10 Places in British Columbia the Mob Used to Control

🥃 For about forty years, a lot of the money in British Columbia came from somewhere else. Most people picture one mob boss running the province during Prohibition. The record points to something messier: a network of exporters, gamblers, bootleggers and the officers they paid. This countdown goes from Fernie's "Bottle King" to the Maple Hotel on East Hastings: the coves of Haro Strait, Fan Tan Alley in Victoria, the Malahat schooner, the Reifel family's distillery, Coal Harbour's speedboats, Hogan's Alley, the "King of the Gamblers" in Chinatown and the police chief who never took the stand at his own corruption inquiry. 🚤 🕒 CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:40 Fernie and Haro Strait 4:10 Fan Tan Alley and Schnarr 7:44 Reifels and Coal Harbour 11:32 Hogan's Alley bootleggers 12:58 Chinatown's King of Gamblers 15:02 Chief Mulligan bribery inquiry 16:43 Maple Hotel and takeaways 🔎 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN ⚓ Why rum running was not a crime as long as the boat stayed on the Canadian side 🍾 How the Malahat carried more contraband liquor than any other ship on the coast 🎲 Who ran the gambling in Vancouver's Chinatown 👮 What the 1928 and 1955 police inquiries did and did not prove 🏨 The hotel with a brothel on its fourth floor and a gambling room in its basement ⚠️ Where the evidence is thin: few records, family stories and contested trials 🔔 Subscribe to British Columbia Backstory for the side of BC that never makes the postcard. #BritishColumbia #Vancouver #Prohibition