HISTORY

Local history: Liquor smuggling was a dangerous game during prohibition in St. Lucie County

Terry L. Howard, St. Lucie Historical Society
Special to TCPalm

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — The death of Sheriff William Robert "W.R." Monroe of St. Lucie County in 1921 made an intriguing chapter in early St. Lucie County history. 

In the early 1920s, World War I had ended, the Florida land boom had begun and the Volstead Act — National Prohibition Enforcement Act — had just become law.  

Sheriff W.R. Monroe

The era was known as the “Roaring Twenties.” As with many small towns, the residents of Fort Pierce were divided between the drinkers and non-drinkers, the “wets” and the “dries.”  

Two headlines in the Fort Pierce News-Tribune published Feb. 13, 1921, read, “Call to Service” and asked men to wear black ties if they opposed alcohol; and the headline, “Two Secret Forces to Battle Whiskey Traffic and Enforce Law and Order in County.”

Monroe was 41 years old when he became the fourth sheriff of St. Lucie County in 1920. He had been a deputy for several years and served as chief deputy to Bill Jones, the previous sheriff.  

Monroe’s jurisdiction was huge. At that time, St. Lucie County included much of what is now known as Indian River and Martin counties, yet the entire population in 1920 was only 7,886. According to the 1920 U.S. Census, Fort Pierce, the county seat, had a population of 2,115. 

Other St. Lucie County settlements at the time included Jensen, Eden, Ankona, Walton, Eldred, White City, Viking, St. Lucie, Oslo, Vero, Quay (later Winter Beach), Sebastian and Fellsmere. 

Monroe died in March 1921 in an explosion while ferrying a boat loaded with captured liquor from Quay (Winter Beach) to Fort Pierce.

An entry in the Encyclopedia of Florida Sheriffs, 1821-2000, states:

“Around 4 a.m. on March 25, 1921, about a mile off St. John’s Island, St. Lucie deputies seized a cabin cruiser loaded with 200 cases of illegal liquor. Three men were arrested, and Sheriff Monroe was called to join them at the at Quay [later renamed Winter Beach] dock. As the sheriff piloted the boat down the Indian River nearing Fort Pierce, the boat exploded, killing him instantly and injuring two others. Sheriff Monroe was 42 years old, leaving a wife and four young children.” 

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J.C. Monroe, son of the sheriff.

A different version was told by the sheriff’s son, John C. Monroe, a longtime commercial fishing captain. In a December 2009 interview with author, J.C. Monroe, he stated he was 3 years old and lived adjacent to the St. Lucie County Jail when his father was killed.  

There was a house next to the jail and courthouse built for the sheriff and his family. J.C. Monroe declared someone broke his father’s neck and threw him overboard and then blew up the captured boatload of confiscated liquor. He said they blew up the boat in the Indian River by Oslo, between Vero and Fort Pierce. 

Old St. Lucie County Courthouse, built in 1908. The building at far right is where Sheriff W.R. Monroe and his family lived.

Capt. Terrell “Pappy” Hayes, a prominent figure in early Florida east coast commercial fishing, was the owner and captain of the ill-fated smuggling vessel. Hayes fished net boats from Cape Canaveral to the Florida Straits and was highly respected. He died in 1984 at age 87. 

During prohibition, liquor smuggling was a dangerous game — both for smugglers and the lawmen who pursued them. 

Steve Lowe, another renowned Fort Pierce fishing captain, recounted a story about his good friend Pappy Hayes. While sitting at the fish house one day, Hayes told Lowe how he had once brought in a load of liquor from the Bahamas to the Cape while being chased by the U.S. Coast Guard.  

Terrell Hayes in his World War I U.S. Navy uniform.

He said he ran his loaded skiff through the slough near the beach at Cape Canaveral where the Coast Guard didn’t follow, either because the water was too shallow for their vessel or because they were not familiar with the slough that was known to fishermen.  

Capt. Hayes said they followed him from offshore firing 37-millimeter cannon shots as he led them back and forth. Eventually tiring of the game, the Coast Guard left and Hayes delivered the load successfully. 

The Fort Pierce News-Tribune reported in the March 29, 1921 edition, that on March 25, around 4:30 a.m., there was police activity in the Narrows, a passage just north of John’s Island in the Indian River Lagoon. St. Lucie County Deputies W. H. Donaldson and H. J. Sapp had intercepted and seized a large cabin cruiser loaded with nearly 200 cases of whiskey.  

The vessel’s crew — Terrell Hayes, Dozier Drawdy and Harry Benson — were taken into custody by Deputy Sapp, who took the suspects in another boat across the lagoon to a dock on the mainland at Quay.  

Deputy Donaldson followed them in the seized cruiser. When he arrived at Quay, Sapp called Monroe in Fort Pierce and asked him to come at once. When he arrived, Monroe instructed Sapp to take Hayes and Benson by car to the county jail in Fort Pierce. They left immediately. 

According to the News-Tribune’s account, Drawdy, one of the accused smugglers, stayed on board to assist Monroe and Donaldson and bring in the seized boat and its bootlegged whiskey down the Indian River to Fort Pierce.  

According to Donaldson, he and Monroe and Drawdy departed in the captured boat at about 8 a.m. and made good progress, but the boat ran aground three times in shallow water.

Donaldson said at one grounding Drawdy stripped off his clothes and went overboard to try and free the boat. Deputy Donaldson also went overboard to help but did not strip completely. He donned an army overcoat after climbing back aboard since his clothes were wet. 

It was sometime between 11 a.m. and noon, near Oslo — about seven miles north of Fort Pierce — the explosion occurred. Donaldson said Monroe was steering from the center of the boat just outside the cabin.

Donaldson stood beside him, and Drawdy, dressed only in his trousers, reclined on the stern. The last thing Donaldson remembered was reaching for the gas lever to cut off some of the gas. The boat exploded and instantly burst into flames. 

Donaldson said the next thing he knew he was in the water about 60 feet from the stern of the boat. Monroe, he said, was “splashing frantically in the water about 100 feet to the east of the boat” which was on fire. Drawdy was in chest-deep water about 150 feet west of the burning vessel.  

Donaldson yelled to the sheriff, “Here’s bottom, come over this way!” He said Monroe did not respond and sank. Donaldson swam to where he had last seen the sheriff, but could not find him. Donaldson and Drawdy then swam and waded to the west shore. 

The March 29, 1921 News-Tribune report continued:

“News of the catastrophe was telephoned to Fort Pierce, and boats from this and other points left to join in the search for the body. A number of parties also went by automobile to be of assistance in the search if possible.

The search was continued for several hours but without success. Finally, a seine was secured from Fort Pierce, and with this the body was recovered about 3:30 o’clock Saturday morning, after having been in the water for over fifteen hours. The body was brought back to Fort Pierce by boat, reaching here about 6 o’clock Saturday morning." 

“Examination revealed that there was practically no water in the lungs. The left eye was apparently blistered, the hair on the left temple singed, the nose blistered, and the hair on the right hand slightly singed.

Otherwise, no injuries to the body were apparent. Evidently, the sheriff had been injured by the explosion and suffocated by the flames that resulted. The body was turned over to the undertaking establishment of Fee & Stewart. No inquest was held.” 

“Hayes, Drawdy and Benson were released by the county judge under bond of $500 each pending a hearing on the charge of violating the prohibition laws of the state.” 

Terrell Hayes in 1957.

Terrell Hayes, the boat’s owner, was convicted of possessing illegal alcohol. Harry Benson received a mistrial and was scheduled to be retried. Dozier Drawdy was acquitted of any charges and freed. Hayes and Benson were released pending appeal and retrial, respectively.

The News-Tribune in the April 5, 1921 edition reported:

 “The courtroom ... was overflowing with interested spectators. The lawyers had difficulty selecting a jury and the state exhausted its peremptory challenges.” 

In small towns like Fort Pierce in the early 1920s, people were aware of each other's activities. The fishing and waterfront folks knew each other well and many families were related.

This may help explain why it was difficult to pick a jury for the Hayes, Drawdy and Benson smuggling trial of 1921. The prohibition that divided the residents between the “wets” and “dries” must have further complicated picking a jury. 

A subsequent grand jury investigation into the death of Sheriff Monroe determined no evidence of foul play.

The Encyclopedia of Florida Sheriffs account added:

 “There [were] no extant records of the disposition of the case against the three men.”

No further mention is made of the 200 cases of whiskey likely scattered in the Indian River Lagoon after the explosion. 

Tommy Taylor, a local marine mechanic and Hayes family friend, said in a 2018 interview that all a fellow would have to do to make an old boat blow up would be to loosen the overflow valve on the carburetor.  

But after carefully reading the 1921 newspaper account, Taylor became convinced that when the sheriff ran aground three times in the captured cruiser, he may have clogged the saltwater intake with mud or debris. This restricted water flow caused the engine to overheat.  

“That’s all it would take for an old gas-engine to blow up. They all had fumes. The deputy even said he was reaching to turn down the gas flow valve when the boat exploded,” said Taylor. 

Taylor believes the death of Monroe was an accident. Taylor also said Capt. Terrell Hayes never did anything wrong and didn’t even drink alcohol. The complete details of what happened on March 25, 1921, may never be known.

The sheriff’s son, J.C Monroe, died March 18, 2011, at age 92. He went to his grave believing that someone broke his father’s neck, threw him overboard and then blew up the boat. 

Terry L. Howard is a St. Lucie Historical Society board member and commercial fisherman. He has written several books about the Florida east coast commercial fishing industry and its people.