A century ago, the largest Prohibition raid in local history sent shockwaves through Poplar Bluff’s underground. The operation was spearheaded by private detectives, built on months of underground detective work and funded by citizens. Supporters also provided cars and were deputized to join local and federal officers during the two-day dragnet.
No issues available — Aug. 3, 1924; Aug. 4, 1974.
__75 years ago__
__Aug. 3, 1949__
• A professional gambler was convicted of murder today.
Robert Wilkinson of St. Louis now faces 30 years in prison sentence in the death of Thomas Cooksey, a Kennett man. Cooksey’s body was found on Nov. 4, 1948, wrapped in kerosene-soaked blankets within a smoldering cabin. His cause of death was blunt force head trauma, likely with a tire tool. Firefighters said the fire burned itself out because the cabin was tightly closed up.
Wilkinson was arrested in Miami Beach, Florida while driving Cooksey’s car.
Both men were professional gamblers and had been drinking the afternoon before Cooksey’s body was found.
__50 years ago__
__Aug. 3, 1974__
• A group of thieves may have a weed problem. The Standard Oil Distributors outlet in Steele was burgled last night, and the culprits made off with 300 gallons of Treflan and 100 lbs. of Cotoran, both herbicides. The Treflan is valued at $8,000. The Pemiscot County Sheriff’s Department and Missouri State Highway Patrol are investigating.
__100 years ago__
__Aug. 4, 1924__
• Hired detectives, federal agents, police and citizens launched the largest law enforcement raid in local Prohibition history this afternoon.
The Poplar Bluff Interstate American reported over 30 citizens were deputized to join the tightly coordinated, simultaneous stings on businesses and residences. A detective hired by private citizens laid the groundwork for the operation with months of undercover investigation in Butler County.
The operation was ongoing at press time.
• At 104 years old, Sophia Dea Mude was the oldest resident of Wayne County, and possibly the entire state. She died peacefully yesterday at her home in Upalika, surrounded by family.
Mude was born in 1820 in Germany and immigrated to Missouri with her family in 1904. She is survived by five children, who traveled from as far away as California to be at her bedside when she passed. Her youngest child is 67.
Mude’s remains will be shipped to Fort Madison, Iowa for burial.
__75 years ago__
__Aug. 4, 1949__
• A school election was called off today based on three votes.
Last month local school districts narrowly decided to consolidate into a single, county district. The measure was collectively passed by a single vote. Today, Judge Randolph Weber granted a temporary injunction to keep Butler County School District R3 from electing directors after a lawsuit claimed three votes were cast by non-residents. A hearing will be held as soon as possible.
__100 years ago__
__Aug. 5, 1924__
• Poplar Bluff’s massive liquor sting continued last night and into this morning, and its results are reverberating across the local underworld.
Eighty-one people were arrested and taken en masse to city hall, resulting in “one of the busiest scenes in its history,” said the PBIA.
Stories today revealed creative hiding spaces and evasion tactics. At one residence, whiskey cases were found under a wood pile and suspended down a well. Another bootlegger stalled police while his son dumped whiskey in the river through a trapdoor. One woman drank the evidence.
G.H. Foree of the Foree Detective Agency was the head of the operation. Though aided by federal prohibition agents and local law enforcement during the raid, he was hired by citizens and his operatives began gathering evidence in March. He labeled conditions here “generally bad.”
“The moonshiners and bootleggers were entirely too many for the population of the place and are in a greater proportion than most towns in Missouri,” he said. His men also encountered multiple underground gambling operations and brothels. Two corrupt police officers (and frequent customers, Foree noted) mistook the detectives for new bootleggers and charged them protection money. They’ve been fired, along with a federal agent who launched his own raid and set Foree’s operation back by two months.
Citizens provided 12 cars and 30 volunteers for the raids. They are also paying the $2,000-$3,000 price tag. An additional fund may be set up through banks to dole out rewards for future arrests.
“If Poplar Bluff raises a fund this county will be as dry as the Sahara Desert,” he asserted.
Hundreds of liquor customers were untouched by the sting. Nevertheless, Foree was satisfied with his agency’s work.
“I think we have secured evidence enough to close every place in town and I am sure that the prosecuting attorney and the city attorney are going to do the very best they can to close them,” he summarized.
__75 years ago__
__Aug. 5, 1949__
• Poplar Bluff Hospital’s preparations are, unfortunately, paying off. The city’s first case of polio was reported this morning: 6-year-old Sherry Gowen, whose symptoms included fever, a swollen throat and paralysis. She is the first patient of the hospital’s polio isolation ward. She’s the fifth case in Butler County this year.
Staff created the ward as polio cases spread across Southeast Missouri and larger hospitals reached capacity.
__50 years ago__
__Aug. 5, 1974__
• Primary elections will be held tomorrow. Southeast Missouri’s ballots cover two contested races in Butler County, five in Stoddard County, and a Carter County measure for an ambulance service levy.