Beau James

James J. Walker a.k.a. Beau James

James J. Walker, mayor of New York from January 1, 1926 to September 1, 1932, who reveled in the sobriquet of "Beau James", is a central figure in the tale which unfolds in "Last Call".

He appears to have circumvented his own laws with regard to alcohol during the Prohibition era by means of a warren of underground sewer tunnels, a network which allowed him to avoid the streets while moving to and from his favorite speakeasy, The Old Haunt.

It is this underground world in which Donny Hayes was murdered by Steven Heisler over the remains of Beau James' legacy, about a hundred bottles of 135 year-old scotch, which, if sold off carefully one at a time, at the price Jeffrey McGuigan paid, would fetch about $2.5 million.