Judge Upholds Dry Killer, So He Goes Free

Chicago Times - February 12, 1929

Albany, NY, Feb 11 - [Special] -

An American citizen who possesses a bottle of foreign hootch, imported from France or Canada, is a felon and may be shot to death if he seeks to hold out on a Volstead vigilante. Under this drastic interpretation of the prohibition statutes, Joseph Sobolsky, a United States immigration guard who doubled as a dry snooper and killed a motorist, was acquitted in federal court here today on the charge of murdering Richard Pelkey.

Shot in His Car.

The rear seat of his automobile loaded with Canadian ale and port wine, Pelkey was shot last September as he sped from Chateaugay, N.Y., near the Canadian border, through Duane Center, Franklin county, to a supposed rendezvous at Lake Placid. The trial began last Monday. "Testimony shows that Sobolsky had been asked by the customs service to watch for two cars from a Canadian depot of illicit liquor," said Judge Frank C. Cooper. "If you believe this, then he was clothed with all the rights of a customs officer."