During my research on life in Bridgeville in 1922 for last week’s column I found a number of newspaper clippings related to Prohibition, bootleggers, and speakeasies; a subject area that warrants a column of its own. The story of Bridgeville in the 1920s is a complicated tale involving respectable proprietors of commercial establishments, the Borough Council, the two-man police force, police from neighboring communities, the Allegheny County Detectives Department, federal prohibition enforcement agents, and, occasionally, bootleggers.
A major actor in this tale is Bridgeville Chief of Police, William Flood. I remember Chief Flood from my grade school days as a loveable authority figure, usually in evidence at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Station Street. Among the accessories for my 1937 electric train were a handful of lead figures, including a portly policeman with his hand up stopping traffic. We promptly named him “Bill Flood”.
The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on January 19, 1919. It prohibited the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors”. The Volstead Act was passed on October 28, 1919, to implement it; it did not prohibit home manufacture nor consumption. In fact, each household was permitted to produce 200 gallons of wine or cider per year. This proved to be a boon to vineyards; California’s grape growers increased their acreage about 700 percent during the first five years of Prohibition.
By 1922 consumption had bottomed out at about seventy percent of its pre-Prohibition level. The discerning drinker somehow was still able to find a place to “wet his whistle”, at a social club or a speakeasy. We don’t know much about speakeasies in Bridgeville, but there certainly were numerous social clubs. It is not clear how they handled this new situation. Perhaps members were permitted to bring their own bottles to the Italian Club, the Dutch Club, the two Granish Clubs, the American Legion, and the Owls Club.
Surprisingly there still were facilities with legal retail licenses “to sell vinous, spirituous malt or brewed liquors” through most of 1922. In February of that year five Bridgeville individuals applied for such licenses. Included were Louis W. Feick and George Ritter, both at the S. E. corner of Station Street and Foster Avenue (apparently the Norwood Hotel); Angelo A. Pepe at 112 Washington Avenue (the Bridgeville Hotel); Martin Viale at 630 Baldwin Street (Viale’s Hotel); and Rudolph Pletersek at 685 Baldwin Street.
Apparently the licensing board and these proprietors were still skeptical about the enforcement of the Volstead Act. However, early in 1923 the State Legislature passed a state prohibition enforcement act that suspended the licensing process.
In June, 1923, prohibition agents seized a railroad car at the Pennsylvania Railroad freight station in Bridgeville containing 1,000 cases of beer shipped by the Peerless Beverage Company to an unknown consignee. Later that year two Bridgeville residents, Joseph Harish and William Sacazk, were apprehended by officers who determined they had twenty gallons of moonshine in auxiliary gas tanks attached to the bottom of their automobile. In December, County Detective R. L. McMillen and Bridgeville Police Chief William Flood raided several pool rooms and restaurants on Baldwin Street and found “booze in all the places” and a punch board in one. George Corey, Ralph White, Frank DeMarco and A. Saludy were all arrested.
Early the next year Chief Flood and Constable Frank Holman broke up a gang of bootleggers in Treveskyn, confiscated thirty gallons of “booze”, and arrested Victor Michalski and Frank Domanio. In April another railcar, containing 100 barrels of beer and eight barrels of alcohol, was seized at the Bridgeville freight terminal. It was addressed to the Union Storage Company; the names of specific individuals were withheld by the authorities. In October agents raided a “rectifying plant” on a farm near Treveskyn and confiscated $75,000 worth of whiskey. No arrests were made, as the workers had been tipped off, and escaped.
In 1925 Allegheny County decided to crack down on social/fraternal clubs that were violating the Volstead Act. Constable Louis Fine requested a summons to investigate the Italian Beneficial Society, the Order of Owls, and the German Beneficial Society in Bridgeville.
On July 17, a “posse” of officers led by Chief Flood and Heidelberg Chief of Police Charles J. Hauser, armed with warrants, raided forty-two establishments in Carnegie suspected of breaking the law. The raid was purported to be retaliation for similar raids in neighboring communities by a “flying squadron” led by Carnegie Police Chief Chris Keisling. At the time Keisling was a candidate for County Sheriff, opposing Allegheny County Chief of Detectives Robert A. Braun.
In September Flood, Hauser, and twelve other members of the raiding posse were charged with larceny and malicious mischief for their participation in the raid. Other Bridgeville men included were Motorcycle Policeman Al McCaffrey, and Constables John Cherry, John Lefang, and Philip Urban. The case was eventually dropped because of lack of evidence. Later that month Keisling led a team of federal agents on a retaliatory raid in Bridgeville, arresting Charles Schade at the Norwood Hotel and Angelo Pepe at the Bridgeville Hotel.
On February 4, 1926, police and federal agents raided a home in Avalon, confiscated a still and 300 gallons of moonshine, and arrested, among others, Chief Flood. Forced to resign as Bridgeville Police Chief, Flood reported that he had been framed and was, himself, in the process of raiding the facility when he was falsely apprehended.
Flood’s replacement as Chief, Peter Caffrey (McCaffrey?) and Policeman Anthony Borsig, had a narrow escape in March, on Caffrey’s first day in office. They had just discovered a still in a vacant building on Baldwin Street when they were accosted by ten bootleggers, who immediately opened fire on them. After four hours of being barricaded between barrels, they were finally rescued; their adversaries escaped. Caffrey resigned his post and was replaced by Anthony “Rosie” Brozek.
Flood’s problems continued in July when he was accused of posing as a federal officer and “shaking down” a suspected bootlegger. This case was also dropped because of lack of evidence.
Flood stayed out of the newspapers until October 1929 when federal agents arrested him on McLaughlin Run Road and charged him with possession and transportation of 125 gallons of moonshine. He reported that he had been out for a walk and no connection with the incident. He was never charged for this incident.
On February 1, 1930, Bridgeville swore in a new Chief of Police, Raymond Fink, a former state motorcycle patrolman. He replaced Brozek, who resigned because of “dissension with the Borough Council”.
In April, 1931, Flood was one of five Bridgeville men arrested as part of an alleged “sting”. Five federal agents posing as bootleggers negotiated the purchase of four five-gallon cans of moonshine at the Lost Key barbecue on Bower Hill Road for thirty dollars, then picked it up at a club at 806 McLaughlin Run Road. They returned and apprehended Flood, Jack Defango, George Dudley, Joe Martin, and Sam Miller.
The alleged malfeasants were remanded to federal court in Elkins, West Virginia for trial. The trial was postponed when Flood developed a ruptured hernia and was transferred to a hospital there for treatment.
On December 5, 1933, the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified, repealing Prohibition. The popular vote for repeal was 74% for and 26% against.13 By a three to one vote, the American people rejected Prohibition. In Bridgeville, the vote was 896 for repeal; 142 against repeal. The 18th is the only U.S. Constitutional Amendment ever repealed.
On January 18, 1934, Bridgeville Police Chief Fink was fired because, according to him, the council “wanted a man that would get out and get votes”. He was replaced by patrolman John Maioli. Fink applied for a job as patrolman on the two-man force, but lost out to, of all people, William Flood, when Council President, R. L. McMillen cast a vote to break a tie. Flood’s trial was still pending when a Supreme Court decision on February 6, 1934, granted amnesty to all persons under indictment, including him.
In 1935 Bridgeville was delighted to learn that one of the new one-man State liquor stores would be located at 608 Washington Avenue to provide an affordable retail source for legal customers.
Chief Maioli’s term as Police Chief ended in early 1936 when the Democrats regained control of the Borough Council by a 4 to 3 margin. No one was surprised when he was replaced by William Flood. Flood then served with distinction until his death in June, 1941.
Life in Bridgeville was certainly exciting in the Prohibition Era. It was often difficult to differentiate between the “good guys” and the “bad guys”, and to pass judgment on the folks involved. As for me, I prefer to remember Bill Flood in a blue uniform, with his white-gloved hand up high, stopping traffic as the Commodore Vanderbilt bore down on the railroad crossing.
