Joseph Kennedy Sr. was a Bootlegger
Joseph Kennedy Sr. made himself a very wealthy man during his lifetime, through a variety of efforts, but the often repeated canard – repeated to the point it is accepted as gospel – that he was a bootlegger during Prohibition has no evidence to support it.
Kennedy made his money in real estate, once owning the Chicago Merchandise Mart, at the time the largest building in the world. He invested in motion pictures, reaping large profits and several mistresses for his efforts. He participated in stock speculation, earning a reputation as a savvy inside investor in the days when some deals now illegal were considered aboveboard.
When Prohibition was apparently nearing its end as it became obvious that FDR would win the presidency, Kennedy used his inside connections to purchase liquor importing contracts, with his partner James Roosevelt – FDR’s son. These included permits to import medicinal alcohol.
When FDR and Congress ended Prohibition, Kennedy was in a position to leverage large profits selling liquor to newly legal customers. Just as in the stock market, he used insider information to gain the upper hand on competitors. But it wasn’t bootlegging.
The myth of bootlegging can be traced to the anti-JFK press during the 1960 presidential election. With many sections of the country remaining dry, Joe Kennedy was depicted by a virulent anti-JFK press as a wealthy bootlegger. Later animosity towards organized crime added new accusations from convicted mobsters. But no hard credible evidence that the Kennedy patriarch was a bootlegger has ever surfaced.
You may love to read: The Curious Relationship of Joseph Kennedy, Sr. and Franklin D. Roosevelt.