The U.S. Government Secretly Poisoned Alcohol During Prohibition, Killing at Least 10,000 Americans
They called it a “noble experiment.”
This article originally appeared on Jon Fleetwood’s Substack and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Jon Fleetwood
The U.S. government knowingly poisoned alcohol during Prohibition, causing the deaths of thousands of Americans—without ever telling the public.
In 1926 alone, hundreds died in New York City from drinking toxic liquor contaminated with methanol and other deadly chemicals the government had intentionally ordered into the industrial alcohol supply.
These weren’t accidents.
Officials knew bootleggers were converting industrial alcohol into drinking liquor—and poisoned it anyway.
No announcement. No warning. No consent. Just death.
They called it a “noble experiment.”
History should call it what it was: state-sanctioned mass poisoning.
And if the government could do this to thousands of Americans without blinking—where might they be doing it now?
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What Happened
During Prohibition (1920–1933), the federal government banned the production, sale, and transportation of alcohol under the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act.
But Americans kept drinking, and bootleggers kept supplying.
To stop the flow, officials at the Treasury Department didn’t just increase raids or surveillance—they decided to poison the industrial alcohol supply.
Industrial alcohol was already being “denatured” with foul-tasting additives to make it undrinkable.
But in 1926, officials escalated: they ordered companies to add lethal poisons like methyl alcohol (wood alcohol), kerosene, formaldehyde, benzene, brucine, chloroform, cadmium, zinc, mercury salts, nicotine, ether, and more—up to 10% methanol in some batches.
This wasn’t done behind closed doors.
It was federal policy.
And they never told the public.
The Death Toll
Christmas Eve 1926: More than 60 people poisoned, 8 dead that night.
Following 48 hours: Another 23 died from government-poisoned alcohol.
New York City, 1926: 585 deaths.
1927: Death toll in NYC rises to 700.
Nationwide: Estimated 10,000–50,000 deaths before the policy ended.
“Knowing this to be true, the United States government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes.”
—Dr. Charles Norris, NYC Chief Medical Examiner
Norris and his toxicologist Alexander Gettler began publicly tracking and exposing the ingredients in poisoned whiskey—carbolic acid, camphor, acetone, quinine, and formaldehyde among them.
Their reports made clear: the government knew the public was drinking this and kept poisoning it anyway.
The Cover-Up
Despite the death toll, the government never ran public warnings, never informed citizens which chemicals were being added, and never offered antidotes. Instead, it quietly let the policy continue while blaming the victims.
A 1927 Chicago Tribune editorial wrote:
“Normally, no American government would engage in such business… It is only in the curious fanaticism of Prohibition that any means, however barbarous, are considered justified.”
Even as Norris rang alarm bells and hospitals overflowed, defenders of the policy doubled down.
The Omaha Bee dismissed critics, asking sarcastically:
“Must Uncle Sam guarantee safety first for souses?”
Senator James Reed of Missouri responded with moral clarity:
“Only one possessing the instincts of a wild beast would desire to kill or make blind the man who takes a drink of liquor…”
Yet for seven more years, the policy continued.
A Policy That Hit Everyday Americans the Hardest
Dr. Charles Norris pointed out what federal officials refused to acknowledge: the people dying weren’t society’s elite.
Wealthier Americans had access to imported liquor, private reserves, or high-grade black-market whiskey.
But ordinary working families—the ones with no connections and few options—were the ones drinking bootleg liquor made from poisoned industrial alcohol.
The policy didn’t just fail.
It disproportionately harmed everyday Americans who were trying to survive in a system stacked against them.
The government knew exactly who would be hit hardest—and they did it anyway.
Forgotten—but Not Gone
When Prohibition ended in 1933, the poisoning stopped.
But the government never took responsibility.
No one was punished or given compensation, and there was no national apology—just silence.
Today, few Americans even know this happened.
But the precedent was set: under the right “noble” cause, the federal government was willing to covertly sacrifice thousands of lives without disclosure or consent.
And that raises a very real question:
Where Might It Be Happening Now?
If the government could knowingly poison the alcohol supply in 1926, without telling the public, what would stop it from doing something similar today?
Are there toxic programs being passed off as public safety or “science-based policy” while quietly harming those who can’t opt out?
Is it in vaccines—where ingredients are added under emergency authorization, but long-term effects are unknown?
Is it in air or water, where geoengineering and chemical additives operate with minimal oversight?
Is it in pharmaceuticals rushed through approval processes while post-marketing safety trials go unfinished?
Is it in food, with additives and seed oils approved by federal agencies despite overwhelming evidence of harm?
These aren’t paranoid questions—they’re historical patterns.
And if history tells us anything, it’s that government agencies are often willing to cause harm if it serves a political purpose—and they won’t tell you until it’s too late.
The federal government didn’t just fail the American people during Prohibition.
It targeted them.
It deployed chemical warfare on its own soil and let citizens die to protect a failing policy.
They called it a “noble experiment,” but it was nothing short of premeditated mass poisoning.
And if you think something like that couldn’t happen again, you’re not paying attention.
Copyright 2025 Jon Fleetwood
