Roy City's Bootlegger

The Stories That Made Us

BY SABRINA LEE

Emma Russell recounts a tale in her Footprints of Roy novel about “Pete” Boniker. “Pete” was an Italian man with a farm on 3100 West, north of 4800 South. By Emma’s account, Pete’s farm was no different than the others in the area. He grew the same kind of crops and had the same kind of animals as the surrounding farms. The only difference was that he had old haystacks that he didn’t do anything with.

The haystacks caught fire, and once they had burned out, what lay underneath was revealed. Barrels of alcohol had been hidden in the haystacks. According to Emma, 25 to 30 barrels lay burned. Also burned was any evidence to prosecute “Pete” Boniker, but he wouldn’t get off completely. I can only imagine that this incident put him on the Sheriff’s radar. Emma reports that the Sheriff eventually found a still, buried under the chicken coop. This story piqued my curiosity. But all efforts to find Pete Boniker, a news article for the fire, his subsequent charges, or any existence of Boniker in Utah were all a complete bust. I can only assume that this was sometime during the Prohibition years in Utah. Prohibition efforts in Utah started in 1909, but the bills presented were either killed in the State Senate or vetoed by Governor Spry. On August 1, 1917, newly elected Governor Bamberger signed a prohibition law into effect. The Utah History Encyclopedia states, “Between 1923 and 1932, Utah law enforcement officials uncovered 448 distilleries, 702 stills, thousands of pieces of distilling apparatus, 47,000 gallons of spirits, malt liquor, wine, and cider, and 332,000 gallons of mash.” Pete Boniker was a part of that! While Utah did not see the formation and increase of gang violence during prohibition like other eastern cities, it did take an economic hit. A 1917 January article in the Ogden Standard Examiner stated that the estimated economic revenue loss for the city would exceed $60,000.

Ogden City estimated a $60,000 revenue loss due to the Utah Prohibition Law.

The 18th Amendment increased alcohol consumption, crime, and did not help the nation’s economic situation during the Great Depression. Its repeal came with the regulation of the sale of liquor. Utah, in 1935, began selling liquor in state regulated stores, a practice still done today.