Omaha daily bee., 1918-09-18
HEARSE LIQUOR
TRANSPORT IS
COSTLY TO FOX
Heavy Fines Imposed on 0per-
ator of Ingenious Bootleg =
ging Operations in Coun-
\ Gil Bluffs Court.

A big gray automobile hearse and
a new six-cylinder Cadillac car are
in the L. H. Bolton garage, Council
Bluffs, and when the cars were
placed in the garage William and Al
bert Fox, owners of the Fox garage
at 1914 Cunning street, and John Van
Meter, hearse driver at the Palace
garage, Omaha, were taken to the
county jail, the men and the cars all
charged with transporting booze for
bootlegging purposes. A fourth
Omaha man, c. D. Houston, was
also detained on the same charge.
The hearse was to be used to con-
vey the booze from Garner township
six miles east of Council Bluffs on
the river-to-river road, safely across
the Douglas street bridge into Oma-
ha, and the casket was to be used
further to camouflage the whisky.
Sheriff Groneweg and his depu-
ties, assisted by Police Officers
Crum and Peterson of Council
Bluffs, got the hearse, car, booze
and men and then things moved
along fast.
Men Plead Guilty.
County attorney Swanson hailed
the men into the Pottawattamie
county district court on two charges,
conspiracy and bootlegging, and
held them for trial under $500
bonds. An hour later the Fox broth
ers pleaded guilty to bootlegging
and were fined $500 each. Their
wives brought checks for more than
$1,000 and the fines were promptly
paid, amounting to $1,000.
In addition, permanent injunctions
were obtained against the men, pro-
hibiting them from carrying even
homeopathic phial OF liquor in
their pockets when they came into
Iowa. Houston and Van Meter are
still in Jail.
Houston and another man reach
ed the farm of J. H. Garner late
Sunday night in a crippled car and
got permission to use the telephone
to call the Fox garage for help.
A service car came out and pulled
them in, but upon the pretext that
the car was too heavily loaded
they got permission to store the con-
tents in a shed in the Garner farm
barnyard.
A number of plain boxes were
piled in the shed and remained
there all day Monday. Early Mon
day night an Omaha truck came
and took half of the load away.
Somebody got suspicious and tele-
phoned to Sheriff Gronweg and a
squad of officers waited until the
hearse came, about 3 o'clock yester-
day morning
They watched the stuff carried to
the hearse and made ready to be
laid tenderly in the casket, then
flushed the game, taking the four
men into custody.
County Attorney Swanson is in
ciined to believe Van M eter's story.
He says he received a midnight call
claiming to come from Hulse
Riepen, Omaha undertakers9 ask
ing to have the hearse driven across
the river for a body" He says
the Fox brothers and Houston met
him at Sixteenth and Douglas, and
that he did not know where they
were going until the Garner farm
was reached at 8 o'clock in the
morning.
He claims that his first intima-
ton that the hearse was to be used
to camoufage the booze was when
the men started to put it into the
coffin. For this reason there will
be no attempt to hold the big fu-
neral car and Van Meter may not
be prosecuted Houston, however,
will probably be held on the two
counts, conspiracy and bootiegging.