Mabel Walker Willebrandt

Prohibition is considered one of the most lawless periods in modern American history. Besides the widespread violations of the law by gangsters as well as ordinary citizens, Prohibition agents themselves regularly committed crimes. There were many reported incidents of innocent people being killed and property being regularly seized and destroyed. There was even an incident in which a large Canadian ship was illegally sunk when it was suspected of rum-running.

Mabel Walker Willebrandt was the assistant attorney general of the United States in charge of Prohibition cases for eight difficult years. After Herbert Hoover was elected president in 1929, Willebrandt resigned her post. She published a series of articles about Prohibition in the New York Times, including the following article about the rash of deaths at the hands of Prohibition agents. Though she does not justify...