For those running illicit distilleries in Peoria, the sometimes violent enforcement of Prohibition was tantamount to the excesses of state power exercised by the regime of Louis XIV. Beyond the hyperbole, the “dry law patrols” did present a significant threat to Peoria’s alcohol-fueled businesses.
Peoria
A digital companion to the biography Becoming Richard Pryor
The Peoria Protest
Date: 10/4/25
Citation:
“The Peoria Protest,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Oct. 4, 1924, p. 8.
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1. A City That Defied Prohibition
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Peoria Grand Jury Condemns Dry Terrorism
–9/30/1925–Federal agents were condemned in Peoria for their violent tactics
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The Peoria Protest
–10/4/25–Prohibition seemed to many Peorians a violation of fundamental human rights
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Peoria Busier Than Ever But Much Drier
–9/8/26–Early on, Peoria was “the city of high spirits,” a center for the distillery business
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Peoria Sadly Clamps Lid On For First Time
–10/21/30–In the wake of kidnappings and murder, the State Attorney ordered Peoria's gambling houses closed
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2. Overviews of the Woodruff Era
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Divorce in a City of 100,000 Population
–1939–Peoria had a divorce rate nearly twice the US average; a sociologist surveyed Peoria from all angles to discover why
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Old Peoria: As Wide Open As The Gateway To Hell
–4/14/1956–From the newspaper of the All-American city, a guided tour of the old “Empire of Vice”
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Old Peoria: Fixed Cops, Gang Murders, Kidnapping
–4/15/56–Reformed Peoria looked back at days of gangland kidnappings and murder
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This Was Peoria
–4/15/56–Editorial looking back to the “liberal” days of Peoria
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‘The Good Old Woodruff Days’
–6/26/76–Three decades after the decline of Roarin' Peoria, some still missed “the Good Old Days”
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3. A Brisk Trade in the Pleasures of the Flesh
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Eaton Street, home of Diamond Lil’s resort
–1930s–The street in the red-light district where Marie Pryor settled — and where Peoria's most famous 20th-century madam plied her trade
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Diamond Lil
–9/28/1930–A brief history of the end of Diamond Lil
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“Diamond Lil” Found In Cell; Keeps Silence
–12/27/1931–Diamond Lil, a black madam in Peoria, was squeezed by the DA but refused to name names
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A Prostitute at the Window
–5/1938–From the famed camera of Arthur Rothstein: a Peoria prostitute peeks out at the street
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North Washington Street
–1938–The block, in the red-light district, where Pryor was raised
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Historic Site (last house of prostitution)
–5/8/1980–The last remains of Prarie Alley were demolished in 1980
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Miss Diamond Lil’
–2/2011–An account of the rise and fall of Diamond Lil', a well-connected black madam in 1920s and 1930s Peoria
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