More about Santa Rosa in the summer of 1925. See INTRO for overview and index.
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The summer of 1925 was approaching the midpoint of the Prohibition era and by then Sonoma County pretty much knew what to expect. Every week or two the Press Democrat would report some poor guy arrested by deputies for hiding or transporting a few jugs of “jackass” brandy or other hooch. The fines for these small-time bootleggers was $400-500, which was the equivalent to about six weeks of an average income at the time. That pace would pick up considerably the following year when “Jock” Pemberton became County Detective (see “THE ELIOT NESS OF SONOMA COUNTY“).
It was still legal to make wine for sacramental (and medicinal!) purposes as long as the winery had a special license, but a new state law required the District Attorney to approve permits for its use. Church elders now had to submit names and addresses of everyone in the congregation and swear the wine would only be used for religious ceremonies. That July there were two very high profile warehouse busts by federal agents. In Santa Rosa the feds dumped 21,160 gallons of wine at Giacomo Gondola’s winery on Guerneville Road near the Monroe School. A lawsuit immediately followed, as it belonged to a wine broker and he had not given the agents permission. The feds in turn said the broker was not up-to-date on taxes. And while this is not a West County history journal, there were 77,525 gallons in Sebastopol at risk of destruction, which were the 1921 and 1922 vintages of about thirty wine growers who hoped Prohibition was about to end Real Soon Now. The government alleged the warehouse owner was tapping the barrels in secret and selling wine from his nearby home. |
OFFICERS FIND BURIED LIQUOR – Four one-gallon jugs of “jackass” brandy were found buried in a chicken house on the premises when county officers raided the Jim Baber establishment in Roberts Avenue yesterday. Baber is in the east and the place was being operated by his son-in-law, the offices reported. Deputy Sheriff Ovid Holmes and Operative E. F. Westphall conducted the raid. (July 10)
GONDOLA WINE DESTROYED BY U.S. MEN HERE – MORE THAN 30,000 GALLONS DUMPED IN TWO DAYS BY FEDERAL ORDER (July 22)
DUMPING OF 21,000 GALS. OF WINE BY U.S. AGENTS BRINGS SUIT FOR $1,950 (July 25)
RANCHER DRAWS $500 FINE FOR HAVING RUM – Felice Accornero, rancher of the Mirabel section, was fined $500 by Justice Hugh McCormick of Sebastopol yesterday when he pleaded guilty to a charge of illegal possession of liquor. He was arrested yesterday by Deputy Sheriffs Leo Honsa and William Shulte as the result of a raid the previous day, in which four barrels of wine, a keg of “jackass” and several bottles of the liquor were seized. (July 31)