Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 5, 1931.
OPERATORS OF LARGEST STILL EVER UNCOVERED IN PORTER COUNTY TO FACE TRIAL FRIDAY
A Porter county farmer and two Chicago men who were arrested by Sheriff Burney Maxwell and federal officers in a raid last October which revealed the existence of the largest still ever confiscated in the county since the prohibition law was enacted, will face trial before Judge Thomas W. Slick in United States district court at Hammond Friday morning.
Ernest Wheeler is the owner of the farm, seven miles northwest of Valparaiso, and a mile south of State Road Six, where the raiding party found in a cow barn a 300-gallon still, and 15,000 gallons of mash.
Wheeler and Charles O’Caverna and Atillo Boffa, of Chicago, were placed under arrest and later taken to Hammond for arraignment before United States Commissioner S.C. Dwyer. All three-men were released under bonds.
The still found by the officers was the largest found in the Calumet region as far as is known. It stood seven feet high and was capable of producing 300 gallons of alcohol every twenty-four hours, officers said. In the barn were found nine vats. Three of the vats were filled with sugar mash while the others were empty. Each vat had a 5,000-gallon capacity, the raiders said.
Wheeler will be represented in federal court by Attorney James J. McGarvey, of Valparaiso.
