William McGuire Found Dead in Barber Shop After Visit to Denver Bootleggers
Colorado Transcript - May 18, 1916
Prohibition came to Colorado on January 1, 1916. The immediate response was an upswelling of illegal liquor vendors.
110 Years Ago
The May 18, 1916 Colorado Transcript tells the sad tale of a young man–William McGuire–who had moved here from Wisconsin just six weeks earlier. He was working in the Iler Barbershop in Golden. One evening, he took a drive to Denver with friends. When the group arrived at Larimer Street, McGuire excused himself, saying he would return soon. When he rejoined them, he had a bottle of what the Transcript called "Larimer street rotgut booze."
By the time the group had returned to Golden, McGuire was thoroughly drunk "and refused to go to his room. His companions made him a bed on the floor of the barber shop and left him." The next morning, his unfortunate boss opened the shop to find McGuire dead on the floor.
An inquest determined that the death was caused by the "rotgut." The Coroner and Sheriff tried to track down the source of the liquor but were unsuccessful.
The remains of young Mr. McGuire were shipped home to his parents in Wisconsin for internment.
The Transcript of this era always had an implicit message that bad things come to people who go to Denver. In pondering the term "Larimer street rotgut booze," one is inevitably left feeling that if McGuire had purchased his liquor from an upstanding Golden bootlegger, he might have lived to cut hair another day.
