Kept a Whisky Still

New York, 1895

A MOONSHINER'S HOUSE BLOWN UP AT BAY SIDE.

Had a Bar Room on the Ground Floor as a Cover for the Whisky still Up Stairs — Three Persons Injured and One May Die.

A building on Bell avenue, in Bayside, two blocks from the station of the Long Island railroad, was blown up at 7.30 o'clock Tuesday morning by the explosion of an illicit distillery, and three of the occupants were badly injured, one of them perhaps fatally, The building was occupied by Henry Schrell, a German, 45 years old, and his family, consisting of Mrs. Shrell and three children, Lena, 15 years old; Minnie, 8 years old and Freddie, 2 years old. It was a two-story frame structure and was used both as a saloon and dwelling.

On the ground floor were three rooms, the bar-room, dining room and kitchen, and on the upper story were four rooms which were supposed to be occupied as living apartments and bedrooms. The events of Tuesday brought out the fact that in one of the upper rooms Schrell had set up a rude, but complete, distillery and was actively engaged in the production of bad whiskey.

The neighbors flocked into the house and found the interior of the upper story wrecked. The partitions were blown out and the plastering was stripped from the walls, and the sky could be seen through a dozen rents where the sidings had been torn loose from the beams at the top.

In one of the rear rooms of the upper story Schrell was found frightfully scalded. His hair and whiskers were burned off and his face was a mass of blisters and was swollen to twice its natural proportions. His arms from the ends of his fingers to his shoulders were in the same condition. He was blinded, and was wandering aimlessly around amid the wreckage of the room.

In the adjoining room the two youngest children were found in bed and unconscious. The bed had been hurled across the room and rested close to the edge where the siding of the house had been blown out. If the bed had been two feet further it would have toppled over into the back yard. The children were taken to a neighbor's house and as soon as possible to the Flushing hospital. There it was found that they were scalded from head to foot, and that Freddie had inhaled some of the steam and would probably die. Both were in a critical condition last night. The other child and Mrs. Schrell were not injured.

Meanwhile, Schrell, who had recovered his mental balance, had been busy up stairs in the wrecked building, and he and his wife had emptied two barrels of new liquor, which had been stored in one of the rooms. The liquor flowed down the stairway and through the cracks in the floor, flooding the hall and the rooms below, and filling the whole house and the surrounding neighborhood with a sickening smell of alcohol and the fumes of fusel oil.

Schrell was taken to the Raymond street jail in Brooklyn. He moved to Bayside from Maspeth about eighteen months ago.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 15, 1895, p. 1.

Flashed Wife's Pass for Girl Companion

1920

Brakeman and "Other Woman" Fined $300 for Fraud

DES MOINES, Iowa — C. G. Graham, special inspector for the Rock Island road, returned from Ottumwa, where he ran down a pair using a railroad pass fraudulently. He has prosecuted several of these cases and has many others to investigate.

In the Ottumwa case a brakeman at Eldon named Vandevere and a girl from Fairfield named Linn were fined $300 each by Judge Wade for using the pass of the wife of Vandevere for Miss Linn.

The girl was introduced to conductors as his wife by Vandevere, who is a former service man and has a wife and child at Eldon.

Vandevere denied entertaining more than friendship for the girl, and she testified she was living on the savings she had made when employed in a store. The judge gave them permission to pay the fine $50 a month.


Masked Gang Raids Liquor Warehouse

LEXINGTON, Kentucky — Seven men, masked with handkerchiefs, raided the old Tarr distillery warehouse here and, at the point of revolvers, forced two guards to unlock the warehouse. The gang stole ninety-four cases of whisky seized last January at Versailles, Kentucky.

Moonshine in New York

1906

"Don't talk to me about moonshine in Kentucky," said the internal revenue agent. "There's more moonshining going on all the time in little old New York than could be done in ten Kentuckys. In the crowded sections of the East and West Sides stills spring up right along and for a while conduct a flourishing business in the low grade whisky they manufacture. You see, it doesn't take much trouble to equip a still with corn and yeast and start in to make the mash which is finally turned out as a pretty poor sort of whisky. The great difficulty is in getting rid of the peculiar smoke and odor from stills without exciting suspicion. This is usually attempted by running the still in connection with a dye shop or some other chemical enterprise as a blind. We keep watch on all such establishments and have the town well covered by sharp eyed and sharp nosed agents besides. We are constantly arresting these small moonshiners and sending them to jail. But enough spring up in their places for you to say with safety that, as I say, there's more moonshining going on in New York City right along than there could be in ten Kentuckys."

Odor Is Pete's Undoing — Smells A Lot Like Raisin Mash!

1920

Odor Is Pete's Undoing

Chief of Police Detects Raisin Mash and Sends Owner to Jail

JOLIET, Ill., Feb. 24. — Chief Hennessey, while driving past Pete Serrabba's house, believed he detected an old familiar odor. Turning his car at the end of the block he drove by the suspected place again. The odor was sufficient. The chief summoned a squad of detectives and the house was raided. A copper still and four 52-gallon barrels of raisin mash in different stages of fermentation were found in the basement. A jug of 140 proof brandy was also confiscated by the authorities. Scrrabba is said to have stated that he purchased the still in Chicago and that he had made a barrel of the stuff which has been consumed by his friends and family. He is being held in the city jail.

—The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, Nebraska, February 24, 1920, page 1.

Booze Thieves Destroy Congressman's Umbrella

1921

Booze Thieves Visit Longworth

Washington. — "Hootch" thieves broke into the office of Representative Nicholas Longworth of Ohio, in the House office building and ransacked his desk and filing cases, for the fourth time in the past few months.

They didn't find what they were after.

In their rage and disappointment, they took their spite out on his favorite umbrella, completely demolishing it.


"Seek and Ye Shall Find"

Santa Rosa.—Prohibition enforcement officers are seeking the operators of a large still which was seized on the Martin ranch south of this city. The haul also included a large quantity of illicit brandy and some mash and other materials used in distilling.

—Mountain Democrat, Placerville, California, October 29, 1921, page 10.