This photograph was taken during a photoshoot in 1924 in Elise and Roy’s Seattle mansion where Ruth lived for a while that summer. Ruth was Elise’s close friend and inscribed the photograph “Yours ‘til the last apple falls. Ruth.” She married Roy’s bookkeeper, Richard Elbro, who also went by the name “Dick Bennett,” and they were both among the guests at the mansion during the infamous raid on the home by the Feds in November 1924. The raid was the beginning of the end of Roy’s empire and Elise’s life of luxury.
After the raid, Dick, a Canadian, was deported back to Vancouver, British Columbia. He was indicted, but did not stand trial with Roy and his cohorts because there was no extradition treaty with Canada. Ruth, who was a U.S. citizen, joined her husband in Canada, but both wanted to return to the U.S., and Dick wanted to become a citizen. So in return for promises of a safe return to the U.S., Ruth agreed to cooperate with the government and to testify against Elise at trial a year later. Apparently, the last apple had fallen. With friends like that…. Elise never trusted any friends again and learned a valuable lesson in the transactional nature of such relationships for her and Roy both..
You can read about the fiery testimony and aftermath in Elise Olmstead: The Myth and Mystery of Seattle’s “Queen of the Bootleggers,” available on Amazon here.