Four-Eight-Four [dot org]

A bit earlier, I encountered an article about a disagreement over who owns the noose used to hang Prohibition-era gangster Charlie Birger. The article itself is quite interesting. It includes the following interesting anecdotes:

On April 19, 1928, more than 5,000 spectators packed the jail courtyard to see Birger die. Children skipped school to watch him walk to the gallows and up the steps to the trap door, where he shook hands with executioner Phil Hanna.

“They’ve accused me of a lot of things I was never guilty of, but I was guilty of a lot of things of which they never accused me,” media accounts quoted the former cowhand and Army veteran as saying. “So I guess we’re about even.”

Before his head was covered by a black hood - he declined a white one, saying he didn’t want to be confused with the Ku Klux Klan - Birger grinned and said, “It’s a beautiful world.”

So went a colorful character.

and

Across the hall [inside the museum] is the cell where he watched the gallows being built and, according to Rea, barked out to kids he saw climbing it: “Get off of it, that’s mine.”

But … even more interesting is something I discovered when I visited Wikipedia to find more information about Birger … since I hadn’t previously heard of him. Check this out:

Charlie Birger and the rival Shelton Brothers Gang fought for control of the coal fields of Southern Illinois, but their attention was soon diverted by a common enemy. In the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan supported prohibition. Alcohol was viewed as an “unamerican” vice practiced by immigrants, many of whom belonged to the Catholic Church and other religions. Many immigrants worked the coal mines of Southern Illinois, living mainly in very small towns with a strong ethnic identity. Alcohol was a part of their life, and bootlegging came naturally to them.

In the spring of 1923, the Klan began organizing in Williamson County, holding meetings attended by more than 5000 people. The Klan drew its support from both the farming community and people in the larger towns, the latter being mainly of southern origin and followed the Baptist and other traditional protestant faiths.

The Klan soon found a charismatic leader in S. Glenn Young, who was a former federal law enforcement officer. Large mobs began going door to door searching houses for alcohol. If alcohol was found, the occupants were taken to Klan prisons. Federal authorities had apparently deputized the Klan to aid in the enforcement of Prohibition.

The Feds (probably) deputized the Klan to enforce Prohibition? Now that is something I didn’t hear about in US History (high school or college) when we studied Prohibition or talked about the Klan.

Of course … I didn’t hear much about the real origins of the Klan in high school. It wasn’t until I was in college that I discovered that the Klan was originally more of an anti-Reconstruction organization. Of course, things didn’t stay that way for long …

Technorati Tags: history, Charlie Birger, Illinois