Now there’s a title to get a few hearts racing. After all, he was one of America’s best known and feared gangsters of the 1920s. He eventually went to prison on tax evasion charges. However, his criminal empire reached into protection, prostitution and prohibition. And it was this last one which allowed the UK to help fill the coffers of Al Capone and other American gangland bosses.
But what was prohibition? It was the period between 1920 to 1933 when the American authorities banned the sale and consumption of alcohol. You can easily imagine the effect it had on the general populace; they wanted their drinks and pretty much on the top of the demand list was whisky. So, when the public cannot get their drinks by any legal means, they turn to illegal ways and the organised crime syndicates were only too ready and happy to oblige them.
But how did the UK become involved? It transpired that as long as the sale of any amount of alcohol was made within the UK, it didn’t matter if the customers were American and probably came from questionable organisations.
One of the most famous wine and alcohol sellers was and is Berry Bros. & Rudd. They still have their original building in St James and they have been in business since the seventeenth century. So, when an American, whose name was Jack “Legs” Diamond, came into their shop and ordered hundreds of cases of whisky, they were able to supply the order, no problem. Other whisky suppliers all had similar orders from Americans.
But, although it was quite legal from them to sell the whisky in this country, they couldn’t very well send it straight to the USA. Instead, it was sent via British colonies in the West Indies such as the Bahamas. From there, the criminal gangs would charter a boat to approach the coast off New Jersey where they would offload their cargo to smaller craft which would reach the shore.
The American authorities were obviously not too happy about all this and they complained to Britain. But, because they were sure that prohibition would not last, they rejected their arguments. Finally, to give you an idea on how much whisky was involved, the import of whisky into the Bahamas before prohibition was nine hundred and forty-four gallons. But during the period of prohibition, it rose to a staggering three hundred and eighty-six thousand gallons!
John Pullen 