Sheriff J.C. Van Pelt and County Solicitor Harry Thompson
Everyone knew it was coming. The 18th Amendment had been voted into existence, and the Volstead Act became law on January 17, 1920. Most people simply referred to it as “Prohibition.”
The new law changed a lot of things that hadn’t been considered before. To enforce the new law that prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages, a lot more officers would have to be hired. Before Prohibition, about 1500 agents were employed by the federal government. At its height, 20,000 were employed in 1923 to track down and close illegal distilleries, guard the borders against illegal importation, and battle organized crime.
Another spinoff was the underground world that suddenly became very lucrative. Being a member of organized crime, or “the mob,” suddenly became very, very lucrative. It was a new world in the United States.
In Escambia County, officers and agents were consumed with hunting down illegal stills, and arresting their entrepreneurs. From 1918-1933, the Pensacola News Journal recorded 2673 entries of “liquor arrest.”
But the News Journal’s June 16, 1919, editorial scathed Sheriff J.C. Van Pelt and County Solicitor Harry Thompson for making only a “lukewarm” effort to enforce the prohibition regulations. The editorial read that it is easy to get drunk and even easier to get something to get drunk with. Both men came back at the editor, defending their efforts.
Despite their arguments, the sheriff and the attorney were found by the governor to be guilty of such claims, and maybe more. Florida Governor Sidney Catts, the only person who can remove a sitting sheriff in Florida, entered into the argument.
Governor Catts was described in the newspaper as “a one-eyed, red-headed teetotaling Baptist minister.” He was elected on the pro-prohibition ticket. It was said that he didn’t like likker or people who drank it.
A report was issued on November 5, 1919, that John English and John O’Donovan were arrested for using their automobiles to receive and transport liquor. It looked like Van Pelt and Thompson were doing their job…maybe.
Or maybe not. Less than a month later, on December 1, 1919, Governor Catts removed the sheriff and the solicitor from office after it was discovered that they were themselves involved in illegal liquor operations.
Not the kind of side job a sheriff should engage in.