S1E599 - Death by Syrup: The Great Boston Molasses Flood & Prohibition Greed
Published: January 19, 2026
Duration: 22:23
It sounds like a bad joke or a scene from a cartoon: A 40-foot wave of sticky, sweet syrup swallowing an entire city block. But for the people of Boston in 1919, this was no laughing matter—it was a horror movie.
Imagine walking down the street and hearing a sound like machine-gun fire, only to look up and see a 2.3-million-gallon tsunami of molasses crash down on you at 35 miles per hour. In this episode, we investigate the Great Boston Molasses Flood, one of history’s most bizarre and tragic industrial disasters.
We peel back...
Imagine walking down the street and hearing a sound like machine-gun fire, only to look up and see a 2.3-million-gallon tsunami of molasses crash down on you at 35 miles per hour. In this episode, we investigate the Great Boston Molasses Flood, one of history’s most bizarre and tragic industrial disasters.
We peel back...