July 11, 2025 • 7 mins
During the Prohibition era of the 1920s and early 1930s, speakeasies and gin joints were the place to be to get ahold of “evil booze.” How did the government try to control access? They purposely poisoned industrial alcohol that was being repurposed for cocktails. It wound up killing and maiming tens of thousands of would-be partiers!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you with me on this? We all love those
stories that glorify the Roaring twenties when folks whispered a
magic password to get into speakeasies and gin joints for
some illicit partying during Prohibition, But it wasn't all a
roaring good time. Would our government purposely poison the public
(00:20):
to try to stop them from drinking?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Guess what? Turns out?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
The FEDS ordered industrial alcohol makers to add poison to
what they sold to scare the public to death, maybe
killing as many as fifty thousand and blinding or paralyzing
hundreds of thousands more. I'm Patty Steele dying for a drink. Literally.
Next on the backstory, We're back with the backstory. Okay,
(00:51):
do you know much about Prohibition? When the government outlawed
alcohol for thirteen years starting in nineteen twenty, did you
know the FED it's mandated that industrial alcohol makers add
poison to what they made to keep people from drinking it.
It killed as many as fifty thousand and maimed hundreds
of thousands. We've kind of seen what that world looked
(01:15):
like in movies like The Untouchables and The Great Gatsby,
and also on TV. Shows like Boardwalk Empire. Prohibition era
gangsters included al Capone, who took in sixty million dollars
a year during those years. But one of the most
amazing and not so well known stories about Prohibition is
(01:35):
how the FEDS tried to control access to alcohol for
folks who just wanted to party. When the government wants
to control us, they have all sorts of crazy ways
to enforce laws, right, but during Prohibition it got way
darker again. Their approach left by some accounts, fifty thousand
dead and possibly hundreds of thousands permanently impacted by condition
(02:00):
like paralysis and blindness. Now, how the heck did that happen?
Mass poisoning? Yeah, the government didn't just try to talk
people out at drinking, or even just find them or
put them in jail. They actually poisoned the legal industrial
alcohol being made that bootleggers were turning into hooh. Now,
(02:20):
imagine you're desperate for a drink, but there's none to
be had. If you're really desperate, yeah, might even sip
a little bit of rubbing alcohol.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yuck.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So the FEDS decide to mandate that all industrial alcohol
had to be denatured by adding iodine chloroform, even gasoline
and kerosene to make it really nauseating and in some
cases deadly. Now, if you were a bootlegger, you saw
a big market for illegal booze, so you'd hijack trucks
(02:50):
transporting the industrial stuff and try to make it more
drinkable taste wise, by adding all sorts of chemicals to
improve the flavor. And they did a little boiling to
try and remove the bad stuff, but you simply.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Couldn't remove all the poison.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
People still drank it, making gangsters like al Capone impossibly rich.
He was just twenty six years old when he got
started and was soon taking in sixty million bucks a year.
Guess what, that's well over a billion dollars in today's world.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Experts say prohibition led to the rise of really powerful
organized crime syndicates. They were obviously raking in money like
nobody's business, and that organized crime world never really recovered
economically after the end of Prohibition killed off their cash cow.
It was the Roaring twenties. Everybody wanted to party.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Where did they go? Well, guess what?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
There were thirty two thousand speakeasies in New York City
alone by the way speakeasies got their name from how
quietly you had to whisper the password to get in,
so nearby cops couldn't hear you and figure out how
to get in themselves. And those speakeasies would also add
things to improve the flavor, like ginger ale, coca cola, sugar,
(04:09):
and lemon, which gave rise to cocktails. Before that, drinkers
were just doing straight shots, I guess and get this.
Before speakeasies, most folks went to bars and taverns, but
most of them didn't allow women in as customers, just
as entertainment. But speakeasies were looking for as many customers
as possible, so women were totally welcome to come in
(04:33):
to party and toss back a few of those poisonous cocktails.
By nineteen twenty three, the government decided they had to
make it even more poisonous, so they ordered the folks
that made the industrial stuff to add four percent wood alcohol,
which is incredibly poisonous to humans, even in really tiny amounts,
(04:53):
but they didn't mandate any warning labels. Again, people drank it,
and anywhere from ten thousand on up to fifty thousand
or more were killed because of it. In addition, with
hundreds of thousands becoming blind or paralyzed. On fairness, not
everybody thought it was a good idea to poison alcohol.
One senator called it legalized murder, but a supporter from
(05:17):
the Anti Saloon League said legal alcohol had killed a
lot more people than the government's new program, and that
quote air quotes here, the FEDS were under no obligation
to supply people with safe alcohol when it had been banned.
He went on to say, the person who drinks this
industrial alcohol is deliberately committing suicide. And the government's lee
(05:39):
guy in the prohibition effort, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury,
Seymour Lohmann, said publicly that the fringes of society that
drink were dying off fast from poison hooch, and that
if the result is a sober America, a good job
has been done. Really wow, allowing maybe tens of thousands
(06:00):
of people to die and possibly hundreds of thousands to
be permanently disabled by poisoning our vices. Yikes, And we
think the present day government is rough on us.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I hope you like the backstory with Patty Steele.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I would love it if you would subscribe or follow
for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, and feel
free to DM me like James did if you have
a story you would like me to cover. On Facebook,
It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm
Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,
(06:37):
the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram
at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the
(06:58):
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.
Are you with me on this? We all love those
stories that glorify the Roaring twenties when folks whispered a
magic password to get into speakeasies and gin joints for
some illicit partying during Prohibition, But it wasn't all a
roaring good time. Would our government purposely poison the public
(00:20):
to try to stop them from drinking?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Guess what? Turns out?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
The FEDS ordered industrial alcohol makers to add poison to
what they sold to scare the public to death, maybe
killing as many as fifty thousand and blinding or paralyzing
hundreds of thousands more. I'm Patty Steele dying for a drink. Literally.
Next on the backstory, We're back with the backstory. Okay,
(00:51):
do you know much about Prohibition? When the government outlawed
alcohol for thirteen years starting in nineteen twenty, did you
know the FED it's mandated that industrial alcohol makers add
poison to what they made to keep people from drinking it.
It killed as many as fifty thousand and maimed hundreds
of thousands. We've kind of seen what that world looked
(01:15):
like in movies like The Untouchables and The Great Gatsby,
and also on TV. Shows like Boardwalk Empire. Prohibition era
gangsters included al Capone, who took in sixty million dollars
a year during those years. But one of the most
amazing and not so well known stories about Prohibition is
(01:35):
how the FEDS tried to control access to alcohol for
folks who just wanted to party. When the government wants
to control us, they have all sorts of crazy ways
to enforce laws, right, but during Prohibition it got way
darker again. Their approach left by some accounts, fifty thousand
dead and possibly hundreds of thousands permanently impacted by condition
(02:00):
like paralysis and blindness. Now, how the heck did that happen?
Mass poisoning? Yeah, the government didn't just try to talk
people out at drinking, or even just find them or
put them in jail. They actually poisoned the legal industrial
alcohol being made that bootleggers were turning into hooh. Now,
(02:20):
imagine you're desperate for a drink, but there's none to
be had. If you're really desperate, yeah, might even sip
a little bit of rubbing alcohol.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yuck.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So the FEDS decide to mandate that all industrial alcohol
had to be denatured by adding iodine chloroform, even gasoline
and kerosene to make it really nauseating and in some
cases deadly. Now, if you were a bootlegger, you saw
a big market for illegal booze, so you'd hijack trucks
(02:50):
transporting the industrial stuff and try to make it more
drinkable taste wise, by adding all sorts of chemicals to
improve the flavor. And they did a little boiling to
try and remove the bad stuff, but you simply.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Couldn't remove all the poison.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
People still drank it, making gangsters like al Capone impossibly rich.
He was just twenty six years old when he got
started and was soon taking in sixty million bucks a year.
Guess what, that's well over a billion dollars in today's world.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Experts say prohibition led to the rise of really powerful
organized crime syndicates. They were obviously raking in money like
nobody's business, and that organized crime world never really recovered
economically after the end of Prohibition killed off their cash cow.
It was the Roaring twenties. Everybody wanted to party.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Where did they go? Well, guess what?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
There were thirty two thousand speakeasies in New York City
alone by the way speakeasies got their name from how
quietly you had to whisper the password to get in,
so nearby cops couldn't hear you and figure out how
to get in themselves. And those speakeasies would also add
things to improve the flavor, like ginger ale, coca cola, sugar,
(04:09):
and lemon, which gave rise to cocktails. Before that, drinkers
were just doing straight shots, I guess and get this.
Before speakeasies, most folks went to bars and taverns, but
most of them didn't allow women in as customers, just
as entertainment. But speakeasies were looking for as many customers
as possible, so women were totally welcome to come in
(04:33):
to party and toss back a few of those poisonous cocktails.
By nineteen twenty three, the government decided they had to
make it even more poisonous, so they ordered the folks
that made the industrial stuff to add four percent wood alcohol,
which is incredibly poisonous to humans, even in really tiny amounts,
(04:53):
but they didn't mandate any warning labels. Again, people drank it,
and anywhere from ten thousand on up to fifty thousand
or more were killed because of it. In addition, with
hundreds of thousands becoming blind or paralyzed. On fairness, not
everybody thought it was a good idea to poison alcohol.
One senator called it legalized murder, but a supporter from
(05:17):
the Anti Saloon League said legal alcohol had killed a
lot more people than the government's new program, and that
quote air quotes here, the FEDS were under no obligation
to supply people with safe alcohol when it had been banned.
He went on to say, the person who drinks this
industrial alcohol is deliberately committing suicide. And the government's lee
(05:39):
guy in the prohibition effort, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury,
Seymour Lohmann, said publicly that the fringes of society that
drink were dying off fast from poison hooch, and that
if the result is a sober America, a good job
has been done. Really wow, allowing maybe tens of thousands
(06:00):
of people to die and possibly hundreds of thousands to
be permanently disabled by poisoning our vices. Yikes, And we
think the present day government is rough on us.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I hope you like the backstory with Patty Steele.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I would love it if you would subscribe or follow
for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, and feel
free to DM me like James did if you have
a story you would like me to cover. On Facebook,
It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm
Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,
(06:37):
the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram
at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the
(06:58):
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.
Elvis Duran and the Morning Show ON DEMAND News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.