Wilmont Kreis

Book Eight: The Getaway-Part Three: Escaping to a different jurisdiction. Once bootleggers had loaded their stash in their car or truck, they would head to their delivery point. Different jurisdictions had different standards for whom to stop, pursue, or ignore. Once the smugglers were being chased, they could sometimes cross a municipal line into a more friendly community. This would not necessarily stop the Feds from pursuing, but generally cause the municipal agencies to turn back. Some of the more famous chase scenes were through Detroit escaping to the suburbs. As I have previously said, the municipalities often had different standards for different smugglers, but they almost all tried to stop the Purple Gang, sometimes with grave consequences. One such scene in Book Eight is the murder of Officer Claude Lanstra of the Grosse Pointe Police. It is based on the actual account, flavored by family legend. (Claude was my Grandfather’s cousin).(continued next week)