GEORGE REMUS

George Remus is a notable character who lived most of his life in the Cincinnati area.  Remus was born in 1874 and died in 1952.  He was the inspiration for the title character, Jay Gatsby, in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.  He was also a one-time owner of one of my favorite lunch spots; the Mount Adams Grill.

George Remus was born in Germany and his parents moved to Chicago when he was very young.  He studied to become a pharmacist but tired of it after a few years and went back to school to became a lawyer.  He practiced criminal law in Illinois; successfully defending many murder suspects.  This made him rich and endeared him to the mob.

Along came Prohibition in 1920 and he found there was more money to be made in the liquor industry.  Remus moved to Cincinnati to be closer to where most of the distilleries making bonded whiskey were located.  He began buying them up one by one including the large Fleischmann Distillery.   Remus also made bootleg whiskey in the attic of a home on Queen City Avenue in Cincinnati.  He became known as "the king of bootleggers."

In his hay day, Remus and his wife threw lavish parties at their estate in Covington, KY.  For example, at two of those parties, he invited 100 couples and gave each wife a new automobile.  Their daughter was a silent film child actress and starred in the original Wizard of Oz in 1910.  

Remus did eventually get charged with violating the Prohibition laws but served only two years in prison.  But while in prison, his wife consorted with a federal agent and stole all of the money he had hidden away.   After his release, she and George were to be divorced but he fatally shot her near the gazebo in Eden Park on the way to court.  Remus pleaded 'insanity' at a long national trial and was acquitted with only an 8 month stint to regain his sanity.

What a character - right here in Cincinnati.
(o).(o)