The Notorious

fagers Gang

‘HE VOLSTEAD ACT, America’s “noble
<periment” in prohibition, brought tragedy
) its wake for untold thousands of U. S.
‘tizens. During prohibition, as all the
orld knows, illicit liquor-running grew
om a small time “racket” to the propor-
ons of a national industry.
Popular contempt for an unpopular
atute saved the liquor pedlar from the
dium of his lawlessness, and the flood of
isy money from the liquor trade reached
at in an ever-widening circle, corrupting
tizens in every walk of life. How could
vere be any harm in liquor running when
veryone had been made conscious of the
eed for liquor? So argued the otherwise
w-abiding citizen. And there were many
a both sides of the border who were willing
) see that Uncle Sam’s citizens were kept
ipplied. Offshore freighters catered to
nall craft from the U. S. coast, and by
uck, automobile and pack horse the supply
‘ickled across the U. S. borders over a
1ousand different trails and highways. In
me instances planes were pressed into
srvice, making clandestine deliveries at
olated points.
Down in the southeast corner of British
columbia, where southern Vancouver Island
ices Puget Sound, the Straits of Georgia
ad Juan de Fuca form a natural boundary
Feveen Canada and the United States,
ad the invisible boundary line between the
vo countries jogs south and west between
-oups of Canadian and American Islands.
‘ere was a smugglers’ paradise, where small
needy ‘craft flitted from cove to cove on
ark nights, shuttling the liquor cargo for
airsty American throats — cargoes which
etted a thousand per cent profit. The pro-
dure was simple; Canadian vessels of the
sh boat variety loaded their liquor legally
1 Canada, and lying securely in some
ttle frequented cove on the Canadian side
waited the American vessel from Puget
yund points.

Those engaged in the trade were mostly
«fishermen who had stored their nets and
ear in favour of the quicker returns from
1e liquor trade, aided by a sprinkling of
aterfront mechanics, ex-tugboat skippers
id a percentage of outright criminals. The
quor was usually handled in case lots.
hese cases were not the wooden boxes of
ypular conception. Instead, the liquor
n 12-bottle lots) was securely sewn in
andy sacks. The runners also handled beer,
at, being bulky and cheap, it offered less

ENTH EDITION

profit, and only the unambitious went in
for this slow trade.

About the year 1922, rum running was
a stealthy, paying proposition, and, while
the “rummies” kept a close mouth about
their transactions, the trade was looked
upon by citizens on both sides of the border
as an adventuresome, semi-legitimate busi-
ness. If U. S. officials charged with inter-
cepting the smugglers weren’t always suc-
cessful, then the public usually assumed that
they were “getting their cut”. On the
other hand, if smugglers were brought into
a federal court, the very same officials were
spoil-sports, etc. Either way, officialdom
couldn’t win in popular esteem.

So far as Canadians were concerned,
why, the Americans took all the risk in

Ariel Eggers, shot by mistake by his brother
Theodore in the San Francisco prison break.

trying to slip through the vigilance of the
U. S. coastguard patrols. And, after all,
no Canadian law was being breached.
Briefly, that was the atmosphere sur-
rounding the liquor trade in the year 1922.

Hr JACKERS COME INTO PICTURE

As the trade pyramided and larger and
larger sums were involved, a third party
crept into the picture—the hi-jacker.

The word “hi-jack” is supposed to have
originated in the narcotic trade. As the
magical “Hey, rube!” summons the circus
follower to un‘ted action, so “Hi jack!” was
the vocal lure which caused the drug pedlar
to halt in his tracks enquiringly. And as
his head was turned, a confederate black-
jacked him, and he was robbed. Gradually
the word came to mean the robbing of any
person engaged in any illegitimate enter-
pr’se.

Criminals of the worst type took to the
waterways to prey on the “legitimate” rum
runners, and the latter in turn armed them-

*

By
INSPECTOR C. CLARK

*

The Story of a Trio of Puget Sound Brothers Who Twenty Years Ago in the
Days of Liquor Running Between Canada and the United States Pirated Liquor
Cargoes to the Value of a Quarter of a Million Dollars.

selves to the teeth and took every precau-
tion against surprise attack. Weird and
complicated recognition lights were covertly
flashed at night, and queer passwords were
hoarsely shouted between the blacked-out
craft while armed crews waited tensely at
ship’s rail for the first sign of treachery.
Wooden hulls were vulnerable, and it be-
came the mode to sheath them with rough
armour plate.

According to the record, the first of the
Puget Sound hi-jackers were the famous
Eggers gang, the subjects of our story.

Born in Seattle of respectable, well-to-do
parents (their father, Theodore Eggers oper-
ated a wholesale fish business for many
years), the three boys, Ariel, Theodore and
Milo, had worked aboard tugs around the
Sound for three or four years. They had
one sister, a music teacher. Up until the
prohibition era the Eggers brothers were
just average boys. Then came the liquor
boom. They built themselves a fast boat
powered with a 200-h.p. Van Blerck en’
gine. Although there was little or no sleep-
ing accommodation, there was plenty of
cargo space in channels running the full
length of the hull.

The Eggers boys made money, lots of it,
but bright lights, wild women and adven-
ture were the three urges that pulled the
trio down from the ranks of “legitimate
smugglers” to the depths of the booze trade
—hi-jacking.

In the early stages of the liquor game
they had been buying liquor at $25 a case
from Canadian boats and selling it for $225
a case in Seattle. They could handle about
70 cases at a time, which meant that on an
investment of $1750 they netted a profit of
$14,000 for less than two days’ work! It
was a life packed with adventure for the
trio, and many a trip they made at night,
showing no lights, dodging the stabbing
beam of the coastguard’s searchlight, as it
roved enquiringly over the entrance to
Puget Sound. If they made shore they were
sure of hatfuls of currency, if they were
intercepted the cutter’s four-inch bow gun
might blow them out of the water. Many
a valuable rum runner was demolished by
gunfire when its skipper failed to heed the
cutter’s signal to heave to.

Easy ComMre—Easy Go

The money rolled in, and rolled out again.
In a succession of orgies the Eggers boys
made an all-time record for heavy spending,

Page Five