Blind Tiger: Southwick's Liquor Nuisance
The Lake was a popular tourist destination, and demand for intoxicating spirits from vacationers, even tobacco plantation and ice-harvesting workers, fueled illegal booze manufacturing. Residents complained to selectmen, who were slow to act or purposely turned a blind eye.
When they did act, authorities would routinely target hotels and inns. No establishment was immune; they raided them all, including the Lake House, most notably in 1903 and 1906, and the Southwick Hotel, the predecessor to today's Southwick Inn, in 1869, 1887, and 1904.
Pre-Prohibition
In 1908, Massachusetts had 249 towns and 18 cities that banned alcohol, up from 100 towns with local prohibition laws in 1840; enforcement proved challenging. Across the nation, a rise in bootlegging and gangland violence prompted more citizens to join the call for a nationwide ban on alcohol.
* * * *
Fifteen deputy sheriffs and assistants searching for illegal liquor raided five houses in the Congamond Lake section of Southwick on the evening of Monday, February 9, 1914. The raids, however, seemed far from the success authorities anticipated.
Upon arriving at Samuel Tange's place, they found seven empty kegs of beer and several broken bottles; someone tipped off about the raid had removed the kegs' plugs, effectively draining them. There was a strong odor of liquor in one cellar; the floor muddied an inch thick, allegedly from someone in a hurry pouring out the illegal spirits.
Authorities arrested Samuel Tange, John and Battista Penna, and Joseph Real, but prosecuting them could be difficult as the case lacked the wet evidence needed for a conviction. (Authorities may or may not have found some bottled beer at Tange's.)
Attorney Richard J. Morrissey appeared for the Commonwealth, representing the Town of Southwick; none of the accused had representation.
The Pennas and Real immediately pleaded guilty at their arraignment, and the court fined each $50. Tange pleaded not guilty to maintaining a liquor nuisance, and the court scheduled his trial for Friday, at which time he requested to change his plea to guilty, and he, too, was fined $50.
As luck would have it, the raids were surprisingly successful, resulting in four guilty pleas with little to no useable evidence and netting the Town of Southwick $200.
* * * *
A United States deputy marshal and sixteen Massachusetts State Police officers conducted several liquor raids at Congamond Lake and Point Grove in Southwick on the evening of July 18, 1919, where they seized several cases of beer, including seventy-two bottles of beer found at Michael Sassoni's residence, gallons of whisky and other liquors, and a bottle of bitters; they also found a number of empty bottles.
They arrested Sassoni, Carlo Bebesky (and his wife), Harry Galamia, and Karl Deske. Appearing in court, the accused maintained their innocence, pleading not guilty to charges of maintaining a liquor nuisance.
On behalf of the prosecution, a chemist testified that a bottle of liquid seized in one of the raids contained 34.91% alcohol.
Prohibition
Prohibition, the nationwide ban on alcoholic beverages, was enacted on January 17, 1920.
* * * *
On October 26, 1920, some men arrested for intoxication in Southwick confessed to the source of their alcohol to authorities. Their admission implicated a Feeding Hills man, and authorities raided his home that afternoon. There they found a still, three gallons of moonshine, and some mash.
* * * *
On August 4, 1922, prohibition agents raided the old Farmington Canal lock house where Frank Jarry and his family lived. The Jarrys had a working cider mill and a large vineyard. In a vast concrete vat, officers found some 4,400 gallons of cider and wine; seizing 2,400 gallons, they drained the remainder into a field. In the cellar, they found ten barrels of fine-grade wine. Their search also produced hundreds of bushels of apples and more than 1,000 pounds of sugar.
It took two five-ton trucks and one three-ton truck to move the evidence. After five barrels of the seized wine went missing, authorities arrested Edgar R. Davis, a federal Prohibition enforcement agent, in his hotel room around 1:45 a.m. on August 12.
Next, they arrested Agent Joseph Raymond "Red" Daniels, who agents picked up at his summer camp in Southwick.
Authorities accused the agents of diverting the seized liquor to the Widow Siniscalchi's garage as it was en route to Bay State Storage - a warehouse where the state kept illegal liquor. (The Widow Siniscalchi's notorious husband, Carlo Siniscalchi, who amassed a fortune as a Springfield bootlegger, was gunned down by Guiseppi Parisi as he sat in his car at the corner of Main and Union Street on December 20, 1921.)
Agent Davis was suspended but later exonerated.
Authorities arrested Red Daniels a second time. They picked him up during a liquor raid at the Point Grove home of Edward Babacki in 1924. One of the arresting officers, Deputy Sheriff Timothy J. Malone, said that Daniels was combative and had to place him in handcuffs. The court fined Daniels $15 for drunkenness, which he paid while denying he was drunk, even claiming he never drinks liquor.
* * * *
The Southwick Time Machine did a story on another raid in 1922. It is titled: Southwick's Curious Coop, which Southwoods Magazine published in its May 2022 edition.
* * * *
Edited Out/Author's Additional Research Notes
July 18, 1919 Raids
A few weeks before the July 18, 1919 raids, two detectives gained employment at the American Sumatra Company's plantation known as the "Southwick Plant." It didn't take long for them to gather enough evidence to justify the raids.
August 4, 1922 Raid
At the agents' trial, Frank Jarry's daughter Rose, a witness for the government, fainted but later testified along with her sister Frances and her father.
Thousands turned out for Carlo Siniscalchi's funeral - one of the largest in Springfield history. The first eight cars in the 75-to-80 car procession, led by Siniscalchi's new Stutz touring car, were outfitted with spectacular floral tributes; a marching band performed for mourners.
The notorious Siniscalchi was buried in a solid bronze casket, a gold crucifix adorning the top of it.
Carlo's brother Duranti was shot seven times in 1922. (It is believed that he survived the attack.)
The Widow Siniscalchi remarried. Her second husband died following a short illness in 1930, and she was gunned down as she sat in her car on Worthington Street, Springfield, around 12:10 a.m. on November 12, 1932. (Her gravestone incorrectly lists the date as 14.)
The flowers at her second husband's funeral cost $20,000, and the casket $7,500.
The killer(s) shot the reputed bootlegger in the head several times as gunfire riddled her automobile with bullets, leaving several holes in the windshield and the car's body and shattering the driver-side window. (A passenger escaped with non-life-threatening injuries.)