Crime And Scandal

So, last week, Carl and I went on yet another tour of Buffalo.  This tour was called the "Crime and Scandal" tour, great name however, not so great on results.  It started with great enthusiasm from the two of us, crime and scandal the morning of Halloween, learning about how Buffalo was active in the art of bootlegging during Prohibition.  Unfortunately, I felt it came up a bit short.  Maybe this has something to do with the fact that we have been on a number of other tours over the last couple of months.  There's bound to be some repetition of facts and such between some of the tours.

Anyway, there were a number of cool things about the tour.  For example, the Calumet building used to hold the main office of the Ku Klux Klan chapter here in Buffalo, until a list of their members was "found" and released to the public.  Also interesting that this same list is one of the few ever lists of KKK membership let alone one that is still around to be researched.  And it is, it is kept at either the Erie County Historical Society or the Main Library Branch downtown.

I also thought it was pretty cool to learn that Niagara Square was the site of a triple hanging back in the day.  People, apparently, came from far away to see this type of spectacle.  What I didn't understand was that after the hanging, the bodies were taken all the way to Collins for burial.  That's pretty far away in the times of no formaldehyde!!!

All in all, a fairly educational tour.  It also happened to be the largest tour so far, about 50 people!  Unfortunately, I wish there was a bit more talk about the bootlegging and other crimes and a little less about the upcoming elections and building architecture.