Shortly after Prohibition took effect in the United States in 1918, Isadore “Izzy” Einstein (1880–1938) was struggling to make ends meet as a postal worker in New York with a wife and four boys. The combination of the 18th Amendment and the eventual rise of bootlegging became his financial ticket. While reading the newspaper in 1919, he noticed an advertisement soliciting individuals to become federal agents for the newly formed Prohibition Unit.
The hiring agent for the Federal Prohibition Bureau’s Southern New York division figured Einstein to be out of his league since he looked nothing like what a federal agent was proposed to look like. He was short, fat, and unattractive.
But Einstein convinced the hiring agent that his appearance was precisely what the new unit needed. He was so unassuming that no one would assume he was an agent, and indeed he was right. He was hired, given a badge, and quickly went on his way convincing bootleggers and bartenders to serve him drinks to which he served them a trip to the clink.
Not only was Einstein armed with his disarming looks, having been born a Jew in Austria, he could speak German and Yiddish, along with Polish, Hungarian, Bohemian, and some Italian.
Despite being permitted to carry a firearm, he never did. He merely took his good-natured attitude to the Prohibition frontlines. He would pair his multi-lingual dexterity with costumes and props to impersonate countless characters, like a German pickle packer, a Yiddish gravedigger, a Chinese launderer, an Italian fruit seller, a farmer, a fisherman, a salesman, and ironically enough, even a Prohibition Agent.
The job proved so easy for him that he convinced his friend, Moe W. Smith, to join him as an agent. Smith would add to the ongoing comedic antics to get bootleggers and bartenders to sell them liquor, at times even dressing up as husband and wife (Smith wearing women’s clothes).
Smith was the owner of a cigar store, but he brought more than smokes to the job. He was also unassuming in his appearance, which only assisted in the duo’s success rate. Einstein and Smith utilized dozens of false beards and mustaches, various eyeglasses, a half dozen fake noses, 11 wigs, and hundreds of fake business cards.
The outfits and their charm would get them in the door, but their evidence gathering required something even more deceptive. Einstein created a funnel system in his clothes. He connected a funnel to a tube that was inserted into his jacket, shirt, or vest, which was connected to a small bottle. He would take a sip of the liquor and, when no one was looking, pour the rest down the funnel and inform the barkeep that he was under arrest. Altogether, the two agents made nearly 5,000 arrests culminating in a 95 percent conviction rate.
After being fired from the agency, which was most likely due to jealousy among the ranks as their success overshadowed every other agent (and possibly because they could never be bought off), the two became agents of a different kind: insurance agents.
Einstein once stated that he hoped those he arrested didn’t begrudge him for doing his duty, and apparently they didn’t, as many of them became his clients.
