Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith - Careers

Careers

After boxing, Smith had a cigar store. Einstein was working as a postal clerk. The ratification in 1919 of the amendment to establish Prohibition required federal and local police forces to add staffing. With no background in law enforcement, but speaking several languages (Yiddish, Hungarian, German, Polish, with a little Russian, French, Spanish and Italian) in addition to English, Izzy Einstein signed up as Prohibition Agent No. 1. In a short time, he invited his friend Moe Smith to join him as a partner. (They were both Masons, and may have met in the fraternal group. Though both were personally indifferent to temperance, they felt the law must be upheld, no matter how hard it was to enforce.)

Izzy and Moe were both rather round and apparently disarmed many of their quarry. They claimed to have used more than 100 disguises and never been detected. Izzy developed what he called the "Einstein Theory of Rum Snooping" (referring to the theory of relativity by the physicist Albert Einstein.) They frequently made arrests while unarmed.

As Prohibition Bureau agents, they were the most famous and successful, known nationally for making thousands of arrests and gaining a high rate of convictions. They made 4,932 arrests, and achieved a 95% conviction rate. They confiscated 5 million gallons of liquor, worth an estimated $15 million. As a result of their work, thousands of bartenders, bootleggers and speakeasy owners were sentenced to jail. They used disguises to make their way into illegal bars, appearing as "streetcar conductor, gravedigger, fisherman, iceman, opera singer" and as the state of Kentucky delegates to the Democratic National Convention of 1924 held in New York, where they found only soda being served. They once went to a bar and identified themselves as Prohibition agents. The bouncer, thinking they were joking, simply laughed and let them in, where they proceeded to arrest him and everyone inside.

Izzy and Moe used the press to build support:

"They frequently scheduled their raids to suit the convenience of the reporters and the newspaper photographers, and soon learned that there was more room in the papers on Monday mornings than on any other day of the week. One Sunday, accompanied by a swarm of eager reporters, they established a record by making seventy-one raids in a little more than twelve hours."

In November 1925, the partners were among 38 men laid off from the New York office after a reorganization plan announced by General Lincoln C. Andrews of the national bureau. He and other officials in Washington appeared to resent the favorable coverage that Izzy and Moe received, who gained far more attention than higher officials. He was reported as disapproving Prohibition agents who gained publicity, and Izzy and Moe's exploits had been well covered by the press, both tabloids and major papers such as the New York Times; their successes were sensational. As Time magazine reported at the time,

"The public which looked upon them with as much delight as ever it looked on Robin Hood was denied their adventures —adventures as thrilling as those of Sir Launcelot, as those of Richard Cœur de Lion, as those of Don Quixote de la Mancha."