The Liberators

FAST BOATS, STRONG LIQUOR AND AL CAPONE.

July 19, 1919 rocked the City of Washington. Kluckers, supremacists and race-baiters urged on by the white-controlled media had attacked the Black enclave of LeDroit Park. The Custer brothers, Boston (Bos), Thomas and Nevin, had just returned from Northern France fighting as American Stormtroopers alongside the French. They were not about to let their home be destroyed. They fought with restraint and resolve. Unbeknownst to them, German Stormtroopers were among the attackers.

The Germans had attacked the White House and kidnapped the President. The Custers and Lee Ann Custer defeated the Germans and rescued the President.

With the advent of Prohibition, they were now implementing their plan of bolstering the Black business community by "donating" alcohol to the Black churches for distribution and profits. Their modes of transport were Liberator boats powered by Packard engines. The Liberators had been built for use on the waterways of Northern France in World War I. Unused for that purpose, the Custers were now putting them to good use for liquor distribution on the East Coast. A little known gangster had different plans for the Custers.

Through my service in the Marine Corps, four years as a patrol officer with the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and 45 years as a trial lawyer in the Washington, D.C. area, I have "been around the barn." Since being admitted to the practice of law in Virginia in 1976, I have tried more than 300 jury cases and handled thousands of other cases of every conceivable type. In 1985, I became a partner with the firm of Johnson & Roche in McLean, Virginia. My practice has been principally litigation with a focus on tort litigation along with substantial involvement in commercial litigation, real estate litigation and domestic relations litigation.My interest in writing fiction ties in with my interest in the study of history. The main character in the Prohibition series is not a historical character but he acts as part of some historical events including the race riot of July 19, 1919 in Washington, D.C. Most of the other events are purely fictional but many of the characters of course are not. The existence of the Liberator boats is fact-based as these watercrafts were constructed as part of the U.S. war effort in Europe. The integration of fact and fiction is always tricky but hopefully these novels instill some further interest in the reader in this historical era and in further historical exploration.