Isidor “Izzy” Einstein (1880–1938) and Moe W. Smith (1887–1960) were United States federal police officers, agents of the U.S. Prohibition Unit, who achieved the most arrests and convictions during the first years of the alcohol prohibition era (1920–1925).
The Bureau of Prohibition was the United States federal law enforcement agency formed to enforce the National Prohibition Act of 1919, which enforced the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution regarding the prohibition of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.
It was first established in 1920 as a unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. On April 1, 1927, it became an independent entity within the Department of the Treasury. Later they became part of the Department of Justice, then the F.B.I., and then switched back to the Treasury and renamed the Alcohol Tax Unit.
Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith were known nationally for successfully shutting down illegal speakeasies[1] and using disguises in their work. Izzy was born in 1880 into a Jewish family in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He grew up speaking Yiddish and likely was educated in a yeshiva; he also learned Hungarian, Polish, German, and a smattering of other European languages. Einstein emigrated as a young man to the United States in 1901.
Moe W. Smith was born about 1887 in New York City. As a young man, he was a boxer. Einstein had worked as a cigar salesman, and postal clerk managed a small fight club, and owned a cigar store. He signed up as Prohibition Agent No. 1. He then invited fellow Mason, Moe Smith to join him as his partner. They were both rather rotund and disarmed many of their quarry by their unthreatening appearances. They claimed to have used more than 100 disguises and were never detected.
Einstein developed what he called the “Einstein Theory of Rum Snooping”. They made most of their arrests unarmed as they rarely carried weapons. Their disguises included appearing as “streetcar conductor, gravedigger, fisherman, iceman, opera singer” and as the state of Kentucky delegates to the Democratic National Convention of 1924 held in New York.
The public which looked upon them with as much delight as ever it looked on Robin Hood was denied their adventures — adventures as thrilling as those of Sir Launcelot, as those of Richard Cœur de Lion, as those of Don Quixote de la Mancha.
Time Magazine
They made 4,932 arrests and achieved a 95% conviction rate. They confiscated 5 million gallons of liquor, worth an estimated $15 million. As a result of their work, thousands of bartenders, bootleggers, and speakeasy owners were sentenced to jail.
Some Known Disguises
- German pickle packer.
- Polish count.
- Hungarian violinist.
- Jewish gravedigger.
- French maitre d’.
- Italian fruit vendor.
- Russian fisherman.
- Chinese launderer.
- Streetcar conductor.
- Ice deliverer.Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith in Disguise
- Opera singer.
- Truck driver.
- Judge.
- Traveling cigar salesman.
- Street cleaner.
- Texas cattleman.
- Movie extra.
- Football player.
- Beauty contest judge.
- Grocer.
- Lawyer.
- Librarian.
- Rabbi.
- College student.
- Musician.
- Plumber.
- Delegate to the Democratic National convention.
In November 1925, they were laid off with 36 other agents from the New York Office in a reorganization plan by General Lincoln C. Andrews of the national bureau. He resented the favorable coverage that Einstein and Smith received, which gained far more attention than higher officials. Both men went into the insurance business and did well, despite the Great Depression. Einstein worked for the New York Life Insurance Company.
Footnotes
- A speakeasy also called a blind pig or blind tiger is an illicit establishment that sells alcoholic beverages, or a retro-style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies. Speakeasy bars came into prominence in the United States during the Prohibition era (1920–1933, longer in some states). During that time, the sale, manufacture, and transportation (bootlegging) of alcoholic beverages was illegal throughout the United States. Speakeasies largely disappeared after Prohibition ended in 1933. The phrase “speak softly shop”, meaning a “smuggler’s house”, appeared in a British slang dictionary published in 1823. The similar phrase “speak easy shop”, denoting a place where unlicensed liquor sales were made, appeared in a British naval memoir written in 1844. The precise term “speakeasy” dates from no later than 1837 when an article in the Sydney Herald newspaper in Australia referred to ‘sly grog shops, called in slang terms “speakeasy” in this part – Boro Creek. In the United States, the word emerged in the 1880s. A newspaper article from March 21, 1889, refers to “speakeasy” as the name used in the Pittsburgh-area town of McKeesport, Pennsylvania for “a saloon that sells without a license”. Speakeasies were “so called because of the practice of speaking quietly about such a place in public, or when inside it, so as not to alert the police or neighbors”. Although failing to account for earlier usage outside the U.S., a common American anecdote traces the term to saloon owner Kate Hester, who ran an unlicensed bar in the 1880s in McKeesport, supposedly telling her rowdy customers to “speak easy” to avoid attention from authorities. Many years later, in Prohibition-era America, the “speakeasy” became a common name to describe a place to get an illicit drink. [Back]
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