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Show FEOEHflSTO " Oil SEIZED STILL PUZZLESPOUGE Whisky Apparatus . . Once Taken by Government Enforcement En-forcement Officer Failed to- Meet With Destruction 1 Curiosity of members of tha anti-vice anti-vice squad of the police department In carefully Inspecting an innocent looking still seised Wednesday nlnt i at 43 North Klghth West stret is causing a aearch of the genenlncy or I this pHrtlcular Instrument of Volstead Violation. I Neatly and conspicuously pasted on i the still was a formal government label, technically known an form 14i ?. , and which, re La. lad that tha anil h4 once ten taken from the prem! of K. Bukawa, J06S Fast Tenth Houth street. The data of this later seizure waa November 4, 121, tha senior being Federal Prohibition Agent Thi-a Schweltser. But the records of Stats Prohibition Prohibi-tion Director Joseph K. Richard show that thla particular still w;s turned over to the 1'nited Htrtie marshal on March 20, 1922, for formal destruction. All of which seams to have consigned con-signed tha a till to the graveyard where many stills have gone before. SCHWEITZER WANTS LABEL. However, today Mr. Schwells was a visitor at the Pel lea department. His mission, tha police say. was to secure the return of tha before mentioned men-tioned government label bearing is name. In the still Itself Mr. Hchweu-ser Hchweu-ser evidenced no Interest. Mr, Bob we User says that hs was only a (Continued on page I.) FEDERALSTAMP (Continued from psge I. casual visitor there and that his attention at-tention wss called to ths tag by Chief Iturbidge. K. Bukawa. tha records show, was a confessed msnufacturer of Illicit whisky. He was first arrested In July, 1921. and four stills and paraphernalia para-phernalia taken. He waa arraigned in the federal court last Iecembr. pleaded not guilty, changed H to guilty and paid a fins of 2oa for tha offense. Meantime his premises were searched again In November by Hchweltxer and two stills and mora apparatus for whisky making seised. The records at the stats prohibition directors offlcs and those of tha I'nited Htates district attorney do not show what became of this case at all. Hut Mr. Richards has a receipt showing show-ing that the stills were turned over to tha marshal for destruction upon an order of the 1'ntted Htatea district court. The United H tales clerk's office, however, does not have any record from the marshal's office that tha order or-der for destruction was fulfilled. OVERSIGHT CLAIMED. "It Is a regrettshle oversight. said Mr. Hchweltser when his attention was celled to the mstter. "Ths prohibition j regulations provide that the prohlbl-i prohlbl-i tion agent a, where seised stills sre held 1 In custody, should destroy them before letting them go out of their possession. The United Htatee marshal Is the only government sales officer. In this case 1 am told that the still waa sold as -junk to Max Florence. How It got back to the point where tha police seised It ! I do not know. My sttentlon wss ! called to It hy Chief Burbldge this morning when the tag bearing my , name and others waa found on the stiii." The United Pistes marshal's office , explain that as a matter of fact the stills never actually were In the possession pos-session of thst office; that they were stored and remained stored In the of-' of-' fice of th state prohibition officers ,On March 14. 1 P?2. notice of Intention : to sell the material as Junk waa duly 'published and the public auction was held on March 20, 192S. I "Max Florence appeared aa th only bidder and paid I cents per pound for jthe material, weighing 100 pounds snd .containing all told some fourteen stills. ' a condenser, some coils and miacel-j miacel-j laneous apparatus. Th property was .turned over actually by the stat dl-' dl-' rector to Florence, who took It awsy. Whereupon th marshal gsv to th ; stat director a formal receipt that he ' had received the property for sale. The marshal's possession of th mi -trial Is only theoretical, so far as th actual operation Is concerned." |