HARRY ANSLINGER'S GORE FILE OHIO CASE FILES

CRACKDOWN - OHIO'S DRAMATIC STORY OF REEFER MADNESS

St. Louis Post Dispatch - 1934

In a small Ohio town, a few months ago, a fifteen-year-old boy was found wandering the streets, mentally deranged by marijuana.   Officers learned that he had obtained the dope at a garage.   “Are any other school kids getting cigarettes there?” he was asked.   “Sure. I know fifteen or twenty, maybe more. I’m only counting my friends.  ” The garage was raided.   Three men were arrested and 18 pounds of marijuana seized.   “We’d been figuring on quitting the racket,” one of the dopesters told the arresting officer.   “These kids had us scared.   After we’d gotten ’em on the weed, it looked like easy money for a while.   Then they kept wanting more and more of it, and if we didn’t have it for ’em, they’d get tough.   Along toward the last, we were scared that one of ’em would get high and kill us all.   There wasn’t any fun in it.” -- American Magazine “Marijuana, Assassin of Youth” By H.J Anslinger - July 1937

At Findlay, Ohio, September 23, 1936, an investigation was begun when Richard Porter, age 15, son of Arthur Porter of Findlay, Ohio, showed signs of being insane.   At times he appeared sane, but at other times he was decidedly mentally unbalanced.   He was questioned about the cause of his insanity and made some statement about having marihuana cigarettes sold him by the Hilkert Brothers, who were W.P.A. Play-Ground supervisors.   At present the Porter boy is confined in his home and is under care of a physician.   The Hilkert brothers were indicted by the grand jury of Hancock County, Ohio, and on the 9th day of October, 1936, were placed on parole by the Hon. Chester Fedleton, Common Pleas Judge of Hancock County, in custody of Mr. Charles H. Smith, of Findlay, Ohio.   --- PenState University - Harry J. Anslinger Papers - Box 9, File 23 - Reports of Crime Due to Marijuana (ca. 1937)

Here is a typical illustration: A 15-year-old boy, found mentally deranged from smoking marihuana cigarettes, furnished enough information to police officers to lead to the seizure of 15 pounds of marihuana.   That was seized in a garage in an Ohio town.   These boys had been getting marihuana at a playground, and the supervisors there had been peddling it to children, but they got rather alarmed when they saw these boys were developing the habit, and particularly when this boy began to go insane.   --- Mr. Anslinger 1937 Congressional Testimony

Not long ago we found a 15-year-old boy going insane because, the doctor told the enforcement officers, he thought the boy was smoking marihuana cigarettes.   They traced the sale to some man who had been growing marihuana and selling it to these boys all under 15 years of age, on a playground there.   --- Mr. Anslinger 1937 Congressional Testimony

A fifteen-year-old schoolboy was found mentally deranged in an Ohio city.   Investigation proved that marihuana was the cause of his pitiful condition.   To police officers he furnished information that led to the arrest of three peddlers.   These three beasts (and again I apologize to all beasts for the use of the word) admitted making sales of marihuana cigarettes to the school children.   They used a garage near the high school as a salesroom.   From fifteen to eighteen pounds of marihuana were seized from the garage.   It was discovered that there were at least twenty addicts in the one high school of that small town.   -- “Assassin of Youth” (Book) 1954 By Robert Devine

A fifteen-year-old schoolboy was found mentally deranged in an Ohio city.   Investigation proved that marihuana was the cause of his pitiful condition.   To police officers he furnished information that led to the arrest of three peddlers.   These three beasts (and I apologize to all beasts when I use that word to describe a peddler of "reefers") admitted making sales of marihuana cigarettes to the school children.   They used a garage near the high school as a salesroom.   From fifteen to eighteen pounds of marihuana was seized from the garage.   It was discovered that there were at least twenty addicts in the one high school of that small town.   -- The Moloch of Marihuana (1945) By Robert James Devine

In a small Ohio town a 15-year-old boy was found mentally deranged after smoking marihuana cigarettes.   Three men were arrested who had been peddling cigarettes to more than twenty other youths in the town.   --- Courtney Ryley Cooper, in a book entitled HERE'S TO CRIME

Finley Ohio ,   “This took place in a community playground in Finley, Ohio.   The playground supervisors were the men who were selling the stuff.   It all developed from the case of this youngster who was evidently going crazy.

The roll of misery is long and monotonously tragic in the Bureau of Narcotics files on marihuana:   A fifteen-year-old boy, found mentally deranged from smoking "reefers," accidentally discloses a gang supplying twenty known addicts of high-school age;   --- Cosmopolitan – May 1938

COMMISSIONER ANSLINGER:   We have been getting some reports from various sections of the country showing cases of alleged insanity due to Marihuana which have been brought to light.   For instance, there were interesting developments in a case in Findlay, Ohio, concerning a fifteen-year-old boy who showed signs of being insane.   When asked about his condition he made statements that he had been smoking cigarettes, and an investigation developed the information that there were two defendants, who were brothers, who were in charge of a playground, and they had been selling drugs that is, Marihuana cigarettes, to boys around there; and we found about sixteen pounds concealed above a garage owned by them.   These fellows had stopped selling the drug, because they noticed signs of the boys acting queer, and they became frightened.   They were particularly alarmed because of what they thought was an unusual appetite for the drug.  ---Marihuana Conference -Held Dec. 5, 1938

1936   After a 15-year-old boy was found mentally deranged from smoking marihuana cigarettes be furnished information that led to the arrest of three men who admitted making sales of the cigarettes.   Fifteen to eighteen pounds of marihuana were seized from their garage.   At the time officers stated that there were 20 known addicts of high school age, in the Ohio town.   The men arrested allegedly told the officer that they had become alarmed several months previous to their arrest when the youths appeared abnormal and began annoying them for heavier supplies.   The apprehension of this gang cleared up a serious situation.   -- The Traffic in Opium and Other Dangers Drugs (1936)

In Ohio, the police picked up a high school boy who was out of his mind.   After treatment he regained his sanity and provided information that led to the arrest of three garagemen who had been selling the smokes.   They admitted to the cops that they were glad to be arrested as their kid customers had formed a gang and promised to kill them unless more cigarettes were supplied regularly.   --- True Story (Magazine) Dec. 1948

Mr. Anslinger: We have a case of a boy, about 15, (reads from report of case).   This took place in a community playground in Finely, Ohio.   The playground supervisors were the men who were selling the stuff.   It all developed from the case of this youngster who was evidently going crazy.   That's only one of the many cases we have.
Mr. Tipton: Have you a lot of cases on this--horror stories -- that's what we want. ---- Conference on Cannabis Sativa Jan 14, 1937

COLUMBUS, 0hio. October 1936.   A young man was sentenced to the electric chair for the robbing and unprovoked killing of a hotel clerk.   He maintained that he was a marihuana addict and was under the influence of the drug when he committed the crimes.   The judge of the Court in which he was tried refused to accept this plea as an extenuating circumstance and served notice on smokers' of marihuana cigarettes that they cannot escape punishment for crimes committed while under the influence of this narcotic   -- MARIHUANA; The New Dangerous Drug (pamphlet) by Frederick T. Merrill 1950 version

Mr. Anslinger   We have several cases of that kind.   There was one town in Ohio where a young man went into a hotel and held up the clerk and killed him, and his defense was that he had been affected by the use of marihuana.
Mr. Fuller:  The only question was whether or not he knew what he was doing, whether he was insane.   That is always a defense, whether or not a man is in such a state of mind that he does not know good from evil.   The question is whether or not his mind is right, whether he is responsible.   --- Mr. Anslinger 1937 Congressional Testimony

In another place in Ohio, a young man shot the hotel clerk while trying to hold him up.   His defense was that he was under the influence of marihuana .  --- Harry Anslinger MTA Congressional Testimony 1937

In Columbus, Ohio, a man sentenced to the electric chair for robbing and murdering a hotel clerk, made the same plea of' insanity from marijuana.   -- The CHRISTIAN CENTURY - June 29, 1938

In Columbus, Ohio, a 35-year-old man was sentenced to the electric chair for robbery and first-degree murder of a hotel clerk.   His plea of not guilty was based on insanity due to smoking marihuana cigarettes and the fact that he was under the influence of marihuana when the crime was committed.-- The Traffic in Opium and Other Dangers Drugs (1936)

In Columbus, Ohio, a thirty-five-year-old man was sentenced to the electric chair for robbery and first-degree murder of a hotel clerk.   His plea of "not guilty" was based on insanity due to smoking marihuana cigarettes.   He confessed to being under the influence of marihuana when the crime was committed. -- “Assassin of Youth” (Book) 1954 By Robert Devine

In Columbus, Ohio, a thirty-five-year-old man was sentenced to the electric chair for robbery and first-degree murder of a hotel clerk.   His plea of "not guilty" was based on insanity due to smoking marihuana cigarettes. He confessed to being under the influence of marihuana when the crime was committed. -- The Moloch of Marihuana (1945) By Robert Devine

In Columbus, last October, the killer of a hotel clerk blamed his deed on insanity resulting from the use of the weed. --- March 1, 1937 - 4:2 - Cincinnati Enquirer

Last week the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence imposed upon a man convicted of having committed murder while under the influence of marijuana. -- Oct. 18, 1937 - Cincinnati Enquirer

Columbus, Ohio. October 1936.   A young man was sentenced to the electric chair for the robbing and unprovoked killing of a hotel clerk.   He maintained that he was a marihuana addict and was under the influence of the drug when he committed these crimes. -- National Parent-Teacher (PTA) – May, 1938 (by Harry Anslinger)

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