The Bourbon King by Bob Batchelor

Author:Bob Batchelor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2019-06-29T16:00:00+00:00

13

Plundering the Bourbon Empire

• • • • •

The move from federal penitentiary to county lockup made incarceration no easier. The closed-off, tiny cell that Remus would call home starting in July 1926 caused mental anguish that harkened back to the darkest days at Big A.

“I was at the Troy jail for nine months and I never saw the street or anything,” Remus said. “No windows in the walls, the place is an old army thing, and I didn’t see anyone but the prisoners for months and months and months.”

A new volley of legal challenges exacerbated the trauma caused by the physical conditions. In August, officials in the Department of Labor announced that they had issued a warrant for George’s arrest on grounds of “moral turpitude.” The charge was the first step in an attempt to deport him.

Realizing that Imogene had destroyed or hidden all his valuable documents while he served in Atlanta, Remus figured that she and Franklin had to be at the root of the charge. Without proof of naturalization, which Imogene threw out, George would have little chance to prove he was an American citizen.

“The only time I saw the street was when the deportation proceedings were on,” Remus said. “That was to deport me to Germany after she and Dodge had gone down to Atlanta to urge that stuff on.”

Based on the rough treatment in the tiny Miami County Jail, George’s legal team lobbied to get him transferred to a different location. He claimed that jail officials had discriminated against him, a charge that Judge Hickenlooper in Cincinnati and federal officials took seriously.

“I was transferred to Portsmouth on account of the way they treated me there.”

In Portsmouth, an even smaller facility, Remus found more humane treatment. He shared a desk with the local sheriff to work on legal proceedings. And, when he was with the other inmates, George did his share of typical prison duties, such as peeling potatoes and washing dishes.

The new environment was better for Remus, but he later admitted that the conditions were still often as vile as he had faced at other institutions. The small space was overfilled with sweaty, rotten men.

Although he had a little less than a month left in prison, Remus continued to face threats from the outside. Franklin and Imogene used every dirty trick they could to make his stay more difficult.

The couple wrote anonymous letters to the sheriff at Portsmouth warning him that Remus “is trying to cause you trouble, same as he does wherever he goes.” In case the official needed further proof, they pinned ex-Atlanta warden Albert Sartain’s ultimate demise on George based on his “lying testimony.”

Remus, the letter claimed, was a “lying, squealing rat…He has sent more people to the penitentiary than most judges.”

Even more revealing, the letter brought to light George’s mysterious role in the August 20, 1923, murder of Brookville, Indiana, sheriff William Van Camp, who died in a gunfight with rumrunners. The writer claimed that Remus had seen the homicide and had even ordered his thugs to dump the body in the nearby woods.

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