Bootleggers were out in force in Idaho amid state prohibition, even before 18th Amendment

Soon after Idaho passed statewide prohibition in 1916, forbidding the manufacture, possession or sale of alcoholic beverages, arrests for breaking the law began to appear regularly in the state’s newspapers.

“BOOTLEGGERS ARE ARRESTED,” reported the Idaho Daily Statesman on Aug. 18, 1917. “Two Caught as They Cross Nevada Line; One Tries to Escape.”

“Whisky is worth, at allegedly prevailing prices, in the neighborhood of $2600 when O.W. Morehaufer and Alvin M. Harris were arrested just after having crossed the Nevada state line with a wagon bed equipped motor truck which bore 30 cases of liquor plus a four and a half gallon keg. The men were taken by C.A. Hascall general deputy collector of the United States internal revenue service, Sheriff Emmett Pfost, and deputy Oscar Sommerville. Mr. Hascall Friday night said that he acted in conjunction with the Ada County officers at their request, in an attempt to throttle all bootlegging activity in this vicinity.”

“BOOZE CACHED IN CITY LIMITS” read a Statesman headline on Aug. 21, 1917. Five barrels of whisky and eight boxes of bottled beer had been stored briefly in the cat-tails beside Boise River before being picked up and moved to a safer hiding place. The driver was found and arrested, but the booze wasn’t. All that was found was an empty barrel and three of the apple boxes in which the beer is said to have been shipped.”

In April, 1919, the Statesman reported, “FORMER SPECIAL POLICEWOMAN IS IN TOILS OF LAW.”

“Officers Raid Mrs. Cora Gaskell’s House; Find 174 Quarts of Booze; Another Woman Also Under Arrest.” Mrs. Gaskell had been a special police officer charged in 1917 with “protecting young girls from immoral women” for $10 a week. In 1919 she was charged with making beer in her home at 528 South 9th Street.

“SHERIFF UNEARTHS STILL,” reported the Statesman on Sept. 11, 1920. “Largest Apparatus Ever Seen in State Captured Thursday.” The still was found about 20 miles from Boise near the Canyon County line. Adolph Martinic and Felipe Aldape were arrested as its operators. They confessed, waived their preliminary examination and posted $500 bonds, pending the final hearing and sentence. “The still was concealed as part of a pig house. It was necessary to crawl through a small opening in the pig house to gain admission. All of the apparatus was confiscated and taken to the sheriff’s office.”

Prohibition was especially hard on Idahoans whose cultures included making and drinking what was now forbidden by law: beer for the Germans, and wine for the Basques, the French and the Italians. Prohibition went nationwide with the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in early 1919 and went into effect in 1920.

The 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment on Dec. 5, 1933. It’s the only amendment ever to be repealed, because it created more problems than it solved, and certainly more lawlessness.