reefer madness / anti- medical marijuana

CRIMES COMMITTED WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF MEDICAL MARIHUANA

"Opium has all of the good of Dr. Jekyll and all the evil of Mr. Hyde. This drug is entirely the monster Hyde, the harmful effects of which cannot be measured". -H. J. Anslinger, Federal Commissioner of Narcotics.

MARIJUANA CRAZED ADDICT - ONE MAN CRIME WAVE
Name -Robert Faulk Jr.- Date: Jan 1949-- Location: Boston Mass
What the Narc's were claiming
BOSTON, MASS. January 1949. After staging a series of beatings, robberies and shootings, Robert H. Faulk, Jr., shot and seriously injured a police officer who was trying to arrest him, and then shot himself through the head, causing total blindness. Wide publicity given to this case attributed the crimes to marihuana, and the judge commented about the influence of marihuana on Faulk.

1940 Boston - Male Assaulted woman; held up auto co.; beat woman stole $3 and jewelry; beat Miss C. stole $75; negro shot Sgt. Cullinen, fled thru back alley; trapped by Sgt. Cannon, so shot self in head, blinded. This started concerted drive Boston vs. marihuana; several major violators arrested. U.N. Publication*

On January 10, 194-, Robert F. assaulted Mrs. Mildred Y., stole a gun, and held up his former employer. On January 15, he entered a salesman's car while it was stopped in traffic, and when the salesman didn't follow directions, shot him in the stomach. On January 21, he broke into a home, stole some money, and beat a seventy-eight-year old woman severely. On January 22, he entered a cleaning shop, attempted to rape the clerk, and stole $75. An aroused police force tracked him down, and cornered him. F. shot one officer and then seeing that he was trapped, shot himself. Each of these crimes was attributed to marihuana intoxication. The TRAFFIC IN NARCOTICS By H.J. Anslinger 1953

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNT
NASHUA TELEGRAPH
[S- Jan 24, 1949 pg. 1] "2,000 Police Seek Armed Robber"
[S- Jan 26, 1949 pg. 9] "Hero Officer May Lose Leg Thru Operation"
[S- Jan 27, 1949 pg. 10] "Surgeons Hold Out Hope for Shot Policeman"

NAVAL OFFICER MURDERED
Name: Lt. Herman Haase (victim) - Date: July 9, 1948 - Location: Los Angeles, Ca. What the Narc's were claiming
On July 9, 1945, at Los Angeles, Calif., two Navy officers, Lt. Herman Haase and Ensign Norman Bicknese, picked up an automobile ride with two 19-year-old boys, Leslie Howard Moore and Alvin Goldson, the latter a soldier. After the officers entered the automobile, Moore and Goldson attempted to hold them up. Ensign Bicknese resisted and was shot and killed by Goldson. A few weeks later Goldson and Moore were apprehended by Los Angeles police officers and it was ascertained that they were the leaders of a gang of six youths preying on servicemen. In addition to the killing of Ensign Bicknese, another member of the gang admitted the shooting and wounding of Army Lt. Armand Beford in another "hitchhike hold-up" on July 22, 1945. The self-confessed trigger man of the gang, Edward Priestley, Jr., aged 16, of Los Angeles, after his apprehension told the police he shot Lieutenant Beford at the urging of Leslie Howard Moore, when the Army officer started to run away. On Nov. 9, 1945, Leslie Howard Moore appeared before Superior Court Judge Thomas L. Ambrose at Los Angeles, Calif., and was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and 12 counts of robbery. He made the following statement in court: "If I had never used marihuana I wouldn't be in this court today." Asked by the court what effect the, drug had on him, Moore stated it made him, fearless and bold. When Judge Ambrose questioned him as to how often he indulged in use of the drug, Moore said, "Only when with the group I accompanied on the robberies and the murder." The judge replied, "Mr. Moore, I wish this little sermon on the consequences of using marihuana could be broadcast to the youth of the Nation." Judge Ambrose also added that so many users do not realize the danger involved. Alvin Goldson, as a result of the murder of Ensign Bicknese, was tried by a military court martial during August 1945 and was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor. This man also claimed to be a user of marihuana. Traffic 1945*

Los ANGELES, CALIFORNIA. July 1945. Two Navy officers, Lt. Herman Haase and Ensign Norman Bicknese, picked up an automobile ride with two 19-year-old boys, Leslie Howard Moore and Alvin Goldson, the latter a soldier. After the officers entered the automobile, Moore and Goldson attempted to hold them up. Ensign Bicknese resisted and was shot and killed by Goldson. A few weeks later Goldson and Moore were apprehended by police and it was ascertained that they were the leaders of a gang of six youths preying on servicemen. Another member of the gang admitted the shooting of Army Lt. Armand Beford in a "hitch-hike hold-up." When Moore was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and 12 counts of robbery, he made the following statement in court: "If I had never used marihuana I wouldn't be in this court today." Asked by the court what effect the drug had on him, Moore stated it made him fearless and bold. He said he indulged in the drug "when with the group I accompanied on the robberies and the murder." The judge replied, "I wish this little sermon on the consequences of using marihuana could be broadcast to the youth of the Nation." judge Ambrose also added that so many users do not realize the danger involved. Goldson, as a result of the murder of Ensign Bicknese, was tried by a military court martial and was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor. He also claimed to be a marihuana user. Dangerous Drugs (pamphlet) 1950

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS:
LOS ANGLES TIMES
[**]- Ensign Killed by Bandit Pair" - July 10, 1945 page 12 part 2. --- marihuana is not even mentioned.

THE GIRL SLAYERS

Name: Ethel Sohl - Date: 1936-37 - Location: Newark, N. J. What the Narc's were claiming
In New Jersey, a young woman recently confessed that she and a girl companion lad held up and coldly murdered a bus driver. She had been smoking marijuana cigarettes or "reefers," she said and didn't know what she was doing. The CHRISTIAN CENTURY - June 29, 1938

The story of these two New Jersey girls who, under the weird distortion of right and wrong, murdered a man for $2.10, has been re-enacted over and over with but slight variations. Weed of madness 1939

A girl in Newark, N. J., got into an argument with a taxi-driver over his fare of $2.10. She refused to pay it. When he insisted, she took a revolver from her purse and killed him. "It seemed to be the only reasonable thing to do," she told the judge. True Story (Magazine)1948

"It seemed the right thing to do," was the plea of Mrs. Ethel Sohl, one of the two girls mentioned previously as on trial for the holdup and murder of a New Jersey taxi driver for $2.10. Thus, in plaintive plea, she told how, while intoxicated with marihuana, she thought it was the right thing to do, and pleaded not guilty because of a temporary insanity induced by the drug that destroyed her ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Weed of Madness 1939*

"In Newark, N. J., two young girls killed a bus driver for $2.10. In the trial that followed it was found that the girls were Marijuana smokers; they pleaded not guilty to the crime, under the claim of temporary insanity produced by Marijuana. The girl who fired the shot when asked why she did it said: 'It seemed right to me at the time. I guess I was 'high' on reefers." War with the underworld 194?

In almost every big city and in many small towns reefer smoking is considered "smart" by young and foolish patrons of questionable, so-called night clubs. It was in such a place that Ethel Sohl took up the habit together with her girl friend, Genevieve Ownes. One night while riding on a bus in New Jersey, the "Devil's Weed" released all of Ethel's inhibitions. She had needed money but had always been afraid of punishment if she stole any, but on this night marihuana had removed her fear. When the bus had reached a lonely spot, she shot the driver, William Barhorst, and robbed him of exactly $2.10. Ethel and Genevieve drew life sentences. AMERICAN WEEKLY - S.F EXAMINER - July 28, 1940

In several cases where marihuana has apparently played a heavy role in murders or holdups, investigation has shown the statement to be a mechanism of defense attorneys, or newspaper invention. For instance, in the killing of a bus driver by Ethel Sohl and Genevieve Owens, two female bandits in Newark, New Jersey, last year, one of the girls insisted that marihuana had so distorted her sense of right and wrong that she had no true knowledge of what she was doing. A nearer approach to the truth, according to officers, was that Krafft-Ebing elements were involved and that Ethel Sohl, masculine of manner and appearance, dominated her feminine partner, and led the way into crime like a gangster with his moll.-- Designs In Scarlet 1939

Twenty-year-old Ethel (Bunny) Sohl, daughter of a Newark, N. J., policeman, held up, robbed and killed a bus driver, William Barhorst. The holdup netted her $2.10. She and her 17-year-old companion, Genevieve (Chippy) Owens, testified on the witness stand when being tried for the murder before a Newark jury that they were "high' on marihuana when they committed the terrible deed, and blamed their brief crime career on the use of the "loco weed." Their counsel, offering "legal insanity" as the basis of his defense arguments, stated that his clients were not normal, but were crazed addicts of the Mexican weed when they killed Barhorst. "Legal insanity" and "marihuana madness" are evidently synonymous terms. Watch for this "legal insanity" plea. It has been used since it succeeded in saving these two young girl criminals from the death sentence. Robert Devine Assassin of Youth 195?

In Newark two girls, one the daughter of a highly respected policeman, held up and murdered a bus driver for some small change. "It was marihuana," they pleaded. DETECTIVE WORLD - Dec. 1947

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS:
[e Feb. 11,1938 pg. 46] "Mrs. Sohl Admits Hold-up Shooting"
[e Feb 12, 1938 pg. 7] "Parents Feared Mrs. Sohl Insane" - (She describes girl's strange behavior - expert explains effects of marijuana) (James Munch testimony- must read)
[e Feb 13, 1938 pg. 26] "Insanity Stressed in Mrs. Sohl's Case"

MURDER FOR HIRE
Name - Johnny Andrew Butler -- Date: July 1, 1945 -- Location: Texas
What the Narc's were claiming
In Dallas, Tex., on Dec.15, 1940, Johnny Andrew Butler, 21, who had just completed a prison sentence for violations of the Federal marihuana law, and Molly Suger, 38, were charged with the slaying of Mrs. Rose Suger, her mother-in-law. Mrs. Suger was shot to death at her home in Dallas on July 2, 1945, by a person who fired a pistol bullet through a window in her home. Butler is alleged to have admitted firing the shot, and said he was hired by Molly Suger to kill her mother-in-law for about $500. The murder case is pending. In 1941 Butler was convicted for violations of the Federal marihuana law and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. He was again arrested on similar charges in 1943, and sentenced on January 26, 1944, to 6 months and placed on 3 years' probation. Probation was revoked on August 8, 1944, and unconditional sentence of 6 months imposed. Traffic 1945*

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS:
VALLEY MORNING STAR
[S- Oct 31, 1946 pg. 1] "Prosecution Ended In Suger Murder Trail"
PORT ARTHUR NEWS
[S-Oct 30, 1946 pg. 10] "Witness Tells of Plot With Butler"
Mexia Weekly Herald
[S-Dec 21, 1945 pg. 1] "Bond Hearing Set"

HITCHHIKER KILLS MOTORIST
Name - Vince Boss - Date: Aug 2, 1938 -- Location: Texas

NAME	BOSS, VINCE
AGE	22
RACE	WHITE
SEX	MALE
OCCUPATION	?
CRIME	MURDER-ROBBERY
METHOD	ELECTROCUTION
DATE	AUG 2, 1938
COUNTY	CALDWELL

EXECUTION BLOTTER
(State of Texas)

What the Narc's were claiming TEXAS---Young hitchhiker, under the influence of marihuana, murdered a motorist SURVEY GRAPHIC - April 1938

In Texas, a hitchhiker under the influence, of marijuana murdered a motorist FORUM AND CENTURY - Jan 1939

HOUSTON, TEXAS. March 1937. Hitch-hiker under the influence of marihuana murdered motorist. Dangerous Drugs(pamphlet)

On a road in Texas a marijuana-smoking hitchhiker shot and killed the stranger who bad given him a lift. Narcotics: America's Peril by Will Oursler (1952)

In Texas, a hitchhiker whose cigarette was "mooted" made a sudden unprovoked attack on the motorist who had given him a lift. The EAGLE MAGAZINE - Nov 1941

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS:
LOWELL SUN - Lowell, Massachusetts
[S-Aug 2, 1938 pg. 1] "Loco Weed" Smoker Pays With Life"

MARIHUANA SOLD TO CHILDREN IN PLAYGROUND
Location - Finley Ohio -- Date - Aug 20, 1936 What the Narc's were claiming
In a small Ohio town, a few months ago, a fifteen-year-old boy was found wandering the streets, mentally deranged by marijuana. Officers learned that he had obtained the dope at a garage. "Are any other school kids getting cigarettes there?" he was asked. "Sure. I know fifteen or twenty, maybe more. I'm only counting my friends." The garage was raided. Three men were arrested and 18 pounds of marijuana seized. "We'd been figuring on quitting the racket," one of the dopesters told the arresting officer. "These kids had us scared. After we'd gotten 'em on the weed, it looked like easy money for a while. Then they kept wanting more and more of it, and if we didn't have it for 'em, they'd get tough. Along toward the last, we were scared that one of 'em would get high and kill us all. There wasn't any fun in it." "Marijuana, assassin of youth" By H.J Anslinger - July 1937

In a small Ohio town a 15-year-old boy was found mentally deranged after smoking marihuana cigarettes. Three men were arrested who had been peddling cigarettes to more than twenty other youths in the town. HERE'S TO CRIME By Courtney Ryley Cooper

FINLEY OHIO, "This took place in a community playground in Finley, Ohio. The playground supervisors were the men who were selling the stuff. It all developed from the case of this youngster who was evidently going crazy.

1936 After a 15-year-old boy was found mentally deranged from smoking marihuana cigarettes be furnished information that led to the arrest of three men who admitted making sales of the cigarettes. Fifteen to eighteen pounds of marihuana were seized from their garage. At the time officers stated that there were 20 known addicts of high school age, in the Ohio town. The men arrested allegedly told the officer that they had become alarmed several months previous to their arrest when the youths appeared abnormal and began annoying them for heavier supplies. The apprehension of this gang cleared up a serious situation. Traffic 1936*

A fifteen-year-old schoolboy was found mentally deranged in an Ohio city. Investigation proved that marihuana was the cause of his pitiful condition. To police officers he furnished information that led to the arrest of three peddlers. These three beasts (and I apologize to all beasts when I use that word to describe a peddler of "reefers") admitted making sales of marihuana cigarettes to the school children. They used a garage near the high school as a salesroom. From fifteen to eighteen pounds of marihuana was seized from the garage. It was discovered that there were at least twenty addicts in the one high school of that small town. Robert Devine Assassin of Youth 195?

The roll of misery is long and monotonously tragic in the Bureau of Narcotics files on marihuana: A fifteen-year-old boy, found mentally deranged from smoking "reefers," accidentally discloses a gang supplying twenty known addicts of high-school age; Cosmopolitan - May 1938

In Ohio, the police picked up a high school boy who was out of his mind. After treatment he regained his sanity and provided information that led to the arrest of three garagemen who had been selling the smokes. They admitted to the cops that they were glad to be arrested as their kid customers had formed a gang and promised to kill them unless more cigarettes were supplied regularly. TRUE STORY (Magazine) - Dec 1948

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS:
Cincinnati Enquirer== OHIO
[Mar 1, 1937 pg. 4] In one town of the state, according to the International Narcotic Education Association, the finding of a fifteen-year-old boy mentally deranged from smoking marijuana led to the discovery that 20 boys and girls of high school age were addicts.
TOLEDO BLADE == OHIO
[Aug. 20, 1936 pg. 28] - "Lawrence Sands, George Hilkert and brother Carl arrested for selling marijuana cigarettes to children, Findlay"
[Aug. 20, 1936 pg 28] Men Accused of Selling Doped Cigarets to Children -- Findlay Police Chief Says He Has Names of 15 Boys and Girls Who Are Addicts; Trio of WPA Employees Arrested.:
AKRON BEACON JOURNAL
[ Aug. 20, 1936 pg. 21] - "Lawrence Sands, George and Carl Hilkert arrested for selling Mexican narcotic weed"
[See Reefer Madness Newspaper Index pamphlet for more references]

BURGLARIES
Name - Philip Sorahan -- Date: Dec. 15, 1933+ - Location: San Jose Ca.
NOT A FEDERAL REEFER MADNESS CASE
What the Narc's were claiming
From Sacramento, California, comes the story of a 20-year-old-girt mother who sobbed out to police a tragic story of how her husband, crazed with narcotics, forced her to help him in a career of crime. The girl, a former nurse, is Mrs. Ruth Sorahan, an attractive wisp of a blonde, who was arrested as she stepped from a train in Sacramento last month. Her husband is Philip Sorahan under arrest in San Jose for a series of burglaries which, according to Mrs. Sorahan, encompassed the entire San Francisco Bay region. The girl sobbed: "Philip was a good husband until he started to use marihuana. We were happily married, and both looked forward eagerly to the birth of our first child. -- "Then some one got him smoking marihuana. Over night he changed. From then on he seemed like a stranger. He lost his job, and when our savings ran out, he started to steal to get more money to buy the dope." -- Her story, punctuated by wracking sobs, told how Philip was alternately hysterically gay and inhumanly cruel. She continued: "He would beat me until I fainted from pain. He threatened to kill me if I didn't help him dispose of the things he stole. In fear of my life, I would take them to a pawn shop. Philip would go into insane rages when I failed to get what he thought was a good price for the things." --SAN FRANCISCO POLICE AND PEACE OFFICER' JOURNAL (of the State of California) - May 1934 pg. 29 - MARIHUANA AND CRIME

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS:
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
[** Dec. 15, 1933] "Addict Burglar's Wife, Aid, Set Free
[** Jan. 13, 1934] "Brothers Sentenced On Burglary Charge"
[** Mar. 15, 1938] "Suspect Is Arrested for Burglary"
[** Mar. 18, 1938] Napa Suspect Faces More Crime Probes"
[** Mar. 19, 1938] "Felon Escapes From Napa Jail"
[** Mar. 22, 1938] "Napa jail Escape Caught"
[** Mar. 29, 1938] "Burglar Suspect To Face Sentence"
[** Apr. 1, 1938] "Jail breaker Given Life"
[** Mar. 21, 1938 - "Jail Escape Spurs Drive For Building"
[Note - Not much is known about this guy, but boy was he a total looser! ]

MEXICAN GROWING MARIHUANA
Name: Mexican Pete - Date: Nov 24, 1937 -- Location: West Virginia
What the Narc's were claiming
EVERETTVILLE, W. VA. - 1937 - Acting on information that Pete Lopez, alias Mexican Pete, was growing and selling marihuana in Everettville, W. Va., narcotic officers assisted by local officers made four purchases totaling 7 ounces 309 grains of marihuana from him and from a colored woman, Lucy Vaughn, then arrested Lopez and upon searching his house found and seized 15 pounds 8 ounces 120 grains of marihuana. It was found that he was growing the marihuana in a corn field near his cabin and 345 stalks, bare of leaves and seeds, were cut and burned. - Lopez, 37 years old, claimed to have smoked marihuana since he was about 10 years old. Investigation disclosed that he was engaged in illicit traffic in marihuana on a large scale solely for monetary gain. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 10 years in a Federal, prison. Lucy Vaughn was sentenced to 1 year in a county jail.Traffic 1937*

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS:
MONESSEN DAILY INDEPENDENT - Monessen, Pennsylvania
[S-Nov. 24, 1937 pg. 1] "Raised Marihuana" (Mexican Pete)

LARGE AMOUNT OF MEDICAL MARIHUANA WAS BEING GROWN

Name: Herman S. Jernigan -- Date: April 28, 1936 -- Location: Blue Mountain, Miss
What the Narc's were claiming
Blue Mountain.--During April 1936, on a farm 3 miles east of Blue Mountain, Miss., evidently used as a supply base for the marihuana traffic in a number of neighboring States in addition to Mississippi, Federal narcotic agents and State officers destroyed one of the biggest sources of supply in the South. Herman S. Jernigan, owner of the farm, was raising marihuana on a large scale and giving it the same careful attention that a wholesale farmer would give to the raising of cotton for market delivery. The raiding party confiscated 3,000 pounds of the -rowing marihuana, 300 pounds of seed, and I,000 pounds of dried marihuana, the latter being contained in 10 large corrugated boxes which were concealed under hay in a barn. The area under cultivation was about 5 acres. Traffic 1936*

Marihuana having a value of $40,000 if sold as a filler for cigarettes was seized in Blue Mountain, Miss. The weed, when taken, was found parked in cardboard cartons ready for shipment to the makers of these illicit Cigarettes. The confiscated weed found at Blue Mountain weighed nearly one ton. At right is shown a close-up of the marihuana plant. --- New Orleans appeared to be the chief and most profitable market. Eleven persons arrested there for unlawful marihuana purchases acknowledged that their supplies had originated at- this farm. It was reported that school children were sold marihuana cigarettes from the same source. This was the first large seizure after enactment of the Mississippi uniform narcotic drug law on March 16, 1936. Jernigan was arrested and charged under this law and later released under a $1,500 bond. His queer actions were partly responsible for the raid on his farm. He said he had become addicted to marihuana 8 years ago. A brother about 14 years of age is also an addict DON'T BE A MUGGLEHEAD-Oct 11, 1936*

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS:
RENO EVENING GAZETTE - Reno, Nevada
[S-April 28, 1936 pg. 16] "$100,000 Worth in One Dope Haul"
[See Reefer Madness Newspaper Index pamphlet for more references]

WOMEN STABBED -- CASTRATION

Name: Alvin Arnesen/Georgia Castenada (Victim) - Date: Nov. 27, 1944 - Location: Los Angeles What the Narc's were claiming
1944 - M 39 Murdered Ga. Castenada, 29; mutilated her hips and head with razor blades, then castrated self; had been smoking marihuana for an hour before attack. U.N. Publication*

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS:
Reno Evening Gazette
[S-Nov 27, 1944 pg. 2] "Man Confesses Slaying Woman"
CURRENT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE
[Winter 1945 pg. 12 ] "Torture Death of the Reefer Queen"

MARIJUANA IN A TRUNK

Name: Vincent Pellicer- Date: Nov 1940 - Location: New Jersey
What the Narc's were claiming
Not long ago the American Express office in New York auctioned a trunk that had remained unclaimed for over a year. The purchaser found it full of marijuana. -- He reported his find to the Federal agents and they started on a trail that led finally to a hemp farm in southern Missouri where a married couple were shipping box after box of dried seeds to the lucrative New York market. Their records revealed shipments of enough marijuana to make 2,000,000 cigarettes. At the current price of fifty cents to a dollar per stick they were getting rich. TRUE STORY (Magazine) Dec. 1948

COMIC BOOKS
Wanted Comics #14 - July 1948 - A short (2 page) story about Vincent Pellicer, a marihuana peddler. The story is about a trunk bought at an action that had medical marihuana in it. Soon the DEA gets into the act. The story ends with a ---"If you know his location, notify Commissioner H.H. Anslinger, Bureau of Narcotics."
LEADING DETECTIVE MAGAZINE
[May 1947 pg. 22] "Cracking the Reefer Racket" By David Carver

GIRL EXPOSES MARIHUANA DOPE RACKET
Name:Name - -- Date: Nov. 1935- Location: San Francisco
What the Narc's were claiming
There were revelations in San Francisco that an owner of a taxicab service was delivering marihuana to hotel parties. The weed was purchased by a young girl on the streets from peddlers who worked the sidewalks, hotels and beer taverns.Marihuana, the New Dangerous Drug 1937

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS:
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
[e-Nov. 18, 1935 pg. 1] "Police Close in on Dope Traffic Here" (Girl's story reveals big marijuana trade among children of city)
[e-Nov. 19, 1935 pg. 1] "Girl Guarded after threat by Dope Ring" (Police, protecting S.F. Informer, push drive on Marijuana Gang)
[e-Nov. 20, 1935 pg. 1] "Mother, girl dope victim are reunited"

* See F.A.Q. for details about publications