Here are some primary materials that I just found in a box:

Unsigned. "Murder" by Poison Bootleg Liquor. The Literary Digest 
(January 15, 1927), 5-7. This includes paragraphs from a variety of 
papers on the subject, and it could be used to round up the coverage 
of what appears to be a big story in early 1927. From paragraph 2:

"Poison liquor consumed in 1926 claimed the startling toll of 2,903 
deaths in eighteen States of the Union, according to the New York 
American, which explains that these figures are necessarily 
incomplete."

The Literary Digest for February 26, 1927, p. 14, covers "Dr. 
Norris's Poison Liquor Report." Apparently the Chief Medical 
Inspector of New York, Charles G. Norris, was regarded as quite the 
wet. The same report was covered on page 23 of the May 28, 1927 
issue. On March 3, 1928, the Literary Digest covered a different 
report by an Iowa pharmacologist on bootleg poison on page 21.

Within a year, the drys had their own reports debunking the claim 
that many died from poison liquor. The New England Journal of 
Medicine ran three reports to lead the March 22, 1928 issue (vol 198, 
no. 5, pp. 227-234). Each concluded that the illicit alcohol 
contained nothing more toxic than the usual ethyl alcohol. This 
echoed the dry response to Norris's report - "How can you poison 
poison?" - with scientific support. They were by George H. Bigelow, 
Hermann C. Lythgoe, and Reid Hunt and titled, respectively, "Are 
'Alcohol Deaths Due to Alcohol?," "The Character of the Illicit 
Liquor upon the Massachusetts Market," and "An Examination of the 
Toxicity of One Hundred Samples of Illicit Liquor."

Another good source for Prohibition-era reports and claims about the 
nastiness of bootleg liquor would be the American Mercury, which 
often featured essays and stories in which characters procured 
illicit drink.

Jon
-- 
Jon Miller, Asst. Prof. of English, Dept. of English, Univ. of Akron, 
Akron, OH 44302. office and voice mail, 1-330-972-5717.