Transporting illegal liquor
Prohibition coincided with the rise of the affordable automobile in the United States, and cars became a valuable tool for the urban bootlegger. Less conspicuous than delivery trucks, the automobile provided opportunities for an enterprising bootlegger to move his product without fear of being detected by prying policemen. All that was needed was a little modification. Hidden compartments were created in trunks, inside doors, and in dashboards. A favorite modification was the removal of the rear seats and the installation of a compartment lined with cloth so that the bottles wouldn’t rattle.
The compartment was then concealed by a false seat cover, which was made to resemble the real seats with which the car was originally equipped. The delivery bootlegger picked up his product at a warehouse and delivered it to his customers without fear of detection. As much as ten cases of liquor could be concealed within the false seat, depending on the make and model of the automobile. Although many other models were used, the Ford Model T was a favored vehicle for several reasons. It was affordable, it was reliable, it offered a fair-sized hiding space, and it was ubiquitous, and thus less noticeable to the authorities.
As the sale of illegal liquor became more organized and syndicates developed, the bootlegger’s jobs became more specialized. The man delivering the booze was not the man selling it, nor the man collecting the money for it, but simply the man transporting it from the supplier. Security dictated the specialization. A bootlegger carrying both liquor and the money for it doubled the potential losses to the organization in the event that an honest policeman disrupted the delivery. Delivery men were valued for their driving skills and knowledge of the local layout, not for their ability to sell to customers or collect from reticent patrons.