{"id":308,"date":"2021-04-23T19:13:09","date_gmt":"2021-04-24T02:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/?page_id=308"},"modified":"2025-09-25T08:50:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:50:35","slug":"ken-faunce-seattle-police-bootlegging","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/episodes\/ken-faunce-seattle-police-bootlegging\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Faunce, Seattle Police Bootlegging"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wsu-decorator  wsu-overflow--hidden wsu-decorator--style-lines-gray\" style=\"top:0;right:0;height:100%;width:20%\"><\/div>\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Seattle Police Bootlegging Racket and Modern Drug Cartels<\/h1>\n\n\n<div class=\"wsu-row wsu-row--sidebar-right\" >\r\n    \n<div class=\"wsu-column\"  style=\"\">\r\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/2629\/2021\/04\/Faunce-Olmstead.jpg\" alt=\"Police officer Roy Olmstead in uniform\" class=\"wp-image-323\" width=\"175\" height=\"205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/2629\/2021\/04\/Faunce-Olmstead.jpg 700w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/2629\/2021\/04\/Faunce-Olmstead-396x464.jpg 396w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 175px) 100vw, 175px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Seattle Police Officer Roy Olmstead, circa 1920. Public domain image. Courtesy of Seattle Times.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Alcohol Prohibition did not limit the demand of alcohol, and many people did not support it, including the police. On an early morning in March 1920, Seattle Police &nbsp; and Sergeant T.J. Clark met a crew of bootleggers loading a shipment of Canadian whiskey from Vancouver, B.C. for Seattle. Olmstead and Clark were not there to arrest the criminals, but to watch over the process, since they controlled the operation. In this episode of Past and Prologue, Historian Ken Faunce examines the overall failure of alcohol prohibition, the rise of organized crime syndicates that profited from it, and the lessons for today&#8217;s global &#8220;War on Drugs&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Audio Recording:<\/h2>\n\n\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-308-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/2629\/2021\/04\/Faunce-Prohibition.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/2629\/2021\/04\/Faunce-Prohibition.mp3\">https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/2629\/2021\/04\/Faunce-Prohibition.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading wsu-spacing-after--default wsu-spacing-before--large\">Transcription of Audio:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sueann Ramella<\/strong>:\u00a0Prohibition of alcohol had a major impact on the Pacific Northwest and the country, but not in ways that were anticipated. WSU History professor\u00a0Dr. Ken Faunce shares this story of\u00a0Police Lieutenant Roy Olmstead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ken Faunce:\u00a0<\/strong>Prohibition\u00a0did not limit\u00a0the\u00a0demand\u00a0of alcohol,\u00a0and many people did not support\u00a0it,\u00a0including the police.\u00a0On an\u00a0early morning in\u00a0March\u00a01920, Seattle Police Lieutenant Roy Olmstead and Sergeant T.J. Clark,\u00a0met a\u00a0crew of bootleggers\u00a0loading\u00a0a shipment\u00a0of Canadian whiskey\u00a0from Vancouver B.C. for Seattle.\u00a0Olmstead and Clark\u00a0were not there to arrest the criminals, but to\u00a0watch over the process since they\u00a0controlled\u00a0the operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Federal prohibition agents&nbsp;seized&nbsp;the&nbsp;shipment,&nbsp;and arrested&nbsp;Olmstead and his men, but the charges did not stick.&nbsp;Olmstead had been on the force for 13 years,&nbsp;being promoted to&nbsp;lieutenant at a young age, and&nbsp;had arrested several bootleggers&nbsp;since Washington had passed&nbsp;statewide&nbsp;prohibition in 1914.&nbsp;After&nbsp;national&nbsp;prohibition was enacted, Olmstead&nbsp;started to change his opinion on the new law, especially due to his&nbsp;lack of cash. He had watched other bootlegging operations as a&nbsp;police&nbsp;officer,&nbsp;and&nbsp;felt he could do it better.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He&nbsp;arranged for a&nbsp;plentiful source of whiskey in Vancouver, British Columbia&nbsp;for export. Olmstead gained access to trucks, boats, and warehouses. He hired runners, mechanics, accountants, and an attorney \u2014 he turned his bootlegging trade into a full-scale business and&nbsp;quickly&nbsp;earned the nickname \u201cKing of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Puget Sound Bootleggers.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Olmstead\u2019s operation became one of the largest employers in Western Washington by 1922.&nbsp;His operation&nbsp;grossed nearly a quarter-million dollars a month, almost $3 million in&nbsp;today\u2019s money.&nbsp;&nbsp;Olmstead&nbsp;continued to expand his operation with shipments from Canada and&nbsp;a fleet of rum-running launches&nbsp;delivering&nbsp;loads all along Washington\u2019s coast.&nbsp;The new&nbsp;plan&nbsp;allowed Olmstead to undercut competitors&nbsp;driving many out of business&nbsp;in the Puget Sound area.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His wife,&nbsp;Elise Olmstead, started KFQX radio, the first station in Seattle. It was&nbsp;based out of their mansion. Her most popular program was a kid\u2019s bedtime story show called \u201cAunt Vivian\u201d&nbsp;in&nbsp;which Elise&nbsp;Olmstead&nbsp;slipped in coded messages&nbsp;for the liquor smuggling&nbsp;launches in transit on Puget Sound.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local law enforcement did not seem to care about Olmstead\u2019s practices until Bertha Landes&nbsp;became Seattle mayor in&nbsp;1926&nbsp;with&nbsp;a platform aimed at cleaning up the city. Up until then, many officials and officers benefitted one way or another.&nbsp;Federal&nbsp;authorities&nbsp;failed&nbsp;to catch Olmstead&nbsp;due to lack of resources&nbsp;and Olmstead&nbsp;better&nbsp;financing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally,&nbsp;in&nbsp;1924, Olmstead and eight others were arrested on Thanksgiving Day&nbsp;and&nbsp;giving&nbsp;four years in medium security federal prison along with a hefty fine.&nbsp;While in prison he&nbsp;became&nbsp;a Christian Science minister.&nbsp;Olmstead was pardoned by&nbsp;Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 after Prohibition&nbsp;was&nbsp;ended by the 21st Amendment.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This brief account highlights the overall failure of alcohol prohibition and the rise of&nbsp;organized crime syndicates that profited from&nbsp;it.&nbsp;US&nbsp;actions were&nbsp;observed by other countries and&nbsp;our actions&nbsp;influenced&nbsp;their&nbsp;decisions&nbsp;regarding&nbsp;outlawing alcohol. Also, a global trade in&nbsp;alcohol tied to the illegal trade in the US had a major influence on the global economy.&nbsp;This vignette&nbsp;provides insight into the global trade in illegal drugs.&nbsp;Prohibition&nbsp;of certain drugs has given rise a large international market and the rise of global drug syndicates.&nbsp;Outlawing these drugs has not stopped the increasing global spread and consumption.&nbsp;We can learn from the failure of alcohol prohibition and its role in the rise of organized crime syndicates. We can see a similar pattern in the global \u201cWar on Drugs\u201d&nbsp;and its outcome.&nbsp;International drug cartels continue to expand.&nbsp;We need to learn from&nbsp;our&nbsp;history&nbsp;to&nbsp;aid in&nbsp;dealing&nbsp;with our current&nbsp;drug crisis.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sueann Ramella:<\/strong>\u00a0That was<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Dr. Ken Faunce with Washington State University\u2019s History Department.\u00a0To hear this essay and others from <em>Past as Prologue<\/em>, visit NWPB dot ORG.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wsu-container  wsu-position--relative\" >\r\n    \n<div class=\"wsu-decorator wsu-zindex--level-2 wsu-spacing-before--xmedium wsu-spacing-after--large wsu-position--relative wsu-decorator--style-block-gray\" style=\"top:40px;left:-100px;height:3px;width:260px\"><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wsu-decorator  wsu-decorator--style-lines-crimson wsu-zindex--level-3 wsu-position--relative\" style=\"top:-40px;left:-40px;height:25px;width:63%\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About the Author:<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"114\" height=\"132\" src=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/2629\/2021\/03\/Faunce-Ken-headshot.jpg\" alt=\"Ken Faunce\" class=\"wp-image-121\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Ken Faunce received his PhD from the University of Idaho. He spent several years working for the federal government as a historian and archaeologist. Ken teaches in the Roots of Contemporary Issues program and teaches classes on the history of organized crime, drugs and popular culture. His main area of research is nineteenth and twentieth century U.S. History with an emphasis on race\/ethnicity, gender studies, drugs in history and popular culture. His new book <em>Heavy Traffic: The Global Drug Trade in Historical Perspective<\/em> (Oxford University Press, 2020) focus on the development of the drug trade through the lens of globalization and imperialism. Ken has taught at WSU since 2001.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n\n<div class=\"wsu-column\"  style=\"\">\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Seattle Police Bootlegging Racket and Modern Drug Cartels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3554,"featured_media":0,"parent":40,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3554"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":632,"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/308\/revisions\/632"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=308"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.wsu.edu\/past-as-prologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}