August 29, 2023 • 37 mins
Remus’ time as a defense attorney in Chicago comes in handy as he prepares for the trial of his life.
Remus: The Mad Bootleg King is a Curiosity Podcast and is a co-production of iHeart Podcasts and School of Humans. This podcast is based on Abbott Kahler’s book, “The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America.”
You can learn more about Abbott and her books here.
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 (00:12):
There's violence against women in this episode. Please take care
where and when you listen.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
As strange as this story may seem, this is a
work of nonfiction with no invented dialogue. Every reenactment you
hear comes from government files, archives, diaries, letters, newspaper articles, books,
or trial testimony. It's the morning of October sixth, nineteen
(00:45):
twenty seven. George Remas chases his wife Imaging into the
spring House gazebo in Cincinnati's Eden Park, where he rams
a pistol into her belly and pulls the trigger. Four
hours later, Remus is once again behind bars, this time
on the top floor of the Hamilton County Jail. His
(01:08):
first visitor arrives at two PM, a man who introduces
himself as doctor W. C. Kendig, the County Alienist, a
doctor who treats the insane.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Mister Remus, I have been sent over here by the
Prosecutor's office to make an examination of you.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Very well, doctor, go ahead and just go as far
as you'd like. I am perfectly normal in every respect.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
The doctor keeps the tone of his voice calm.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
And even your plea will not be insanity.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Emphatically, no, it will not Remus responds to doctor Kendig's
questions calmly, but every time the conversation calls for him
to use the word wife, he chooses a more colorful phrase.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
That decomposed mass of Clay was not well educated, but
she was a very shrewd and attractive woman. While I
was confined to the penitentiary in Atlanta, this composed mass
of Clay and her pimp broke up my home, robbed
me of my fortune, and doubled crossed the federal government.
(02:13):
They took everything from my house except the pearl handled
revolver I used with which she met her death. And
now I've gone from George Remis the millionaire to George
Remis the murderer.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Remus isn't morose or remorseful. In fact, he seems excited.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Are you insane?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Positively no, But then no man could be perfectly sane
and commit the crime that I've done.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I'm Abbot Taylor, and this is the final episode of
Remis the Mad Bootleg King. While George Remis chased imaging,
the prosecuting Attorney of Halton County, Charles P. Taft the Second,
or Charlie as his friends called him, said goodbye to
(03:10):
his wife and drove downtown to his office on the
fourth floor of the courthouse. Charlie had just returned from
the Taft family cottage in Mary Bay, Canada. The family
had celebrated the seventieth birthday of Charlie's father, William Hower Taft,
the former President of the United States and current Chief
Justice of the US Supreme Court. The extended Taft family
(03:33):
had spent a month of languorous days swimming in the clear,
chilly water. In the evenings, they dined and danced until midnight.
But Charlie's good mood vanished when he walked into a
Cincinnati office and was met by the grim faces of
his colleagues. They told him there had been a brutal
murder that morning. On the way to his divorce hearing,
the bootlegger George Remis had shot his wife in Eden
(03:56):
Park and was now in custody. Taft did not need
to hear another word about the situation to recognize its significance.
The Remis case would be the most important of his career.
Charlie Taft had just turned thirty years old. Less than
a year earlier, he had been elected Hamilton County's prosecuting
attorney with just one conviction to his record. He was
(04:19):
currently enmeshed in a trial against an influential Cincinnati bootlegger
named George fat Rassman, who stood accused of killing a
speakeasy proprietor. But his best efforts were being stymied by
the skill of Rasman's defense attorney, thirty six year old
Charles Elston. Once a prosecutor himself, Elston anticipated Taft strategies
(04:40):
and arguments before he made them, and was not averse
to bold and risky tactics. In one recent murder trial,
Elston represented a young man charged with firing two shots
into a police officer's chest. Elston argued the defendant had
been weak mentally from boyhood and was insane at the
time he committed murder. With that in mind, Charlie Taft
(05:01):
realized that George Remus might also plead insanity. The next
day in municipal court, Remus pled not guilty. On his
way out, reporters asked if he'd hired a lawyer to
assist with his case. With a flourish, he produced two
telegrams from his pocket, both from prominent attorneys who had
(05:21):
offered to defend him, Remus said.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
He declined, George Remis will defend George Remas. I am
now George Remus the lawyer, not George Remas the bootlegger.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Three days later, the crafty defense lawyer Elston emerged victorious
over Taft in the Rassman trial, and Remus made an announcement.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
At the earnest solicitation of my friends, I have decided
to have Attorney Elston associated with me in my trial.
Remus will handle his own defense, but mister Elston will
be associated with him.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Together, they began debating the first order of business trial strategy.
Remus had pled not guilty, but by reason of what
One option was justifiable homicide. They could catalog Imagen's undeniable offenses,
like her theft of his money and assets, her betrayal
with Dodge, and argue that her deplorable behavior warranted a
(06:18):
deadly response. She was an immoral woman, and therefore Remus
was morally right to kill her. Theirs would be history's
oldest and most common defense. The second option was temporary insanity.
The scaffolding would be the same, using Imagin's own treachery
to explain what precipitated her death, but they would build
(06:39):
an entirely different case around those facts. They would argue
that if imagein had remained faithful, Remus never would have
suffered brainstorms, those momentary lapses and consciousness obliterated all rational thought.
Temporary insanity would explain the shooting stars and the gleaming
halo that followed him whispering murderous commands. Remus knew well
(07:03):
the legal precedence for the temporary and scides sanity defense.
In fact, Remas had used it to defend a Chicago
client who had murdered his wife. The man was convicted,
but based on Remus's insanity defense, he was spared the
electric chair and given a sentence of only fifteen years
in prison. Now, with his own life on the line,
(07:23):
Remis intended to improve upon that outcome. He would plead
temporary insanity. He would take all the symptoms he'd exhibited
over the past two years, the raving, the violent fits,
the catatonic spells, and create a narrative of madness, inviting
jurors to experience the downfall of his mind. He summarized
(07:44):
his defense in just three words. Remus's brain exploded on Monday,
November fourteenth, George Remis prepared to make legal history, becoming
the first person to act as his own attorney after
pleading insanity. On its face, it was absurd. Reporters in
(08:04):
opinion across the country peppered their columns with questions and theories.
If George Remis, the accused is insane, then why isn't
George Remis the attorney insane? If George Remis the accused
is insane, was he in a fit condition to employ
George Remas's attorney? Furthermore, if George Remis the attorney is insane,
(08:26):
shouldn't he disqualify himself from representing George Remas the accused?
Escorted by a bailiff, Remus arrived at the Hamilton County
Common Police Court wearing a blue suit, a crisply starched
cream shirt, a black tie adorned with a pearl, black
shoes and socks, and tortoise shell eyeglasses, clearly playing the
part of a seasoned attorney rather than deranged defendant. It
(08:50):
was the day after his fifty first birthday. Smiling, he
greeted spectators, housewives, doctors, businessmen, laborers, all of whom had
lined up at sunrise to vide for one of the
one hundred ten seats in the courtroom. County deputy had
to turn nine hundred people away. A special section housed
(09:10):
reporters from every major newspaper in the country, fearing that
the intense media scrutiny would affect the proceedings, Judge Chester
Shook band telegraph equipment, typewriters, tripodcammers, and flash photography from
the courtroom. Judge Shook had been elected to the court
only a year earlier, his first public office. He was
(09:30):
determined to conduct his highest profile trial with dignity and decorum.
Remus took his place beside co counsel Charles Elston at
the table. To their right sat Charlie Taft and his
assistant prosecutor, both of them sons of Cincinnati High Society.
Remus once hoped men like them would attend his parties.
(09:51):
Now at last he had their attention.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
Call the jerry.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
As jury selection proceeded, the prosecution worked relentlessly to drive
home a key points He was insane when he killed imaging.
Then he could not be sane enough to represent himself.
Now their attack began. As Remus examined the very first juror.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Would the fact that I am charged here with murder,
and the fact that I am participating in the presentation
of my own defense prejudice you against me.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Before the man could answer, Taft's assistant prosecutor rose to object.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
It is ridiculous to think that an insane man should
question and examine jurors.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Elston rose and responded, the.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Claim of the defense is that the defendant was insane
at the time the crime was committed.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
This confused Judge Shook.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Does the defense say the defendant is insane now? The
defense says that Remus was insane at the time of
the crime. His condition now is a question to be
decided through the evidence in this case.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Shook agreed with Elston and overruled the prosecution's objection. Remus
had won this early round. The court had determined him
mentally competent to question his own jurors. Judge Shook gave
each side two hours for opening statements. The assistant prosecutor
spoke first. He suggested that Remus had long planned the
murder and his insanity defense with his associate George Connors,
(11:20):
his accountant Blanche Watson, and his chauffeur George Klug. He
argued that throughout their planning, Remus was never not even
for a moment insane.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
After we have shown you that this defendant, in a
cold blooded manner, deliberately, purposely, intentionally, and maliciously shot and
killed this defenseless woman, we feel we will be justified
in asking you to return a verdict that will carry
with it the extreme penalty.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
When the prosecution rested, Charles Elston stood and faced the jury.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
We expect to show you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
that at the time George Remas fired the shot that
took the life of Emma Jean Remus, he was not
a free agent and was not a sane, normal man,
and was not capable of entertaining premeditation, deliberation, malice, and
purpose and intent to kill.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Then Elston lead out precisely how Imaging's infidelity had driven
George Remas insane and introduced the story's villain, Franklin Dodge.
He told the jury how Dodge's affair with Imaging had
put Remus into a grievous mental state that he suffered
for two years until the day he fired that shot.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Miss Remus announced that she intended to marry Dodge when
she got a divorce. The defendant turned these things over
in his mind a thousand times a day. The more
he thought about them, the more they preyed on his
mind and tortured him.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
That set the dynamic for the entire trial. Did Remus
conspire with Connors and the others to plan Imaging's murder
and to follow it with an insanity defense? Or did
Imageing's affair with Dodge drive remas insane only for him
to become sane again the moment after he killed her.
The prosecutors pushed the premeditated theory hard. They argued that Klug, Connors,
(13:12):
and the accountant Blanche Watson had hatched their whole plan
in Remus's room at the Centen Hotel. Their greatest hope
for proving it involved a significant risk. Calling the chauffeur
George Klug to the stand, how.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
Long were you in the hotel room with Remus, George Connors,
and Blanche Watson?
Speaker 7 (13:31):
Only about five or ten minutes, and nobody else was
in there outside of mister Remus.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
The prosecutor's face reddened with anger, and he shouted at Klug.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
Mister Klug, when you were up in the prosecutor's office
two weeks ago. You said there were several people in
that room.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
I did no such thing.
Speaker 6 (13:51):
Who have you been talking to about this case since
you talked to me.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
I've not been talking to anyone about this case.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
For the next five hours of grueling examination, Klug denied
everything he had told the prosecutors in front of the
grand jury two weeks earlier. Finally, Remus had enough of
the conspiracy talk.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
May I addressed the court, you're honor, the specific charge
that the defendant is charged with is the wilful, malicious,
and wanton killing of the deceased.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Remus argued that the prosecution had introduced the conspiracy theory
that Remus had planned the murder and his insanity play
along with his associates. If Taft wanted to make that argument,
Remas said he should therefore have to prove not only
the murder but also the conspiracy. Judge Shook made a
surprising ruling. He faced Charlie Taft and told him he
(14:45):
agreed with Remus. Taft would now have to prove both.
It was a harsh blow to the prosecution.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Thank you, your honor.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Judge Shook ordered him to sit. Remus obeyed, laughing hysterically
all the while. After two weeks, Taft rested his case.
(15:20):
Elston began the defense's arguments, calling a parade of witnesses
who testified to Remis's insanity. Former federal prosecutor A.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Lee Beatty Remus came into my office and he said
that the government was conspiring with members of some gang
to take his life. He said one of them was
very high in the service of the Department of Justice.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
That person was none other.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Than Mabel Walker. Wille Brandt, a.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Reporter for the Saint Louis Post Dispatch, described a visit
in nineteen twenty five to Remis's nearly empty mansion.
Speaker 8 (15:55):
He began raving, and he stamped up and down the
front room, and he pulled at his head, and he said,
this is driving me mad. No man ever had to
bear what I had to bear. Sometimes he would walk
a little while, and he would be as solemn and
sonorous as an archbishop. Then he would jump like a
man with a hornet in his pants and tear around
the room. I reached the conclusion that he was exceptionally
(16:18):
intelligent and sane, and bright and shrewd about everything except
that one subject. That subject as crazy as a bed buddy.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
A newspaper artist with the Cincinnati Post also recalled a
visit to Remas's home, this time in nineteen twenty seven.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
He was quite wild. He was trying to get into
the house. He couldn't get in. The door was locked,
the windows were all locked. He had some kind of
instrument in his hand, and he pried open the window
and managed to get the door open on the inside,
and he let us in. Every time he would come
to an empty room, he would start singing in a
peculiar way. He would holler and shout and sing in
(16:57):
a very peculiar manner.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Did you reach any conclusion in your mind to his
sanity or insanity.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
On the subject of Missus Remis and Franklin Dodge. He
was quite off. He would go wild every time you
mentioned it.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Charlie Taft and his co prosecutor tallied up this deja
voo testimony. So similar in tone and theme, it seemed
the witnesses had followed a script. Especially these tours of
Remus's empty mansion. Some of them occurred on adjacent days,
meaning Remus had to re stage his home as though
it were the first time he'd seen it. Relocking windows
(17:31):
and doors that had already been opened, hiring a locksmith
to participate in this charade, feigning surprise and despair at
each ransacked room. If the witnesses were following a script,
it was one that Remus himself had written. Wasn't this
evidence of premeditation? In his cross examinations, Taff challenged every witness.
(17:55):
Didn't they see that these outbursts were staged for the
benefit of the press and other potentially useful witnesses. But
it didn't matter. The witnesses testified that were Remus's disturbing
behavior was clear evidence that the man had been cruelly
wronged and definitely not a mere performance he gave when
it suited him. Finally, after six long weeks a trial,
(18:17):
the defense rested. Judge Shook gave each side four hours
for closing statements. Remus decided that he would deliver his own.
He believed he was ready. He knew that the unusual
spectacle of a murder defendant, particularly one of his theatrical prowess,
pleading for his own life, would draw international attention. Remis
(18:39):
knew that hundreds were clamoring to hear him. Lined up
on Main Street in the cold. Wearing a light gray suit,
he paced back and forth in front of the jury
box and then began.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Here before you stands remis the lawyer.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Then, with a flourish, he swung his arm and pointed
at his empty chair behind the defense table.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
In the chair there since remiss the defendant charged with murder.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
His plan was to spend four hours driving that point
home that Remus the lawyer, now perfectly sane in front
of the jury, was not the same person as Remus
the defendant, who had been perfectly insane when he had
killed his wife. But his brain was at war with him.
He had so many other points he wanted to make.
He wanted to talk about the essential nature of insanity.
(19:28):
He wanted to talk about Imagen's betrayal with Franklin Dodge,
that social leper, that human parasite. He wanted to explain
how Impigitadache had sold off all his assets while he
sat in prison. The reporters in the room watched him
grow flustered. They saw an ease and desperation. They saw
him veer wildly from one rhetorical path to another. The
(19:51):
meandering speeches and mental meltdown continued until Judge Shook warned
him that he had only five minutes left. Remas spun
back to the jury and delivered his final plea, addressing
the twelve men and women as if they were the
only people in the room.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Let every one of you go home and be content. I,
the defendant, do not desire any sympathy in any way,
shape or form, or manner. If few folks feel that,
under your sworn duty as ladies and men of this jury,
you that have a higher power than the President of
the United States, as to the guilt or innocence of
(20:29):
this defendant. If you feel that he should be electrocuted,
do your duty. Don't flinch. The defendant won't flinch. The
defendant stands before you defending his honor and the sanctity
of his home. The defendant is on trial for that,
and if that is murder, punish him. As you retire
(20:50):
into the consideration of your verdict, bear in mind that
that which is most sacred, most beautiful, most glorious to
all of us is our family, our offspring, our home.
I thank you, and a merry Christmas to you.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
As the Cincinnati inquirre put it, Remus had failed to click,
but Charlie Taff still worried, he requested that Judge Shook
not give the jury a chance to render a straight
and not guilty verdict, which would allow Remas to avoid
both jail and the assan asylum. Since Remis had admitted
killing his wife and had pleaded insanity, Taft argued, it
(21:30):
followed that he must be found insane or be given
a heavier sentence. Judge Shook agreed, ruling that Remus could
be found not guilty only by reason of insanity. Before
he sent them away to deliberate, Judge Shook told the
jury that they had five possible verdicts. First degree murder
without mercy, which meant the electric chair, first degree murder
(21:54):
with mercy, life without parole, second degree murder life but
with the possibility of parole, manslaughter, a jail sentence of
up to twenty years, and finally, not guilty by reason
of insanity. He sent them into the jury room at
exactly twelve fifty nine pm, precisely one hour and fifty
(22:16):
five minutes later. The jury foreman rapped at the door.
No one had expected such a speedy verdict. The courtroom
was still empty, and sheriff spent the next hour, searching
the streets for the lawyers and fetching Remas from the jail.
Anxious spectators shoved their way through a rear door until
they filled every seat and lined the walls, ignoring the
(22:37):
maximum capacity. Judge Shook ascended his dais.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Have you agreed upon a verdict? We have, your honor.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Remus took off his glasses and held them at his chin.
His skin was pale, and he withheld all expression. The
foreman rose and handed the sealed envelope to the court clerk,
who opened it with a vigorous rip and unfolded its contents.
The audience in the courtroom leaned forward as he read, we.
Speaker 8 (23:05):
The jury find the defendant not guilty of murder, as
he stands charged in the indictment on the sole ground
of insanity.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Remas stood up slowly and then shouted at the top
of his lungs, this.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Is American justice. Thank you, hate you.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Deputies let him out of the courtroom, and in the
hallway he laughed uproariously. Remus's voice teetered on hysteria. In
the corridor, five hundred admirers, many of them women, closed
in on him, shouting congratulations. Into his ears and launching
(23:43):
into a chorus, Remas began to weep fat tears. He
wailed brazenly. Fifty people, including several jurors, followed Remus and
the deputies back to the jail. Outside Remas' cell, two
of the jeers began talking to reporters.
Speaker 9 (24:02):
As the evidence unfolded. I began to hitty Remus and
hate the prosecutor's assistance. I thought Remis must have been insane,
with he kilter anyway. I believe Remus was justified in
what he did.
Speaker 8 (24:17):
Why did you decide the way it did?
Speaker 7 (24:20):
We felt that Remus had been greatly wrong, that he
had suffered almost beyond human endurance. One of the factors
that decided us was that Remus already had served in
nine jails for the violation of the prohibition law, all
for the same offense.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
When the press finally tracked down Charlie Taft, he had
only seven words.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
It was a gross miscarriage of justice.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Charlie Taft could have said much more about the challenges
he had faced and prosecuting Remas. He could have pointed
out that in Cincinnati, Remas was a folk hero. During
his reign as America's bootleg king. Remas had likely employed
friends and relatives of the very jury members who would
decide his faith. Charlie Taff could also have mentioned that
(25:07):
Remus alone wasn't on trial. Prohibition itself was on trial,
and it had no chance in a wet city like Cincinnati.
Most of all, Kaft could have argued that Imaging Remus, too,
was on trial. Even those who embraced the idea of
the modern woman might find Imaging's behavior disturbing, proving as
(25:27):
it did that women were as capable of betrayal as men,
and even had the gull to hope to get away
with it.
Speaker 8 (25:34):
All.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Twelve members of the jury wrote a petition that Judge Shook,
asking that Remus be released immediately so he could spend
Christmas with his mother and his daughter, Romola. Shook would
have none of it and called their petition intolerable, outrageous, insulting,
and audacious. Shook wanted Remas locked up in a mental
hospital because he was a danger to society. He ordered
(25:57):
Remis to testify about his state of mind in probate court.
Speaker 6 (26:02):
Got any feeling about your dead wife having killed her?
Speaker 4 (26:06):
None, in the slightest No, remorse. Oh, I feel sorry
to think she was unfortunate that she would be tied
up with that kind of human parasite.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
Has anything ever entered your mind about what the state
of her soul is, of whether she is in heaven?
Speaker 4 (26:24):
My answer is that a woman, and I mustn't use
the word woman, A person who was so depraved, so degenerated,
as to lose all person of womankind the way she did.
That whatever is in the future and the hereafter, so
far she is concerned, cannot be bad enough.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
You loved her at one time, didn't you.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Yes, there was no question about it.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
On December twenty eighth, after Remus's testimony before the probay court,
five psychiatrists, including two who had observed the murder trial,
testified that he was sane but a threat to society.
They called him histrionic and dangerous. They called him an
amoral psychopath, emotionally unstable, subject to unrestrained outbursts of temper
(27:12):
and rage. Nevertheless, the judge agreed with only half their findings.
He ruled that while Remus was indeed too dangerous to
be released, he was also insane. He committed Remus to
the Lima State Hospital for the criminally insane until he
has been restored to reason. On January sixth, nineteen twenty eight,
(27:33):
exactly three months after Remus killed Imogen, he arrived at
Lima State Hospital. On his first Sunday at the asylum,
Remus joined the church choir. A new set of alienists,
three of whom were hired and paid by Remus, conducted
lengthy interviews probing every facet of the patient's psyche. In
the final week of February, Remus went to the Court
(27:55):
of Appeals in Lima to ask for his release. One
by one, Remis has hired alienis reported favorable observations. The
halo Remis spoke of was possibly confusion from wori rather
than hallucination or an illusion. He wasn't insane, but merely
affected by fury and violence from extreme circumstances. He seemed
(28:17):
logical and coherent and sane beyond a doubt. The alienists,
who weren't in Remus's pocket, dissected his personality, right down
to his aversion to underwear, which they considered a sign
of an unstable mind. They offered various conclusions that, when
taken together, were quite inconclusive. In March, after listening to
(28:39):
all of the alienist testimony, the Allen County District Court
of Appeals found that Remus was not insane and ordered
his discharge from Lima State Hospital. When told of the verdict,
Remus wept with joy.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
It's wonderful. I knew, I knew they would believe me.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Charlie Tafft, still enraged by his defeat, besieged the Lima
Authority to deny Remus bail. While the Allen County prosecutor
appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, the irony did not
escape Remus. Charlie Taft, who had argued during the murder
trial that Remus was perfectly sane, was now arguing the
exact opposite. On June twenty eighth, nineteen twenty nine, the
(29:21):
Ohio Supreme Court ruled in Remas's favor and ordered that
he be released. The following Easter, during the egg hunt
in Eden Park, a young boy spotted a strange object
in a thicket, a rusty pearl handled revolver. The hunt's
organizers turned it over to the police. Remus could not
(29:42):
be found for comment. Franklin Dodge was never called to
the stand during Remus's murder trial. He was later indicted
by a federal grand jury in Savannah, Georgia, on seven
counts of perjury, stemming from testimony he'd given in the
trial of the local bootlegger Willie Harr. Dodge was sentenced
(30:04):
to thirty months in the Atlanta penn where he'd first
met George and Immogen Remus. After his release, he moved
to Lansing, Michigan, and took a job in the city
auditor's office. He lived there quietly until his death in
nineteen sixty eight at seventy seven years old. Mabel Willembrandt
lasted at the Department of Justice until her resignation in
(30:26):
June of nineteen twenty nine. Perhaps her greatest legacy at
the Department was not her pursuit of George Remas, but
her ingenuity regarding tax law. It was Willembrandt who argued
before the United States Supreme Court that income gained from
bootlegging was subject to income tax, thereby setting the trap
that would ensnare al capone. She built a thriving private
(30:49):
law practice with offices in Washington and Los Angeles, where
she represented the movie mogul Louis B. Mayer and film
stars like Clark Gable and Jean Harlowe, to the dismay
of her former Prohibition colleagues, she also represented a group
of California Great growers who utilized the loophole in the
Volst Act allowing for the private production of table wine.
(31:12):
Her hearing and her health kept deteriorating, and in nineteen
sixty two, her lifetime smoking habit resulted in a diagnosis
of emphysema. She died a year later. In all of
the tributes celebrating her achievements, one friend, future federal judge
John Jay Serica, who would preside over the watergatecase, speculated
(31:33):
about what might have been if Mabel had worn trousers.
He said she could have been president. In August nineteen
twenty nine, Ruth Remus filed a petition in probate Court
seeking annulment of her adoption and restoration of her former name,
Ruth Holmes. Her petition was granted in October, two years
(31:53):
after her mother's death. Ruth married in nineteen thirty and
within ten years had two sons of her own. In
nineteen forty seven, she checked in the Columbia Hospital in
Milwaukee for a history directomy Afterwards, she was given a
blood transfusion intended for a different patient with the same name,
and would prove to be a fatal error. She died
(32:13):
that evening at the age of thirty nine. Romola Remus
pursued an acting and singing career, benefiting from the notoriety
of her father's crimes. Packard the Motor Car Company used
her name in newspaper ads, boasting this well known musician
is accustomed to the best of all lines. The Oriel Terrace,
(32:34):
a cabaret in Detroit, built her as the girl who
stood by her dad. Eventually, she tired of questions about
her father, telling reporters and fans alike that she was
trying to forget the past. When she died in February
nineteen eighty seven, she was remembered mostly for an acting
job she did when she was only eight years old.
She had played the first Dorothy and writer L. Frank
(32:57):
Baum's The Wizard of Oz. In later life, Romola lived
in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago with a cat, a turn,
a power keep, and dozens of books stuffed with her clippings.
She had no immediate survivors and specified in her will
that her age not be disclosed as for the mad
Bootleg King. After several years of trying with little success
(33:20):
to recoup his assets, George Remis married his accountant, Blanche Watson,
in nineteen forty one. They moved to Covington, Kentucky, just
across the river from Cincinnati, and lived in quiet, deliberate obscurity.
Remus traveled some and was occasionally spotted by reporters at
racetracks and by old acquaintances in various cities where he
(33:42):
once closed deals and paid bribes. He said the same
thing to anyone who ran into him.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Tell no one, I am here. Tell nobody you have
seen me. I want to get out of the spotlight
you see.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
In August nineteen fifty, he suffered a stroke while exercising
at the Cincinnati gym. When he died from a cerebral
hemorrhage two years later, at the age of seventy nine,
he was living in a boarding house under the care
of a nurse. The headline of his obituary in the
Cincinnati Times Star read another Gatsby passes. He was buried
(34:17):
in Blanche Watson's family plot in Falmouth, Kentucky, and a
grave distinguished from all the others. Nearby, a sculpture of
a woman perched on the shoulders of two angels loomed
over him, a sculpture rumor to have been one of
the few pieces left from the mansion. One morning, soon
after Remas's death, the cemetery caretaker discovered that the angels
(34:38):
had been vandalized, their wings struck from their shoulders and
reduced to cement shards at the base of the tombstone.
As the legend has it, someone had written a letter
to Watson arguing that Remas was not fit to be
guarded by angels for reasons known only to her. Watson
set out to the cemetery, hammer in hand, and with
a few hard blows, demolished what remained of the wings.
(35:06):
Legend also has it that Imogen Remis still haunts Eden Park,
wandering around the bank of Mirror Lake, always pausing by
the spring House gazebo, where, on a fall morning, at
a different distant time, she realized that she was about
to die. She wears the same black Parisian hat and
sleek silk dress, now clean of dirt and blood. Most
(35:28):
of the time, she's silent, gazing into the reflecting pool
content to let the world rush around her on other nights,
and it is always at night she runs wild and sobbing,
as though she still hears his footsteps behind her and
feels the heat of him closing in I'm Abbit, Taylor,
(35:52):
you've been listening to Remus the Mad Bootleg.
Speaker 6 (35:55):
King.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
To read the complete story of George Remas's life in
this wild chapter in American history, read my book The
Ghost Sabine Park. Remus the Mad Bootleg is a co
production of iHeart Podcasts and School of Humans. It's hosted
by me Abbot Kaylor, Chuck Reese and I wrote the show.
Our producer is Miranda Hawkins. Our senior producer is Jessica Metzker.
(36:17):
Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon barr Els Crowley, and
Jason English. Sound design and mixed by Chris Childs. Elise
McCoy composed original music. Additional scoring by Chris Childs. Voices
in this episode provided by Ben Bolan, Noel Brown, Matt
Frederick New Carloso, Jonathan Sleep, Jewel, Ruiz Van Gunter Fleet, Cooper,
(36:41):
Jay Jones, Jeremy Thall, Thiago Macklin, Supin Hensler, Ncolebriton and
Judah Andrews. Special thanks to John Higgins from Curiosity Stream
and the team at c DM Studios in New York.
Thanks for listening to the show. If you enjoyed the podcast,
please give it a review in your podcast app. You
can also check out other Curiosity podcasts to learn about history,
(37:03):
pop culture, true crime, and more.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
School of Humans
There's violence against women in this episode. Please take care
where and when you listen.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
As strange as this story may seem, this is a
work of nonfiction with no invented dialogue. Every reenactment you
hear comes from government files, archives, diaries, letters, newspaper articles, books,
or trial testimony. It's the morning of October sixth, nineteen
(00:45):
twenty seven. George Remas chases his wife Imaging into the
spring House gazebo in Cincinnati's Eden Park, where he rams
a pistol into her belly and pulls the trigger. Four
hours later, Remus is once again behind bars, this time
on the top floor of the Hamilton County Jail. His
(01:08):
first visitor arrives at two PM, a man who introduces
himself as doctor W. C. Kendig, the County Alienist, a
doctor who treats the insane.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Mister Remus, I have been sent over here by the
Prosecutor's office to make an examination of you.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Very well, doctor, go ahead and just go as far
as you'd like. I am perfectly normal in every respect.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
The doctor keeps the tone of his voice calm.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
And even your plea will not be insanity.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Emphatically, no, it will not Remus responds to doctor Kendig's
questions calmly, but every time the conversation calls for him
to use the word wife, he chooses a more colorful phrase.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
That decomposed mass of Clay was not well educated, but
she was a very shrewd and attractive woman. While I
was confined to the penitentiary in Atlanta, this composed mass
of Clay and her pimp broke up my home, robbed
me of my fortune, and doubled crossed the federal government.
(02:13):
They took everything from my house except the pearl handled
revolver I used with which she met her death. And
now I've gone from George Remis the millionaire to George
Remis the murderer.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Remus isn't morose or remorseful. In fact, he seems excited.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Are you insane?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Positively no, But then no man could be perfectly sane
and commit the crime that I've done.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I'm Abbot Taylor, and this is the final episode of
Remis the Mad Bootleg King. While George Remis chased imaging,
the prosecuting Attorney of Halton County, Charles P. Taft the Second,
or Charlie as his friends called him, said goodbye to
(03:10):
his wife and drove downtown to his office on the
fourth floor of the courthouse. Charlie had just returned from
the Taft family cottage in Mary Bay, Canada. The family
had celebrated the seventieth birthday of Charlie's father, William Hower Taft,
the former President of the United States and current Chief
Justice of the US Supreme Court. The extended Taft family
(03:33):
had spent a month of languorous days swimming in the clear,
chilly water. In the evenings, they dined and danced until midnight.
But Charlie's good mood vanished when he walked into a
Cincinnati office and was met by the grim faces of
his colleagues. They told him there had been a brutal
murder that morning. On the way to his divorce hearing,
the bootlegger George Remis had shot his wife in Eden
(03:56):
Park and was now in custody. Taft did not need
to hear another word about the situation to recognize its significance.
The Remis case would be the most important of his career.
Charlie Taft had just turned thirty years old. Less than
a year earlier, he had been elected Hamilton County's prosecuting
attorney with just one conviction to his record. He was
(04:19):
currently enmeshed in a trial against an influential Cincinnati bootlegger
named George fat Rassman, who stood accused of killing a
speakeasy proprietor. But his best efforts were being stymied by
the skill of Rasman's defense attorney, thirty six year old
Charles Elston. Once a prosecutor himself, Elston anticipated Taft strategies
(04:40):
and arguments before he made them, and was not averse
to bold and risky tactics. In one recent murder trial,
Elston represented a young man charged with firing two shots
into a police officer's chest. Elston argued the defendant had
been weak mentally from boyhood and was insane at the
time he committed murder. With that in mind, Charlie Taft
(05:01):
realized that George Remus might also plead insanity. The next
day in municipal court, Remus pled not guilty. On his
way out, reporters asked if he'd hired a lawyer to
assist with his case. With a flourish, he produced two
telegrams from his pocket, both from prominent attorneys who had
(05:21):
offered to defend him, Remus said.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
He declined, George Remis will defend George Remas. I am
now George Remus the lawyer, not George Remas the bootlegger.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Three days later, the crafty defense lawyer Elston emerged victorious
over Taft in the Rassman trial, and Remus made an announcement.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
At the earnest solicitation of my friends, I have decided
to have Attorney Elston associated with me in my trial.
Remus will handle his own defense, but mister Elston will
be associated with him.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Together, they began debating the first order of business trial strategy.
Remus had pled not guilty, but by reason of what
One option was justifiable homicide. They could catalog Imagen's undeniable offenses,
like her theft of his money and assets, her betrayal
with Dodge, and argue that her deplorable behavior warranted a
(06:18):
deadly response. She was an immoral woman, and therefore Remus
was morally right to kill her. Theirs would be history's
oldest and most common defense. The second option was temporary insanity.
The scaffolding would be the same, using Imagin's own treachery
to explain what precipitated her death, but they would build
(06:39):
an entirely different case around those facts. They would argue
that if imagein had remained faithful, Remus never would have
suffered brainstorms, those momentary lapses and consciousness obliterated all rational thought.
Temporary insanity would explain the shooting stars and the gleaming
halo that followed him whispering murderous commands. Remus knew well
(07:03):
the legal precedence for the temporary and scides sanity defense.
In fact, Remas had used it to defend a Chicago
client who had murdered his wife. The man was convicted,
but based on Remus's insanity defense, he was spared the
electric chair and given a sentence of only fifteen years
in prison. Now, with his own life on the line,
(07:23):
Remis intended to improve upon that outcome. He would plead
temporary insanity. He would take all the symptoms he'd exhibited
over the past two years, the raving, the violent fits,
the catatonic spells, and create a narrative of madness, inviting
jurors to experience the downfall of his mind. He summarized
(07:44):
his defense in just three words. Remus's brain exploded on Monday,
November fourteenth, George Remis prepared to make legal history, becoming
the first person to act as his own attorney after
pleading insanity. On its face, it was absurd. Reporters in
(08:04):
opinion across the country peppered their columns with questions and theories.
If George Remis, the accused is insane, then why isn't
George Remis the attorney insane? If George Remis the accused
is insane, was he in a fit condition to employ
George Remas's attorney? Furthermore, if George Remis the attorney is insane,
(08:26):
shouldn't he disqualify himself from representing George Remas the accused?
Escorted by a bailiff, Remus arrived at the Hamilton County
Common Police Court wearing a blue suit, a crisply starched
cream shirt, a black tie adorned with a pearl, black
shoes and socks, and tortoise shell eyeglasses, clearly playing the
part of a seasoned attorney rather than deranged defendant. It
(08:50):
was the day after his fifty first birthday. Smiling, he
greeted spectators, housewives, doctors, businessmen, laborers, all of whom had
lined up at sunrise to vide for one of the
one hundred ten seats in the courtroom. County deputy had
to turn nine hundred people away. A special section housed
(09:10):
reporters from every major newspaper in the country, fearing that
the intense media scrutiny would affect the proceedings, Judge Chester
Shook band telegraph equipment, typewriters, tripodcammers, and flash photography from
the courtroom. Judge Shook had been elected to the court
only a year earlier, his first public office. He was
(09:30):
determined to conduct his highest profile trial with dignity and decorum.
Remus took his place beside co counsel Charles Elston at
the table. To their right sat Charlie Taft and his
assistant prosecutor, both of them sons of Cincinnati High Society.
Remus once hoped men like them would attend his parties.
(09:51):
Now at last he had their attention.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
Call the jerry.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
As jury selection proceeded, the prosecution worked relentlessly to drive
home a key points He was insane when he killed imaging.
Then he could not be sane enough to represent himself.
Now their attack began. As Remus examined the very first juror.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Would the fact that I am charged here with murder,
and the fact that I am participating in the presentation
of my own defense prejudice you against me.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Before the man could answer, Taft's assistant prosecutor rose to object.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
It is ridiculous to think that an insane man should
question and examine jurors.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Elston rose and responded, the.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Claim of the defense is that the defendant was insane
at the time the crime was committed.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
This confused Judge Shook.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Does the defense say the defendant is insane now? The
defense says that Remus was insane at the time of
the crime. His condition now is a question to be
decided through the evidence in this case.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Shook agreed with Elston and overruled the prosecution's objection. Remus
had won this early round. The court had determined him
mentally competent to question his own jurors. Judge Shook gave
each side two hours for opening statements. The assistant prosecutor
spoke first. He suggested that Remus had long planned the
murder and his insanity defense with his associate George Connors,
(11:20):
his accountant Blanche Watson, and his chauffeur George Klug. He
argued that throughout their planning, Remus was never not even
for a moment insane.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
After we have shown you that this defendant, in a
cold blooded manner, deliberately, purposely, intentionally, and maliciously shot and
killed this defenseless woman, we feel we will be justified
in asking you to return a verdict that will carry
with it the extreme penalty.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
When the prosecution rested, Charles Elston stood and faced the jury.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
We expect to show you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
that at the time George Remas fired the shot that
took the life of Emma Jean Remus, he was not
a free agent and was not a sane, normal man,
and was not capable of entertaining premeditation, deliberation, malice, and
purpose and intent to kill.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Then Elston lead out precisely how Imaging's infidelity had driven
George Remas insane and introduced the story's villain, Franklin Dodge.
He told the jury how Dodge's affair with Imaging had
put Remus into a grievous mental state that he suffered
for two years until the day he fired that shot.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Miss Remus announced that she intended to marry Dodge when
she got a divorce. The defendant turned these things over
in his mind a thousand times a day. The more
he thought about them, the more they preyed on his
mind and tortured him.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
That set the dynamic for the entire trial. Did Remus
conspire with Connors and the others to plan Imaging's murder
and to follow it with an insanity defense? Or did
Imageing's affair with Dodge drive remas insane only for him
to become sane again the moment after he killed her.
The prosecutors pushed the premeditated theory hard. They argued that Klug, Connors,
(13:12):
and the accountant Blanche Watson had hatched their whole plan
in Remus's room at the Centen Hotel. Their greatest hope
for proving it involved a significant risk. Calling the chauffeur
George Klug to the stand, how.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
Long were you in the hotel room with Remus, George Connors,
and Blanche Watson?
Speaker 7 (13:31):
Only about five or ten minutes, and nobody else was
in there outside of mister Remus.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
The prosecutor's face reddened with anger, and he shouted at Klug.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
Mister Klug, when you were up in the prosecutor's office
two weeks ago. You said there were several people in
that room.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
I did no such thing.
Speaker 6 (13:51):
Who have you been talking to about this case since
you talked to me.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
I've not been talking to anyone about this case.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
For the next five hours of grueling examination, Klug denied
everything he had told the prosecutors in front of the
grand jury two weeks earlier. Finally, Remus had enough of
the conspiracy talk.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
May I addressed the court, you're honor, the specific charge
that the defendant is charged with is the wilful, malicious,
and wanton killing of the deceased.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Remus argued that the prosecution had introduced the conspiracy theory
that Remus had planned the murder and his insanity play
along with his associates. If Taft wanted to make that argument,
Remas said he should therefore have to prove not only
the murder but also the conspiracy. Judge Shook made a
surprising ruling. He faced Charlie Taft and told him he
(14:45):
agreed with Remus. Taft would now have to prove both.
It was a harsh blow to the prosecution.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Thank you, your honor.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Judge Shook ordered him to sit. Remus obeyed, laughing hysterically
all the while. After two weeks, Taft rested his case.
(15:20):
Elston began the defense's arguments, calling a parade of witnesses
who testified to Remis's insanity. Former federal prosecutor A.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Lee Beatty Remus came into my office and he said
that the government was conspiring with members of some gang
to take his life. He said one of them was
very high in the service of the Department of Justice.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
That person was none other.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Than Mabel Walker. Wille Brandt, a.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Reporter for the Saint Louis Post Dispatch, described a visit
in nineteen twenty five to Remis's nearly empty mansion.
Speaker 8 (15:55):
He began raving, and he stamped up and down the
front room, and he pulled at his head, and he said,
this is driving me mad. No man ever had to
bear what I had to bear. Sometimes he would walk
a little while, and he would be as solemn and
sonorous as an archbishop. Then he would jump like a
man with a hornet in his pants and tear around
the room. I reached the conclusion that he was exceptionally
(16:18):
intelligent and sane, and bright and shrewd about everything except
that one subject. That subject as crazy as a bed buddy.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
A newspaper artist with the Cincinnati Post also recalled a
visit to Remas's home, this time in nineteen twenty seven.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
He was quite wild. He was trying to get into
the house. He couldn't get in. The door was locked,
the windows were all locked. He had some kind of
instrument in his hand, and he pried open the window
and managed to get the door open on the inside,
and he let us in. Every time he would come
to an empty room, he would start singing in a
peculiar way. He would holler and shout and sing in
(16:57):
a very peculiar manner.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Did you reach any conclusion in your mind to his
sanity or insanity.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
On the subject of Missus Remis and Franklin Dodge. He
was quite off. He would go wild every time you
mentioned it.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Charlie Taft and his co prosecutor tallied up this deja
voo testimony. So similar in tone and theme, it seemed
the witnesses had followed a script. Especially these tours of
Remus's empty mansion. Some of them occurred on adjacent days,
meaning Remus had to re stage his home as though
it were the first time he'd seen it. Relocking windows
(17:31):
and doors that had already been opened, hiring a locksmith
to participate in this charade, feigning surprise and despair at
each ransacked room. If the witnesses were following a script,
it was one that Remus himself had written. Wasn't this
evidence of premeditation? In his cross examinations, Taff challenged every witness.
(17:55):
Didn't they see that these outbursts were staged for the
benefit of the press and other potentially useful witnesses. But
it didn't matter. The witnesses testified that were Remus's disturbing
behavior was clear evidence that the man had been cruelly
wronged and definitely not a mere performance he gave when
it suited him. Finally, after six long weeks a trial,
(18:17):
the defense rested. Judge Shook gave each side four hours
for closing statements. Remus decided that he would deliver his own.
He believed he was ready. He knew that the unusual
spectacle of a murder defendant, particularly one of his theatrical prowess,
pleading for his own life, would draw international attention. Remis
(18:39):
knew that hundreds were clamoring to hear him. Lined up
on Main Street in the cold. Wearing a light gray suit,
he paced back and forth in front of the jury
box and then began.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Here before you stands remis the lawyer.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Then, with a flourish, he swung his arm and pointed
at his empty chair behind the defense table.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
In the chair there since remiss the defendant charged with murder.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
His plan was to spend four hours driving that point
home that Remus the lawyer, now perfectly sane in front
of the jury, was not the same person as Remus
the defendant, who had been perfectly insane when he had
killed his wife. But his brain was at war with him.
He had so many other points he wanted to make.
He wanted to talk about the essential nature of insanity.
(19:28):
He wanted to talk about Imagen's betrayal with Franklin Dodge,
that social leper, that human parasite. He wanted to explain
how Impigitadache had sold off all his assets while he
sat in prison. The reporters in the room watched him
grow flustered. They saw an ease and desperation. They saw
him veer wildly from one rhetorical path to another. The
(19:51):
meandering speeches and mental meltdown continued until Judge Shook warned
him that he had only five minutes left. Remas spun
back to the jury and delivered his final plea, addressing
the twelve men and women as if they were the
only people in the room.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Let every one of you go home and be content. I,
the defendant, do not desire any sympathy in any way,
shape or form, or manner. If few folks feel that,
under your sworn duty as ladies and men of this jury,
you that have a higher power than the President of
the United States, as to the guilt or innocence of
(20:29):
this defendant. If you feel that he should be electrocuted,
do your duty. Don't flinch. The defendant won't flinch. The
defendant stands before you defending his honor and the sanctity
of his home. The defendant is on trial for that,
and if that is murder, punish him. As you retire
(20:50):
into the consideration of your verdict, bear in mind that
that which is most sacred, most beautiful, most glorious to
all of us is our family, our offspring, our home.
I thank you, and a merry Christmas to you.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
As the Cincinnati inquirre put it, Remus had failed to click,
but Charlie Taff still worried, he requested that Judge Shook
not give the jury a chance to render a straight
and not guilty verdict, which would allow Remas to avoid
both jail and the assan asylum. Since Remis had admitted
killing his wife and had pleaded insanity, Taft argued, it
(21:30):
followed that he must be found insane or be given
a heavier sentence. Judge Shook agreed, ruling that Remus could
be found not guilty only by reason of insanity. Before
he sent them away to deliberate, Judge Shook told the
jury that they had five possible verdicts. First degree murder
without mercy, which meant the electric chair, first degree murder
(21:54):
with mercy, life without parole, second degree murder life but
with the possibility of parole, manslaughter, a jail sentence of
up to twenty years, and finally, not guilty by reason
of insanity. He sent them into the jury room at
exactly twelve fifty nine pm, precisely one hour and fifty
(22:16):
five minutes later. The jury foreman rapped at the door.
No one had expected such a speedy verdict. The courtroom
was still empty, and sheriff spent the next hour, searching
the streets for the lawyers and fetching Remas from the jail.
Anxious spectators shoved their way through a rear door until
they filled every seat and lined the walls, ignoring the
(22:37):
maximum capacity. Judge Shook ascended his dais.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Have you agreed upon a verdict? We have, your honor.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Remus took off his glasses and held them at his chin.
His skin was pale, and he withheld all expression. The
foreman rose and handed the sealed envelope to the court clerk,
who opened it with a vigorous rip and unfolded its contents.
The audience in the courtroom leaned forward as he read, we.
Speaker 8 (23:05):
The jury find the defendant not guilty of murder, as
he stands charged in the indictment on the sole ground
of insanity.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Remas stood up slowly and then shouted at the top
of his lungs, this.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Is American justice. Thank you, hate you.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Deputies let him out of the courtroom, and in the
hallway he laughed uproariously. Remus's voice teetered on hysteria. In
the corridor, five hundred admirers, many of them women, closed
in on him, shouting congratulations. Into his ears and launching
(23:43):
into a chorus, Remas began to weep fat tears. He
wailed brazenly. Fifty people, including several jurors, followed Remus and
the deputies back to the jail. Outside Remas' cell, two
of the jeers began talking to reporters.
Speaker 9 (24:02):
As the evidence unfolded. I began to hitty Remus and
hate the prosecutor's assistance. I thought Remis must have been insane,
with he kilter anyway. I believe Remus was justified in
what he did.
Speaker 8 (24:17):
Why did you decide the way it did?
Speaker 7 (24:20):
We felt that Remus had been greatly wrong, that he
had suffered almost beyond human endurance. One of the factors
that decided us was that Remus already had served in
nine jails for the violation of the prohibition law, all
for the same offense.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
When the press finally tracked down Charlie Taft, he had
only seven words.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
It was a gross miscarriage of justice.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Charlie Taft could have said much more about the challenges
he had faced and prosecuting Remas. He could have pointed
out that in Cincinnati, Remas was a folk hero. During
his reign as America's bootleg king. Remas had likely employed
friends and relatives of the very jury members who would
decide his faith. Charlie Taff could also have mentioned that
(25:07):
Remus alone wasn't on trial. Prohibition itself was on trial,
and it had no chance in a wet city like Cincinnati.
Most of all, Kaft could have argued that Imaging Remus, too,
was on trial. Even those who embraced the idea of
the modern woman might find Imaging's behavior disturbing, proving as
(25:27):
it did that women were as capable of betrayal as men,
and even had the gull to hope to get away
with it.
Speaker 8 (25:34):
All.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Twelve members of the jury wrote a petition that Judge Shook,
asking that Remus be released immediately so he could spend
Christmas with his mother and his daughter, Romola. Shook would
have none of it and called their petition intolerable, outrageous, insulting,
and audacious. Shook wanted Remas locked up in a mental
hospital because he was a danger to society. He ordered
(25:57):
Remis to testify about his state of mind in probate court.
Speaker 6 (26:02):
Got any feeling about your dead wife having killed her?
Speaker 4 (26:06):
None, in the slightest No, remorse. Oh, I feel sorry
to think she was unfortunate that she would be tied
up with that kind of human parasite.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
Has anything ever entered your mind about what the state
of her soul is, of whether she is in heaven?
Speaker 4 (26:24):
My answer is that a woman, and I mustn't use
the word woman, A person who was so depraved, so degenerated,
as to lose all person of womankind the way she did.
That whatever is in the future and the hereafter, so
far she is concerned, cannot be bad enough.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
You loved her at one time, didn't you.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Yes, there was no question about it.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
On December twenty eighth, after Remus's testimony before the probay court,
five psychiatrists, including two who had observed the murder trial,
testified that he was sane but a threat to society.
They called him histrionic and dangerous. They called him an
amoral psychopath, emotionally unstable, subject to unrestrained outbursts of temper
(27:12):
and rage. Nevertheless, the judge agreed with only half their findings.
He ruled that while Remus was indeed too dangerous to
be released, he was also insane. He committed Remus to
the Lima State Hospital for the criminally insane until he
has been restored to reason. On January sixth, nineteen twenty eight,
(27:33):
exactly three months after Remus killed Imogen, he arrived at
Lima State Hospital. On his first Sunday at the asylum,
Remus joined the church choir. A new set of alienists,
three of whom were hired and paid by Remus, conducted
lengthy interviews probing every facet of the patient's psyche. In
the final week of February, Remus went to the Court
(27:55):
of Appeals in Lima to ask for his release. One
by one, Remis has hired alienis reported favorable observations. The
halo Remis spoke of was possibly confusion from wori rather
than hallucination or an illusion. He wasn't insane, but merely
affected by fury and violence from extreme circumstances. He seemed
(28:17):
logical and coherent and sane beyond a doubt. The alienists,
who weren't in Remus's pocket, dissected his personality, right down
to his aversion to underwear, which they considered a sign
of an unstable mind. They offered various conclusions that, when
taken together, were quite inconclusive. In March, after listening to
(28:39):
all of the alienist testimony, the Allen County District Court
of Appeals found that Remus was not insane and ordered
his discharge from Lima State Hospital. When told of the verdict,
Remus wept with joy.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
It's wonderful. I knew, I knew they would believe me.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Charlie Tafft, still enraged by his defeat, besieged the Lima
Authority to deny Remus bail. While the Allen County prosecutor
appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, the irony did not
escape Remus. Charlie Taft, who had argued during the murder
trial that Remus was perfectly sane, was now arguing the
exact opposite. On June twenty eighth, nineteen twenty nine, the
(29:21):
Ohio Supreme Court ruled in Remas's favor and ordered that
he be released. The following Easter, during the egg hunt
in Eden Park, a young boy spotted a strange object
in a thicket, a rusty pearl handled revolver. The hunt's
organizers turned it over to the police. Remus could not
(29:42):
be found for comment. Franklin Dodge was never called to
the stand during Remus's murder trial. He was later indicted
by a federal grand jury in Savannah, Georgia, on seven
counts of perjury, stemming from testimony he'd given in the
trial of the local bootlegger Willie Harr. Dodge was sentenced
(30:04):
to thirty months in the Atlanta penn where he'd first
met George and Immogen Remus. After his release, he moved
to Lansing, Michigan, and took a job in the city
auditor's office. He lived there quietly until his death in
nineteen sixty eight at seventy seven years old. Mabel Willembrandt
lasted at the Department of Justice until her resignation in
(30:26):
June of nineteen twenty nine. Perhaps her greatest legacy at
the Department was not her pursuit of George Remas, but
her ingenuity regarding tax law. It was Willembrandt who argued
before the United States Supreme Court that income gained from
bootlegging was subject to income tax, thereby setting the trap
that would ensnare al capone. She built a thriving private
(30:49):
law practice with offices in Washington and Los Angeles, where
she represented the movie mogul Louis B. Mayer and film
stars like Clark Gable and Jean Harlowe, to the dismay
of her former Prohibition colleagues, she also represented a group
of California Great growers who utilized the loophole in the
Volst Act allowing for the private production of table wine.
(31:12):
Her hearing and her health kept deteriorating, and in nineteen
sixty two, her lifetime smoking habit resulted in a diagnosis
of emphysema. She died a year later. In all of
the tributes celebrating her achievements, one friend, future federal judge
John Jay Serica, who would preside over the watergatecase, speculated
(31:33):
about what might have been if Mabel had worn trousers.
He said she could have been president. In August nineteen
twenty nine, Ruth Remus filed a petition in probate Court
seeking annulment of her adoption and restoration of her former name,
Ruth Holmes. Her petition was granted in October, two years
(31:53):
after her mother's death. Ruth married in nineteen thirty and
within ten years had two sons of her own. In
nineteen forty seven, she checked in the Columbia Hospital in
Milwaukee for a history directomy Afterwards, she was given a
blood transfusion intended for a different patient with the same name,
and would prove to be a fatal error. She died
(32:13):
that evening at the age of thirty nine. Romola Remus
pursued an acting and singing career, benefiting from the notoriety
of her father's crimes. Packard the Motor Car Company used
her name in newspaper ads, boasting this well known musician
is accustomed to the best of all lines. The Oriel Terrace,
(32:34):
a cabaret in Detroit, built her as the girl who
stood by her dad. Eventually, she tired of questions about
her father, telling reporters and fans alike that she was
trying to forget the past. When she died in February
nineteen eighty seven, she was remembered mostly for an acting
job she did when she was only eight years old.
She had played the first Dorothy and writer L. Frank
(32:57):
Baum's The Wizard of Oz. In later life, Romola lived
in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago with a cat, a turn,
a power keep, and dozens of books stuffed with her clippings.
She had no immediate survivors and specified in her will
that her age not be disclosed as for the mad
Bootleg King. After several years of trying with little success
(33:20):
to recoup his assets, George Remis married his accountant, Blanche Watson,
in nineteen forty one. They moved to Covington, Kentucky, just
across the river from Cincinnati, and lived in quiet, deliberate obscurity.
Remus traveled some and was occasionally spotted by reporters at
racetracks and by old acquaintances in various cities where he
(33:42):
once closed deals and paid bribes. He said the same
thing to anyone who ran into him.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Tell no one, I am here. Tell nobody you have
seen me. I want to get out of the spotlight
you see.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
In August nineteen fifty, he suffered a stroke while exercising
at the Cincinnati gym. When he died from a cerebral
hemorrhage two years later, at the age of seventy nine,
he was living in a boarding house under the care
of a nurse. The headline of his obituary in the
Cincinnati Times Star read another Gatsby passes. He was buried
(34:17):
in Blanche Watson's family plot in Falmouth, Kentucky, and a
grave distinguished from all the others. Nearby, a sculpture of
a woman perched on the shoulders of two angels loomed
over him, a sculpture rumor to have been one of
the few pieces left from the mansion. One morning, soon
after Remas's death, the cemetery caretaker discovered that the angels
(34:38):
had been vandalized, their wings struck from their shoulders and
reduced to cement shards at the base of the tombstone.
As the legend has it, someone had written a letter
to Watson arguing that Remas was not fit to be
guarded by angels for reasons known only to her. Watson
set out to the cemetery, hammer in hand, and with
a few hard blows, demolished what remained of the wings.
(35:06):
Legend also has it that Imogen Remis still haunts Eden Park,
wandering around the bank of Mirror Lake, always pausing by
the spring House gazebo, where, on a fall morning, at
a different distant time, she realized that she was about
to die. She wears the same black Parisian hat and
sleek silk dress, now clean of dirt and blood. Most
(35:28):
of the time, she's silent, gazing into the reflecting pool
content to let the world rush around her on other nights,
and it is always at night she runs wild and sobbing,
as though she still hears his footsteps behind her and
feels the heat of him closing in I'm Abbit, Taylor,
(35:52):
you've been listening to Remus the Mad Bootleg.
Speaker 6 (35:55):
King.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
To read the complete story of George Remas's life in
this wild chapter in American history, read my book The
Ghost Sabine Park. Remus the Mad Bootleg is a co
production of iHeart Podcasts and School of Humans. It's hosted
by me Abbot Kaylor, Chuck Reese and I wrote the show.
Our producer is Miranda Hawkins. Our senior producer is Jessica Metzker.
(36:17):
Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon barr Els Crowley, and
Jason English. Sound design and mixed by Chris Childs. Elise
McCoy composed original music. Additional scoring by Chris Childs. Voices
in this episode provided by Ben Bolan, Noel Brown, Matt
Frederick New Carloso, Jonathan Sleep, Jewel, Ruiz Van Gunter Fleet, Cooper,
(36:41):
Jay Jones, Jeremy Thall, Thiago Macklin, Supin Hensler, Ncolebriton and
Judah Andrews. Special thanks to John Higgins from Curiosity Stream
and the team at c DM Studios in New York.
Thanks for listening to the show. If you enjoyed the podcast,
please give it a review in your podcast app. You
can also check out other Curiosity podcasts to learn about history,
(37:03):
pop culture, true crime, and more.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
School of Humans
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.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.