Keeper's Companion Innards 2

Home , Texas Guinan, Wayne Wheeler

Sample file SampleH. P. Lovecraft file 1890–1937 Sample file The Keeper’s Companion 2 More Blasphemous Knowledge, Forbidden Secrets, and Handy Information A Core Book for Keepers

Adam Gauntlett, Brian M. Sammons, William Dietze, Greg Henrikson, Charles P. Zaglanis, J. Gordon Olmstead-Dean, M. J. Lempert, James Crowder

Project and Editorial—Lynn Willis Guest Editor for Prohibition Article—John Goodrich Additional Editorial, CopySample Reading, fileInterior Layout—David Mitchell Additional Editorial—James Crowder Cover Layout—Charlie Krank

Cover Illustration by Paul Carrick Interior Art by Paul Carrick and Keith DeCesare

Chaosium Inc. 2002 The Keeper’s Companion 2 is published by Chaosium Inc. The Keeper’s Companion 2 is copyright as a whole ©2002 by Chaosium Inc.; all rights reserved. Call of Cthulhu is the registered trademark of Chaosium Inc. Similarities between characters in The Keeper’s Companion 2 and persons living or dead are strictly coincidental. H. P. Lovecraft’s worksSample are copyright file ©1963, 1964, 1965 by August Derleth and are quoted for purposes of illustration. Except in this publication and in related advertising, art work original to The Keeper’s Companion 2 remains the property of the artists, and is copyright by them under their individual copyrights. Cover illustration copyright ©2002 Paul Carrick (online gallery at www.nightserpent.com). Incidental illustrations by Yurek Chodak, Lisa Free, Earl Geier, D. R. Hill, Wayne Miller, and Tom Sullivan. Reproduction of material within this book for the purposes of personal or corporate profit by photographic, optical, electronic, or other methods of storage and retrieval is prohibited. Address questions and comments concerning this book to Chaosium Inc., 900 Murmansk Street, Suite 5, Oakland, CA 94607, U.S.A., or via e-mail to [email protected]. For information about Chaosium books and games, visit our web site at http://www.chaosium.com. ISBN 1-56882-161-1 Chaosium Publication 2395. Published November 2002. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 First Edition Printed in the United States of America. Table of Contents

Prohibition ...... 9 Dispatches from the War Zone ...... 50 1. The History behind Prohibition ...... 9 Life on a Six-Bitter ...... 51 The Anti-Saloon League ...... 9 11. The End is Nigh: Repeal ...... 52 Wayne Wheeler ...... 10 LaVey, Satanism, and the Big Squid ...... 54 The Repercussions of the Volstead Act . . . . . 11 Setians and Satanists ...... 54 2. A Dangerous Indulgence ...... 11 Cthulhu Worship ...... 57 Speakeasy Busts—The Police...... 12 Criminals ...... 13 The Keeper’s List of Lists...... 59 Concessions ...... 13 Era...... 60 The Booze ...... 14 The Opposition (Creatures, Maniacs, The Wages of Sin: Poisoning ...... 14 and Great Old Ones) ...... 61 3. Where Did It Come From?...... 16 Legendary Heroes and Villains ...... 82 Ardent Spirits ...... 16 Cults, Sects, and Secret Societies...... 83 Home Brew and Manufacture ...... 17 Mythos Tomes ...... 86 Manufactured Alcohol...... 17 Fictitious Locations ...... 92 Cutting Plants ...... 18 Non-Chaosium Bibliography ...... 93 4. Transportation...... 18 One if by Land: Bootleggers...... 19 Iron ...... 95 Two if by Sea: Rumrunners ...... 20 Weapons Discussed...... 95 William “Bill” McCoy ...... 21 Realities and Practicalities ...... 96 The End of the Independents ...... 22 Deadly Force and the Law ...... 96 5. Distribution...... 22 Nasty, Brutish, and Short ...... 96 Gertrude “Cleopatra” Lythgoe ...... 23 What Did You Say? ...... 96 George Remus ...... 25 Praise Cthulhu, and Pass the Ammunition . . . 97 Clip Joints ...... 26 Maintenance ...... 98 The Clubs ...... 26 That’s Heavy! ...... 98 Glitter Palaces ...... 27 Where’d That Bullet Go? ...... 98 Mary “Texas” Guinan ...... Sample ...... 29 fileWindage and Elevation ...... 99 The Party’s Over ...... 30 Buckshot or Birdshot...... 99 6. Flapperese...... 30 Safety First! ...... 99 Selected Terms and Phrases ...... 30 Malfunctions ...... 99 7. Life in the Syndicates...... 32 Two New Skills...... 101 Doing Business ...... 34 A Note on Powders ...... 102 The Liquor Wars ...... 36 Rifles...... 102 The Bootlegger’s Lifestyle ...... 38 Shotguns ...... 111 The Thompson Submachine Gun ...... 38 Handguns ...... 114 Frankie Yale ...... 39 Unusual Weapons...... 121 The End of an Era of Crime ...... 40 Sources and Further Reading ...... 123 William “Wild Bill” Lovett...... 40 The Mythos Collector ...... 124 8. The Local Law ...... 41 Book of Iod...... 124 I Fought the Law—The Law Won ...... 42 Chronike von Nath ...... 125 The Graft ...... 43 Confessions of the Mad Monk Clithanus. . . . . 125 The End Result ...... 43 Letters of Nestar ...... 126 9. The Prohibition Bureau ...... 44 The Nyhargo Codex ...... 127 Organization of the Bureau ...... 44 Soul of Chaos ...... 127 Hatchets and Notebooks ...... 46 Testament of Carnamagos ...... 128 Izzy Einstein, Moe Smith ...... 47 The Tunneler Below ...... 129 Elliot Ness ...... 48 Visions from Yaddith ...... 129 10. The Coast Guard...... 49 Von denen Verdammten...... 130 Table of Contents

New Spells ...... 130 Shaggai, Insects from ...... 145 New Creatures ...... 132 Yith, Great Race of ...... 145 Mythos ex Machina ...... 136 Deep One Diary ...... 148 Deep Ones ...... 136 Deep One Reproduction ...... 161 Elder Things ...... 138 Frogtalk: Modelling the Biology of the Great Race ...... 138 Innsmouth Taint ...... 161 Humans ...... 138 Frogtalk Commentary...... 162 Hyperborean Humans ...... 143 Mi-go ...... 143 Index ...... 164 Serpent People...... 144

Pre-Prohibition America: Wet and Dry States

Sample file

LEGEND White: Dry states. Gray: Local option or license states. Year: State became dry. N PROHIBITION

The birth, life, and demise of the Noble Experiment.

by Adam Gauntlett.

spectrum of social ills, and promoted such ideas such as legal equality of the sexes, education on hygiene, and total 1. The History abstinence from alcohol. Because the WCTU took on so many worthy causes, its efforts against alcohol were lim- ited and ineffective. Behind Prohibition For more than half a century before national prohibi- If you think this country ain’t dry, just watch ‘em vote; tion, individual states had been banning the sale and trans- if you think this country ain’t wet, just watch ‘em drink. portation of consumable alcohol. Maine was the first “dry” You see, when they vote, it’s counted, but when they state, which passed its mandatory temperance law in 1858. drink, it ain’t. Kansas followed suit in 1880, then North Dakota in 1889. —Will Rogers. Both Oklahoma and Georgia went dry in 1907, followed the next year by Mississippi and North Carolina, then indsight can sometimes distort our view of histor- Tennessee in 1909. After a brief lull, states began piling ical events. Looking back, it may seem obvious onto the temperance bandwagon. Washington, Oregon, that America’s attempt to prohibit the sale of alcohol was doomed to failure. Yet in the early part of the Arizona, Colorado and Virginia went dry in 1914, and H Idaho, Iowa, Arkansas, Alabama, and South Carolina fol- twentieth century, trends in religion, society, and politics created the conditions under which a permanent ban on the lowed suit the next year. In 1916, Montana, South Dakota, sale and consumption of alcohol was considered an Nebraska, and Michigan outlawed booze, and 1917 saw achievable and even a necessary goal. the last state temperance laws enacted in Utah, New The prohibitionist, or temperance, movement in the Mexico, Indiana, and New Hampshire before federal leg- United States was not unique to the twentieth century. Its islation made the point moot. roots go back to the beginning of the country. As early as 1785 Dr. Benjamin Rush, surgeon-general to the The Anti-Saloon League Continental Army and a signatory to the DeclarationSample of file For some, the state laws simply weren’t enough, and the Independence, had spoken out against the intemperate consumption of liquor. Dr. Rush, and many teetotaling physi- organization that provided the impetus for the national cians to follow, linked intemperance to a wide variety of prohibition of alcohol was the Anti-Saloon League. Begun ills such as epilepsy, jaundice, and madness. Other less sci- in 1893 to drive the Demon Rum out of Ohio, the ASL entific critics linked alcohol abuse with spontaneous only achieved a partial success. Ohio allowed individual human combustion. counties to decide whether to make consumption of alco- By the middle of the nineteenth century, enough people hol illegal. Perceiving this as a defeat, the ASL decided to had been attracted to the temperance cause to produce a take itself onto the national stage. steady stream of literature on the subject. Pamphlets The ASL had an advantage that previous anti-liquor relentlessly portrayed the mildest drinker as headed organizations, such as the WCTU, lacked. It restricted towards certain physical, financial, and emotional ruin. A itself to one goal only: the abolition of liquor. The WCTU typical temperance leaflet pictured an innocent man with had diluted its effectiveness by fighting many battles on an appealing, masculine face. As he began to drink, he was many fronts. The ASL concentrated its forces on a single transmogrified into a pox-ridden, disfigured wreck. His issue. It had generous backers, such as the DuPont and beautiful and innocent wife and children meanwhile suf- Rockefeller families, which enabled it to accumulate a fered the consequences of his folly, and died in the gutter. substantial campaign war chest. The ASL also avoided The complete prohibition of alcohol, the temperance becoming linked with any one political party or religious movement said, would eradicate many social ills, and denomination. This meant that it could attract supporters bring about a more prosperous and vigorous America. from all over the country. It also meant that its goal and Many organizations carried the banner of prohibition core beliefs were not swamped by the ambitions of another forward in the nineteenth century. By far the most promi- group or political organization. nent of these was the Women’s Christian Temperance The ASL also had Wayne Wheeler. Wheeler, the orga- Union. Established in 1874, the WCTU crusaded against a nization’s lawyer and most famous representative, became

1. The History behind Prohibition 9 The Keeper’s Companion 2 the public face of the ASL. More than any other individ- barians. The German brewers, well-known businesses like ual, it was Wheeler who made Prohibition possible. Pabst, Schlitz, and Anhauser-Busch, were therefore seen There was a strong racial element to the Prohibitionist as anti-American. The ASL capitalized on this popular cause. Many of the ASL’s supporters were upper- and belief, arguing that the grain used by the brewers could be middle-class men and women of Anglo-Saxon descent, better used in feeding American soldiers. They suggested who believed that alcohol was consumed primarily by that the laborers employed by the breweries would be inferior peoples. Beer was linked to the Irish and Germans, more useful in uniform, fighting on the Western Front. At while wine was portrayed as peculiar to the Italians, the same time, the ASL kept up its efforts to portray French, and other European undesirables. Many of the late saloons as the root of all domestic and social evil. nineteenth century European immigrants were fleeing Prohibition would save America from degradation and political persecution, and they brought with them socialist despair, Wheeler claimed. Meanwhile he did his best, and other revolutionary ideals. ASL supporters saw people behind the scenes, to get the German American owners of like these as dangerous germs, capable of fatally infecting the breweries deported. the United States’ social and political order. They pointed Aggressive and energetic, the ASL developed some of to the growing organized labor movement as evidence for the most effective lobbying techniques that Congress had their claim, believing that beer halls and wine cellars were yet seen. In 1913, during the League’s fifteenth annual gathering places for communists and socialists. Break the convention, Wheeler announced that the League would saloons, the ASL argument ran, and the dangerous politi- seek national constitutional prohibition. The measure was cal elements would be broken as well. introduced to Congress, but did not come to a vote. A sec- It might all have come to nothing, were it not for the ond try in 1915 languished similarly. In 1917, thanks to the Great War. World War One inspired a great deal of ani- war sentiment, Congress finally adopted a measure to pro- mosity toward Germans and German immigrants, particu- hibit the sale, transportation, or importation of alcoholic larly after the sinking of the Cunard liner Lusitania. The beverages within the United States, and the amendment Lusitania incident brought America into the war, and was was passed to the states for ratification. Congressional sup- used to propagandize the Germans as baby-butchering bar- porters of the breweries and saloons congratulated them-

Wayne Wheeler, the “Dry Boss” The only son of an Ohio cattle dealer, Wheeler (1870– Wheeler himself wrote what came to be known as the 1927) was a talented and ambitious young man. His father Volstead Act, which defined the government’s ability to was unable to pay for his education, so the young man enforce the prohibition on the sale and transportation of worked to support himself through college. He wantedSample to liquors. file Congressman Volstead of Minnesota merely be a lawyer, and intended to go into business. That all altered the order of a few paragraphs and then presented it changed when Reverend Russell, the founder of the ASL, to Congress. persuaded young Wayne to join him in the fight against After the Eighteenth Amendment was passed, Wheeler alcohol. Russell appealed to Wheeler’s sense of Christian kept a firm grip on Congress, and constantly pushed for duty as well as his ambition. As the ASL’s lawyer, stronger measures against alcohol. Wheeler himself pros- Wheeler reasoned, he would have the chance to enter into ecuted more than two thousand prohibition cases. He was the political arena. It was the best decision, from a career tireless, convincing, and powerful. However, even point of view, that he ever made. Eventually, Wheeler Wheeler’s power couldn’t last forever. dominated two presidents, six Congresses, and, without By 1926 Wheeler was facing strong opposition by any kind of authorization, the Prohibition Bureau. His some members of Congress who questioned the League’s unauthorized biographer and former secretary, Justin spending in certain elections. At the same time, Wheeler’s Steuart, called Wheeler a tireless opportunist, who con- health was failing. He was working himself to death. With stantly dramatized himself as the champion of Prohibition. this congressional opposition putting him under even The ASL and its ready-made voting bloc of prohibi- more pressure, Wheeler decided to take a sabbatical and tionists fulfilled all of Wheeler’s hopes for back-stage recoup his strength. In 1927 Wheeler went to his vacation power brokering. Time and again Wheeler and the ASL home in Little Point Sable, Michigan, only to be struck influenced state and federal elections, opposing those with tragedy. His wife, unfamiliar with the gasoline stove candidates who were unsympathetic to the ASL’s cause. of the Michigan home, accidentally caused an explosion. Wheeler’s goal was to elect politicians who would sup- Her dress caught fire and she panicked, running through port dry legislation. It didn’t matter to Wheeler that the the house. Her father suffered a fatal heart attack attempt- politician in question might be insincere or dishonest. ing to aid her, and she died the following day. This emo- The only thing that mattered to him was that the politician tional double-blow was too much for Wheeler. He died a voted dry. few weeks afterward.

10 1. The History behind Prohibition Prohibition selves on their cunning. They reasoned that it would take to transport their liquor stocks. The ASL’s intention was to many years before Wheeler could gather together the nec- let people drink up their remaining alcohol supply, but pre- essary votes for ratification. The War wouldn’t last for- vent them from buying any more. It is important to note ever, and when it was over the anti-German rhetoric would that the Volstead Act did not ban the consumption of alco- fade away, killing Prohibition. hol. The wets were wrong about what Wheeler could do. Doctors could prescribe liquor for medicinal purposes. With the help of the ASL and Wheeler’s legions of sup- They could prescribe up to one pint of distilled alcohol per porters, the amendment was passed by the requisite thirty- person. That pint could be bought once every ten days. six states in an astoundingly rapid one year and eight days. This quickly made doctors very popular. The Volstead Act, which described how to enforce the new Wine could be used for religious and sacramental pur- amendment, ushered in not only national Prohibition but poses. Priests and rabbis had to get permits to purchase or also Wheeler’s domination of Congress, which was to last make wine, and these permits were inspected and regu- until 1926. lated by the Prohibition Bureau. One year later, on 16 January 1920, the nation mourned Industrial alcohol was also legal. American industry the loss of John Barleycorn, the symbolic personification needed alcohol in many of its chemical and pharmaceuti- of alcohol. Elaborate wakes were held all over the country. cal processes. However, in order to prevent people drink- Many of the establishments that held the wakes were also ing the stuff, the ASL convinced Congress to poison indus- celebrating their own demise. The death of John Barley- trial alcohol stocks. Called denaturing, the process corn meant the death of their profit margin. They couldn’t involved doctoring the industrial alcohol with toxic sub- hope to keep operating without the revenue from alcohol stances, usually methanol. sales. At the Park Avenue Hotel in New York, a farewell Finally, near beer was legal. It was permissible for party was thrown in which the walls were draped in black people to brew alcohol in their own homes, provided its cloth, the tablecloths, napkins, utensils, and glasses were potency was less than one half of one percent. It was also black, and an orchestra played funeral dirges through the legal for breweries to manufacture beer that was less than night. The Café de Paris held a successful Cinderella Ball one half of one percent potent. This near beer, as it was after which “there wasn’t enough salable alcohol left in the called, could legally be sold, and was the one alcoholic place to jingle a six-year-old child.” Many other places beverage that was commonly available. simply gave away what they couldn’t sell, and shut their doors, apparently for good. When the clock struck mid- night, Prohibition became law. America was officially dry. 2. A Dangerous Repercussions of the Volstead Act The Volstead Act was intended primarily to prevent the manufacture, sale, and transport of intoxicatingSample liquor. file Indulgence First offenders were subject to a fine of not more than They would kick about the bill, when they expected to $1,000 or a prison term of no more than six months dura- be robbed in the first place; they would try to drink up tion. Persistent offenders were fined not less than $200 or the town’s booze supply in one night; they would drink more than $2,000, and could be imprisoned for at least one too much and then try to lead the band; they would lose month but no more than five years. However, because the their rolls and then blame the wrong people for it; they double jeopardy clause was suspended for liquor trials, would get reeling blind drunk and then try to steal their neighbor’s girls; they would tip so much that they were both state and federal prosecutors could get involved in the ridiculous or so little that they would be snubbed; they same case, and punish the offender twice for the one crime. would raise a terrible ruckus in a futile attempt to get Local laws and punishments varied from state to state, and ringside seats at a place that already was full; they so people convicted of breaches of the Volstead Act could had, some of them, no more sense than to listen to the spend considerably more than five years in jail, if they siren call of the taxi-cab driver who said “Want to were unlucky or lacked bribe money. meet some nice girls, buddy?” . . . The wonder of it is It was legal to drink alcohol. People could drink in their was that there were not more killings, beatings, stab- own homes or, as a bona fide guest, in their friends’ bings, and robberies. The life and property of most houses. It was legal for people to store alcohol in their own drunks appears to be protected by Providence; surely the police can’t protect them all. homes, and many did so, spending the last few months —Stanley Walker. before 16 January 1920 buying up stocks of pre-Volstead liquor for their own use. The slang term for this kind of ot everybody was brewing or drinking alcohol in liquor was pre-war, harking back to the genesis of the the Roaring Twenties. There are some estimates Volstead Act in the Great War anti-German hysteria. that suggest that alcohol consumption in the very However, since it was illegal to transport liquor, people earlyN 1920s (1920–1921) was a third of what it had been a could not take alcohol out of their homes for any reason. If decade before. These estimates are based largely on the they were to move house, they would have to get a permit increase in sales of coffee, tea, soft drinks, and ice cream

2. A Dangerous Indulgence 11 The Keeper’s Companion 2 sodas in 1920. However, stills were also on sale in hard- underworld. This conveniently provides the keeper with ware stores (at $6 per still), and by Christmas 1921 the many opportunities to make their lives more interesting. trend was moving in an alcoholic direction. By the later half of the twenties, drinking was the fashionable thing to do. Between 1925 and 1929, Americans are known to have Speakeasy Busts—The Police drunk 678 million gallons of wine, three times as much as [Prohibition enforcement] is not a job for the cop on was consumed in the five years before Prohibition. That the beat; that brave fellow will go on getting his free shot of rye, eventually a bullet in his belly and his name estimate does not include scotch, gin, or all the other spir- on the tablet of heroes at Police Headquarters. its being consumed at the same time as the wine, nor does —Stanley Walker, The Night Club Era. it include beer. There was plenty of all of the above to go around. The Volstead Act prohibited the sale of alcohol, although It is possible for characters to abstain from alcohol. not the drinking of it. So anyone who bought liquor at a They can enjoy the wild goings-on at the local church hall, speakeasy was aiding and abetting a criminal act. This was or attend mah-jongg clubs, or play bridge. They can go to not just any kind of criminal act, either; it was a deliberate union meetings, or political rallies, or psychical societies. defiance of the American Constitution. The police regu- There are plenty of social activities where booze is not larly raided illegal saloons. Gun and club in hand, the included. police would kick in the speak’s doors and announce their However, any of these could turn into an illegal booze- presence with the time honored phrase, “It’s a raid!” In the fest with the addition of a daring person with a concealed ensuing chaos, the majority of the speak’s patrons would bottle and a willingness to share. There was no denying be herded into the back of paddy wagons and taken to the that alcohol was fashionable. America’s young and trendy station house to be booked. If the police force was large people flocked to speakeasies. It was a way of flouting enough, backup forces were placed at every exit to make convention, defying the Puritanism of the previous gener- sure that everyone was caught. Quick-thinking patrons had bribe money ready, just in case the back-door cover was ations. The old ideals and optimism had died in the car- amenable to persuasion. Otherwise their goose was nage of the Great War. People didn’t believe in being cooked. heroic or noble. They believed in money, and what money Investigators arrested in such a police operation need could buy. If that meant an Art Deco silver martini shaker not panic. The dry agents had a hard time even convicting set, then so be it. Conventional social mores were thrown speakeasy owners. Their conviction rate was a dismal down, and Victorian, a catchall word for anything out of 40%. As for the drinkers, the worst that could happen to date and elderly, became an insult. It was desirable to be a them was a fine for disorderly behavior, which probably little shocking, but to be considered unshakeable oneself. wouldn’t amount to more than $10. The main danger for Sexual freedom was also desirable, and Freud, his body of patrons is that their names might get published in the work reduced to the phrase “it’s all about the sex com- newspaper. Investigator Credit Rating could be damaged plex,” became the new idol. People were feeling skepticalSampleas a result.file and scientific. Not that many people knew anything about Stings on smaller saloons in less populous places were science or psychology. That didn’t matter. All they needed conducted without ceremony. A police officer would turn to know was that science and psychology definitely up, announce that the bar was closed, and do his best to weren’t Victorian or Puritan. So they drank, because dispose of the alcohol. Usually that meant pouring it into drinking wasn’t Victorian or Puritan either, and that made the nearest gutter, or smashing the bottles and barrels with drinking a good thing to do. a hatchet. The drinkers were allowed to leave the bar while City-dwelling individuals who refuse to enter this was going on. speakeasies and gin joints will miss out on the growing However, the police weren’t fond of raiding spirit of reckless abandon, and the growing independence speakeasies. As a general rule the police didn’t like the of the youth culture. They’ll never know anything about Volstead Act, hadn’t voted for it, and weren’t keen on giv- the jazz scene. They will also miss the opportunity to be ing up the simple pleasure of a stein of beer or shot of caught up in a speakeasy bust. Or to get caught in a shoot- whiskey. Besides, they knew that if they were too eager to ing war over liquor, and perhaps get rubbed out by gang- close the saloons then the public would give them an ear- sters looking to eliminate potential witnesses. Nor will ful, and so would the politicians, the representatives of the they be poisoned by bootleg booze, rolling around in a people. No one would thank the police for enforcing the methanol-induced fit. Although this essay is given over to law, but well-heeled speakeasy owners were more than the organizations that distributed alcohol and those that willing to thank the police for not doing so. The officer on fought the same, the keeper should remember that many the beat was used to a free shot of rye every so often. Why Americans did not indulge in alcohol during Prohibition. not a free dollar or two as well? Possibly even a fifty when They refused to join in even though the speakeasy culture the beer delivery was made? Before long, all those possi- became more and more fashionable as the decade pro- bilities added up to quite a substantial probability. The gressed. Those player characters who do drink involve probability being that it was worth much more to many themselves with a complex and increasingly organized policemen to break the law rather than keep it.

12 2. A Dangerous Indulgence Prohibition

The most famous, or notorious, lawmen of the twenties speak owner his cut of the profits later. Prostitutes oper- were the men and women of the Prohibition Bureau. When ated on the same principle, using the speak as a means of Prohibition began, the bureau tried to enforce it by elimi- meeting Johns and paying the speak owner for the privi- nating the demand for alcohol. They thought that the best lege. way to achieve this was to break into speakeasies, smash One notorious feature of Prohibition was the clip joint. up the furnishings as well as the whiskey, and prosecute These criminal establishments looked like speakeasies and the servers of the alcohol while shaming the patrons. This acted like speakeasies. However, their main income came led to peculiar injustices, particularly since both the state not from liquor, but from robbery. The prospective mark and the federal government could prosecute offenders. would be made drunk, or drugged. Usually called a Later in the decade, the dry agents would strike at the Mickey Finn, drugged drinks were common during source and distribution centers of the trade, and stop con- Prohibition. Honest speaks used Finns to silence unruly centrating on the speakeasies. Speakeasy patrons ran a sig- patrons, but clip joints used them to render marks insensi- nificantly reduced risk of arrest, but their alcohol supply ble. Once dead to the world, the mark could be robbed, lines became more likely to be interrupted. rolled, and thrown out of the joint by the grifters, pick- Some overnight jail time with the fellow patrons of a pockets, and muggers who claimed the clip joint as their speakeasy is a good time to introduce new characters, or to territory. plant seeds for future adventures. Extended jail time is another matter entirely. Unless the keeper has planned an adventure in prison, investigators who manage to get sent to the Big House should be removed from play until their Concessions jail time has been served. The specific effects of a prison The cigarette girls must be on their feet the whole term are left up to the keeper, who may consider writing a night long. They are under orders to keep moving summary of the character’s experience for the player’s use. from table to table, laying a package of nuts here It gives the player something to plug an otherwise gaping and there before the customers and keeping after hole in the character’s history, and the keeper a chance to them to see that they buy. The girls’ ceaseless cry of plant future plot hooks. Who knows when they might run “Cigarettes! Cigarettes!” angers many patrons. . . . But the girl can’t stop. If she does, she’s fired. into former cellmates? —Jimmy Durante, Nightclubs. Cigarette girls, and other concession employees, are Criminals speakeasy fixtures. They are bar girls. Their main func- Most bootleggers are unstable, and ready to become tion is to sell. They are usually young and usually hijackers, Government spies, or to swindle their friends pretty. Suckers are more likely to pay up if the seller is if they think it is going to put a few immediate dollars an attractive woman. However, anyone who looks in their pockets. closely can see the fatigue in their eyes. They may also —James Barbican, Confessions of a Rumrunner. Sample filenotice that the girls’ dresses have no pockets. This is Speakeasies tended to attract an array of criminals. Even for the concession owner’s benefit. Foolish young men the patrons were technically aiding and abetting a criminal have been known to tip well, thinking to impress girls act. Most criminals in the booze business tended to believe that way. What happens instead is that the concession that, once one law was broken, there was no point in keep- owner takes the tip. If the girl had pockets, she might ing to any of the others. This led to a variety of offenses. be tempted to squirrel away a dime or two. Hence the Speakeasies were costly to run. The rent was triple that lack of pockets in her dress. of any other business, and there was the booze to buy, Here are some sample concession products and bribes to cover, all kinds of incidental expenses. The larger prices: speakeasies developed concessions to defray costs. These concessions included such activities as the sale of ciga- Ten Camel cigarettes in a specially made package: rettes, the sale of flowers and other toys, the hat check $1. facility, and taxi access rental. These concessions could be Rag doll (or any other cheap toy liable to appeal to a rented to outside entrepreneurs, thus providing the speak drunk): $6. with income. However, there was a danger that the concession owners could turn out to be criminals themselves, Paper gardenia flower: $1. or be in the control of criminals. This meant that even an Four roses (as a boutonniere): $4.50. honest saloon owner could find his place overrun with unsavory types. The keeper should bear in mind that the simplest In addition to these innocuous concessions, there were way to convert a 1920s price to present day purchasing more sleazy delights on offer. A speakeasy could earn a power is to multiply by ten. Thus that packet of ten great deal of extra money by renting out its back rooms to Camels goes for the equivalent of $10 in today’s gamblers. Con men often had the same idea, and haunted money. cheap speaks looking for suckers to hustle, giving the

2. A Dangerous Indulgence 13 The Keeper’s Companion 2

From the keeper’s point of view, the Mickey Finn had a bad booze story on page two: “POISON RUM should be treated like any other poison. There was no fixed KILLS LOVERS. ‘My God, I’m terribly sick, and Mrs. recipe, nor was there a standard outcome. Though most Murphy has died, and her husband is dying,’ the husband- Finns weren’t designed to kill, many were designed to to-be managed to say, while calling for the ambulance. He make the recipient sick. Others provoked powerful diar- died moments later, but by the time of his phone call his rhea. The POT of any Mickey Finn should be no greater fiancée was already dead.” than 10 nor less than 4. The specific effect of the drink is The wealthy had significantly less to worry about. The up to the keeper, bearing in mind that the intent is to inca- alcohol smuggled to them was either genuine Canadian pacitate the target. manufacture, or from Europe via the Caribbean. Even Speakeasies were often run and frequented by genuine then, they took no chances. Most people who could afford gangsters. The saloons, since they were illegal, no longer it kept a chemist on the payroll, to make sure that their had the protection of the police, and that meant that they bootlegger’s brandy wasn’t poisonous. Those paying top were easy marks for criminals looking for new markets. dollar (and prices could range up to $50 or more per bot- During Prohibition, alcohol sales were second only to loan tle), would probably get their booze unadulterated. Those sharking and extortion as sources of illegal income, which who went for bargains, or dealt with the more unscrupu- made speakeasies tempting targets for the criminal under- lous dealers, would receive the same bottles. Although the world. Associating with the criminal element brought its bottles’ seals looked genuine, the alcohol within had been own risks. One attempt on the life of Al Capone riddled the cut. restaurant he was in with more than a thousand bullets. The middle classes and the drinking poor had to take Four customers of Legs Diamond’s Hotsy Totsy Club what they could get. Since booze was illegal, no govern- were assassinated because they might have testified ment organization inspected it for safety. Since hundreds against Legs in court about a shooting incident. One of the of thousands of people were making their own hooch with men killed in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was an their own recipes, a number of unhealthy ingredients found ordinary citizen, an opthamologist, who just happened to their way into the public’s alcohol supply. get his thrills by associating with gangsters. Individuals who associate with gangsters may not be identified as innocents until after the shooting stops. The Wages of Sin: Poisoning METHANOL Ethyl The Booze And Methyl! At Indiana [University] they picked me to find some Like Ike good liquor for a visitor from Wabash College, a Phi And Mike Gamma Delta man no less and a millionaire, coming to Strangely you look alike. a weekend football game. This was Ed Ball, later Like sisters I have met chairman of the board of his family’s Ball-Mason Samplejar fileYou’re very hard to tell apart—and yet company in Muncie. We wanted to wine and dine him The one consoles more gently than a wife; royally, impress him, so he’d remember us after he’d The other turns and cripples you for life. got to head the company. I went down to the pool hall —Wallace Irwin, “Owed to Volstead.” to see my favorite bootlegger, but damned if he hadn’t been knocked off in a gang shoot. So I had to pinch The most prevalent ingredient of Prohibition alky was around and find what I could. It turned out to be the methanol, or wood alcohol. Though wood alcohol is vilest gin ever made. I was amazed. We damn near cheaper to make than ethanol, it is a deadly poison even in killed Ed Ball. He lay around for hours, green and small doses. Unscrupulous moonshiners would spike their groaning. We all got deathly sick. brew with a shot of methanol for the necessary kick. —John Arthur Hendricks, from Kobler’s Spiking could be done at any stage in the operation: by the Ardent Spirits. original moonshiner, the wholesaler, or the actual seller of Quite apart from alcoholism, Prohibition presented the the alcohol. very real danger of alcohol poisoning. The people who Methanol shot to fame in 1927 with the Methanol brewed and supplied the liquor had their eye on the prof- Poisoning Scandal. Methanol had offered a solution to the its, not the safety of their customers. The New York Daily difficult problem of industrial alcohol: American industry News published “The Hands of Death,” a barometer which needed alcohol for many things, from pharmaceuticals to registered the daily fatalities that the city’s chief medical hair tonic. However, the Anti-Saloon League’s members examiner attributed to guns, automobiles, and poisoned realized that although industrial alcohol had to be kept alcohol. The barometer started fresh on January 1 each legal, its existence threatened their dry utopia. To dissuade year, and continued adding up the deceased until year’s drinkers from consuming industrial alcohol, the ASL end. The edition for 8 December 1927 recorded that alco- arranged for it to be denatured (made undrinkable), by hol had outstripped the gun by more than two corpses to adding poisonous substances to it. That substance was usu- one. Booze was responsible for 652 deaths while the gun ally methanol. Since the ASL made no provision for label- only got 278. The same paper that recorded that statistic ing the denatured industrial alcohol as poisonous, many

14 2. A Dangerous Indulgence Prohibition unsuspecting drinkers ended up crippled or dead as a result of Cthulhu game, the player may not even notice. of drinking methanol-spiked industrial alcohol. This fact However, the increasing dementia brought on by progres- first came to the public’s attention after New Year’s 1927, sive lead poisoning could be very interesting if it is when scores of poisoned drinkers were admitted to New inflicted on a trusted non-player character. York’s Bellevue Hospital. Forty-one of them died, killed for celebrating the New Year. There are no accurate statis- JAKE PARALYSIS tics, but it is likely that by 1927 upward of 50,000 people As a case study, consider the following. In 1930, a para- had died as a result of methanol poisoning, to say nothing lytic epidemic began sweeping cross the nation. Tens of of the hundreds of thousands more who were crippled by thousands were eventually afflicted, each with the same it. essential symptoms. The epidemic was reported by The cheaper the drink, the more likely it was to contain Collier’s Magazine: methanol. “Smoke” (slang for cheap garbage that drunks consumed when nothing else was available), at 10 cents a The victim of ‘jake paralysis’ practically loses control of his fingers. He is able to press the tips of his little glass, could be up to 50% methanol. The amount of fingers and his third fingers to the palm of his hand. methanol cutting would depend on the financial security of But the other two fingers on each hand, and his thumbs, the local cutters. When there was money to spare, the cut- are nerveless and useless. . . . The feet of the paralyzed ters could afford safe ethanol and didn’t need methanol. If ones drop forward from the ankle so that the toes point money was scarce, possibly because a gang war had emp- downward. The victim has no control over the muscles tied the cutters’ war chest, the syndicate might need every that normally point the toes upward. When he tries to dollar it could muster to hire soldiers and keep up with the walk his dangling feet touch the pavement first at the competition. This meant that cheap methanol became toes, then his heels settle down jarringly. That’s how he the cutters’ choice. Formerly trustworthy speaks moves. ‘Tap-click, tap-click, tap-click’. . . The calves of his legs, after two or three weeks, begin to might end up distributing more methanol than soften and hang down; the muscles between the they knew. thumbs and index fingers shrivel away. This is The effects of methanol poisoning are ‘jake paralysis.’ greatly delayed. Symptoms manifest twelve to twenty-four hours after the dose has been The culprit was discovered to be a ingested. This makes methanol poisoning Jamaican ginger extract, about 70% alcohol, very difficult to deal with medically. The that was being sold as a headache remedy most common and mildest symptom is and general digestion aide. Further investi- decreased vision, or possibly complete loss gation pointed to a distributor in Boston, of sight. Given time, vision will return natu- who had sold it to literally dozens of compa- rally, provided that the dose wasn’t too strong. nies. The alcohol used by the Boston distrib- This may take one to three days to happen. utor had been denatured with tricresyl phos- Heavier doses of methanol can produce dizzi-Sample file phate, a common chemical used to help varnish ness, headache, vomiting, abdominal pain, seizures, and lacquer set. It was soluble in alcohol, miscible coma, and death. with ginger, and cheap. Astonishingly, it was not Pure methanol has POT 5 per pure shot glass or fluid listed as a poison in most standard reference works of the ounce. Most drinks will contain 5% methanol at most, but time. Although some of the victims of Jake Paralysis even- cheaper ones may contain up to 50%. Carefully count how tually recovered, more than thirty-five thousand victims many contaminated drinks the character downs, and only suffered permanent nerve damage. The FDA discovered roll on the Resistance Table after all the drinks have been and eliminated the contaminated extract by 1932, but the consumed. With a failed POT roll, the character loses victims of Jake Paralysis lived on. vision in 12 + 1D12 hours. A fumbled POT roll results in Although there was no cure for Jake Paralysis, there any of the more severe symptoms described above. was a macabre sequel. Chemical analysis showed that the tricresyl phosphate destroyed nerve transmission in LEAD POISONING humans, hence the crippling nature of Jake Paralysis. This Lead acetate, also known as sugar of lead, a finely ground, information was used by German chemists later in the crystalline, sweet-tasting derivative of lead, was some- 1930s, to create nerve gases such as tabun, soman, and times used to sweeten cheap sour wines. Frequent con- sarin. sumers of this toxic stuff suffered severe lead poisoning. OISONED LCOHOL AND LAYER HARACTERS Mild symptoms include fatigue, irritability, and headache. P A P C Larger doses induced cramps, delirium, seizures, coma, The keeper is reminded that deaths or permanent disabili- and death from brain swelling. ties brought about by poisoned alcohol were by and large No system is provided for lead poisoning. The enter- rare. Use such events to frighten characters and dismay prising keeper could simulate slow alcohol poisoning with players—that is, heighten tension rather than randomly the above symptoms and a slow drain of sanity. In the Call incapacitate characters. Even the best role-players are dis- tressed if a character falls victim to a mundane illness. Far

2. A Dangerous Indulgence 15