4 MB THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2020East Side, so I thought, maybe she knows
Dutch Schultz,” Ms. Demar said. “So I
brought my parents here and they loved it.
My mom’s 85 and she said, ‘Of course, we
knew of him.’ ”
Mr. Schultz, whose real name was Arthur
Flegenheimer, had gotten into the crime cir-
cuit before Prohibition, but when alcohol
became illegal in 1920, he quickly realized
he could make a lot of money in booze. He
became known as the Bronx beer baron, be-
coming the boss of a significant organized
crime circuit.
In the 1920s and ’30s, several gangsters
set up shop in the Catskills and Hudson Val-
ley, including Mr. Schultz, and his rival, Jack
(Legs) Diamond, who ran the Irish mob and
operated out of Kingston and Albany.
Mr. Schultz’s connection to the Catskills
area is well known, especially because of a
rumor that he buried a metal box with dia-
monds, gold and $1,000 bills somewhere
around Phoenicia, about 50 miles west of
Pine Plains, right before he died. But his
connection to the distillery off Ryan Road is
a little more tenuous. Although the Pine
Plains raid was well documented in local
newspapers in 1932, Mr. Schultz’s name was
never mentioned in connection to it at the
time.
Sullivan County’s historian, John Con-
way, in his book “Dutch Schultz and His
Lost Catskills’ Treasure,” wrote, “Like
many other bootleggers of the day, he ap-
preciated the privacy the remote, desolate
area offered, and he recognized the value of
controlling a piece of land on a direct route
from Canada to New York City.” But Mr.
Conway was referring to Mr. Schultz’s fond-
ness for Phoenicia.
Bruce Alterman, a private investigator
and the author of the novel “Fear in Phoeni-
cia: The Deadly Hunt for Dutch Schultz’s
Treasure,” said he had spoken with locals
who remember seeing Mr. Schultz around
the town. “There were many eyewitness ac-
counts of him buying everyone dinner at the
Phoenicia Hotel and staying at this lodge
around the corner,” Mr. Alterman said.
Both men agree that there are no eyewit-
ness accounts of Mr. Schultz in Pine Plains.
And Dan Adams, the current owner of the
farm where Dutch’s Spirits is based, said he
had only heard stories about people seeing
Legs Diamond, Mr. Schultz’s rival, in Pine
Plains. “The story I heard is that Legs had a
little shack in Stanfordville, 10 miles south
of us,” said Mr. Adams, 72, who has lived on
the farm since the 1970s.
“My understanding always was that
Schultz was primarily in Ulster County and
that Legs Diamond controlled most of the
booze distribution in Dutchess,” Mr. Con-
way said. But he allows that after Mr. Dia-
mond was killed in 1931 — a murder some
believe was ordered by Mr. Schultz —
things could have shifted. “It’s possible thatafter he had Diamond killed, Schultz moved
in and took over his territory.”
After all, the distillery wasn’t raided until
1932 and probably didn’t begin operations
until that year as well, according to local
newspaper coverage at the time. So it
seems impossible that Legs Diamond was
behind the distillery, since he was already
dead.
Schultz was killed four years after Dia-
mond, in 1935 at the Palace Chop House in
Newark, N.J. His murder was believed to
have been orchestrated by the infamous
mobster Charles (Lucky) Luciano.
Mr. Adams, the farm’s current owner, in-
herited the property from his mother. But
his knowledge of the farm’s history, includ-
ing the construction of its underground net-
work, comes from his father, who as a teen-
ager had worked on Mr. Ryan’s turkey farm
during Prohibition.
“My dad, he told me this story of how they
would dig a hole and then pour some ce-
ment and fill it back in,” Mr. Adams said.
“Then three or four weeks later, they wouldgo back, dig it back up again, add to the ce-
ment — well, they were building the tunnel.”
The tunnels, he said, ran under the origi-
nal farmhouse, for about 400 feet. One point
of entry was a hole in a rock wall on the
property, which was covered up by a lean-
to.
The 100-foot-long house had a few unique
features, including two kitchens, one of
which was a front for the distillery, Mr. Ad-
ams said. “Outdoors, there was a pipe going
into the kitchen from underground with a
tree next to it, a pine tree to block it. And
they were cooking the booze in a barn be-
hind the house, but it looked like it was com-
ing from the house, like they were just cook-
ing in the house.” The bunker chimneys are
still visible today, rising out of the ground on
the side of the new barn.
Throughout the years, Mr. Adams had
tried growing mushrooms in one of the
bunkers, but didn’t have much success. Six
years ago, however, when New York State
encouraged farms to start distilleries, he
discussed the idea of reviving the old moon-
shine effort — this time legally — with his
nephew, Alex Adams.
Alex brought on his friend Ariel Schlein,
who spent years building a new barn and
distillery, both of which Mr. Schlein still
owns. They introduced Dutch’s Spirits Sug-
ar Wash Moonshine, which was produced at
a different distillery while they continued
construction on theirs.
Around 2017, Mr. McAlpine, who is known
for restoring and running several proper-
ties in nearby Beacon, including a hotel and
movie theater, entered the picture.
“When I came here and I learned about
the history of the property, that sold it for
me,” Mr. McAlpine said. “The property is
beautiful, the building’s beautiful, but
there’s a lot of beautiful farms in Dutchess
County, why is this one special? Oh, it has
probably what was the largest illegal boot-
legging distillery on the East Coast. And it’s
— wait, it’s still here?”
It took him longer than he thought, but
Mr. McAlpine was finally able to reopen
Dutch’s Spirits to the public in September.
The Sugar Wash Moonshine, soon to be
made fully on the premises (they are cur-
rently blending and bottling there), is back
on the menu.
In the Prohibition era, moonshine could
be any illegal hooch that was clandestinely
produced. It was very strong and could
make people sick, according to Patricia
Smith, a sommelier and mixologist based in
Charleston, S.C. But today, she said, it’s
known as a white, or unaged, whiskey.
Mr. McAlpine worked with a distiller to
refine the Sugar Wash recipe Mr. Schlein
had developed while honoring the ingredi-
ents uncovered in the 1932 raid (which in-
cluded 10,000 pounds of sugar, 25 gallons of
sulfuric acid and over 3,000 gallons of mash,
according to a local newspaper). One item
not in the recipe is corn, a common ingredi-ent in modern moonshines.
“In the days of Prohibition, corn would
have been harder to come by, less practical,
and more expensive, so sugar was often
used instead and became a typical base for
many moonshines,” said Nima Ansari, a
buyer at Astor Wines & Spirits in NoHo.
Next in development at Dutch’s Spirits is
a rye whiskey. Mr. McAlpine also wants to
use the land around the farm to grow herbs
for cocktails and produce for the restaurant.
There are also plans for a museum, a farm
store, and another bar built around Patrick
Ryan’s original turkey coops.
“If Dutch was around, I think if he has a
sense of humor, he’s probably laughing a lit-
tle bit,” said Mr. McAlpine, who received his
federal distilling permit on the anniversary
of the F.B.I. raid.
“Eighty-eight years later, we’re walking
people down into these bunkers and using it
as a selling point,” Mr. McAlpine continued.
“I’m literally licensed by the federal gov-
ernment to produce alcohol, not 20 feet from
where they were doing it illegally.”PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAUREN LANCASTER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESIs there a buried box
of diamonds, gold
and $1,000 bills?
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Top, outside seating at Dutch’s
Spirits. Center row from left: a
bottle of moonshine; Dutch
Schultz, circa 1935; and houses
from his time. Above left, the
bartenders Tim Guy, left, and
Steven Mercardo. Above, a
bunker where moonshine was
once made. Far left, a food
truck at Dutch’s Spirits.Moonshine Made Here, and Now It’s Legal
HULTON ARCHIVE, VIA GETTY IMAGES