Manager adult programs it is great to see everyone here today at lunch and learn for as many of you know this is a Monthly Program where we invite the experts to share their knowledge of history culture and art this program was started on a suggestion of one of our members and for nearly 200 years of Historic House served as a Gathering Place such as those of Nicholas Longworth and of course charles and anna each played a role to shape the history art and culture of cincinnati to celebrate their legacy as a way we evolve and change. The complete schedule including our upcoming lunch and learn and i would like to tell you about our talk today our author of the newly released book the bourbon king prohibitions evil genius. Bob batchelor is here today to share about the criminal mastermind and bootlegger who built a bourbon empire across america at the dawn of prohibition. A critically acclaimed bestselling cultural historian and biographer it is published widely on American History and literature the great gatsby madman and john update on updike. He earned his doctorate from the university of south florida and teaches in the media journalism and Film Department at oxford ohio following the talks today we have c projects for purchase that unique partnership with a literacy project to the disadvantage reader so by purchasing the book for yourself you are helping a young reader and need he will also be available to answer questions following the lecture near so delighted to present this program so please join me in welcoming one welcoming bob batchelor. [applause] i cannot think of a better place lots of you are asking questions about what is the connection so we will get to that so please asked that question i am a historian i love centennials in those celebrations so as we prepare for the 100th anniversary of the jazz age of the volstead act and prohibition there is no better time than you study someone whose history is forgotten. You might be surprised because we heard of george remus. Once people i found out ive written this book they say he was a paperboy he gave a tendollar pin thats when it was a lot of money we saw him working down at the Athletic Club there was a lot of sightings and interest in this area but once you go outside of the cincinnati region there is almost no recognition at all. So one of the goals of writing the book was to bring this fascinating character to life. With an interesting set of circumstances around george remus. The first thing that people ask me when they determine im writing the bourbon king is how did you get interested in this person x and 17 years ago a very prominent historian cutler was editing a reference collection called the dictionary of American History for these to send their students he was putting out a new addition and asked me do you mind writing an essay on bootleggers cracks so in that research i ran across remus and it stuck in my head for 17 years i was going nuts thinking about this guy but then later i wrote this biography of the great gatsby and wrote a book about this experience of this Great American novel because some people say he was the model and we will get into that but to run across remus again so looking at the book project i thought you want to discover somebody who has been forgotten and is so interested in todays world and you can learn so much so remus became it and that is how we get to george remus and im probably not telling you anything you dont know but there are no heroes in this story it is very complex with bad characters even people who have seen good for a long time all of a sudden i would read a news story or Something Else in the paper six months after they were doing something heroic. What is wrong with these people cracks they are incredibly complex just like we are today and it helps us understand the 19 twenties and today. We will dive right into george remus the bourbon king. The story is large and theres no way we could go through this whole story with the audiobook i think it is 16 hours long. We cannot tell all the stories so i try to boiled it down to six numbers these will give you a flavor and hopefully make you want to learn more. But this is the number 13 and it is significant because george remus was a german immigrant and his family settled in chicago and at age 13 remus was the man of the family because his father had some problems and cannot support the family and so he takes over. He had to drop out of school but luckily for him his uncle owned a pharmacy in suburban chicago. And because of that connection he was able to work. Although not an athlete well over 200 pounds built like a fire hydrant but was an amazing athlete im sure what he did none of us could of done on our better days remus began his career in pharmacy when he comes of age but the interesting thing this places him at the heart of community because at that time in 18 hundreds pharmacists were more like smalltown doctors. So these clients that they have came to remus with problems because they could not afford regular doctors so that is the farm loan the doctor that he went to and when he passed that licensure he lied and made himself two years older he was only 19 but said he was 21 as an interesting side point if he thought a regulation or rule was unjust he disobeyed. [laughter] so it made no sense of a 19 yearold could be licensed and pass the test you should get the license. So within a year after getting his license he bought this pharmacy and another pharmacy. So he is ambitious so german immigrants job on dropped out of school he was already gaining wealth and started to speculate in real estate. Very interesting early history. But what remus does is decide ive had enough and then decides to become a lawyer he thought it was all quackery because he was a person who saw himself as bigger than life as a character out of history who determined really early i want to be president of the United States and works really hard to get to that position remus saw himself in these terms i want to be bigger than life and him becoming a lawyer was a step in that direction. So the number two number is 300. And that is important because after he became one of the most famous criminal Defense Attorneys in america he moved from chicago to cincinnati with that 300mile radius it is the gateway to bourbon country and remus realized as a criminal defense attorney that these petty thugs i am defending that violated prohibition can hide it on can pay their fines with rules of 100dollar bills if these knuckleheads can make hundreds of thousands if i applied my genius to this principle i can make millions or tens of millions. That is how george remus is one of the best criminal Defense Attorneys in america already famous across the United States goes to the dark side. Cincinnati is his gateway and then to sit in the hotel owned by the family and that is the headquarters for his entire run to the twenties he always keeps a suite of rooms at the fenton hotel. Its now a parking not bad it was there. You can see that when you check out the book a 300mile radius the best bourbon in the world and he realized because he was a pharmacist and was such a stellar lawyer there are legal ways to get alcohol into the marketplace they call it medicinal alcohol i want medicinal alcohol. [laughter] so in that time frame there was in the scientific advancement that we have now and there are some therapeutic benefits to alcohol especially the era with advancements yet to be made that he knew as a pharmacist that doctor and pharmacist could write prescriptions and it allowed people even during prohibition to take out a little whiskey or bourbon once a week. So if he got access to the whiskey certificates, then i can get out of the warehouse and put it into the marketplace. But at the same time remember criminal mastermind the evil genius he realized if i hire my own men to rob my own men at gunpoint i can take the legal bourbon and take it into the black market. So he sets up a series of distribution points this major ones that are near death valley because we were fortified and hired an army and this is 13 miles northwest of the city and sets up on an old farm and then sets up smaller places all over cincinnati with a depot in hamilton and in glendale and locations throughout the area nationwide and built the empire with a 300mile gateway into a National Marketplace but one journalist at the time quoted george remus is to bourbon what rockefeller was to oil and why he is an evil genius is the understood this even though he had no business outside of running his own pharmacy so he set up a system like jd rockefeller view control production and distribution and pricing and every piece of the circle and you make all the money and remus found a way to make all the money many of you have visited the bourbon trail. When they give the tour in 1920 and theyre not sure how to explain it these were proud families and proud people that run the distillery because remember america is a great distillery but in 1920 what they dont want to talk about them bourbon country that george remus found a way to buy it up and get it into the black market. As a story becomes more public the distillery should embrace this. You might as well dig in and find out the real truth they were proud people in the National Government just declared them public enemy number one. They could have had electricity but a Lightning Strike is the only thing because the inventory was worth nothing so theres some people myself included that believed remus although he was doing it behind the scenes he save the bourbon industry by giving it its Foundation Throughout prohibition so this is a long 13 years for america. He gave the bourbon industry through the air us so thats my number two number the next one just bear with me nine nine. 62 billion. That is the number the high end of todays money that he was able to acquire in two and a half years. Nine. 62billion. He founded facebook or google or a hightech company it into a half years built into one of the Biggest Companies in the world in two and a half years it is an amazing facet of the story which people dont realize because in todays world somebody says that person the millionaire. Big deal. 100million or maybe it gets our attention but at the high end of in excess of 200 million which if you use the latest economic calculation nine. 62 is the mid range it could have been more than that there are stories that george remus and his men made so much money so quickly their suits were stuffed with hundreds of thousands of dollars because the banks would not accept any more deposits. So it was stuffed in their coats because what do you do with the money . Its coming in so fast they cannot even find a place to hide it all. Its Pretty Amazing and what this nine. 6 billion allowed him to do was to live a build a life and a nationwide Distribution Network and he lived like a king. He bought the estate and gutted it and put money into remodeling the mansion. Into one of cincinnatis most Beautiful Homes and invited the cream of the crop. They never accepted his invitation to the mansion but he always invited them the centerpiece was our force number of 175,000 this is the highend number if they say how much did he pay for the inground pool . 175,000 in 1920 money. It was water and special heating units and this allow him to live that gatsby lifestyle to come to the mansion and swim in the pool. It was quite a thing at that time and in 1920 new line your pool with tile because that was the mark of having made it that was his signature look at the tile lines the pool 175,000. The parties that he threw were legendary. The papers didnt cover them that much but it became part of folklore. So one of the things i was able to do as a historian is go through all these materials that nobody could have done because of resources and then to pull together archival information like at the giant literary historical detective. So to piece together the stories into becomes a centerpoint. And thats what george called the imaging bath she is a femme fatale and not a sweetheart she is interesting when they met in chicago. And soon after meeting george remus but i always joke with my wife they will roll him for his roles. [laughter] because he was surrounded by these thugs and then to see that transcript it is certainly fun to read. Imogene was a person by being in the newspapers for one of the things with a different persona. To change her personality and then she tries to get into the paper as jesse holmes which is her nickname. And other time she used imogene and when she met george remus she saw the bootlegger and the person who wanted to be famous and wealthy intersected in a way that when the to one of the biggest marriages of the 19 twenties one of the most despicable ends in the 19 twenties. [laughter] so if you look at the newspapers and the number of words he probably wasnt quite as famous as babe ruth. And then with that was astronomical lasting the entire decade because he was famous in chicago and only got more famous but his fame was his undoing for those who gained a lot of money. He courted the media the master Public Relations and then could charm the socks off remember when he said he was so complex . And with a moonbeams smile. And those that had never met but at the same time always carried brass knuckles with a gold tipped weighted cane. And there were many instances where he beat one man almost to death for supposedly may be fooling around with imogene. I dont know any living character and it was a little bit like lbj or joseph stalin. And Mike Hannibal lector from silence of the lambs because he could be so charming and people to this day will tell you and five is the important number because when we miss a beautiful morning not a cloud in the sky when he stopped imogene outside of the hotel at the time was one of the very finest Luxury Hotels when he stopped her from that moment then chased her through eden park in a crazy chase and a movie scene and then gets out and she pushes her young daughter whose birthday is the next day back into the car that jumps out remus approaches her car she goes to swing at him he grabs her right arm and punches her and then as she screams he reaches in the pocket pulls out a gun sticks in her stomach and pulls the trigger. Five minutes from the time he stalked her outside of the hotel to that point was five minutes and you probably have driven or walked that path. Essentially e she is shot on the other side of the road from the gazebo. And then to the stone archway. And then at the frame house gazebo thats where the murder takes place i could piece those events together they will tell you when a murder occurs even eyewitnesses mess up the facts. Thats why trials become so interesting but because remus would later go on trial he was forced to testify in both transcripts exist there is one copy at the Yale University law library so if you ever look at those papers you can see charlies notation and almost feel his anger because if it was deleted with those pencil marks like this persons testimony is out. It is an amazing story. With the dance between the two those that were watching it didnt know what was going on. That was rushhour in 1927 people were hearing screeching tires and bumpers many people did not even hear the gunshot. There were children nearby and families and to be shot and bleeding to flag down a passerby and then shes dead shortly thereafter. I think she died in the backseat of the car but her daughter said she was still speaking but i think she said that to be kind to family members. And it is an amazing story. Those to carry brass knuckles around and created a plea called temporary insanity. And when he defended them in a hotel in chicago and remus was the attorney. And determined i will use the same thing to defend myself but he defends himself when he goes out to trial against charlie path who is the son of William Howard taft and now is the chief justice of the supreme court. There are letters that William Howard taft the golden boy immaculate son who may be a future president ial candidate dont let remus get the best of you. He will try every trick in the book. Because what people in cincinnati didnt realize in chicago they either loved or hated remus. Which then speaks to the air that he put on of charismatic overtones they called him weeping and pleading remus. And would do anything to manipulate a jury. Very different than early chicago. And there are many accounts and and up in fisticuffs. And juries love this stuff. And William Howard taft predicted it. And that was a sensation. And sent reporters to cover the trial. So journalism plays that that made them even more famous and was constantly on the front pages. And the reporters loved him. And was able from the very beginning to manipulate people knew what happened because he had his first conference the next morning and carried forth that the jail cell because just like in chicago where reporters new they would be great in a soundbite but remus would give them a real show this is the most competitive time in American Media history newspapers going after other newspapers they sent reporters to cover the trial there are accounts with hundreds of people to gain admission. This was bigger than the oj trial the only difference there was of the television aspect. Otherwise this has the ramifications charlie taft with the Hamilton County prosecutor. And brilliant political career and 19 is connected which is the amount of time the jury deliberated for quitting george remus on grounds of temporary maniacal insanity. They had been sequestered for quite some time they decided to have lunch as well. They did a deliberation that had the free lunch then came back in to declare him innocent on grounds of insanity. The warfare between taft and remus was not only in the front pages and daring them to fight and to question the manhood and to question the manhood that remus pretended to pass out and it must have been quite a spell because the doctor showed up when they took him out of the courtroom and it was an amazing scene and that telling scene the jurors started crying and they are actually weeping and he knew from that point i have them. And then to wave a red hanky and as they has that guttural yell trying to drown out because he already has the jury one. I could find no proof of that but the most surprising thing about studying george remus. People love the great gatsby aspect of the twenties the jazz age. And we all get the idea dancing girls and show tunes. But they hate prohibition a black mark on American History. A lot of sources and materials from the 19 twenties have just disappeared. I try to track down her dress because it was called in as exhibit. That is priceless. But and then to have that source i cannot tell you about i cannot tell you their name but a source in the Clerks Office it is gone. Now they call them the christmas jury because he was let off the day before christmas one was quoted to say he had a really tough christmas last year we decided to give him a treat this year. [laughter] but the night that he is acquitted he is still detained because the judge and taft are so angry they say we will send him to the State Hospital for the criminally insane and he is not freed he has to go through a series over the next six months to be kept behind bars through missiles one a series of trials to win his freedom. So the second he tells the driver to force the taxi off the road to get out of the car saying pulls the trigger, insane and then saying again that is what he determined on the state would not let him off so the first trial hes trying to prove i was insane for the one split second then in the second he tries to say hes now saying. So some of the same doctors and the psychologist, they said at one trial he is insane the next he is saying. So now its the same people testifying about the state of his mental acuity. It is an amazing story and i barely even touched on it. This movie star prohibition who helps to put remus behind bars but then they spend two years spending millions of dollars with horse tracks in florida smuggling money into canada. She takes all the monograms and is very vindictive and with all art and artwork with everything beautiful and wonderful would remus gets out of jail he goes back to the mansion and everything is gone. But then there is one set of issues and they are a large set as dodge was well over 200 pounds and 6 feet. One pair of shoes she vindictive the left but we can only touch on and just a little bit but it is a phenomenal story of greed and social economic structures and government influence and a deep story that developed into the kinds of things that we still have to experience. As a historian my Favorite Book not only illuminates it now. Have a new story with history is forgotten but ways to examine our own lives. I would love to take questions and thank you for being here today. [applause] do you believe he would have made it if prohibition was not illegal quick. Thats a good question. It took prohibition to run the price of alcohol up but if you read the book an interesting point he couldnt stop the money but his plan was pretty good he wanted to corner and have the bourbon monopoly because then he could sell it overseas into canada and new mexico which was the ingenious idea he was greedy and he was caught and the empire was broken up before he could enact that plan but this is exactly what the bourbon cartels did but they consolidated everything. s a remus more or less taught them the methodology they would use after prohibition to set up these large conglomerates. Thank you. Tell us of the episode of the bar of soap. The bar of soap quirks. One of his many tricks that is to listen to somebody testify and get so angry he must be really good skill of making himself red in the face and put so one soap in his mouth and foam at the mouth he would use these tricks that he was immediately under the order of darrow and would be there for the rest of his life. They were Close Friends and deemed like in a true american hero. Thats way they cannot describe him as anybody else because i can imagine somebody hes not like bill gates but he was much more charismatic. That is one of his many tricks. [laughter] the mansion was that her most set and eighth. Basically he had the entire block. You can go online there are insurance documents and deeds you can see the actual blueprint because the community was laid up for insurance purposes but from what i gather and i have looked from maps of today , they extended one of those that ended at the street extended through the lower part of his property. It seems to me thats exactly just where the pool was. When they extended the street but there are rumors there are people with pieces of the pottery still in price hell she says i have a piece of that pool in my birdfeeder. Give that to a museum. [laughter] but thats a piece of historic memorabilia. I would like to go out there and look around but i do want to dig in somebodys yard with the police showing up. [laughter] but the mansion was pulled down in 1834. We cannot prove 100 percent but i think it was a ponzi scheme he got married and married his longtime assistant named blanche watson may be the most interesting person of the whole story. He made her quite rich in all of her friends in the twenties and used her to launder money for a decade. They later got married i think partially out of convenience but in that era a wife cannot testify against her husband. He was always afraid the irs was coming after him and would get him for all that money. By marrying her it sealed the money they pulled the mansion down in 1934 and basically one of her colleagues on that and across the street so in the fifties johnny who was al capones mentor who went to new york city to mentor luciano and other bigname gangsters he married the girl from kentucky and took that plot across the street in the 19 fifties. People dont like twenties and prohibition but its difficult to trace his steps with the big names but he met with all of them and supplied capone with all the bourbon and remus took pride in not cutting the alcohol. Now what capone did was another story but if you ship out to bigname suppliers in new york city like torino in chicago and capone it was pristine and they pay top dollar. Remus had trucks and cars loaded to leave death valley to go into the wealthy suburbs of cincinnati. He talked a lot about going into indian hills or other large cities in the nation. Taught me to tell you the story of the taft and how that is connected quirks really it is rumor but it is conjecture i think i can back up so supposedly there was a philanthropic effort in the 19 twenties and remus decided if he won the auction he would be accepted by upper society in cincinnati. There were two people left george remus with his femme fatale wife with diamonds everywhere and charles taft. Those two. Remus wins the auction and charles taft never forgave him and from that point on remus was purse on a non grana and if you follow the trail not very long thereafter that george remus hears from the Prohibition Office because somebody tipped off mabel and her agents that there was a guy named george remus making a lot of money and then they know that he was supplying the nation with a high and bourbon. So there are lots of connections. I wish you could still go back in time to interview some of these people talking about what they did. And with this detective piece back together it is an interesting story. What do you see about the portrayal quick. Im very conflicted i like to the show but the portrayal was awful. They played like a comedic foil he did that because he was ashamed he was not as educated and always tried to elevate himself. And that the trail is that remus is a joke. So that show in total i wish they would have sold him as the real evil genius that he was so there are many people that remus had people killed. So there are no heroes to the story. You can spin this may be up to that point where he kills imogene but it wasnt but then but by ten or 12 and then to take a completely different path. That is completely off base. [laughter] what is the timeframe quick. Good question thats what people want to know. October 6, 1927 not to be free from the criminally insane. And the newspaper when remus died claims he was broke the thing in the flophouse and none of that is true. And then in 18 oh eight he and his third wife blanche own horses. To travel around the country raising horses. Her horses one major races. Not triple crown and Kentucky Derby but the second tier they had a lot of money because he funnel the money through her for years. That while they were in jail that entire criminality they are and then became a kidnapping it was just all the money they embezzled from them and didnt have the money to build another army. So they live a much more quiet life but on the edge of criminality. And then to get involved and the ftc goes after them or to solve any problems and then he dies in the early fifties but the newspaper thought he was destitute because he had a stroke or a heart attack i think it was a stroke and was bed ridden about six treatments and then goes home and then was bed ridden and had a nurse but blanche owned those two houses her family have lived them for more than a decade previously. That we met remus was never poor. All those ways to make money. But the one question i dont think there is an answer to it. That is the greatest question and one that haunted me throughout the book for somebody to have the tens of millions of dollars, where did it all go . Part of his money went to bribery and he bribed everybody from the cincinnati beat cops who were on horseback to the Attorney Generals Office through another ohio guy. He was in a bribery system all the way to the white house a lot of his money went to bribery. What i think happened the money that was left over eventually found its way into the mob because they had solidified knocking off remus men to take over the territories so if they could get a territory the mafia came in and either threatened them with murder or murder them that when the Great Depression hit a lot of that money that was hidden away into the safety deposit boxes disappeared just like the trial evidence and so much other things some of it is probably out there for bed every dollar that i have there is a Security Deposit box add a bank in the United States somewhere that has george remus is or in the genes alias signature on it. Even called the last section called the lost million because it haunts me to this day. Thank you. [applause] we will be under the tent with books available for purchase thank you for coming we will be under the tent with books available for purchase thank you for coming welcome to afterwards been a greao