About
June 2020 marked the centennial anniversary of what is colloquially known as the Evansville, Indiana "booze boat" or "whiskey ring" trial. Seventy-eight defendants were charged, including Chief of Police Edgar Schmitt, as well as numerous police officers, officials, and others.
This site is intended as a digital repository of the source documents used in the book Wide Open Evansville. Its goal is to promote an understanding of Evansville's 1920 whiskey ring conspiracy and is for research purposes. These documents contain numerous misspellings of names and locations. This is an ongoing project of identifying and documenting them. You can help this project by adding context or information in the form of comments. WARNING: This collection contains some offensive language that has not yet been redacted. If you identify such a language or have any other information to contribute, please leave a comment on the relevant document or email me.