Scandal rocked the Detroit Police Department in 1939, when a grand jury began investigating whether police were bribed by a bookie to overlook his $10 million gambling operation.
In 1940, 135 indictments were handed up,
including the superintendent of police,
the sheriff
a prosecutor
and Mayor Richard Reading, who was sentenced to 5 years for graft, selling protection to numbers racketeers and promotions to police officers.
Will they ever be honest, OR professional? Doubtful
I had no idea a bookie could make 10 million dollars a year in 1940
Update March 26th
Follow up, the Los Angeles mayor was also running booze, https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/underground-tunnels-los-angeles
underneath Downtown Los Angeles the party never stopped.Despite prohibition laws, 11 miles of service tunnels became passageways to basement speakeasies with innocuous fronts above ground. Patrons were able to move about under the city, boozing it up without a care in the world, while the Mayor’s office ran the supply of hootch.
Update March 27th
during Prohibition, the US Congress had their own alcohol bootlegger named George Cassiday who operated for 5 years before being arrested. He delivered 25 orders per day to a private storeroom in the basement of the House Office so he could avoid the Capitol Police.
the more things change, the more they stay the same
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