RUM-RUNNING ADVENTURES

Evening Star, Issue 21714, 8 May 1934, Page 9

RUM-RUNNING ADVENTURES

AMAZING INGENUITY SHOWN SPIES SUMMARILY DEALT WITH Hum-runners employ—or, rather, used to, for the end of Prohibition in America has sounded the deathknell of the rum-runner—amazing ingenuity in landing, their forbidden cargoes. Even sewage barges are made use of, so we are told in * Contraband,’ -by R. M'Kinley and E. Rodwell. The liquor ship lies outside the twelve-mile limit and oases of whisky are transferred to speed boats: — “Every night sewage barges are towed down the river to dump their cargo out at sea. The men aboard the barges worked with the speed boat men. “ Beneath the hatch combings of the barges a series of racks had been built in flush with the deck. On the return trip to New York the speed boats meet the sewage barges and the cases of liquor are taken aboard and stowed away -in the foul-smelling holds out of sight. When the barges reach New York the Customs officials make but a cursory examination, and as“ a general rule are only too glad to accept the word of the men aboard them that they have no contraband. There are not many Customs officers who are anxious to enter the evil-smelling hold of a sewage barge to look for liquor.” One zealous youth did start to search the hold of what happened to be a liquorless barge; the hatch coverings were put on, the crew went ashore to their homes, and ;the unfortunate officer spent the most unsavoury night of his life. WHISKY “ GARAGES.” One powerful rum-runner used a chain of garages as storehouses for his liquor. A bathing barge, which could be dragged ashore by a steel cable, was used to land the cases. Once ashore they would be loaded on farm lorries and driven to one of the garages “ At each there was a long wide space at the entrance to the workshop, a space sufficiently wide to enable almost any type of car or lorry to turn in. The floor of. the workshop appeared to be made' of solid concrete, but actually this was a blind. Once the doors were closed the floor sank slowly, and the motor lorry, loaded with farm produce and whisky, was taken into a cleverly constructed ■cellar, while the floor again slowly rose and the whole place assumed its normal appearance. In the cellars The whisky was unloaded and kept hidden till such time as it was needed by purchasers.” . . ~ An innocent-looking motorist would draw up, purchase petrol, and find that his car needed some minor adjustment! In the “ workshop ” it was loaded with whisky—and everybody was satisfied. IN AN OIL TANKER.

Another clever ruse by which liquor could be taken right into New York was to employ an oil tanker. Built into her own tanks “were smaller ones in which to carry the spirit. Once they were full were sealed down, a m 3 the pipe line transferred to another tank. . . Quite openly once she was docked the tanker discharged her illicit cargo.. It was pumped into huge 'cylinders . on motor lorries. brilliantly painted and bearing the name of well-known petroleum vendors. To see these lorries running through the streets or New York one merely commented, ‘ More gas for automobiles.’ It was a safe and simple way of getting whisky in, so long as .the police and dockside workers were ‘ squared. . . And ‘ squared ’ they were, from the highest to the lowest, if we are to believe Mr M‘Kinley. Three policemen, he tells us, once came to arrest him. - “ Come on, Mac,'’ said one.. You re caught this + imc.” “ 0.K.,” I laughed, “ but I’m mighty busy now. Come- back- later and cop me.” I pushed o.OOOdql in the “ snoop’s ” fist, and he grinningly

agreed to call back an hour later. The precious trie went off to the nearest speakeasy, a couple of blocks away, and commenced spending a few of their illgotten dollars. Then, he says, they rang up to say they were coming back. As they rushed through the front door he escaped over the roof, and “ later we all met again in the speakeasy to laugh over the affair and drink whisky smuggled into the country.” THE POLICE CHIEF’S 11 ACCIDENT.” ■

’On one occasion, however, a police chief “ deliberately double-crossed the bootleggers,” and captured many cases of whisky and several speed boats. “ But that police chief did not liyo long to enjoy the victory. He met with a fatal accident af bis home. The coroner who had to inquire into his death found that the police chief had been cleaning his gun and failed to notice that it was loaded. Misadventure was the verdict recorded. Doublecrossing does not pay in the bootlegging game or in the police.” Spies were apt to be summarily dealt'with, too. A big rum-runner found that his telephone wires were being tapped on a quiet road about fifteen miles outside Los Angeles. He sent out a gang of toughs in a lorry, who came upon the “ tappers,” two of whom were paying out lengths 1 of wire to a linesman perched at the top of a telegraph pole. The lorry crashed into the back of the stationary car “ which the tappers were using. The two men who were paying out the wire, were deliberately run down and leftlying senseless on the road, while .the lorry was backed from the wreckage once more to charge the car and so make sure of its complete destruction. From out the darkness pistol shots rang, and the linesman came crashing from his perch at the top of the pole. Next day the newspaper contained long and varying accounts of the affair. Three men (admittedly they had been tampering with the telephone wire), were found dead by the wreckage of - a car, while another had died on the way to hospital.” There is perpetual war also between the rum-runners and the J‘ high-jack-ers ” —other criminals who prey on them. The “ high-jackers ” would approach the liquor ship in speed boats, pretending that they were genuine agents. If found out they got a rough handling. Dozens of times I have seen the men lifted bodily and flung from the deck into the sea, and left to swim back to their speed boats if they could. . . BLOWN DP. Another time, we are told, some Japanese rum-runners tried to undercut the usual prices of liquor : “ Less than a week later the Japanese ship finally went out of business. Exactly what happened to her will never be known. “ According to the skipper of a_ speedboat who wqs approaching the ship with the intention of buying liquor, there was a sudden violent explosion, and the ship disappeared. She fcterally broke in two, and sank as though she had been struck by a torpedo. A few Japs were rescued, but they could give no clear account as to what had taken place save that a terrible explosion had shattered the ship.” » Rivals are not welcomed in the rumrunning business. All kinds of dodges were used to outwit the authorities. Ships were even fitted with war-time smoke-screen apparatus .. “ The moment a chase commenced, the smoke screen was used. A dense white fog was artificially created which completely enveloped the ship astern and only served to reflect the rays of the cutter’s searchlight. . . . The fog which was created was thicker even than one of the good old-fashioned London variety, and under its cover on many occasions the speed-boats were able to get away from the mother ships, which disappeared while the cutters hovered around. More than once the mother ships were able to operate well within territorial limits and make their get-away.” WEIGHTED SACKS. Wlven whisky is transferred to the speed-boats, it is usually taken but of the cases and put into sacks, each with a bar of iron or lead in it:— “If the whisky were taken ashore in the cases which were sent out by the original exporters, it would be difficult to get rid of during a chase to capture by one of the cutters. Cases of whisky

have a nasty habit ,of floating on th# sea if thrown overboard. But once xa weighted sacks, they can be uisposed of. More than one valuable cargo of whisky to-day lies in weighted sacks at the, bottom of the Pacific, but its sacrifice has resulted in the freedom .of -the; speed-boat men.”; Pay seems to be good in the rum trade;- As super-cargo of one ship, Mr M‘Kinley tells.us that he was paid five hundred dollars a month, “ with a commission of one dollar on every case of whisky landed. Since it wasno uncom* mon thing for the Mary B. to land from three to six thousand cases of spirits on a single trip lasting about two months, the pay often worked out at the rate of nearly £SOO a month. There were times, however, when things were not so good, and of late, in the States, it is actually, difficult to make ends meet. Owing to the slump in trade, the rum-runnera have been particularly badly bit. And now they have practically gone out of business altogether. Possibly liquor is still run into Norway in the way Sir''Rodwell describes: in his part of the book, for the State holds the monopoly and there are always people ready to break the*law in order to get the better of the Government. Whatever one’s opinion may be of the ethics of rum-running, there is no doubt that these-accounts of it make extremely, exciting reading; , ,