Bootlegging in Port Clinton - Linda Higgins

Port Clinton has a reputation as a great tourist area due to its location on Lake Erie’s shores, but at one time in our history its reputation was a bit on the shady side, also due to its location. We played a part in the development of organized crime, right here in our little town! It seems that Port Clinton had some entrepreneurs in the bootlegging business and from the time Prohibition began in 1920 until its 1933 repeal, they did quite well financially.

The word “bootlegging” is believed to have been used in the late nineteenth century to describe the act of hiding flasks of illegal liquor in the tops of boots to trade with Native Americans. When the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (the Volstead Act) went into effect, and Prohibition began, so did the practice of what became known nationally as bootlegging. When liquor was no longer legal to manufacture, sell, or transport in the United States, smuggling foreign-produced liquor into the country from Canada and Mexico, as well as the via the coasts, became big business for the smugglers, or bootleggers.

The bootleggers used specially built watercraft that were designed to outrun the U,S. Coast Guard cutters. When the Coast Guard began using faster boats themselves, liquor smuggling became more dangerous and more expensive. Various means of bypassing the law were used, few of which were legal, but when other types of “liquor” were developed from denatured alcohol, and moonshine and other types of “rotgut” were being produced in stills, the likelihood of blindness, paralysis, and death turned the smuggling into a highly risky enterprise. American organized crime developed roots at this point, due to the complexity of the systems of liquor manufacture and distribution. We’ve all heard the stories of the gang wars and murders, gambling, extortion, prostitution, racketeering, etc., that the crime syndicate in America produced.

The rumrunners during the Prohibition period all respected one another’s places of business. Their main concern was staying away from the federal “revenuers.” Because Port Clinton was in an excellent spot for transporting the illegal fare, the years during Prohibition proved to be a period of intense criminal activity here. And as a dangerous business, it had an aura of romance about it.

John Zetzer was one of the best-known bootleggers in this area, using his plane and boats to travel to and from Canada three or four times a week, as well as to and from other prime areas. He bragged that he could get his boat, the “Rum Runner,” a 27-foot Dart speed boat with two 500-horsepower engines, from the Portage River mouth to Leamington Harbor in Canada in 17 minutes. He managed to stay ahead of the federal authorities throughout Prohibition, but was arrested afterward for his part in aiding Alvin Karpis, associate of Ma Barker, in an escape after an armed robbery. When his federal prison sentence ended, he came back to Port Clinton, started a business, and shared many tales of his time rum-running.

After Prohibition was repealed, the beer, wine, and liquor industry flourished.  It has become a real draw for Port Clinton’s tourism, from visitors frequenting restaurants and bars, to celebrating holidays, and attending numerous special events. The intrigue of bootlegging is now part of the history that helped make Port Clinton the tourist spot it is. Let’s drink to that!