Isador "Izzy" Einstein

Today we are doing something different. Today I want to talk about Isador “Izzy” Einstein. If you haven't heard of him, don't worry, most people haven't.

Izzy worked as a prohibition agent mostly in New York between 1920 and 1925. If you're getting an image of Kevin Costner as Elliot Ness in your head, you are so wrong.

Izzy stood 5'5 (165 cm) tall and weighed 225 lbs (102 kg). Not exactly the dashing type, he waddled when he walked. Before working as an prohibition agent, Izzy wasn't a lawman, he worked at the post office. He never carried a gun but nevertheless became the No. 1 agent in the fight against illegal alcohol.

How? Well first off, he spoke (apart from English) German, Polish, Hungarian, Yiddish and some Italian. He also has an incredible talent for disguise. When he went out to hunt speakeasies he dressed up as amongst other things: a German pickle packer, a Polish count, a Hungarian violinist, a Yiddish gravedigger, a French maitre d', an Italian fruit seller, a Russian fisherman etc. Add to this his American disguises: cigar seller, football player, grocer, lawyer, librarian... The list goes on, but you get the idea, I'm sure.

The bartenders at the various illegal speakeasies had pictures of him but that didn't help. They all got arrested and every time he slapped the cuffs on them he said “There's sad news here. You're under arrest.”

At one point a suspicious bartender claimed that “You're that agent, Epstein.” Izzy said “You mean Einstein?”. The bartender insisted on Epstein and Izzy bet him a drink. When the drink was poured, he simply said “There's sad news here.”

Izzy was also famous for the speed with which he could find illegal alcohol in any given city. In Chicago and St. Louis it took him 21 minutes, 17 minutes in Atlanta, merely 11 in Pittsburgh, but the record was in New Orleans: 35 seconds. Izzy got in a taxi and asked the driver where he could slake his thirst. The driver turned around and handed him a bottle. “There's sad news here. You're under arrest.”

He was offered transfer to Chicago, but declined preferring to stay in New York, mostly so he wouldn't come up against Al Capone.

The papers called him the Incomparable Izzy, Honest Izzy and America's Premier Hooch Hound. In his career, he arrested 4932 persons before retiring from law enforcement in 1930 to sell insurance for the New York Life Insurance Co.

When interviewed about his life after prohibition he said “Now that I'm no longer a sleuth, I make more money and get more sleep.”

That's that. Join me again next time and until then, have yourself a great week!