The Hill’s History-Cast: The Man in the Green Hat

Just weeks before the 1930 midterm elections, an explosive story hit the front pages of newspapers across the country. The story detailed the exploits of George Cassiday, a World War I veteran who had spent the decade of Prohibition running whiskey, gin and moonshine through the halls of Congress.

Cassiday, who had just finished a six-month jail term, spilled the beans on the senators and representatives who drank with impunity in the halls of Congress. And when voters went to the polls days later, they gave the Prohibition-backing Republican majority the boot.

Two years later, Franklin Roosevelt won the White House, and Prohibition was on its way out the door.

This is the story of George Cassiday, the Man in the Green Hat, who kept Congress drinking through Prohibition — and helped speed the end of a decadelong experiment in temperance.

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