October 21, 1920: Evidence stolen in police chief’s liquor-smuggling case

On this day in Duluth in 1920, it was discovered that nearly 90 bottles of Canadian whiskey—evidence in the smuggling trial of Duluth Police Chief John Murphy—had been stolen from police headquarters. That summer Murphy had been arrested by federal agents and charged with smuggling whiskey over the Canadian border. Eventually eleven men, including Murphy, would be indicted. Murphy quickly tendered a “temporary” resignation. The trial began on July 19. Two days later it was revealed that evidence in the case had been stolen from a “vault” in the basement of police headquarters. The storage space was actually the alcove in front of the building and under the Superior Street sidewalk. Most buildings in Duluth—and throughout the country—once had this feature. Grates in the sidewalk could be opened to allow freight to be delivered through the sidewalk to a building’s basement. Eighty-six bottles of whiskey were missing from the space; six more were found broken and empty inside the vault. Public Safety Commissioner William Murnian surmised the theft was an elaborate inside job more akin to a fishing trip than a burglary (see image headlined “It Was a Lead Pipe Cinch”). This apparent advance for the defense was quickly overshadowed when A. R. Burns plead guilty. Burns, of Port Arthur, Ontario (today’s Thunder Bay), had been accused of supplying the liquor Murphy and the others allegedly smuggled. Despite this Murphy and the others were acquitted, but Murphy was not reinstated as police chief. Read more about Duluth during Prohibition here.

The Duluth News Tribune published this description and diagram of a theory of how evidence in the whiskey smuggling trial of Duluth Police Chief John Murphy and ten others was stolen from police headquarters. (Image: Zenith City Press)