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Prohibition was declared in the United States in 1919 Info below from the 1955 History of Bienfait BORDER SMUGGLERS Border smuggling was very prevalent in 1920. The main item smuggled was Liquor, but small amounts of wheat, wool, and live stock were also smuggled at intervals. .Different classes were either directly or indirectly involved the majority of the smugglers being men who wanted to make some easy money on the side-line. The chief effect of this activity was annoyance to residents of the area. Many times an innocent resident was called up in the middle of the night and asked to pull a smuggler's wagon out of the mud or he may be asked to hide the cache of liquor in his cellar. This leads to the discomfort of the party who was running the risk of being implicated in an affair not of his choice. Police officers patrolled the border country and any suspicious vehicle was stopped and searched. Many times the officers gave chase and even resorted to gunfire. However contempt of prohibitation, fear of reprisals and exposure of friends, acquaintances or kin seemed to favour the smugglers, much to the disadvantage of the law enforcement officers. The common set-up for smuggling was a Canadian and an American working together with the tip-off persons in some in-between stations. Methods of conveying the liquor across the border varied from the use of compartment fuel tanks to filling tire tubes with whisky and air to get pressure. Once the destination was reached, the whisky was drained from the tires and placed in bottles or metal containers. Large caches of liquor were hidden in cisterns, grain bins, hay and straw stacks and under piles of gravel. Cars, trucks and wagons were used to transport smuggled goods across the border. However, on certain occasions smuggled goods were carried on foot or on horseback. Smuggling was a profitable proposition, but very few seemed to have benefited, for it was "easy come, easy go". If the smuggler was caught by the law, the resulting fines and loss of any cargo wiped out the profits of his career. The risks were great and many included rivalry with different groups and the danger of being caught by the patrol officers. In our immediate district two men were wounded in a gun battle with American and Canadian law officers near Portal. Another man, Paul Matoff was murdered. (night of Oct 4, 1922 by a 12 gauge shotgun) A shipment of liquor had been transferred from a warehouse to a truck. A few hours later, Lee Dillage met Paul Mattoff in the CPR station (now the museum) at Bienfait to complete a transaction which involved $10,000. During this time a hold-up was staged and Mattoff was shot to death by a sawed-off shotgun in the hand of an unknown person. (A Canadian, Jimmy LaCoste, and the American, Lee Dillage, were charged, but later found not guilty) The $10,000 and a diamond stick pin were stolen after the murder and as yet never been recovered. (one book claims this was a diamond ring) Paul Matoff was the brother-in-law* of Harry and Samuel (Sam) Bronfman (1889-1971) who made Canadian whiskey and allegedly sold it during prohibition to gangs in the US. The Bronfman family allegedly delivered booze from Canada to the Purple gang, Moe Dalitz in Cleveland, Arnold "the Brain" Rothstein, Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Maier Suchowljansky, aka Meyer Lansky (alias "little enforcer"). Luciano was quoted as saying- "Sam Bronfman was bootleggin' enough whiskey across the Canadian border to double the size of Lake Erie" Harry and Samuel Bronfman owned the Bienfait Boozorium at the time, and Paul Matoff worked for them Bronfman's of Seagrams Whiskey fame, got their start in Yorkton. Most of the Bronfman family, from Sam onward, were born in Brandon Manitoba. They had 8 children. 4 sons, 4 daughters, Their Father and mother were, Ekiel and Minnie Bronfman who fled from Russia in 1889 . The family came from Bessarabia, then part of Russia, where making whiskey was a way of life. (Bronfman literally means "whiskey man" in Yiddish.) At the time of the murder, Matoff rented a home in Estevan, at 1309 3rd st. *Matoff was married to the Bronfman's oldest sister There were 3 boozoriums in Bienfait during this period. All of the Bronfmans dealings appeared to be legal based on the laws of the day. Rumours abound that Al Capone and other gangsters from Chicago spent time in Bienfait. They would travel up on the Soo line to Moose Jaw (Chicago of the north) and make stops at places like Bienfait securing deals. Ironic the big ganster hangout in Moose Jaw was within an hour from the RCMP training headquarters in Regina. 
Alphonse (Al) (Scarface) Capone Jan 17, 1899- Jan 25,1947 Died of Cardiac Arrest Arthur S. Flegenheimer (alias Dutch Schultz) was rumoured to have spent a week in the White's Bienfait Hotel in the 20's 
Dutch Schultz killed in New York Thursday, October 24, 1935 born Aug 6, 1902 (headstone says 1901?) murdered by Charles (The Bug) Workman "Doc" Riley was another name from this era Meyer Lansky (Suchowljansky) b.Grodno, Russia, August 28, 1902. d. January 16, 1983. Meyer was half of the Bugs (Siegel) and Meyer Gang, friend of Lucky Luciano, one of few non-Sicilian 'Mafia' and one of few who died of natural causes.(Lung cancer) The government was never able to convict him.. Buried in Mount Nebo Cemetery, Miami, Florida, USA |
