Prohibition Echo

Last week in Seattle, Wash., where liquor may be legally purchased only in State-owned stores, the third act closed on a little drama reminiscent of Prohibition's bloody reign.

Act I (last month): As he has done every Sunday for two years, quiet, kindly. 61-year-old Fritz Mueller, German-born Seattle meat market owner, is delivering a roast of beef to a needy friend. Outside the apartment house, which substantial Citizen Mueller owns, he is stopped by two Federal Alcohol Tax Unit agents in plain clothes--short, swart Edward T. Kelly, 35, onetime Prohibition agent, and frail, bespectacled Leonard ("Relentless") Regan, 59, Croix de guerre War veteran, longtime Prohibition agent. Agent Kelly: "Where are you going with that package?" Mueller explains, asks why he is being followed. A scuffle takes place. Agent Kelly fells Mueller with something which witnesses later swear is a blackjack. After five days, Death comes to Meat Merchant Mueller.

Act II (week later): The Coroner in two days receives 500 telephone calls demanding an investigation, many a hot letter, "the greatest storm of public protest and public interest I have ever seen." Agents Kelly & Regan are haled before the Coroner's jury. An eyewitness testifies that after Mueller fell, Agent Kelly jumped on his legs & feet, Regan on his head; that the two men waited for the police only after heated persuasion by witnesses: that at the station house where Mueller was first taken he was cursed by policemen, buffeted about, refused medical treatment for an hour-and-a-half. Agents' defense: they had been acting on an anonymous letter (which they did not produce at the hearing). They are held for second-degree murder, released on $7,500 bail.

Act III (last week) : Up Seattle's Queen Anne Hill and into a lavatory in Kinnear Park playground marches Relentless Regan. On the backs of envelopes he pencils two notes: "I can't stand the gaff." "I am crazy." Then Relentless Regan, within earshot of a group of laughing children, pumps a bullet into his brain.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.