Booze, Badboys & Bootleggers

Booze, Badboys & Bootleggers

What Grandpa Never Told You... A Lot of Northern New York Families Made a Shady Living As Smugglers, Bootleggers, and Booze Runners During Prohibition

• 1920 - First Year of Prohibition: A Watertown police officer leaped from a moving taxi onto a fleeing car to arrest Massena bootleggers.
• Federal agents raided Ogdensburg by land and sea to crack down on rum-running.
• 2 Potsdam ministers helped federal agents conduct righteous speakeasy raids.
• Ogdensburg's Fred Lassail: Bootlegger and Dad.
• A high-speed chase down the streets of Massena led to the arrest of Potsdam bootleggers.
• An Ogdensburg mayoral candidate defended the city's leading speakeasy owner.
• 12,000 quarts of liquor were seized on a ship docked at Cardinal, Ontario by Prescott Customs agents after the booze showed up in Ogdensburg.
• An ALCOA crane operator's suicide in Massena was blamed on bootlegging, smuggling, and gambling.
• Gouverneur's Fred Scozzafava crashed into the New York Central train in DeKalb while hauling a load of smuggled booze.
• Ogdensburg's Joseph Rish's colorful career as a speakeasy owner.
• Burglars robbed the U.S. Customs House for Booze at Rouses Point.
• Cranberry Lake, Norfolk, Pyrites, and others raided.
• Federal G-Men Led Raids Across Northern New York.