Granny's Speakeasy Finally Busted

Slovakian immigrants Stephen and Mary Mrlak opened the Turf Exchange hotel and bar in Binghamton, New York, two years before Prohibition began. A discovery made recently behind the hotel reveals that, after Stephen's death in 1922, Mary continued peddling illicit booze through a secret passageway.

"Granny always told me if we hadn't sold liquor, we'd have lost the place," said Bob Barcay, 45, from Fort Collins, Colo. Barcay is Mary Mrlak's great-grandson.

The hidden rooms below the parking lot contained wooden kegs, bottles and an elaborate pulley system left to decay since Prohibition was lifted and the rooms were sealed. A team from the Public Archaeology Facility at Binghamton University began an excavation Thursday of the hidden chamber.

"I've been sitting here over the years wondering if anybody would find it," said Norah Barcay, 86, of Colorado Springs, Colo., who is the granddaughter of Mary Mrlak. [Link]

Used Noose Makes News

A granddaughter of Illinois sheriff James Pritchard wants custody of a hangman's noose held by the Franklin County Historic Preservation Society. The noose was used in the 1928 hanging of gangster Charlie Birger, and was lent to the Society by one of Pritchard's daughters. Society president Robert S. Rea wants to make sure that, if the relic leaves his museum, it goes to the right party.

While the woman signed the agreement, her siblings through their descendants could stake a claim to the hangman's noose. The county could also have a valid claim, since the sheriff was on the county payroll and the county undertook the hanging of the Prohibition era bootlegger, arguably the most notorious criminal in Southern Illinois history.

"After the hanging, hangman Phil Hanna, presented the noose and a few feet of rope to Sheriff Pritchard. If he gave it to him in his role as sheriff, the county could have a claim since Pritchard was a county employee," Rea said. [Link]