Italians in Prohibition-era British Columbia
Bootlegging was a lucrative business for some criminal-minded Italian immigrants
In 1917, social ills arising from alcohol abuse such as crime, family violence (particularly spousal), poverty, misery, and unemployment led the legislature in British Columbia to enact Prohibition. In the latter part of the 19th century and into the early 20th century, the Protestant church dominated the Temperance movement as part of advancing their social gospel work. While other Christian denominations opposed Prohibition including the Catholic church, the provincial Diocese of British Columbia did favor some restrictive liquor laws. However, many Italian Catholics circumvented or violated the laws and continued to produce wine for home use.
Italian immigrants played a significant role in the bootlegging trade. With the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, the “dry cause” was victorious as it related to patriotism, but as soon as peace was afoot, the “wets” gained notoriety for its reform. Temperance sentiment was roundly defeated and Prohibition was repealed—much to the satisfaction of hoteliers and bar owners throughout the land.
Before it reached the ballot stage, the Merchants’ Protective Association, comprising hoteliers and liquor industry people, fought Prohibition but failed. The importance of hotels in the liquor trade cannot be understated. Many hotels generated more revenue through liquor sales than other means, and the government refused to compensate them for their losses due to the Act.
In Vancouver, Italian immigrant Leone Brandolini was busted for bootlegging in 1917, just two months after Prohibition arrived. Police raided his home and found what was "alleged to be a jar of Claret" hidden behind some rubbish.
Leone was not the sole member of his family involved in the shady profession, but he was the one most often busted. During the Great Depression, when real jobs were nonexistent and money was tight, bootlegging—especially by immigrant men in the Strathcona area of the city—was seen as the only alternative.
“It’s real life,” said Harry Brandolini, Leone’s grandson. “People had to make a living. You come from a foreign country, you don’t speak the language, you’ve got no money — what do you do? They had kids, they had to scratch and claw for money.”
The passage of the Volstead Act in 1919 expanded prohibition across the US, and a vast, new underground market opened up, stretching from central BC and Alberta into Montana. Bootlegging became big business in the areas of Fernie, Blairmore, and Lethbridge, and those involved in the trade catered to both local demand and regionally throughout the Pacific Northwest.
It is impossible to determine the number of individuals who were involved in the liquor trade. While the majority of Fernie’s Italian immigrants worked in coal mines and for the railways, a number were businessmen, and several were enmeshed in the business of bootlegging. Many had small backwoods stills, but it was the professional bootleggers such as Emilio Picariello—allied with breweries, distilleries, hotels, and saloons, and with friends among the business and professional elite—who prospered.
Picariello started off managing a legitimate business, Columbian Macaroni Factory, in the coal mining town of Fernie. When the owners, the Marionaro brothers, left for Lethbridge, Picariello purchased the business and duplex. Picariello went on to open a cigar factory, ice cream plant, and other food retail outlets, as well as purchasing a small farm in the Spokane Valley from which he trucked produce.
Later, he operated a bootlegging business in the Crows Nest Pass region of Alberta and British Columbia. Picariello was able to sell prohibition beer in his Alberta Hotel in Blairmore, but the real money was in selling illegal hard liquor. He completed regular "whisky runs" between British Columbia, Alberta, and Montana, taking advantage of the extensive railway network to transport the liquor.
Picariello's bootlegging business prospered, and he bribed local politicians and provincial legislators to protect his operations. However, his success also made him the target of jealousy from other bootleggers, many of whom were of British or American ancestry rather than Italian.
In 1921, Picariello and his associate Florence Lassandro were convicted and executed for the alleged murder of an Alberta provincial police officer, though there are doubts about their guilt and the role that racism and discrimination may have played in their convictions.
Beyond Picariello and Brandolini, there were many other Italian immigrants involved in bootlegging activities in British Columbia during Prohibition. The region's Italian community was relatively large, with 18% of the workforce in the Crows Nest Pass being of Italian descent.
While my search results did not turn up any specific women involved in bootlegging, some Italian immigrant women may likely have played supporting roles, such as Florence Lassandro's (née Filumena Costanzo) involvement with Picariello's operations. The close-knit nature of the Italian community in the region suggests that women could have been involved in various capacities, even if they were not the primary bootleggers themselves.
FUN FACT #1
British Columbia's new law initially covered only public sales in stores.
Public drinking remained illegal until 1925, when "beer by the glass" legislation permitted beer parlors to open in hotels.
SOURCE:
(Robert Campbell, Demon Rum or Easy Money (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1991), 50-55; On the creation and management of public drinking in Vancouver, see, Robert Campbell, Sit Down and Drink your Beer: Regulating Vancouver's Beer Parlours, 1925-54 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001)
FUN FACT #2
After Prohibition was repealed, loganberry growers on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, with the help of a loan from the provincial government, formed the Growers' Wine Company. They sold thousands of gallons of wine made from the abundant berry to the Liquor Control Board. The public loved the cheap red wine until its fame peaked in the early 1930s.
It wasn’t the Depression that killed the loganberry wine, but a booming industry in wine made from local grapes which were harvested from an ideal soil and growing climate.
You can find additional information about Italian Americans and winemaking in my recently published book, ITALIANS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST (Arcadia Publishing).
Order now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, and Bookshop.org.