MOORHEAD — You don’t must be a fan of gangster films and even an professional in Nineteen Thirties true crime to know gangsters had a sure look.
You would possibly even get a little bit shudder down your backbone whenever you have a look at black-and-white pictures of Fortunate Luciano’s dead-eyed, powerful man stare…
Charles “Fortunate” Luciano, born Salvatore Lucania in 1897 in Sicily, most likely did extra to create the trendy American Mafia and the nationwide prison syndicate than every other single man, in response to The Mob Museum. Photograph courtesy of New York Metropolis Municipal Archives / Particular to The Vault
or Meyer Lansky’s quiet however “don’t mess me with me “smirk…
Meyer Lansky, born Maier Suchowlansky or Suchowljanksy, was some of the vital figures within the growth of organized crime in New York, nationwide and worldwide within the twentieth century, in response to The Mob Museum. Photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress / Particular to The Vault
and Al Capone, along with his ever-present fedora and pinstriped Italian fits is actually the gold customary of gangster model.
Alphonse Capone could be the most celebrated, or notorious, mobster in American historical past. He was recognized virtually as a lot for his model as his crimes. Photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress / Particular to The Vault
Not so for Moorhead, Minn.’s most well-known gangster, Jake Schumacher.
Let’s put it this fashion: He regarded extra just like the teller of the financial institution being robbed than the mastermind of the holdup.
Wire-rimmed glasses and a milquetoast face, he regarded like he might have pale into any crowd within the Midwest — a person who regarded much less prone to go away the scene of against the law in a blaze of bullets than he could be to go away with, “Yah, let me simply slip previous yah there. Gotta get residence to the Mrs. for supper.”
Jake Schumacher may not look the half, however he was the hardest gangster in Moorhead. Photograph courtesy of Minnesota State Historic Society / Particular to The Vault
However apparently, you’ll be able to’t decide a e-book by its cowl. Make no mistake about it, Jake Schumacher dominated the city — the kingpin of an unlawful alcohol empire and head of the hardest gang on the town.
Nevertheless, what unfolded almost 90 years in the past, on Dec. 29, 1931, in Sabin, Minn. — some of the weird financial institution robberies within the area’s historical past — spelled the top for the person referred to as “Moorhead’s Beer Baron” and nonetheless has historians scratching their heads.
Who was Jake Schumacher?
Based on Markus Krueger with the Historic and Cultural Society of Clay County, Schumacher was born in 1893, the oldest of six sons and three daughters to Charlie and Anna Schumacher. Jake discovered the meat reducing enterprise from his Bavarian-born father and left residence at 18 to work in meat reducing in Winnipeg, Kansas and St. Paul. Alongside the way in which, he married Nina Nelson.
However by 1920, the Schumacher household’s life took a dramatic flip. With the passage of the 18th Modification, Prohibition went into impact. In fact that didn’t cease some individuals from consuming, even when they needed to break the legislation to do it. Charlie put two and two collectively and found out he might make more cash promoting beer than beef.
The household, together with son Jake, began an unlawful alcohol distribution enterprise in Moorhead, working with the farmers who, after falling on exhausting occasions, selected to make moonshine as a substitute of or along with harvesting crops. Jake was a “rum runner,” bringing the booze, principally whiskey and beer, into speakeasies on the town.
The Schumacher’s home at 521 Ninth St. N. was not solely a spot to hang around and drink — it additionally housed a warehouse to carry the booze.
“The Schumachers weren’t the one rum-runners within the space (removed from it!) however they have been vital, infamous, and colourful.”
– Markus Krueger/Clay County Historic Society.
“The Schumachers weren’t the one rum-runners within the space (removed from it!) however they have been vital, infamous and colourful,” Krueger stated.
In actual fact, in response to Krueger, Jake’s sister Babe had her automotive outfitted with hidden tanks within the wheel wells to move liquor bottles.
Whereas Jake may need lacked the model of different extra well-known gangsters, he was their equal in spending some huge cash. Krueger says in 1930, Schumacher was on the high of his sport.
“He purchased a brand-new Stutz sedan and a $1,750 diamond ring for his spouse Nina. His furnishings, he boasted later to a jail psychiatrist, was value $8,000 (about $125,000 in as we speak’s cash), and he had simply as a lot spending cash at residence,” Krueger stated.
However Schumacher’s fortune was about to vary and his private {and professional} lives come crashing down.
Jake’s ‘no good, very dangerous’ yr
In January 1931, he was arrested for his involvement in what Prohibition brokers referred to as “the largest U.S.–Canadian liquor smuggling conspiracy uncovered within the northwest in years,” in response to the Moorhead Each day Information.
“As his success grew, so did his crimes. He was at all times a nervous fellow, and as his crimes elevated he grew to become paranoid, violent and mentally unhinged,” Krueger stated.
“As his success grew, so did his crimes. He was at all times a nervous fellow, and as his crimes elevated he grew to become paranoid, violent, and mentally unhinged.”
– Markus Krueger/Clay County Historic Society.
It didn’t assist when, in March, his mom died and he discovered that his spouse was having an affair with a former Moorhead police officer. Schumacher attacked the person, jamming a sawed-off shotgun into his ribs, earlier than bystanders wrestled the gun out of his palms.
Then later within the yr, a person Jake had befriended in jail, Walter McGavin, moved to Moorhead to take Jake up on his supply of a job as soon as he acquired out of jail. However Krueger says it seems the one job McGavin wished was Jake’s.
“All we all know is that Walter McGavin took over Jake Schumacher’s home on Dec. 1 of 1931. McGavin took Jake’s home keys and gave Jake a key to a one room. Jake’s gang changed into ‘Mac’s Gang,'” Krueger stated.
Jake rebounds and cooks up a plan
To not be deterred after McGavin stole his gang, Jake determined to type a brand new one with some colourful characters (with equally colourful nicknames) from the prison neighborhood. Jake’s new gang included: Shoeshiner Sam Abes (aka “Black Sam,” aka “the Fargo Possum”); Arkansas Bob, a man in his late 20s; 21-year-old Zach Lemon from Ponsford, Minn.; Pat McLeary, who Krueger stated “had simply arrived on the town half-frozen by hopping a freight prepare”; and a 48-year-old boilermaker from St. Paul named Ed “St Paul Blackie” Redman.
Suspects within the Sabin financial institution theft within the Moorhead Each day Information on Jan. 7, 1932. Clay County archives
Together with his new gang all set, the plan was put in movement to rob a financial institution in Hawley, Minn. However the boys acquired off to a tough begin, setting off for the Hawley theft at the least three totally different occasions solely to show again residence after getting chilly ft.
Jake was incensed and the ultimate time it occurred, he tracked down gang member McCleary and shot up the automotive he was driving, inflicting McCleary to swerve and hit a snowbank.
“Jake Schumacher leapt from his automotive, ran as much as McLeary, and beat his face bloody with the butt of his revolver whereas calling him a ‘double crosser.’ McLeary went to the hospital,” Krueger stated.
One other gang member, Zach Lemon, stated McCleary’s beating was a transparent message from Jake to the remainder of them: There might be no extra chilly ft.
The Sabin Financial institution is now the Crowbar. Photograph courtesy of Clay County Archives / Particular to The Vault
Robbing Sabin
Jake’s gang put Hawley in its rearview mirror and determined to set its sights on the financial institution in Sabin (now the Crowbar).
Any ideas of retreating have been met with encouragement from their fearless chief.
“Boys, I assume we’re all set. Let’s do the job. We’ve acquired to do the job. You don’t have to fret in regards to the legislation round right here. I’m the legislation,” Schumacher stated.
“Let’s do the job. We’ve acquired to do the job. You don’t have to fret in regards to the legislation round right here. I’m the legislation.”
– Jake Schumacher to his gang the evening earlier than the Sabin financial institution theft.
At about 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 29, Ed Redman, Arkansas Bob and Sam Abes entered the Sabin financial institution. They pressured cashier George Carlson into the vault at gunpoint, stuffed $2,500 in payments, silver and bonds right into a flour sack, and locked Carlson inside.
The bandits then jumped into the automotive being pushed by Zach Lemon and sped a mile south and a mile and a half east to rendezvous with Jake Schumacher. However Jake by no means confirmed up. The lads have been livid. They ditched the automotive to keep away from being discovered and walked all the way in which again to Moorhead. The fury they felt from Jake’s betrayal was most likely the one factor conserving them heat on that chilly December night.
However Krueger stated some within the gang weren’t that stunned. In actual fact, one of many causes they’d chilly ft in regards to the robberies in Hawley was that they felt Jake was going to back-stab them.
Later courtroom paperwork proved they have been proper to be suspicious. Jake had tipped off authorities in Hawley in regards to the anticipated theft. And when he instructed them “I’m the legislation” earlier than they robbed the Sabin financial institution, did he actually imply he was working with police?
What was he pondering?
What was Jake as much as? Did he need his gang to get caught? Possibly. Contemplate what he was doing on the very second his boys have been robbing the financial institution in Sabin.
He was noticed driving round Sabin, in Walter McGavin’s automotive — the identical Walter McGavin who back-stabbed him and took management of his gang. And Jake wasn’t hiding. In actual fact, he wished the automotive to be seen. He honked and waved to Deputy Sheriff John Whaley as he handed him on the highway. When Jake acquired residence, he tipped off legislation enforcement that they’d discover a stolen automotive with liquor in it in Walter McGavin’s storage.
When police arrived to McGavin’s place, that’s simply what they discovered. The stolen automotive that had been noticed earlier in the course of the Sabin theft (the one Schumacher was driving) was stuffed with unlawful liquor. They arrested McGavin’s gang for the liquor offenses and for his or her attainable involvement within the theft. You do not have to be Elliott Ness to understand Jake was making an attempt to border McGavin.
Nevertheless, it didn’t fairly work due to the observant financial institution teller, George Larson. When authorities introduced the suspects in entrance of Larson, he instructed them they weren’t the boys who robbed the financial institution. Nevertheless, ever-helpful gang chief McGavin stepped in and stated he noticed 4 males matching the robbers’ descriptions in Jake’s home the evening earlier than the crime.
Undercover all alongside?
The day after the theft, maybe seeing that his plan to border his rival had been a bust and out of concern that he betrayed his personal gang, Jake went to the Clay County Courthouse asking for cover. He gave authorities the names of his gang members and even went with deputies to arrest them. Some legislation enforcement officers implied that it wasn’t the primary time Schumacher had been “a stool pigeon,” serving to police by delivering his associates.
Markus Krueger stated it’s all very puzzling.
“Solely Jake Schumacher will ever actually know what he was pondering when he deliberate the Sabin financial institution theft. Did he assume he might efficiently blame all of it on McGavin and take again management of the underworld? Was he planning on betraying his robbers from the beginning or did he solely flip them in after the costs didn’t follow McGavin?” Krueger stated.
Tales of the Sabin financial institution theft and subsequent trials crammed the newspapers for months. Fargo Discussion board archives
For his or her components within the theft, Jake’s gang members, acquired between 5 and 40 years in jail, relying upon their cooperation with authorities.
Jake Schumacher was sentenced to life on the Minnesota State Jail in Stillwater the place psychiatrists might try to make sense of his uncommon habits. A yr after his incarceration, Schumacher was discovered to be delusional and paranoid, and he spent the following seven years within the Asylum for the Harmful Insane in St. Peter.
Again residence in 1931, with the imprisonment of many of the gangsters on the town, Moorhead acquired a popularity for trying the opposite manner for any new instances of bootlegging. Maybe it was simply too exhausting to undergo all of it once more. And simply two years later, Prohibition was repealed.
“The Sabin Financial institution Theft dealt a crushing blow to gangland Moorhead –such because it was. Each of Moorhead’s gangs have been in jail, and essentially the most notable prison determine within the county went away with a life sentence.”
– Markus Krueger/Clay County Historic Society.
Jake Schumacher was launched from jail in 1944. His days as Moorhead’s Beer Baron have been over. He couldn’t make a dwelling out of being a bootlegger and he claimed he couldn’t return to being a butcher as a result of “machines took all of the artwork out of meat reducing.”
Cab drivers reported that each time they drove Schumacher previous the police station, he threatened to “blow it up.”
He by no means did.
He died on the age of 55, an embittered bootlegger with a life story that also has individuals speaking.
