The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1918-10-18
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MADE IN MICHIGAN
Take the King of American
Bootleggers
B;llingsly Is Rounded Up In Big
Drive
Hard Customers for Officers to
Handle
OPERATED ON BIG SCALE
After Cleaning Up In the City of
Detroit
Expected to Make Million In
New York
Youth Engineers Efforts Which
Finally Result in Capture of
Two Billingslys, Famous Mem
bers of Bootlegging Family

The bootlceging king of the city OF
Detroit is now within the tolls. His
name is Billingsly and in the capture
Of Billingsly and his confederates it is
believed that the major source of De-
troit's difficulty with illegal liquor has
been apprehended
The Billingsly outfit operated on a
large scale. The brains of the enter
prise are said to be Ora Billingsly
who organized his troop of bootleg
gers and also organized system of
distribution. The liquor was brought
in either by boat or by automobile
from Toledo. Bllngsly had different
points in the city OF Detroit where
the contraband liquors were brought.
He had one prominent location which
he is said to have leased for grocery
store purposes and there stored a
great deal OF his liquor. In Detroit
nc is reported as operating boldly, de-
livcring his goods in daylight and to
practically every point in the city.
He had band of four confedcratcs.
1t took several weeks to successfully
apprcheud him A young man by the
name OF William B. Chase, former
University OF Michigan student,
worked out the final details for Bill
lingsly's capture. By working into the
confidence of the gang he finally was
taken in as one of their operators and
he himself ran a booze car for several
weeks. A set OF signals were arranged
whereby the booze cars were to be
held up by officers only when the real
leader, Ora Billingsly, was along. 1t
required FIVE toots from the horn of
Chase's automobile as signal that
everything was ready Time after
time when liquor laden automobiles
approached the place of apprehension
Chase's horn would only sound two or
three times. But finally Billingsly
made the mistake OF going along with
the crowd to get an extra large haul
and that night the five blasts from
Chase's liquor laden car resulted in
the officers arresting the whole out
mt and the men are now awaiting ac
ton in the federal court.
1t was men by the name OF Billingsly
who also operated as the master boot
1cggers in Seattle after Prohibition
was adopted in the state of Wash
ington.
The name of Billingsiy stands out
as the name most familiar in many
states of the Union in connection with
daring and dangerous bootleggers.
The operations OF members of the Bill
lngsly family have caused their names
to be familiar in states like Oklahoma,
West Virginia. Kentucky, and Wash
ington. They have always been mas
Ter operators.
Bold, daring, cunning, they were
q difficult to run to earth. At the pres
ent time two of the Billingsly broth
ers, Fred and Logan are serving time
in Washington where they were fin
ally captured and sent to prison. Ora
and Sherman Billings1y were continu-
ing the family fame until captured by
the authorities in Michigan. Ora is
said to have planned to move on to
New York City after completing his
cleanup in Detroit and expressed the
belief that he would salt down mil
lion dollars before the game was en-
tirely over. His arrest and certainty
of conviction now promises to cause
a serious break in the operations of
the Billingslys, the master bootleggers
OF the nation.