Kentucky Lawyer

Trial of prohibition violators

 Mac Swinford concluded with the words, “I charge you with a breach of the peace and fine you one hundred dollars.” These words “breach of the peace” were uttered with a snarl and emphasis far beyond their true significance. Nevertheless, it seemed to work. George had never heard the term before notwithstanding his frequent appearances in court. Judge Gardner said he eyed George with all of the coldness and contempt he could muster. The culprit slowly raised his head and looked at him through blood-shot eyes and said in a thick voice, “Judge, would you mind commutin’ that to life sentence?” Trial of prohibition violators Prohibition had its staunch adherents and its open violators . It was a failure but not because of the attitudes of either of these etremes. The weakness of the law was inherent. Whatever popularity it enjoyed at the height of the eperiment was short lived. The people generally of all sections of our country finally lost respect for it and it became almost impossible to get a conviction of violators either in the state or federal courts. I was United States Attorney for the last year of its eistence and tried conscientiously to enforce the law. We had a great many cases in the Eastern District of Kentucky. This district was in fact second only to the Southern District of New York in the number of criminal cases. Most of those charged with violation in the federal court plead guilty. Some, however, entered pleas of not guilty and demanded a jury trial. If the case was a clear one, the jury would usually convict, but if there was any doubt, rea- 3 Kentucky Lawyer sonable or imaginary, there was invariably a “hung jury.” There was rarely ever an acquittal. The reason for so many hung juries is left to your imagination or wisdom. I will not hazard an eplanation. Some observers were so bold as to suggest that although the violations were flagrant and universal, juries would not convict because some of the jurors very probably had “bootleg booze” at home or “home brew” in the cellar. Each community had its particular way of breaking the prohibition law. In some places the imported whiskey was delivered to the home of the customer. In other places deliveries were made at his place of business. Still other consumers sought out their retailers at some rendezvous in the woods or down some country lane. Santa Claus I heard the late Judge Dick Thomas of Bowling Green tell this story of a famous lawyer of Brownsville, Edmonson County, of a generation ago. His name was Milton Wright and he was one of those delightful small town lawyers, scholars and seers, who, I must regretfully say, are rapidly passing from our scene, but who, we hope, legend will preserve for us in memory a few more years. Brownsville and its citizens of overwhelming Baptist and Methodist persuasion still jealously held on to the moral side of the law on the question of prohibition. Do not misunderstand me. This did not include all of the citizenry of that delightful little city, but the so-called “good people” so outnumbered the others that it was necessary for those who were publicly “dry” but privately “wet” to have some ...