Infamous Irish American bootlegger, Jack “Legs” Diamond, celebrated as hero

“Illegal stills popped up everywhere, however, their locations were kept very secret…We have a number of sites right here in Cairo.”

In the mid-1920s Diamond rented a house on Route 23 in Acra. “Being chased, almost continuously, by either the police or fellow gangsters, [Diamond] found the peace and quiet of Greene County an ideal place to set up his bootlegging operations.”

According the local historians Diamond escaped death, one of the many episodes, at a shoot out in the Aratoga Inn on April 27, 1931. Schultz and his men had finally caught up with him.

Then on December 18, 1931 Diamond was shot by his enemies as he lay, passed out, in bed at his Dove Street hideout in Albany. This was the night after he had been charged with four years in prison.

Hasenkopf said “Although [Diamond] was gone, he left an indelible mark on the town of Cairo and his legend lives on.”

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Nster.com