70. Moonshine Mary Wazeniak: Prohibition, Bootlegging, and, of course, Murder!

On one evening in 1923, George L. Rheaton stumbled out of a bar in Brookfield, IL. He only made it about two hundred feet before he collapsed. George was dead. The saloon was owned by “Moonshine” Mary Wazeniak, a Polish immigrant and mother of 3. After they performed an autopsy, it was found George died of methanol poisoning. Mary was arrested and sentenced a year to life for killing George. Was Mary actually responsible for George’s death or were there other factors at play? We discuss Prohibition, bootlegging, and government regulations. Listen now to hear our thoughts! Rachel’s Sources: https://medium.com/creative-science/methanol-in-the-moonshine-b7e38d695717https://www.czs.org/Brookfield-ZOO/About/History.aspxhttps://medium.com/creative-science/methanol-in-the-moonshine-b7e38d695717https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-should-know-about-prohibitionhttp://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/300.htmlhttps://culture.pl/en/article/how-chicago-became-a-distinctly-polish-american-cityhttps://crushbrew.com/dead-distillers-weird-and-wonderful-stories-of-us-whiskey-and-moonshine-makershttps://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/women-bootleggers-during-prohibition-there-were-many/https://www.tobyglobal.com/blogs/the-weekly-whine/alcohol-prohibition-in-the-united-states-failed-here-s-why