Walkway Connections: Along The Bootleg Trail

The Hudson Valley played a prominent role in bootlegging activity during Prohibition. Local producers, distributors and sellers of illegal liquor were overshadowed and terrorized by New York City gangsters like Dutch Schultz, Legs Diamond and Salvatore Maranzano who came to the Hudson Valley to make money and escape federal surveillance. Intrigued by a mention of bootlegging in the Hudson Valley in one of her father’s scrapbooks about his 58-year law career in Poughkeepsie, Eleanor Charwat researched the subject and created a talk and a book on “Bootlegging in the Hudson Valley” that she has given to over 20 historical societies, libraries and other community organizations. At each talk, members of the audience add their anecdotes or family lore about bootleggers, speakeasies and underground tunnels.

This Walkway Connections event takes place at 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 20 at the Ulster Welcome Center in Highland (87 Haviland Road). It is free to attend and appropriate for all ages.

Charwat is a Poughkeepsie native who has lived in the Hudson Valley most of her life. She was head of the School of Adult Education at Marist College, has been a newspaper reporter, a teacher of English as a Second Language, a Town of Poughkeepsie Councilman and an active community volunteer. She is a graduate of Cornell University and received her master’s in public administration from Marist College. Her book “Prohibition in the Hudson Valley, Along the Bootleg Trail” is available at the Henry Wallace Visitor Center book store, The Three Arts book store and from the author.