This is the story of Prohibition you haven't heard. Sure, Prohibition was a gigantic SNAFU to begin with. But it turns out Prohibition was actually darker than any of us could have imagined. Flappers and jazz? Not the full picture.
Season 3 of SNAFU follows an unlikely pair of sleuths trying to uncover what was behind a mass wave of deadly poisonings that killed thousands of people during Prohibition. Why were so many people dying when they imbibed? And what do gun-slinging Prohibition agents, Washington politicians, and a raging culture war have to do with it? Find out on SNAFU Season 3: Formula 6.
Preorder the SNAFU book and join me on book tour at www.snafu-book.com.
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Episode Transcript
Prohibition.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
It's an era synonymous with speakeasies, jazz flappers, and failure.
In fact, it's one of the biggest lawmaking snaffoos of
all time. Well within that snaffo is another story, one
you probably haven't heard about. How people started dying mysteriously
and the unlikely duo who tried to save them.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
It's the nineteen tens.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Meet New York City's first medical examiner, Charles Norris.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
He had a big, booming voice and a Yale football
player's presence.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And his partner, Alexander Gettler, chomping on a cigar all
the time.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
From what I understand, every death in the city was
their responsibility. As they cataloged the city's dead, they pioneered
the new field of forensic toxicology.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Like a Buddy cop movie of like these two scientists
in the trenches together and.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Their work gave them a look into the sinister side
of the speakeasy. Turns out something or someone was poisoning
people through the twenties. The two of them rolled gurneys
into the city. Morgue pulled samples of deadly poisons from
dead bodies and connected the.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Dots, unraveling a terrifying story.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Did people die? They died daily.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
As the evidence mounted all across the country. All signs
pointed to a big player behind the poisoned liquor.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That was killing Americans, the US government.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
On the third season of Snapfoo, the story of Formula six.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
The last thing you want is for your people to
be called murdering chemas in a congressional heroine.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
How prohibitions war on alcohol went so off the rails
the government wound up poisoning its own people, and then
subscribe to Snafoo Season three starting March twelfth, on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Ed Helms
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