unleash them

26:05

on southern Illinois. And

26:08

that brings us to two Gun.

26:11

No, not Richard Hart, there was

26:14

actually a different guy with that nickname too,

26:16

Two Gun Glenn Young another

26:19

two gun in the nineteen twenties. What can I say? This

26:21

is America. There's at least two guns for

26:24

every guy that wants them. Here's

26:26

where both two guns line up.

26:29

By nineteen twenty three, two Gun Glen

26:31

Young had already been on trial

26:33

for murdering bootleggers across southern

26:35

Illinois. In fact, he added

26:37

mankiller to his nickname. So

26:40

in nineteen twenty three, the Klan in southern

26:42

Illinois asked guys like two

26:45

Gun Man Killer to come on down

26:47

to the city of Heron and crush a pesky

26:49

problem for them. Immigrant Italian

26:52

mine workers had been fighting with the mine

26:54

company that ran the place. Those

26:56

fights had gotten bloody, workers

26:58

had already been killed, so the clan

27:00

figure that putting a couple more guns to work

27:03

was exactly what they needed. So

27:06

in December of nineteen twenty three, over

27:08

five hundred Clan raiders deputized

27:10

as prohibition agents, swept

27:12

down through the Italian immigrant homes. But

27:15

what they did was the opposite

27:17

of law enforcement. It was straight

27:19

up terrorism. One Italian

27:22

recalled the scene when a gang of armed clansmen

27:24

broke into his home. They smashed up his kitchen.

27:26

They even drank his wine, mocking

27:29

him before they dragged him to jail. After

27:32

two major raids by the clan, now

27:34

turned into federal agents, two gunman

27:37

Killer took up residents as the de facto

27:39

military dictator of the county.

27:42

The violence continued home invasions,

27:44

beatings, shootings, kidnapped

27:47

locals were paraded downtown by

27:49

Clan gunmen. But

27:52

if they thought this was going to win support for their

27:54

cause, they miscalculated

27:57

badly. The blood

27:59

they spilled it shocked the

28:01

public. Klan

28:04

took over the city.

28:05

Drys and Wets Clan and anti clan

28:07

contending forces ironhel

28:10

Glen Young continues as acting chief

28:12

of police.

28:14

As the violence escalated, the clan mounted

28:16

machine guns on downtown buildings. Attacks

28:19

and hospitals left the walls riddled

28:21

with bullet holes. Desperate cries

28:23

went out for the army and the National Guard to step

28:25

in and stop the violence. Military

28:28

forces swept in to take control. Papers

28:31

across the nation, from Fresno to Baltimore

28:33

carried stories of the fighting.

28:35

Guardsman patrol streets, Glen Young Clan

28:38

Dry Raider held after fight last night.

28:41

Dry Agent under arrest.

28:43

Raids and Illinois result in charges of assault

28:45

against Young.

28:47

The blood spilled by two gun Man killer

28:50

Glen Young and others like him

28:52

stained the Dry cause. Many

28:55

prohibition supporters didn't think it had to

28:57

come at such a violent price. Supporters

29:00

of the law started to waver, if

29:03

this is what it took to enforce prohibition, was

29:05

it really worth it? But

29:08

the most hardcore Dries, well,

29:10

they thought the fight hadn't gone far enough,

29:13

and they made that clear in their defense

29:16

of Richard two gun Heart. The

29:28

violence in Illinois shocked the nation, but

29:30

in spite of that, Richard two gun

29:32

Heart still had allies.

29:35

Surprisingly with the

29:37

entire community against him and him fearing

29:39

for his life. It was the Women's

29:42

Christian Temperance Union came

29:45

to his defense and so they

29:47

were able to pay for two Dunhart's

29:49

attorney to give him an attorney.

29:51

This lawyer hired by the WCTU

29:54

wasn't just going to defend Richard in the court

29:56

of law. He was also going to defend

29:58

him in the court of public opinion.

30:01

This is not a question of the guilt or innocence

30:04

of heart. It is an issue of the enforcement

30:06

of the law. Enforcement officers

30:08

are too timid. Now if an

30:10

enforcement officer is convicted of such a

30:12

charge, it will make bootleggers

30:15

secure.

30:16

All right.

30:16

I want to spend a minute here, because this is

30:18

key. This guy, the defense lawyer

30:21

for Richard Hart, is saying that whether

30:23

or not Richard shot this guy doesn't

30:26

really matter because in his view,

30:29

that's what it takes to enforce the law.

30:32

He's saying prohibition officers should

30:34

not get in trouble for gunning down

30:37

suspects. But that's not all.

30:39

He's also saying that it's a damn shame.

30:41

Most officers are too scared to do

30:44

what Richard had done. Think about

30:46

it. He's saying this in the context

30:48

of everything we've talked about. Violence

30:51

was already rampant. Prohibition

30:53

agents had been killing people for

30:55

years, and that's what he's

30:57

saying was too timid. I mean,

31:00

holy shit. And

31:03

remember it was the Women's Christian Temperance

31:05

Union who paid for this lawyer to defend

31:08

Richard with this argument. In

31:10

fact, throughout the nineteen twenties, the WCTU

31:13

had made it clear they were pretty much

31:15

okay with violence against bootleggers.

31:18

In their way of thinking, the only way to hold

31:21

back the tide of liquor flooding the country

31:23

was to unleash a hail of bullets

31:26

to them. Richard Hart's guns weren't only

31:28

justified, they were sanctified.

31:31

Saying that by putting him, by putting

31:33

a prohibition agent Touguenhart

31:36

on trout or manslaughter, it's

31:38

making him a martyr of probition.

31:41

But there was one person in this moment

31:43

who was wavering. You might

31:46

be surprised to hear it was Mabel

31:48

Walker Willebrandt. She wanted

31:50

prohibition enforced, and in principle

31:52

she was okay with the violent tactics. I mean,

31:55

heck, she was running cover in the papers as the

31:57

Klan did the dirty work, but as

31:59

the f of prohibition, she could

32:01

tell the bad press was undermining

32:04

her cause. She

32:07

welcomed citizen vigilantes taking up

32:09

arms on behalf of prohibition, but from

32:11

the nerve center in the Department of Justice,

32:13

she could see how crowds across the country

32:15

were growing more and more angry with the bloodshed.

32:18

Mabel launched an inquiry into the shooting.

32:21

From the beginning, she had fought.

32:23

For these fearless, high integrity

32:26

men that were willing to

32:28

do this very dangerous job that

32:30

the majority of the US were not in favor of.

32:34

So when Mabel realized how badly it was backfiring

32:36

to have cowboys and clan cops shooting

32:38

their way through liquor busts, she and

32:40

the Women's Christian Temperance Union parted

32:43

ways. The WCTU

32:45

had been powerful in previous years, but

32:48

they won their battles by getting into the papers.

32:50

To Mabel's eyes, it was bad press,

32:53

I imagine that made her, you know, pretty

32:55

annoyed. Prohibitions already unpopular

32:58

now a backlash against too much violence

33:01

was only going to make her job harder, so

33:03

she tried to get out ahead of it.

33:05

I condemn as atrocious, wholly

33:08

unwarranted, and entirely unnecessary

33:10

some of the killing by prohibition agents.

33:13

Did you catch that? She said? She condemns

33:16

some of the killings. Some that

33:19

is so telling to me. How about

33:21

all the killing, Mabel? Does killing

33:23

someone for bootlegging really feel like a punishment

33:26

that fits the crime? And what about

33:28

that old right to trial by jury?

33:31

What about innocent until proven guilty?

33:33

What about you know, the rest

33:35

of the law. Well, none

33:38

of that was what Mabel was worried about.

33:40

Nope, She's only worried about some

33:42

of the killings, apparently, just

33:45

the ones that lead to bad press. Like

33:47

Richard Harts. She wrote directly

33:49

to the US attorney handling his case, calling

33:52

Richard.

33:52

Guilty of carelessness and indifference

33:55

to consequences.

33:57

I think that that really did strike

33:59

him.

34:00

Here was something that he was proud of, being

34:03

two gun, always getting a man, using

34:05

tough guy ways to get.

34:06

A Before Richard stood

34:08

trial, the Coroner's jury of Nebraska

34:11

decided not to pursue the manslaughter case

34:13

against him. But the damage to

34:15

the dry Cause was done by

34:17

Richard and by other reckless, violent

34:19

or downright vicious enforcers.

34:22

If the judge was lenient in Richard's case,

34:24

Mabel was more harsh.

34:26

He was forcing payback essentially his salary

34:29

for that crime, and saying that he was

34:31

careless and reckless in his behavior.

34:34

Car chases, gunfights, massacres.

34:37

It was time for the circus to end.

34:40

If prohibition was going to win, killing bootleggers

34:42

in the open where the blood was practically

34:45

splattering on bystanders, kind

34:47

of worked against the cause. Mabel

34:51

needed to shut that down. Enforcing

34:54

prohibition with arrests and court cases

34:57

that wasn't enough. Enforcing prohibition

34:59

with guns in the stre oh that

35:01

was backfiring. The Ice

35:03

Queen needed something different, something

35:05

that would scare the bootleggers and speakeasy

35:08

drinkers so bad they would

35:10

stop on their own. All

35:12

the better if this could all

35:14

be done quietly, which

35:20

brings us back behind the scenes, out

35:22

of the public eye where lawyers like Mabel

35:25

were arguing over murder, Back

35:27

into James Durand's lab, back

35:31

to chemistry. Because deep in the

35:33

bowels of the Treasury Department, the

35:35

prohibition enforcers, led by Duran

35:38

were also taking aim at drinkers.

35:41

It was in their beakers and test tubes

35:43

that the next assault on Americans began

35:46

to take shape. That's next

35:48

time on SNAFU, and.

35:52

He writes this letter where he talks about

35:54

how the poison is settled in his legs

35:56

and he can't get up without falling over.

35:59

His signature is just so scratsheet.

36:02

I mean you can tell that

36:05

he's shaking.

36:13

Snafu is a production of iHeartRadio,

36:15

Film, Nation Entertainment, and Pacific

36:17

Electric Picture Company in association

36:19

with Gilded Audio. It's executive

36:22

produced by me Ed Helms, Milan

36:24

Papelka, Mike Falbo, Whitney

36:26

Donaldson, and Dylan Fagan. Our

36:29

lead producers are Carl Nellis and Alyssa

36:31

Martino. This episode was written

36:33

by Albert Chen, Carl Nellis and Nevin

36:35

Callapoly, with additional writing and story

36:38

editing from Alyssa Martino and Ed Helms.

36:41

Additional production from Stephen Wood, Olivia

36:43

Canny, and Kelsey Albright. Torry

36:46

Smith is our associate producer. Our

36:48

story editor is Nicki Stein. Our

36:50

production assistants are Nevin Kalapoly and

36:52

a kimminy Ekpo. Fact checking by

36:54

Charles Richter. Our creative executive

36:57

is Brett Harris, editing, music and sound

36:59

design by Ben chug Engineering

37:01

and technical direction by Nick Dooley Andrew

37:04

chug Is Gilded Audio's creative director.

37:06

Theme music by Dan Rosatto. The

37:09

role of Mabel Walker willa Brandt was played

37:11

by Kerrie Bische. Special thanks

37:13

to Alison Cohen, Daniel Welsh, and

37:16

Ben Ryzac