Last Podcast On The Left - Episode 627: The Great Molasses Flood of 1919 Part I - Killer Condiments

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

After two weeks in the Toybox, it's time for a bit of a palate cleanser. Something sweet, thick, and disastrous... A story rich with historical significance that somehow manages to sneak through the cracks of most American history lessons. This week, the boys take a trip over 100 years into the past for The Great Molasses Flood of 1919. For Live Shows, Merch, and More Visit: www.LastPodcastOnTheLeft.comKevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Last Podcast on the Left ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

There's no place to escape to. This is the last hot task. On the left. Why, fuck your grade. That's when the cannibalism started. What was that? Molasses report. I thought for a second there you were singing the Mortal Kombat theme song that dead dead You've never even seen a jar of molasses. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. What is molasses I Thought for a second there you were singing the Mortal Kombat theme song

Podcast on the left ladies and gentlemen, my name is Marcus Parks. I'm here with the thick with molasses Henry Zabrowski. I view myself as the Raiden of molasses combat. I'm just missing my Chinese hat. That's all I got to do. Zap! Zap! You just got molasses. I'm Asian, I'm electric, I'm covered in molasses. And also of course the I would say pre sticky Ed Larson. Yes, I am covered in goo in the future. And I got to know what I want to do when I thought of this.

I want to change Jackie Onassis name to Jackie molasses because she was a little quicker. She would have got them brains back in their head. Yeah, she was a bit slow. She was a bit slow. But honestly, if her name was Jackie Molasses, I'd expect a little bit more of the gumption in the trunk. She was pretty thick. Well the reason why we're talking about Molasses is because today we are going to be covering

the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. This is one of those topics we have hovered around for a long time. It's unusual, it's interesting, but also uh, features a lot of the history of molasses. Yeah. And the... Well don't fucking, don't blow it all just yet. Yeah, definitely don't

want to ruin the history of molasses. The surprise! And I know what you're thinking, if a lot of people died and were talking about it, why are we calling it great? It's called the Great Molasses Flood because some guys saw what happened right afterwards and he was like, oh great Oh great! It's a molasses, oh it's a flood of molasses! Great! There goes my long weekend!

Oh good, get the broom! So the Great Molasses Flood was a horrific industrial accident that occurred in Boston in the year 1919. That January, a massive storage tank holding 12,000 metric tons of molasses burst above the North End neighborhood. As a result, 21 people died, 150 were injured, and the neighborhood itself was all but demolished. Now one might think that this story is a one and done, a curiosity in which a bunch of people die in horrific, unimaginable ways and that's all there is to it.

Fortunately though, this story turned out to be a two-parter because it's filled to the brim with my favorite thing in the whole wide world. What's that? Historical context. Yay! About molasses. And Boston! I know, but it's mostly about molasses.

Now is this the reason why Boston hates the color brown? You know the answer? Kind of. Kind of, and we're going to absolutely get into it. See, the Great Molasses Flood represents a moment in American history in which multiple historical topics and events come together to form a single massive fuckup of the highest order. Amongst other subjects, this story involves bombings, anarchists, industrial corruption,

World War I, immigration, political violence, prohibition, and ultimately the American Revolution itself. Basically, molasses is nutmeg all over again. Worked so hard to get away from nutmeg. We covered nutmeg so thoroughly and now we're up to our hairlines in another nutmeg. I didn't work hard to get away from nutmeg. I reluctantly let go of nutmeg. Oh God. Actually what's funny is that I do have a kind of a series of like

tchotchkes people have given me all over the years. I have like on top of my like through all the various meet and greets and I was like one I was going through like all the stuff for some reason was dusting and I saw a big jar of nutmeg and don't think oh, yeah, somebody just gave me that nutmeg Yeah Both nutmeg I know where my nutmeg comes from yeah, yeah, well I know where it comes from to slavery Seems like someone doesn't want his molasses jar But don't worry, dear listener.

Those horrific, unimaginable deaths I mentioned earlier are indeed contained within this series. The people who died in this accident suffered nightmarish fates. Fates that could have been prevented if only the right people had been paying attention to the molasses. See, admittedly, a molasses flood is a silly concept when you first think about it. Because the phrase molasses flood conjures up images of people being slowly overtaken and suffocated by a gooey dark brown liquid.

It's silly. Because also, you know, I feel like media used to have more like pictorials of dangerous large flowing slow liquids. Right? Yeah. Yeah, like the blob. Yes. There was the blob.

That's two blobs. That's two blobs. There was another big, there's another one. The stuff. The stuff. Yeah. Yep. The ants were slow in ants.

Them. Them, them, them, you're right, you're right. Man, fucking molasses. I'm so excited to eat some I know it's not good I like it, but the phrase slow as molasses doesn't really apply when you're talking about 2.3 million gallons of the stuff when you're talking about any flowing substance in that volume much less something as thick and Viscous as molasses you're talking about a destructive power that rivals a tsunami.

In some respects, a molasses flood is actually worse, because one can't really swim through molasses. And that challenge went double for the victims of the molasses flood, because the force of the molasses impact was strong enough to shatter bones. Whoa, so they didn't all just turn into, like, Jurassic Park mosquitoes. No, that was just the super slow children.

But before we get into the story of the molasses flood and ultimately the surprisingly fascinating history of molasses itself, let's acknowledge our source for today, the one that brought all this historical context together. That source is Dark Tide by Steven Pileo. Now, have you thought that Marcus has been driven into a molasses fever? Stefan Puleo is fucking patient zero. Yeah, molasses fever. Yeah, he's got fa fa fa fa fa fever. I mean, I do agree that molasses is important and it's interesting But this guy like he puts molasses on a level of importance like with the atomic bomb

He's like really into molasses. You don't want to have breakfast With Stephen Palao because you're not gonna end breakfast. Yeah bring the earbuds. Yeah The information contained within this book is fantastic, but the book itself probably could have used a stronger editor if we're being honest, because it does tend to lose itself in its own context at times, which I get this is exciting stuff. But even so, the book is still a fascinating and compelling read for anyone who enjoys the genre of nonfiction in which an author takes a seemingly inconsequential object and makes the argument that said object is extraordinarily important to world history. It's been done countless times, like at rope, cod, salt, all kinds of shit.

I agree with all three of those things though. They're very important. Yeah, ropes great for ending your life, cods are really good, flaky white fish, and I love salt as you can see. Soap's big too. Yep. Yeah, it's all massive Yeah, you can actually take any object and be like well, it's very important You know it's all intertwined, but there's an entire genre of nonfiction. It's very it's very cool. I like it

I can't wait to the gen alphas right there books about how Pokemon led to 9-eleven Now when most of us think about molasses today... That was general Pokemon! Now when most of us think about molasses today, if we even think about molasses at all, the substance conjures up the image of a subpar breakfast condiment that kinda goes with biscuits and not much else. Shoofly Pie.

Sure. What is Shoe Fly Pie? It's an extremely sweet, trickly pie made by the Amish. Oh, and they call it Shoe Fly because you have to shoo the flies away from it? Yes, because it's so sweet. Yeah. Well, it's therefore insane to think of a world in which there was enough demand for molasses that a company built a 2.3 million gallon tank solely for the purpose of holding molasses.

And they built that tank in such a place where its contents were likely to kill dozens of innocent people if it failed. They took a lot of risks for molasses. Somebody felt molasses was super crucial. Yeah, but to understand why a company called USIA built their molasses tank above one of the most crowded neighborhoods in America, therefore setting the stage for our most bizarre industrial accident, you gotta first understand how important and versatile of a substance molasses was back then. You're so excited.

I love this shit. It's so much truly. Like this was like the light up in Marcus' face yesterday when I came and we were talking about the episode, I was like, you know, there's face yesterday when I came and we were talking about the episode I was like, you know, there's quite a bit of historical context about molasses and Marcus like yeah, I know We're turning into a jelly-based podcast, I mean it's much better than raping girls in the trailer Raping girls in the trailer This is about it's the wonder of the world it's like how all how everything fits together It's how the world works. It's super cool shit. I love it

This is my favorite sure now you may be asking as Henry asked me the other day Where the fuck does molasses actually come to know thought it came from a tree or a bush? No, no it is not as weulated, made from sap like maple syrup. Instead, molasses is the byproduct of sugar manufacturing. Yay, industrial byproducts. Yay! See, when sugar cane is crushed and boiled to extract sugar, the remaining syrup after the sugar is crystallized,

that's called first molasses. This is the sweetest variety. This is your grandma that's called first molasses. Okay. This is the sweetest variety This is your grandma's original gold standard molasses Unpasteurized yeah, yeah, yeah the straight shit But the sugar is not done after the first molasses. It's boiled a second time which creates what? second molasses Second molasses. I can't believe I didn't guess. Yep, I did. My second guess?

Molasses Jr. It's less sweet and it's cheaper, but it's still edible. Great. But finally, from the third extraction... Why are we eating that? Then why are we eating it? The first molasses? Second molasses. Well, we don't eat second molasses anymore, but...

Why do we make second molasses if it's not eaten or used? It was eaten and used back then. Way back in like the 1600s when we first started making molasses anymore. Why do we make second molasses if it's not eaten or used? It was eaten and used back then, way back in like the 1600s when we first started making molasses. So you get your premier molasses? Premium molasses like that, that's what George Washington's eaten. Yeah. So then what, Benjamin Franklin's smearing second molasses on his girlfriend? Yeah, actually I would say so. Cheaper but still edible. Yeah. You know like how edible panties like, you know, they're pretty much like, you know, fruit roll ups. Yeah, actually I would say so yeah, you know cheaper, but still edible Yeah, you know like how edible panties like you know they're pretty much like you know fruit roll-ups Yeah, not the best fruit roll-ups, but you can wear them and eat them off of somebody that's second molasses Okay, but finally from the third extraction you have what's called backstrap molasses wouldn't I guess that nope this molasses is dark nearly

Inedible and used primarily for manufacturing industrial and grain alcohol Okay Now the grain alcohol is of course used to make spirits primarily rum But the industrial alcohol made from backstrap molasses is far more profitable as it was used back in the day to manufacture munitions like high explosives and gunpowder munitions, like high explosives and gunpowder. Humanity has since found far cheaper and easier ways to manufacture industrial alcohol. We don't use molasses for this purpose anymore. But backstrap molasses was in such demand prior to that discovery that it was indeed

the shittiest variety of molasses that burst from its tank above the North End neighborhood to drown and crush the good people of Boston in 1919. Backstrap molasses sounds like the cheapest stripper at the club. Hey, you want a lap dance? Yeah, you gotta hop on my lap. My name's Backstrap Molasses. Yeah, I'm the thickest back here at Kandy's. I'm here from noon until three on Mondays.

I do the lunch shift, specifically. You want the soup? Yeah, I have some soup. Here, look at my pussy. Backstrap molasses. No, that's what it meant. That was for me like one of the, like just a horrible thing about this whole accident is that it wasn't even the good molasses that's drowned the people it was the shittiest molasses. I should be super mad if they wasted all the good

molasses and drowned in all these people. I'm glad that weapon those that molasses was out to kill. Weapons grade molasses. This is what we're talking about here. This is what we've reached. This is killer condiments. Last podcast on the last. This is all about molasses that was primed to kill. This molasses was molested. It came from a broken home. The cycle of pain continues down the slope. It was kept in a tank too small. Yes!

That is what's happening here. It's molasses snapping back at society. Die from your grave. Concerning the importance of molasses to world history, this sticky substance was indeed a staple of the New England diet for hundreds of years as an ingredient and a flavor. So tons of the stuff was shipped to the American colonies starting in the 1600s. But back during colonial times, molasses was far more important to the economy of New England for its use in the production of rum. Now our historians out there might

know where I'm going with this, but rum was a massive cog in the machine that built the American slave trade. The trade cycle that went on here was that molasses was imported to New England from the West Indies. That's the Caribbean Islands. We talked about the East Indies there. That was when we talked about that was, you know, Wake Indonesia, all that. We're talking about the West Indies here. This is the Caribbean.

And once the molasses was in New England, it was used to make rum. That rum would then be loaded into ships bound for Africa. The rum would then be traded to the Africans for the enslaved members of other tribes. And those slaves would then be taken and sold to plantation owners back in the Caribbean so they could produce what else but more molasses. It almost seems like there's no point. It's a self. It is literally, they've created their own supply and demand system.

This cycle came to be known as the triangle of trade and it functioned as the backbone of New England's economy prior to the American Revolution. Now the rum slave pipeline was so successful that it produced an excess of enslaved Africans, far more than any number of plantation or farms in the West Indies or New England could use combined. But as we'll see again and again in this story, the molasses money was too fucking good to pump the brakes. To keep the profits ever rising, slavers greatly expanded the slave trade to the southern colonies

to support the south's burgeoning plantation system, which basically created a whole new economy. As such, one could make the argument that without molasses, the southern colonies might have never gotten as hooked on slavery as they ended up getting. And if America never has slavery in the south on such a scale that people were willing to kill their fellow countrymen to preserve it,

then the world looks like a very different place indeed. I'm not eating any more molasses. Yeah, fuck molasses. Who ain't killed Lincoln? Holy shit, molasses killed Abraham Lincoln. It's all fucking coming together. Thank God the grit economy never took off. Could you imagine if grits became the number one?

God, the only thing slower than molasses. Oh God! A low country breakfast? Are these 20 minute grits or 40 minute grits? And again, thank you to the person in Atlanta who cosplayed as Abraham Lincoln at our show. Oh my God. Fantastic. She was wonderful and she came to the Dad's Garage shows painted completely green.

As an alien for Henry. She did a great job. Incredible. Yeah, please come dressed up to our shows. We love it. Now, molasses had become an indispensable part of the American colonial economy by the mid 18th century. You still with me, Henry, after that sentence?

Oh, I love this. I am here. No, I read the script. So England figured they'd use the sticky substance to pay off their debt from the Seven Years War by taxing molasses with the Sugar Act of 1764. Yeah, this made a lot of guys angry. Yes, this of course was one of the big taxation without representation bugaboos that set the

stage for the American Revolution, meaning molasses even played a part in the birth of our country. In fact, John Adams himself said, I know not why we should blush to confess that molasses was an essential ingredient to American independence. Yes, here here! Oh, I have shit my pantaloons. I had too much second run molasses this morning. Maybe we should rethink what we've done here. By the time the industrial revolution rolled around in the late 19th century, industrial

alcohol made from molasses was not just a significant part of the New England economy, but the American economy at large. The center of America's molasses empire was Boston, because Boston had also been the center of America's slave trade back when most Americans were more or less cool with slavery. And it made sense to operate the slavery and run businesses out of the same town. But as a consequence of Boston's past

as a hub for slave trading, our nation's most racist northern city would be the site of the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. And it would all be the fault of a company called United States Industrial Alcohol, or USIA. Oh yeah, you know how we like our molasses, Ted? You know how we like our molasses, it's in my mouth. The USIA bought its molasses from sugar plantations

in Cuba starting in the 1800s. That molasses would be transported by steamer ship to Boston where it would then be temporarily held until it could be transported to U S I A's alcohol manufacturing facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts. All that molasses steamer ship sounds like getting your ass all sucked out. It does. The molasses steamer ship sounds like something that old backstrap will deliver in the back end. I was trying to figure something different than the champagne room. Backstrap is not in the champagne room. Backstrap is in the great alcohol room. The molasses junior room.

So the molasses goes from Cuba to Boston, then to Cambridge. Now by 1914, a small part of USIA's molasses was still being used to distill grain alcohol for rum, but the majority of the molasses was earmarked for the manufacture of industrial alcohol, the main use of which in 1914 was in producing munitions like dynamite and gunpowder Now 1914 was indeed an auspicious year for high explosives because 1914 marked the beginning of World War one and USIA was all set to make as much money as they possibly could From the carnage and misery begat from that war. Good for them. So began our great American legacy. Now, USIA was selling massive amounts of industrial alcohol made from molasses to European countries

even before America became involved in World War I. But the company still had to rent relatively small storage tanks in Boston at great cost to hold their molasses until it could be transported to their facility in Cambridge. So USIA figured that they could maximize their profits by building one single 50 foot tall monstrosity of a storage tank that they owned themselves, the largest tank in the region by far capable of holding 2 million gallons of molasses at all times I want you all to listen to me boys. I have an idea biggest problem we have

Hold the molasses Honestly what holds a molasses better than anything else a bucket So what I was thinking boys. I listen here We build the world's biggest bucket. God damn it. I love this man. I'm stuck to the seat. The task of building this abomination was given to a sniveling middle manager named

Arthur P. Jell. I'm your bucket constructor. You ought to believe that bucket won't be as big as I can get it. Jell was the treasurer for a subsidiary of USIA in Boston. But Jell was ambitious and he had his heart set on a vice president spot in New York City at the parent company. If all went well with the construction of the industrial molasses tank, Jell believed that that corporate slot could be his. Now Jell was your classic indifferent industrialist who cut corners and scoffed at the conclusions of experts if those conclusions ran contrary to his plans.

All a bucket needs is walls and a hole! That's all we need to provide and I don't want to hear anything else! Should we put a rope on top of the bucket? No! How are we going to carry it? We're going to leave it alone. I'm not going to have you eggheads come in here and tell me how to make a bucket. I know how to make a bucket.

I know how to contain the molasses. We keep it in one stable big giant bucket. It's easy to do. Quit thinking about it. Quit thinking picnics. This ain't no picnic. This is molasses. We've got a war going on. But in true corporate form, USIA had also put Jell under an enormous amount of pressure to have the tank complete in just a few months because USIA wanted their 2 million gallon tank ready when the next shipment of molasses arrived from Cuba

on New Year's Eve, 1915. Nigel immediately ran into a bevy of problems when he tried just leasing the land to begin construction on the tank. But the pressure only increased when a British luxury liner called the Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland. This is where this show has finally touched tips with my high school

History education. Yeah, the last thing I remember is Lusitania. Yeah, is that word? Yeah The name of a high school history. It's like it always seems to end at World War one I never got past World War one in any history class in high school I had a time you always run out of time. Yeah, once you get the interesting parts, it rolls so long, it's Benjamin Franklin did this and this other guy did this. And it's been like, I want to know MacArthur. Yeah. Well, I think honestly, I think that one of my history teachers, I think he was just stalling

because he was a Vietnam vet who had obviously got really fucked up and he did not want to make it to the seventies. Oh wow. Yeah. Because then he'd have to start wrapping his head in a headband and fucking doing Russian roulette in front of the kids and marching the Asian ones down the hall and marching them back and forth indiscriminately. I feel like I learned about the monitor and the Merrimack every year. Yeah sure. It's just a boat. There's two boats. They got in a fight. A lot of the stuff going

on. A lot of stuff. But boats, big part of American history. That's two boats. They got in a fight. A lot of the stuff going on. A lot of stuff. But boats, big part of American history. That's a thing! Now, America had pledged to stay out of World War I entirely at its beginning, and many Americans had in fact sided with Germany in the beginning because so many of us have German heritage. But out of the 1200 people who died on the Lusitania, 128 were American. So public opinion shifted against the Germans and closer to war. So if America was going to enter the war, the munitions were going to be in even higher demand.

More munitions meant more industrial alcohol, and more industrial alcohol meant more molasses. As a consequence, the pressure to finish the tank before America entered the war was added to everything else Why did they put it on top of a hill? Because then you ever make you get out it. It's so heavy I think that leave it at the bottom of the hill. I think it's about pouring the molasses out of it actually can I ask mr. gel I am sick and tired of your little Yankee excuses. But it's just, you know, the molasses are so heavy, we don't need to pick it up the hill, I mean the horses are tired.

I think I need someone on bucket duty. Shit! Yeah, you too, get on top of the bucket. Hold on, so we got little buckets pouring in the big bucket? Yes. Actually, no, it's more the hose operation we got going on here, but I view hoses as long buckets That's a different story altogether. That's the history of hoses a bucket Now construction on the tank began in the first week of November in the year

1915 and that didn't give the workers a whole lot of time to put this thing together properly if it was gonna be done in time for the next Malasha shipment due to arrive on New Year's Eve. The project, however, seemed cursed from the very start. Delays were introduced at the beginning of December when work slowed down following the death of an employee who fell 40 feet into the tank itself from a staging plank above.

That worker was named Thomas DeFratis, who I only mention because his name is very fun to say out loud. More like Thomas DeFlatis. The worst bucket workers I've ever seen. Put the molasses on top of him. Yeah, who cares? Spice it up. Well construction came to a standstill again when a so-called super storm swept into Boston

a couple of weeks after Thomas Defrodus' death. This storm brought 20 inches of snow along with torrential rain and gale force winds. This of course ended work completely on the tank for days on end. That's how you know the bucket's working because the snow and the rain building up inside the bucket. Because the problems kept coming, the man in charge of building the tank, the aforementioned Arthur P. Jell, he began cutting corners in the most negligent and arrogant ways possible. Instead of testing the tank for leaks by filling it with water, as was required by contract,

this inexpensive process that would have taken days if not weeks, Joe ran a far cheaper and far faster test by ordering his men to run just six inches of water into the 50-foot tank. Now Terrence, I want you to just now I want you to climb down to the bucket and I want you to just splash the water around a little bit and see if it does anything to it. You're having too much fun there Mortimer, I mean that's gonna kill your family. Yeah, thank you, very good. Right now, can we kill him? No, no, we'll pull him up, we'll pull him up.

All the insurance people are watching. The six inches of water, that brought the water level just above the first angle joint, where one would expect to see leaks first. But when no leaks sprung, Jell declared that the entire structure had passed all inspection. But the biggest corner Gel cut, the one that got 21 people killed, concerned the steel used to construct the tank itself. See, the tank was made of seven vertical layers of rounded steel plates, which were held into place by rows of horizontal and vertical rivets. Now the plan was sound, but the design had a very specific minimum thickness requirement for the steel plates.

But just like Jell, the company who made the steel had also cut corners. Hey, buckets don't got corners. That's what I said. I said I'm cutting the corners because if it's not, it's not a bucket. All right, it must be rounded. How else will the molasses sit?

Properly, I think. Well, when the steel plant delivered the plates that were to make up the tank, the plates were 10% below the minimum thickness. That's nothing. Which means that... That's fine. That's a mark off right there. And that means that Jal either checked the thickness and rolled the dice, or more likely, never checked at all

But no matter where the negligence lay It still meant that the molasses tank was essentially a ticking time bomb that was inevitably going to burst And it was all done so one Corpo could get the promotion of his dreams Yeah, and you don't understand promotions just lead to more work. Yeah. You know, that's actually the big problem here. Now, even though Jell had cut corners when it came to construction, he spared no expense when it came to security. Jell was adamant that an officer from the Boston Police Department be paid to stand on a fixed post at the tank guarding it at all times.

And I tell you right now, I'll pay you double your fee as long as you leave the slurs to an absolute minimum. You can do three slurs an hour. That's all you can do. Jell did have reason to do this, but when it came time to place blame for the tank's failure, Jell's reasoning for increased security also became a convenient scapegoat. Essentially, Jell had posted guards because he was afraid of anarchist saboteurs, because the anarchists were, at the time, bombing and setting fire

to all manner of buildings and people all across America. One of the worst examples were the Freedom of Pancakes party that was going against anything, I mean, eggs. Anything that had eggs was a target. Bacon couldn't be served. They just absolutely couldn't stand. The idea of someone telling people what breakfast was. Well, the anarchist movement believed, in the 1910s, mind you, that capitalist forces

were working hand in hand with the government to make the lives of the working class poor miserable and impossible to change, which, you know, fair point. They might have been correct. But in order to break free of those bonds, the anarchists were pushing for a social revolution, and that revolution would, according to some of these anarchists, ultimately need to be a violent one. See, in their view, the state was guilty of structural violence because it directly or indirectly prevented people from meeting their basic needs. So the violence,

perpetrated by anarchists in America during the 1910s, was justified as self-defense against the state in big business. Interestingly though, and I can't believe no one fucking talks about this, the leader of one of the main anarchist groups that were in essence Defending and deposing if you will his name was what else but Luigi Yeah, and you know what's funny there's an a Luigi shall lead us each time which I we never know what expected Is there a Luigi cycle? You know they talk about like the 77 you know they talk about like these cycles Is there a Luigi cycle or like once every like hundred years a Luigi comes did you think that the Yoshi cycles and everyone was talking Luigi cycle? Once every like hundred years a Luigi comes. Did you think that the Yoshi cycles and everyone was talking about eating ass for like five years at that time? You know, I wonder because there was a lot of Italian anarchists. That

was a huge movement in Italy. And we're going to, we're going to get to why the Italians were really big in anarchism in America here in a bit. The first time I saw Antifa spray painted everywhere was in Italy. Yes. Yes. Now the anarchists rightly surmise that capitalism and warfare are inextricably linked. So to them, world war one was basically a representation of everything that was wrong with the world. So far they're not wrong. No, I mean, that's the thing I with the anarchists, I agree with the points. Yes. It's just the methods and the conclusions on what should be done about it that I have, that's like, well, let's talk about it. All I know is that if internet forums are an example of a leaderless area, then we should

maybe talk about anarchy on an extended way. Imagine if mods had guns Well, that's the thing is that you shouldn't even with an anarchy the mods are useless you should not have mods But they would always say don't they in our any isn't an anarchist groups have sort of like a communal Understanding of society where their decision-makers. I don't know. It's like nine different times of types of anarchy Yes, I know it's very complicated. It's extraordinarily extraordinarily complicated in man you think talking with a communist is tedious I don't know man one night in New York I spent a night I spent a night drinking with a communist and two anarchists and it was the most tedious night of my life You know, and these are people you should just be doing drugs with yeah, we were drinking

Yeah, definitely drinking but the more we drank the more tedious it got. It's hard. It's gotta be a couple rules. That's hard. It's all fake. It's all rules. But while the anarchists were against war, they infamously used violence again and again in an attempt to bring the gears of war to a grinding halt. In particular, the anarchists liked bombs and they liked fire. Everyone does. Yeah, everyone does too. It is true. Bonfires in 4th of July. I mean, everyone loves it.

See, during the same exact time period that the molasses tank in Boston's North End was being built, a series of suspicious explosions and fires broke out at strategic manufacturing plants across America. This was all a part of the anarchist playbook because just a few months before anarchists had sent almost 50 booby-trapped dynamite-filled mail bombs to a cross-section of prominent politicians, newspaper editors, and businessmen. Humorously, the mail bombs were sent in boxes stamped, Gimble Brothers Novelty Samples. But as to how all this relates back to the molasses, Anarchists were, in late 1915, suspected of engaging in

sabotage at various munitions and weapons factories, and the North End molasses tank certainly fit the bill as a large cog in the war machine. Molasses to industrial alcohol, to gunpowder. But to add to the fears of anarchist sabotage at the tank, a steelworks in Pennsylvania that produced guns for the allies was destroyed in a suspicious fire in November, while an explosion at the DuPont powder mill in Delaware killed 30 men shortly after. Then on the heels of the DuPont explosion, an anarchist was arrested after threatening to blow up the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company and assassinate President Woodrow Wilson all at the same time. That's a big plan. It's a huge plan but all of these events occurred

at the same time that the molasses tank was being constructed. My bucket will continue to stand whether they are anarchists or communists or Nazis or anything. My bucket will stand at the same time. Boston meanwhile was becoming a bit of an anarchist hotbed or at least that's what authorities believed. See, a lot of anarchists were Italian. No way. It's interesting.

And the North End neighborhood where the molasses tank was being built was made up almost entirely of Italian immigrants by 1915. But Italian Americans didn't gravitate towards anarchism specifically because they were Italian. Rather, Italians became anarchists in America because they were immigrants. Immigrants who felt like they'd been disenfranchised and exploited by the capitalist system, which again, fair point. They are emotional. The Italians. And spaghetti is an inherently anarchic dish. You can't control spaghetti. But in addition to their exploitation, Italians were also the most vilified group of immigrants in America in the early 20th century.

They were viewed by many other Americans as lazy, violent freeloaders who refused to learn English. As a result, Italians were the second most lynched population in America at the time. The treatment that Italians received angered quite a few of them, and some turned to anarchism for answers. But most Italian immigrants, especially those in Boston's North End, they stayed out of politics completely. Those that stayed out of it were merely trying to forge a better life here in America, just like the vast majority of immigrants to America from every country ever. But since the North End was made up of

disengaged immigrants who didn't vote and therefore had no voice in municipal matters, there wasn't much, if any, pushback from the neighborhood when Arthur P. Jell and USIA came in with their imposing plans for a 50-foot tall molasses tank. And the only thing you'll ever smell ever again is molasses. And that will be the smell of Boston. And that will be the only thing that Boston's ever known for ever again. The gap in the molasses. I mean, Boston baked beans, what do you think the main ingredient is?

Beans. Molasses. Whoa. First it's beans. Where did the beans come from? Mexico. See, contrary to what you might think, the molasses flood was not an accident that occurred in some isolated industrial zone.

It wasn't just workers that died here. Instead, this shoddily built tank was constructed atop one of the most crowded neighborhoods in the country. The north end at that time had the same population density as Calcutta, and this neighborhood was also conveniently filled with possible Italian anarchist scapegoats should the tank fail. Wow. Wow.

That's also kind of, wow, that's just very interesting. The idea that they're all just this big bubbling thing on top of everybody and they're all just, oh, you know, at the same time, it's like, you remember when MC Hammer built the big house on top of the, yeah, looking down, at the same time, it's like, you remember when MC Hammer built the big house? On top of the, yeah. Looking down on Compton? Yeah. He did that. It's like this.

He's like, so then everybody can look up to the big bucket and think about what this bucket has brought to our people and how important molasses is to the United States economy. Also- It brought absolutely nothing to the people because that the molasses was mostly worked by Irishmen. But they don't know that they're they don't understand that maybe. And if you're worried about anarchists blowing up your big bucket, put the big bucket in

the middle of the anarchist neighborhood. They ain't going to blow it up. Exactly. Then they're going to start working, start understanding, oh my God, you're going to start flipping anarchists to capitalists every day being like, this is what molasses can provide for you. This is the kind of future the molasses can bring to you and your family. Have you ever thought about coming to work for Big Bucket? I see your energy and I like what you do. Have you ever thought working? You ever thought about working in the jelly industry?

Now, despite all the setbacks Arthur P. Jell had faced during the construction of the molasses tank, he did indeed pull off the project in time to appease his bosses. When the steamer owned by the Cuba Distilling Company arrived full of molasses just before New Year's Eve in 1915, one day early, the newly constructed tank in the North End neighborhood easily took 13 feet of molasses without incident Oh, yeah, she did Take 13 19 24, what happened? Honestly, one of the hardest afternoons I had is the one time it took 36 feet

I was walking crooked for a couple of days after that one day I put the ass in my last Here under my breath Reconstituted I really want someone to do some fan art of backstrap molasses I want to see backstrap molasses. I want to see that realized. Since the North End tank did not immediately explode upon its inaugural pouring, USIA declared it a success. This gave the company license to increase its production of industrial alcohol, thereby keeping up with the incredible munitions demands of World War I.

To give you an idea of how much money was on the table here, industrial alcohol made from molasses was, as I said, a key ingredient in the production of gunpowder. After America finally entered the war in April of 1917, this country produced more than 632 million pounds of gunpowder, equaling the combined production of England and France. You can't make that without industrial alcohol made from molasses. At the same time that the USIA was making more and more money off the war, Boston's district attorney was becoming more and more worried about the anarchist threat,

and he said so publicly. The DA claimed that Boston in particular was in grave danger from disturbances of quote anarchistic bands who hold nightly meetings to plan the eventual destruction of America from within while our eyes were fixed on danger from without. Again, applying a lot of planning to the anarchists. Yeah. Saying that they're very organized. They were organized and they did plan.

But it's sort of like satanists. When you try to put together a group of satanists and everyone talks about, oh these satanist groups and satanist covens and shit. Where it's like, satanists are like herding fucking cats with Reddit flair. Like this is what we're talking about.

Like they are, like they are, it's hard to put them together. I think if the anarchists planned less, they'd be more effective. Yeah dude. Yeah dude, that's what the fucking... Agents of chaos. Yeah. I think they tried that too.

Yeah, sure. Anarchists kind of try anything. Yeah, it's kind of cool. In that way, that's cool. Yeah. I like them. I think they're fun. I think they're fun.

I'd like to hang out with them. Yeah. I'd like to hang out. It would be fun to do. But I am going to go home at night. Oh, very true. I'm not sleeping on a mat. I'm paying my bills, I'm paying my taxes. I'm still a small business owner, but at the same time, I like the energy.

Interestingly, it's actually quite difficult to tell which of the industrial accidents at munitions factories during World War I were the work of anarchists and which were merely the result of negligence from capitalist bosses like Arthur P. Jell. For example, four days after America declared war on Germany, 116 workers were killed in a massive explosion at the Eddie Stone Ammunition Corporation in Chester, Pennsylvania. Tragically, the staff at the plant was mostly made up of teenage girls. So they also made up the majority of the victims. Cute! I didn't know you could staff a munitions factory with the cast of brats. How old the gossip there must have been, or brutal.

Oh yeah, back then the munitions factories were staffed by all manner of children. Yeah, back when kids had spines. Oh, yeah back then the music munitions factories were staffed by all manner of children. Yeah Back when kids had spines. Yes, they need the little fingers to get in the bullet case now They're allergic to gluten and shit back in the day kids were building guns kids were awesome Well, the blast had originated from the pellet room in the shrapnel building Sounds like the most dangerous place on earth in 1917 Outside of the actual battlefields of World War one. Do you want to go talk to Tina and Tiffany? They're running the shrapnel building The candy necklaces and the big jeans are you in the pellet room today or the glass room I'm in the shrapnel area, it's kind of cool.

Something Brad started working there. I work in screws and nails. I work in poison gas and bitch lumps. Bitch lumps is a whole new thing. But even though there was no proof of anarchist involvement in this explosion, which killed 116 people, the official line from the company and the police was that the Chester explosion was an inside job perpetrated by foreigner anarchists who'd suicide bomb themselves in an attempt to damage the war effort because that was kind of the problem with the Anarchists at the times because anytime something went wrong in a munitions factory or an end up

You can all the the bosses could always say I was anarchist and the public for the most part would be like alright Like I get you so this wasn't anarchist This is just like them not doing their job right as far as anger as far as we know It was probably just it was probably just an accident. It was probably just you know shitty conditions You know things weren't safe so on and so forth, but the corporations could always say oh no no no no no no We didn't fuck up the anarchists were the ones who did this it's super crucial it's a great thing and it's like and that truly is an American tactic mm-hmm oh yeah always have that scapegoat always have that enemy now Arthur P. Jale did indeed

receive that vice president promotion after he got the molasses tank built on time but since he was the one who built it Arthur P Jale was also made the tank guy at USIA from there on out as such Jale seemed to take the protection of the tank very seriously See as I said earlier the tank certainly was a target for anarchists in theory So after the Boston DA sounded the alarm on anarchists and the Chester factory exploded, Arthur P. Jell hired extra guards and had them sworn in as special police tasked solely with guarding the molasses. You will never find a more motivated person than a middle management piece of shit little guy that's looking for any sort of power to give him a reason to flex Oh power the reason to be like oh now I'm big and bad because I've hired all of these goons

Because I and I need to now I have this moral imperative Quote unquote to hire these goods. I just imagined like ten dudes with rifles marching around a giant bucket giant bucket. Yeah, it's literally all it is. Hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup. Yeah, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup,

hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup paying the least bit of attention to the USIA employees who were stressing day after day that something was very wrong with the North End Tank structurally. In other words, Arthur P. Jell was very good at appearing as if he gave a shit about the safety of the tank when it came to security, but if the safety of the tank involved anything that might disrupt production, he didn't want to hear about it. Just after Jell hired his extra molasses guards, the tank supervisor's assistant,

a guy named Isaac Gonzalez, he gave Jell some distressing news. While the tank had been doing fine on paper in the two years since it had been built, it had, in reality, leaked molasses from every seam, every day, from the very beginning. And that's bad. That's not good. It seems like that's good. You scoop up that leaky molasses and you put it back on. Put it on the top of the bucket.

Do I have to tell everybody how to do that job here? Use other buckets and put the buckets of molasses back into the bigger bucket. You give me that gum, put it in the seam. The leaks were in fact so consistent that neighborhood children gathered around the base of the very dangerous tank every day to collect molasses in pails and old cans so they could take it home, even though it was the shittiest molasses. You shoot that street urchin in the head. You shoot that street urchin in the head, they're not allowed to eat our industrial

weapons grade molasses. Yeah, your molasses sucks, asshole. Shoot him, shoot him in the head But some of the kids they just bring sticks to the tank they would Know they dip their sticks into the puddles of molasses that gathered on the ground around the tank and once dipped, the children would slurp the sticky, bittersweet syrup straight from the source. I better not eat all this syrup at once. I got to take it back to my wife and kids. I bet every one of them lived to a hundred. These are the ones that are like, what's his name? The old guy that used to go talk to the old people, what's his name? Oh, child of the George Birts?

The guy from, they used to do 100, when you got to be on the show. George Willard? George Willard, just showing up. Willard Scott! They're always, these other people, they're like, man, I was there for the great molasses, what, in 1919, I watched it for my bourbon.

Every day I have a glass of whiskey one cigar I spent mornings as a child sitting in a molasses puddle and just eating bucket after bucket of molasses In my mouth my mother she washed rags for the gun makers Now by By 1918, the leaks were only getting worse. After production of industrial alcohol reached peak wartime levels that year, the tank reached its 2 million gallon limit seven times. The tank would vibrate and groan every time a new shipment of molasses was pumped in from the Cuban steamers. No, that's the tank breathing.

That's the tank settling. Now the leaks and vibrations and groans, they terrified the aforementioned tank supervisor's assistant Isaac Gonzales. Gonzales, in fact, became so worried about the tank's safety that after work he would return to the site at all hours of the night just to ensure that the whole thing hadn't exploded while he was gone the man couldn't sleep Please hold Staring at him like with a sheer force of will Do not let this sweet death come upon the wonderful city of Lhasa. But in the end, all Gonzales could personally do was spread sand around the base of the

tank to keep the molasses from flowing too far into the neighborhood, or he'd be sent out to chase off the kids when too many began gathering around the molasses puddles. This just reminds me of whoever was Gerard Depardieu's assistant for so long. You know what I mean? Just like waking up every day being like, I pray to God Gerard hasn't pissed in another airplane. I pray to God, tell me Mr. Depardieu, tell me that you didn't attack another actress, did you?

You know, filled with molasses. Now with all his other duties, Gonzales said that it was becoming impossible for him to take care of the increasing amounts of leaking molasses So he went above his boss's head straight to Arthur P gel to air his concerns Predictably though even when Gonzales brought flakes of rusty steel to Arthur P gel from inside the tank Proof that the structure was weakening. He had to make he threw the pieces of steel at him no gel waved off his concerns gel told Gonzalez that some leaking was normal for any tank of that size everything leaks you should follow me around for a day you should see how I'm leaking you worry about your own Lincoln plug leaking, you should see how I'm leaking. You worry about your own leaking. Plug it up. That's what I say. If it's leaking,

plug it up. So, Gel told Gonzalez that if he knew what was good for him, he'd best focus on keeping all those pesky Italian children from trespassing on USIA property. If I was you, I'd get a couple of other buckets. We have to fill up the main bucket. Fill those buckets up with Rick and Tony. Leave them on the tree, alright? Let the kids attack the buckets of Rick and Tony. I think that's the only way to do it. We've got to distract them. Attack the buckets of Rick and Tony and then when you do, do you know what a Molotov cocktail is? Then you set them on fire one by one. No, all at once. I'm trying to tell you how to do this efficiently in the corporate USIA way. Now, Gonzalez was not the only person who noticed that something was wrong with the

tank. Everyone did moaned. The tank was screaming. During the summer of 1918, a fellow worker said that it sounded as if the molasses was bubbling or boiling from the heat and another worker said that he liked leaning against the tank because the vibrations caused by the movement of the molasses were strong enough to ease his back pain. It was his fucking massage chair. Yeah, my wife likes it too. She rubs her clitoris against it. We're all loving the new tank, Mr. Jell. Everybody's coming by rubbing their butt on the vibrating tank. Nothing's wrong with it. But Gell, meanwhile, again made a predictable, if pointedly aggressive, move. Instead of addressing Isaac Gonzalez's concerns about the leaks. Jelle brought in a crew to repaint the tank, a rusty brown color. So has to make the tank

itself indistinguishable from the molasses seeping from it seems. I mean, that does work. That's called the landlord move. I don't know if anybody's had mold in their apartment in New York. Oh yeah. They just paint over that shit. I remember one time our fucking fridge at Hooters was all fucked up and then we didn't we didn't have the money to replace it So I just got a bunch of metallic paint and painted the fridge metallic and the way it looks great Man the brown Shrinks on it. That's the problem with streaks brown you paint the whole damn thing brown Now this targeted fuck you this was the last straw for Gonzalez because he obviously knew this was pointed straight at him

Yeah, so I'm gonna go a volunteer for World War one. That's exactly what he did He's like I would rather were I would rather die in the fields of Flanders than work for USIA for another fucking second. I saw too many guys lose their noses and eyes for me does not say I got to be in there. Yeah. What Gonzalez didn't know was that by the time he returned to Boston in March of 1919, his worst fears about the tank would indeed have come true. The molasses tank surprisingly made it through the war, but just as World War I was winding down, the Spanish flu began ripping its way through the North End. In Boston, so many people died of the flu that circus tents were used to cover the stacks of unburied coffins left in the local cemeteries because

gravediggers had become scarce. And because circuses are fun. You get distracted by how fun all the corpses must be having inside the circus. They're not worried about burying them. You heard of a flea circus? It's a flu circus. It's fun to do. It's a funny old joke. The USIA and Arthur P. Jell, they couldn't have cared less about the people who were dying in the pandemic. They were far more concerned that the deaths of their workers were disrupting their production schedules at the same time that production demands were dropping due to the end of the war. So the pressure on USIA is increasing. The extra pressure being put on the tank for all those years as a result of munitions production, that would have probably

subsided after the war, thereby saving dozens of lives and Boston's West End by dumb luck. But that wasn't how USIA wanted to play it. See, like any big corporation, USIA was desperate to keep its profits ever-climbing at all times no matter what. So the company's executives believed that their operation could switch back to producing grain alcohol for rum to keep the bottom line rising. But there was another major shift in American history

that would contribute directly to a sudden and massive increase in the tank's capacity and therefore the tank's destruction. That shift, ironically, was prohibition. tanks capacity and therefore the tanks destruction that shift ironically was prohibition it's so funny how like it is just the truth I know that we were making a fun of you but it is wild yeah all of this one thing to the next to the next to the next you can't explain what happened here without going all the way back to fucking 1600 well I didn't realize that until I was trying to tell Eddie

about it on the other day, and he just kept asking questions. Oh no, it's the issue. I'm just saying, man built a bucket that failed. You know what I mean? Well, you can just say that, but it doesn't really make sense. Now, the temperance movement had been trying

to ban alcohol in America since 1893, but this movement finally found its footing during World War I. Anti-German sentiment had swept the nation during the war, and since the majority of beer brewers had German heritage, the temperance movement successfully used the war to further prohibition. They would say, a glass of beer is a glass for the Kaiser, so ban alcohol. We already beat them, leave us alone. No, but then you know, you know more mission was a mess Well, they had gotten people over to their side during the war

So by the time the war was over there were already all these people that were like, yeah Yeah prohibition sounds like a fucking great idea. Let's do it now Arthur P Jel and the USIA they knew that if the 18th Amendment banning alcohol was ratified They'd have a one-year grace period until the law finally came into effect in early 1920. That meant that they had a very narrow window to distill as much grain alcohol as possible in the first quarter of 1919, because that gave them enough time to ship the alcohol to brewers who could make their products and distribute them to saloons and stores before they were all closed by prohibition.

Serendipitously, there was indeed a huge shipment of molasses expected to arrive from Cuba in mid-January 1919. So the USIA gave orders to fill the North End molasses tank to absolute capacity, higher if need be, in order to keep profits going for as long as possible. That shipment of molasses, of course, would be the one that would brutally kill 21 people in a crushing wave of sweet, sticky, viscous liquid. And that is where we'll pick back up next week for the disaster itself. And I promise you, when we come back next week,

these people are gonna drown, they're gonna drown thickly, they're gonna drown badly, and we're gonna tell you all about it. It's more the crushing than the drowning. Crushing and drowning. And I would say more suffocation than drowning. I think drowning's just a more aquatic version of suffocating. It is.

It is, it is, yes. It is. But it's more suffocating is It is. It is. It is. But it's more suffocating is more when your mouth is covered and you can't. Aquaman drowns. Black Widow suffocates. Drowning is when your lungs fill with water. Suffocation is just when it's covered. So I think suffocation would be more appropriate.

Unfortunately, the bucket will die in the beginning of next episode. So just know that. First death gives the giant bucket. The bucket bucket is yeah. That's number one. Well I mean technically the first death is Thomas DeFratis. Honestly no one's blaming the molasses. So. Well it's not the molasses fault. Yeah it is. Do you blame the tiger? Do you blame the lion? Yes. Sometimes. Okay fine it. Do you blame the alligator? Do you blame the orca? Yeah! He's just like, he's just like blaming things. He does like assigning blame.

All this talk about thick, thick brown liquid is really making me have to take on absolutely massive shit. Oh nice! Well, patreon.com slash last podcast on the left, you can go join our patreon if you want to see the pained look on Henry's face right now as he keeps that turtle Head in I am my own giant Boston based bucket You can also watch shock full to the brim with human made molasses, you know The more jokes you make the longer this is gonna take I know You can also watch last stream on the left live if you are a Patreon member. That is every Tuesday at 6pm PST. Don't forget to follow us on our

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We can't fight it. We can't do we can only do what we can do Which is tell you go to the website and please come see us out on the road We love doing but performing live and we love it. Absolutely. Hail sweet Satan. I love you. No one. How gene hail backstrap molasses I picked up another shift Wednesday's noon to six