A Blind Pig on Parkway

A blind pig was a low-profile, low-end place that sold liquor during Prohibition. This house on Parkway was a blind pig.

225 E. Parkway Ave.

This was the home of Richard and Marie McCombs and their two young boys. The McCombs were doing well when they bought that house in the summer of 1929. Richard sold cars for a living. Marie kept the home and tended to the boys. But the comfortable times didn’t last.

In October 1929, the stock market crashed. Then came the Great Depression. Oshkosh was hit especially hard. Car sales tanked and Richard McCombs had to scuffle to make ends meet. By 1932, they had grown desperate. Running out of options, the McCombs converted their home into a blind pig.

They were late to the illicit booze business. Prohibition was on its way to being repealed. Once liquor was legal again, there'd be no need for blind pigs. But until then...

A moonshine still in a bootleg distillery operating in Bayfield, Wisconsin during Prohibition.

Richard McCombs sourced his booze from an outlaw distillery operating somewhere in northern Wisconsin. He'd bring moonshine back to Oshkosh in barrels and gallon cans and then bottle it in pints that he sold for 50 cents (about $11 in today's money). He wasn't choosy about his clientele. McCombs was known for his willingness to sell booze to minors.

The cops in Oshkosh had tended to look past this kind of thing, as long as the neighbors weren't complaining. But that, too, was changing. On April 7, 1933, low-alcohol beer was legalized in what would be the first step towards the dismantling of Prohibition. Oshkosh taverns began reopening as beer bars. And with that, Chief of Police Arthur Gabbert served notice that he would now begin “A drive against all speakeasies, or establishments where drinks are sold without the proper license.”

Oshkosh Chief of Police Arthur Gabbert.

A week after Gabbert made his announcement, an Oshkosh cop arrested a drunk on Washington Avenue. The guy was stewed to a degree unachievable through the application of the newly legal 3.2% ABV beer. The cops grilled the drunk. He ratted on Richard McCombs. On Monday April 17, Oshkosh police were at McCombs’ door with a search warrant.

Richard McCombs wasn’t home. Marie McCombs told the cops that her husband was away visiting his mother in Appleton. His mother lived nowhere near Appleton. The police had known they wouldn’t find McCombs at home. They knew that he was out of town on another moonshine run.

The cops raided the McCombs’ home and found all the evidence they needed. In the cellar were two barrels and several gallon-sized cans containing moonshine, a clutter of empty barrels and cans, and scores of pint bottles.

Richard McCombs returned to Oshkosh and turned himself in. In court, he pleaded guilty. He told the judge he’d been operating his blind pig for just a short time. That he’d been driven to it by financial need. The judge showed a degree of pity. He fined McCombs $50 (about $1,100 in today’s money) and allowed him to go free.

Six months later McCombs was in jail. He didn’t have enough money to cover his fine, so he was given a plan to pay it off in installments. But McCombs couldn't keep up with the payments. He was arrested and on November 1, began serving a 30-day sentence in the county jail.

While McCombs sat in jail, the dry law was being undone as the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution made its way through the final phase of ratification. Prohibition was finally repealed just days after McCombs was released.

December 5, 1933.