James Allison During Prohibition

By Sigur Whitaker
 
By the 1920s, Indianapolis Motor Speedway co-founder James Allison was spending a lot of time in Miami Beach. He was deeply involved in developing the Miami Aquarium on Miami Beach.
 
Having grown up as a Methodist in the Midwest, Allison was exposed to the temperance movement throughout his life. The movement, which led to the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, had its roots at Oberlin College in Ohio. It gained traction in the 1880s and 1890s. By 1895, the temperance movement held a national meeting in Washington, D. C. with a focus on establishing a nationwide network of Anti-Saloon Leagues.
 
The United States Senate passed the 18th Amendment, which prohibited alcohol, by a lopsided vote after a mere 13 hours of debate in 1917. A few months later, the Amendment came before the United States House of Representatives and was debated for a day before passing. As an amendment to the Constitution, the legislation required ratification by 3/4 of the state legislatures. By January 1919, the requisite ratifications had been secured, and prohibition became law.
 
The Volstead Act prohibited the manufacture of liquor, although there were certain exemptions, including medicinal use. The Act did not prohibit people from drinking from their own supply in their own homes. This led to people stocking up on liquor and storing it in their homes, in warehouses, and even in safe deposit boxes. On January 15, 1920, John C. Knox, a New York judge, decreed that all liquor stored outside the home was illegal and therefore subject to seizure. With only two days before the Volstead Act took effect, panic spread among those who had stored liquor outside their homes, prompting them to bring as much as possible home.
 
Like many states, Florida had become a mixture of dry and wet localities. By 1913, Miami Beach had voted itself “dry.” As long as prohibition was a local issue, few who wanted a drink went without. That changed with the passage of the Volstead Act. With federal authorities enforcing prohibition, a drink became harder to obtain.  Allison had planned ahead and had a significant cache of liquor stored in his private apartment at the Miami Aquarium.
 
Prohibition did not deter Allison or any of his crowd from enjoying their favorite alcoholic beverages. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding visited Miami Beach and shared drinks with Carl Fisher and his friends.
 
Allison and his friends kept each other up to date on enforcement activity. On April 5, 1920, Allison sent Fisher a letter issuing a warning about a potential raid: “By the way, when I was in Washington, I got a tip from Jack [LaGorce] that there are about a half dozen Secret Service men in Miami looking around and trying to get a line on any information as to the location of any wet goods. So it might be a pretty good idea to have anything that your friends may own placed in a safe place. I think that Peterson is putting everything I am interested in in the new storage place, where I think that it will be all right." It had been long rumored in Miami Beach that Allison had a cache of liquor. In April 1921, Dade County Sheriff Louis A. Allen learned that liquor was stored in the tower of the Miami Aquarium. He secured a search warrant from county Judge W. Frank Blanton. Two deputies were dispatched to the aquarium to search for the cache of liquor. They searched the tower, the water tanks, and Allison's private yacht L’Apache. Despite the information they received and their search of the premises, they could not locate the liquor.
 
As the deputies were leaving, five federal agents arrived, also with the mission of searching for the supply of illegal liquor. The federal agents asked the deputies if they had been searching for the liquor. After confirming that they had been, but were unsuccessful, one of the federal prohibition officers replied, “Come with us and we will show you where it is.” The men followed the diagram of the building provided by a former employee of Allison's. Without searching anywhere else, they followed the diagram to Allison's second-floor apartment in the aquarium building. At the location where the liquor was allegedly stored, they discovered a plastered wall. Without delay, they took a hatchet to tear away the plaster. They quickly uncovered an iron door measuring 2 1/2 feet by three feet. When they opened the door, they found 200 cases of liquor containing 2400 bottles. The supply included bottles of champagne, other fine wines, vermouth, martini cocktails, gin, Scotch, and Irish whiskey. After they listed the cache.
 
With the exception of seven cases of liquor being saved as evidence, the remainder, with an estimated value of $25,000, were listed as evidence and then smashed with a hatchet. Federal officers planned to swear out a warrant for Allison’s arrest for keeping the liquor and possibly for smuggling. Except for seven cases, the remaining liquor lacked the marks showing it had been properly imported into the United States.
 
Allison was recuperating from pneumonia in Indianapolis at the time of the raid. Fisher wrote him that the Miami Herald had been very discreet in its coverage of the raid.
 
The revenue officers came over yesterday afternoon with a diagram of the entire layout of where you had placed your liquor. You will note I say your liquor. They were very nice, very polite and completely thorough. It seems as though your former chauffeur, and this is confidential, had stolen 35 cases from the place before you had it sealed up; he went back to steal all of it and found it sealed. He became frightened and left, not attempting to break into the sealed part. However, they caught him for bootlegging, probably gave him the third degree, and he told just where he got the liquor. The first information came from the chauffeur telling a hired stool pigeon. This dope we got from people friendly to us.”
 
Allison did not suffer significant financial consequences from the seizure of the liquor, other than losing his supply and paying a $500 fine. During Prohibition, the wealthy were virtually immune from prosecution. Although the liquor was seized from the Aquarium, Allison continued to have a supply throughout the remainder of Prohibition.

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Sigur Whitaker, Author 

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