George Remus, who was born in Germany in 1878, grew up in Chicago. His father was an alcoholic, so the family relied on Remus and he quit school at 14 and started working at a pharmacy. He ended up owning several pharmacies and was well respected. After studying law, he supported labor rights and immigrant causes in addition to criminal cases; he was also very much against the death penalty.
Source: (Wikipedia/colorized).
As a lawyer, his behavior in court turned some of the cases into high drama, becoming a favorite of newspapers and earning the nickname “Crying Remus.” In 1915, when he met Augusta Imogene Holmes, he was married and so was she, and they started to have an affair. Once the affair became public, they divorced their spouses and married in 1920.
Prohibition Gave Him An Opportunity
With the start of Prohibition, Remus’ clients included bootleggers. With his training as a lawyer and as a pharmacist, he figured out how to make money in the trade. He saw that he was able to buy alcohol legally, “steal” it from himself, and resell it for a considerable profit. He relocated to Cincinnati so that he could be closer to the location of the nation’s whiskey distilleries which held the remains of the pre-Prohibition whiskey. He then bought up the local distilleries and became a silent owner in several drug companies to buy the whiskey so he could move the barrels legally. He assembled a gang to rob his shipments and get the alcohol on the black market. Unlike many other bootleggers, he did not distill his liquor, so his product was of better quality. He, unlike his clientele, claimed he never drank.
He Was Generous With His Money
His Cincinnati mansion. Source: (Pinterest/colorized).
He and Imogene set up an extremely profitable business with the two of them providing a third of the nation’s alcohol at the peak of their business. She helped him to hide his income using variations on her name and he also protected his business by bribing local officials.
Remus was a bit of a character, and he referred to himself in the third person. He developed a reputation, not as a criminal but rather as a folk hero, as he employed many locals and defied the law. He was also quite generous with his money; in 1921, he threw a New Years’ Eve party at his mansion, gave each guest a $1,000 bill, gave the men stick pens and gold watches, and gave each woman a brand new Pontiac.
His Wife Betrayed Him
His wife, Imogene. Source: (Pinterest/colorized).
However, the Assistant Attorney General, Mabel Walker Willenbrandt, managed to catch him. Willenbrandt had enlisted Franklin Dodge to try to gather information that would lead to further complications. He was sentenced in 1922 to two years in federal prison in Atlanta and started serving his term in 1924. Once was in jail, he asked his wife to get to know Dodge, figuring he might be able to use the situation to get out of jail. He also hinted that he would testify against other bootleggers. His plan headed in an unexpected direction as he heard rumors that Imogene was cheating on him with Dodge. Unfortunately for Remus, he had granted Imogene power of attorney, and she used it to raid his bank accounts and safe deposit banks and to sell off his whiskey certificates. Imogene even tried to get him deported. Willenbrandt found out about Dodge’s behavior and forced him to resign.
Imogene Took Everything He Had
In 1925, just before his release from Atlanta, Imogene served him with divorce papers. He still had time to serve back in Ohio. He got out in the spring of 1927, and Imogene and Dodge had gutted his mansion and sold off everything, leaving Remus with nothing.
Remus retaliated by talking to the papers about Imogene’s behavior, tearing her down, and calling her terms like “degenerated clay.” He also attacked Dodge, calling him “Imogene’s pimp” and a human parasite.
The Murder And The Trial
Source: (Pinterest/colorized).
On the day the divorce was to be finalized, Remus went to Imogene’s hotel in Cincinnati, where he waited with a driver. As she left, he had the driver follow them and a car chase ensued into Eden Park. There, Remus shot Imogene in the stomach. She died a short time later and Remus turned himself in.
After he was in jail, he claimed transitory insanity, telling the reporters that “Remus’ brain exploded.” During the trial, witnesses came forward to attest to Remus being “crazy as a bedbug” when it came to his wife and Dodge. Remus was also able to offer an explanation as to what had made him mad. The jury started to deliberate after being told they could only find Remus guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity. After 19 minutes, they returned and found him not guilty by reason of insanity. As one juror later stated, “we felt that Remus had been greatly wronged, that he had suffered almost beyond human endurance.” Remus spent six months institutionalized, and after he was released, he spent another three years in prison on an unrelated charge. Once he was released, he spent the last 25 years of his life trying to locate what Imogene had taken from him. He died from a cerebral hemorrhage in a boarding house at the age of 77.
