The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1949-06-17
|Higghligghts From
House Liquor
Investigation


In the months since the McKenna
committee filed it's preliminary re-
port on liquor in Montana this office
has been contacted many times con-
corning the possibilities of The Voice
publishing important portions of the
testimony, that to date, have re-
ceived but limited circulation. In
view of the enforcement campaign
recently launched by the attorney
general, it becomes particularly per-
tinent that as much of the import
ant sections of the report as space
will permit, should be made avail
able to the general public. Accord
ingly, starting with this issue, and at
regular intervals during the next sew
eral months, The Voice will publicize
considerable of the material dis
closed under oath by this important
house committee investigation.
The first witness to appear before
the committee was Roger Murray of
Helena. Portions of his testimony
follow:
Mr.. Murray: g. . about July,
1947, or August, Tom Alley came
to me and asked me if l would
sell some liquor with him, and I
asked him how l would sell the liquor
and he took me down to Mr.. Buley
who explained that Mr.. Alley had
basic permit and could bring liquor
in to Montana. And he explained
that liquor was very hard to get
then, the State had none, and Alley
did, so you could get a pretty good
price for it. The liquor I was to
sell was Ben Franklin and Tom
Moore, | believe. This whiskey was
handled by man named Campbell
whose office is in the Smith Tower
building in Seattle. :. The idea was
this whiskey was to sell at sos a
case, that was the price it was to go
at. But the people that bought the
whiskey from me were to pay a SIS
token payment, that was what Buley
called it. Out of that token pay
ment | was to get a dollar, the gov
ernor was to get dollar, Buley was
to get a dollar, Alley was to get a
dollar, and the fifth dollar l never
found out who was to get that. They |
paid the SIS when they ordered the
i. however, [ didn't collect
any of this money. The whiskey
was later re-bottled under the name
of Jack Rose and the price raised be-
cause whiskey was still scarcer.
When this whiskey came in to the
state it was marked up the 60%, or
whatever it was
Mr.. Hall: Fifty-eight percent.
A. Fifty-eight percent, is it? If
a dealer out of Helena called the
liquor warehouse Buley generally
sold them he didn't have any whiskey,'
The state didn't, but Tom Alley had
liquor on the floor down there; to
get in touch either with Tom Alley
1r get in touch with me. If the man
could take out this whiskey at that
price, as l understood it, the bank
1ere in Helena would take the whis-
Key out and store it at small cover
charge, l think SIS it was, then you
could take your whiskey as you could
Jay for it, out of the basement of the
,ank.
Mr.. Tierney: Is that SIS per case?
A. That was my understanding,
IS to bring it down and store it. j.;
@. Was it your understanding, Mr..
Murray, that the bank loaned the
money, loaned the prospective pur-
haser the money to purchase the
vhiskey?
A. Yes.
@. And then it was sent up to the
ank?
A. Yes.
@. And delivered out of the bank?
A. AS you could pay Tor it. If I
ou got forty cases and could only (
ay for five, you could only take c
i've. The whiskey l handled, sold \
bout sixty-two hundred cases of it; I
heir books showed $3.50, but when e
hey changed the name of the thing, {
nd so forth, | got
Tierney: You mean Tom Alleys
ooks?
A. Yes. that is what the federal