Sunday, September 25th at 2:00 PM in the Browning Room of the Evansville-Vanderburgh Public Library, 200 S. E. Martine Luther King Jr. Blvd, Evansville, IN in conjunction with Your Brother’s Bookstore, 504 Main Street Evansville, Indiana.
In the words of the author: My presentation will cover prohibition coming to Indiana, key liquor violators that the feds were looking into, the booze boat incident/whiskey conspiracy, the Courier‘s turning on Bosse. I’ll also talk about Benjamin Bosse’s involvement and how he escaped indictment.
The author’s description of his book:
What began as a genealogy
search grew into an in-depth
investigation of a period in
Evansville history when
Indiana instituted prohibition
while Kentucky, just across the
Ohio River, did not. Evansville
earned a reputation for being
wide open when its Chief of
Police, Edgar Schmitt, was
accused of selling confiscated
liquor from the police station
and using the police boat for
bootlegging.
This authentic account
provides a remarkable insight
into the investigation and trial.
It covers the forgotten details
of the story and reveals things
that were never brought to
light. Finally, you can read the
truth about this historic event
and get answers to key
questions such as who was
involved.
Copies of the book will be available for purchasing and signing.
Author’s Biography
Erick Jones is the great-grandson
of Evansville, Indiana Police
Captain Andy Friedle, the officer in
charge of the infamous police
“booze boat” which was used for
bootlegging. His debut book, Wide
Open Evansville, is the result of
several years of research and
reveals the true story of the 1920
whiskey ring conspiracy in
sensational detail. But his family’s
ties to prohibition don’t end there.
He is also the great-grandson of
former Vanderburgh County
sheriff’s deputy Jesse Jones, who
later became a federal prohibition
agent.
Although he currently lives in Ohio,
he has fond memories of spending
summers as a child with his
grandparents in Evansville.