Residents get desperate for a drink during Prohibition

[image error]In old movies, sometimes a drunk will say that he drinks liquor for “medicinal purposes only.” Such an excuse dates to the Prohibition Era when although the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” was constitutionally prohibited, alcohol could still be used by pharmacists to prepare medications.

For pharmacists who did use alcohol in their preparations, they also had to lock them up in a secure location when the pharmacy was closed just as they had to do with other medicines. In the Shoemaker’s Drug Store on East Queen Street and Central Avenue, alcohol was kept in an alcohol vault in the basement of the building. The vault was actually a smaller vault within a larger one, both of which had locks.

On the evening of April 8, 1929, Wayne Shoemaker locked up his pharmacy and retired to the apartment at the rear of the store where he sometimes stayed. Shortly after 1 a.m. on April 9, he was awakened by voices outside his window on the Central Avenue side of his store.

He suspected, at first, that it was a policeman talking to someone.

He was wrong.

Two men, Landis Reeder and Clarence “Dutch” Rohr, were the ones talking. However, the pair went to the rear of the pharmacy and went through an archway leading to Queen Street. Perhaps they were lucky or maybe they knew that the janitor of the Zullinger Building, in which Shoemaker’s Drug Store was located, had retired a few days earlier and hadn’t locked the basement door properly.

The padlock on the cellar door hadn’t been fully attached and Reeder and Rohr were able to open the door and slip into the basement.

Shoemaker heard them enter the building. He quickly dressed and then moved into the front of his store, intending to call the police.

“About that time the men ascended a stairway leading to the drug store and in the narrow stairway knocked a large bottle off a shelf. The bottle rolled to the base of the steps and shattered with a resounding crash. The intruders then returned to the cellar and left the building by the same cellar door they had entered,” the Public Opinion reported.

Shoemaker went back through the store and slipped out the door onto Central Avenue in the hopes of seeing who came out of the store cellar. He saw two men walk around the corner of the store and start towards Queen Street.

“Both were brushing dust off their clothes. Shoemaker walked ahead of them to Queen and Central avenue where there is an incandescent light,” the Public Opinion reported. “As Reeder and Rohr passed, he said nothing but Rohr asked Reeder whether he knew the fellow standing at the pole.  Reeder replied in the negative and both men turned in Queen towards Main Street.”

Once they had passed, Shoemaker went to the police headquarters to report the break-in. The officers were out on patrol, though, so he called in his report and Motorcycle Officer Winger responded.

Upon investigation of the cellar, it was found that the would-be robbers had attempted to break into the liquor vault for something to drink. They had managed to break through the larger vault, but the small vault within had stopped them.

Winger began a search for the men. Reeder was found in his bed with his clothes on and Rohr was found on the porch of a friend’s house. Both of them showed signs of having been drinking, but whether it is liquor they found at the pharmacy or elsewhere is unclear.

Reeder and Rohr were arrested and charged with breaking and entering with the intent to commit a felony all because they got a little thirsty.

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