Wide Open Evansville

What began as a genealogy search grew into an in-depth investigation of a period in Evansville history when Indiana instituted prohibition while Kentucky, just across the Ohio River, did not. Evansville was a brewery town with a strong German culture at the time, and it struggled to stay away from liquor. It earned a reputation of being wide open when its Chief of Police, Edgar Schmitt, was prosecuted in the 1920 Evansville whiskey ring conspiracy. The author is the great-grandson of Evansv...