Bureau of Prohibition
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bureau of Prohibition (or Prohibition Unit) was the federal law enforcement agency formed to enforce the National Prohibition Act of 1919, commonly known as the Volstead Act, which backed up the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution regarding the prohibition of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. When it was first established in 1920, it was a unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (or Internal Revenue Service as it is known today). In 1927, it became an independent entity within the Department of the Treasury, changing its name from the Prohibition Unit to the Bureau of Prohibition.
Its investigators were called "Prohibition Agents," or more colloquially "prohis." Its most famous agent was Eliot Ness. Some of the other famous lawmen who carried a "Prohi's" badge at one time of another in their career include former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, full-blooded Cherokee Tom Threepersons, and Chicagoan Pat Roche. The two-agent team of Isidor "Izzy" Einstein and Moe Smith, working out of the NYC office, compiled the best arrest record in the history of the agency.
In 1928 the Prohibition Bureau was transferred from the Treasury Department to the Department of Justice. Early in 1933, as part of the FDR-sponsored "Omnibus Crime Bill," the Prohibition Bureau was briefly absorbed into the FBI, or "Division of Investigation" as the agency was then called. At this point it became the "Alcohol Beverage Unit." Though part of the FBI on paper, J. Edgar Hoover, who wanted to avoid liquor enforcement and the taint of corruption that was attached to it, continued to operate it as a separate, autonomous agency in practice.
Following the repeal of Prohibition in December 1933, the Alcohol Beverage Unit was removed from the the FBI and the Justice Department, and returned to Treasury, where, coming full circle, it became the Alcohol Tax Unit of the IRS, ultimately evolving into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF).
