# The Washington Daily News, 7 September 1928, page 3: Philadelphia and the alcohol "racket"

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/clippings/clip-washington-daily-news-1928-09-07-p3/

United Press report that Philadelphia's district attorney called the city a chief distributing center for diverted alcohol, with a grand jury that had returned 182 indictments and testimony naming Max Hoff as a buyer of machine guns.

Page 3 of the Washington Daily News, 7 September 1928. The story is headed "Philadelphia Vying With Chicago Now in Alky Racket," with the deck "Prosecutor Says 350,000 Gallons of Alcohol Have Been Diverted From Quaker City," and is credited "By United Press," Philadelphia. It reports that "Philadelphia was advanced today as a rival of Chicago in the alcohol 'racket,'" on the statements of District Attorney John Monaghan.

The report says that before the grand jury the day before, Edward Goldberg "is reported to have testified that he supplied Max 'Boo Boo' Hoff, erstwhile fight promoter and sportsman, with three machine guns and six bullet-proof vests," and that "The grand jury already has returned 182 indictments, most of which are against small operations bootleggers." The Washington Daily News of 10 September gives seven vests for the same testimony.

These are the reporter's account of grand jury testimony and the prosecutor's claims. The grand jury's own record has not been found, and no conviction of Hoff is stated here.

## Sources

- Library of Congress, Chronicling America: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82016181/1928-09-07/ed-1/?sp=3
- Library of Congress OCR text of this page: https://tile.loc.gov/text-services/word-coordinates-service?segment=/service/ndnp/dlc/batch_dlc_fink_ver02/data/sn82016181/00529045992/1928090701/0089.xml&format=alto_xml&full_text=1