Re: Lakers during Prohibition
Posted: January 10, 2022, 2:09 pm
I met Frank in the late 50's at Drummond Island and I asked him about running wisky. All he did was smile !
Was talking to an old friend last night who's father was a sailor in the 1920s-30s. He sailed on the canaller JHG Hagarty and smuggled tons of cases of Canadian whisky to Detroit and Chicago for organized crime. The depression was bad on both sides of the border and apparently smaller shipping companies were willing to work with organized crime to save their companies. Smaller operations on the last of the wooden lumber hookers were said to engage in the illegal booze trade throughout the time period and not just the depression part.
Can anyone else verify similar stories? I'm aware that tugs did that all the time, especially that of Frank Becker in Detroit who ran a smuggling operation on the tug GF Becker.