LONG SOUGHT BOOTLEGGER
BAGGED TUESDAY NIGHT

On Tuesday night, November 27th, officers Sam Doss and Jasper Laws arrested Mike Roskoff, more familiarly known as "Hunky" Mike, at his home in Leadwood. They found him in possession of a five gallon keg of whisky of that peculiarly explosive brand which is the usual stock in trade of violators of the Volstead law, and sunrise Wednesday found Mike surveying the world sorrowfully with his view limited to that small portion of mother nature which is visible from the windows of the county jail at Farmington. There he is being held for a $2,000.00 bond pending his preliminary hearing, which is set for December 7th. The keg of 'lightnin' is being held as fiery evidence of his guilt.

Mike has been long under observation by the officers, as he has been considered an important link in the distributing chain that connects the illicit stills of a neighboring county with the local trade. It has been practically a certainty that he was the main line of the underground railway, but it remained for last night to prove it on him. The officers went to Mike's house early in the evening and secreted themselves where they could watch his movements. After a patient wait of some duration Mike left the premises and was gone for about forty minutes, when he returned with his keg (also his Waterloo). He was promptly arrested as outlined before.

The method of distribution has been for Mike, possibly assisted by others, to get the 'goods' from the distillers and bury it in secure hiding places until the market demanded its production. Just how much is buried around hereabouts is hard to estimate and whether the buried TNT had any connection with the recent Japanese earthquake or not is as yet undetermined. Anyhow it furnishes Mike with a splendid opportunity to break into the county jail the exit from which is usually more closely guarded than the entrance.

Published by the LEAD BELT NEWS, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO, Fri. Nov. 30, 1923.