I’ve created a YouTube video about this case that you can watch HERE.
I’ve written about William Beaton, my great-grandfather, many times. Over the years, he’s become my most challenging ancestor.. (well, there are a few others). When I started researching him, he was one of the last great grandparents I dealt with. If you don’t count my French-Canadian mystery great-grandfather (he’s still a work in progress).
I’ve gotten stuck for quite a while on William. Through my research, I realized that William was adopted. That discovery led to the dissection of my DNA matches to determine his parents’ identity. I call this The Beaton Batten Mystery. But today, I’m not going to write about that; I’m writing about what I found at Newspapers.com, specifically Publishers Extra.
Watch my video on YouTube. You’ll learn that my Auntie June used to say William Beaton was a bootlegger. I’d never found anything about that. That was until Newspapers.com started offering The Edmonton Journal through their Publisher’s Extra subscription.
Then, I found the newspaper article on January 22, 1947. It stated that William Beaton had been fined $300 for bootlegging. He had until February 12th to pay the fine or serve 3 months in jail. $300 in today’s terms is $4,632.74. That’s a lot.
Edmonton Journal Wed, Jan 22, 1947 ·Page 9
After I found the article, I found additional documents in the City of Edmonton Archives. There was correspondence between my great grandfather’s lawyer and the then Mayor of Edmonton, Harry Ainley. There was more information as well. The correspondence included documents between the lawyer, The Mayor, The Chief of Police, and the Provincial Deputy Attorney General.
The lawyer’s letter describes what happened according to what my great-grandfather had told him. Technically, he had sold the case of beer. However, he might have thought he was helping one of his son’s friends out. He would only receive $3, which appears to be the beer cost.
At the end of all the documents, the fine was suggested to be reduced to $150. It appeared that William Beaton couldn’t pay the $300 fine. Consequently, he would then have to serve the 3 months in jail.
To date, I’ve not found any document or newspaper articles tell me if he paid the reduced fine or went to jail.
So what do you think? Do you believe that William was entrapped? Does he sound like a bootlegger? If you think so, what about his fine and/or jail term? Excessive..? I’d love to see your comments below.
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This is a fascinating story. I wonder if bootlegging charges were common then, given that liquor sales were only done through the provincial government and the drinking age was 21? I want to say those charges would never stick today, but if it’s a slow news day, who knows?!
I was wondering that myself. If someone came and asked me for beer and told me they would pay me the cost of the beer. Is that still technically “bootlegging” given there are places to purchase alcohol. I don’t know the who story because it says in the article and letter that there were complaints from neighbors. So sounds like parties were a common occurrence.
I think there is more to the story. Why did his son’s friend need help selling beer? Was this homemade beer or a beer not sold locally? I do think the fine seems excessive. However, did he have previous run-ins with the law. So many questions.
I could only find out previous run in with the law… that being not sending his children to school. I think the lawyer stated that the “undercover” policeman said he was a friend of one of his son’s friends and if he would sell him beer. Of course the lawyer would perhaps gloss it over or he was just telling the facts.
I think he came up with the money… 😁😁
I’m thinking maybe his family might have helped him out.