However, he did not account for the dogged perseverance of Mabel Walker Willebrandt, an ambitious Department of Justice prosecutor determined to enforce the 18th Amendment. With politicians, legislators, city police, and Prohibition officers taking bribes of cash and liquor, Remus felt confidently above the law. Their parties were notoriously extravagant: One New Year’s Eve, guests received diamonds and gold as party favors.
The family’s mansion was decorated with Persian rugs, European oil paintings, and, in the parlor, a solid gold piano. “The money came in so fast that Remus couldn’t deposit it all, forcing him to carry as much as $100,000 in his pockets at any given time.” He indulged in real estate, automobiles, and antiques, and his attractive young wife shopped with abandon, buying items such as solid gold service plates, diamonds, and furs. Deposits to his savings accounts “averaged $50,000 a day, in an era when the average salary was $1,400 a year,” Abbott reveals. Crimes and misdemeanors animate a spirited history.Īttracted once again to sin and subversion, Abbott ( Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War, 2014, etc.) sets her lively new tale during Prohibition, when George Remus, a teetotaling lawyer–turned-bootlegger, amassed an empire so large that even he could not keep count of the distilleries and drug companies-liquor could be sold legally with a doctor’s prescription-that yielded his fortune.
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