In 1991, the life of Dutch Schultz made it to the big screen in Billy Bathgate, with Dustin Hoffman playing the lead role. Part of the film took place in upstate New York, where the real-life Schultz had to stand trial, and was filmed in the historic town of Saratoga Springs.
Although the movie mixed fiction and reality, one thing was for sure— Schultz and his booze-running operation had a connection to upstate New York.
About an hour and half south of Saratoga is Pine Plains, New York, where Schultz set up an illegal distillery, which was long forgotten after being broken up by the feds in the ’30s. It has only recently seen the light of day again, per Atlas Obscura.
The secret moonshine distillery was set up on Harvest Homestead Farm in a cow barn in 1932, just three years before Schultz’s death. Underneath it was a series of interconnected tunnels, where Schultz’s workers could toil away and escape notice of the authorities. It was eventually raided.
Now under decidedly more legitimate ownership, the distillery has been reopened and recast as Dutch’s Spirits, and is now open for tours and tastings. For more information, click here.
Below, watch an interview about the reopening of the secret distillery with Dutch’s Spirits’ CEO Lydia Higginson.
—RealClearLife
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