The Whiskey War.
Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Jan. 28, 1876
A. C. Hesing yesterday appeared in federal court. Three accusations were made against him. The first and principal one is against J. Rehm, A. C. Hesing, and J. F. Hoyt and covers not less than forty pages. Stripped of its legal terminology, the accusation can be summarized as follows: That on February 2, 1873, Jacob Rehm, A. C. Hesing and J. F. Hoyt with G. Miller, H. Fredericks and many others entered into a conspiracy to place 1,000,000 gallons of untaxed brandy on the market. That between January 1 and February 7, 1873, 110,000 of these gallons actually appeared on the market.
2The second accusation stipulates that A. C. Hesing and other persons had conspired on February 2, 1874 to cheat the Federal Government out of a seventy cents tax on a million gallons of brandy to be made in the distilleries of Lake Shore in Chicago and of Union Copper in Calumet.
The third accusation states that on June 1, 1874, A. C. Hesing, Miller, and Fredericks conspired to put 100,000 gallons of untaxed whiskey from Lake Shore distillery on the market.
For the first indictment against Rehm, Hesing, and Hoyt, the federal prosecuting attorney requested from each one of the accused $50,000 bond; for the second indictment against Hesing alone $50,000 bond; 3no new sentence for the third indictment against Hesing and Neuhaus, $10,000 bond.
The total bond of A. C. Hesing thus ran up to $110,000. Upon the request of the attorney for the defense, Judge Blodgett put the bond for A. C. Hesing at $30,000, for Rehm at $30,000, and for Hoyt at $20,000. Tuesday was then chosen as the day on which the accused would have to plead guilty or not guilty to the indictment. J.Rehm put up bond through Julius Jonas and A. Loeb, A. C. Hesing through H. Raster, C. F. Pietsch, and Washington Hesing.
Needless to say, the indictments against A. C. Hesing and J. Rehm were the talk of the city yesterday.
