Sick and Pick: The Beer Baron and the Bootlegger

May 14, 2026, 6pm – 7:30pm | Sick and Pic: the Beer Baron and the Bootlegger

Stephanie Laine Hamilton lecture – “Sick and Pic: the Beer Baron and the Bootlegger” is the compelling tale of two men who worked together leading up to prohibition, but that employed very different strategies during prohibition.
The respective actions of Sick (the Beer Baron) and Pic (the Bootlegger) would seal their very divergent fates. Fritz Sick became increasingly lawful over the course of shifting liquor prohibition laws while Emilio Picariello became increasingly lawless.

This talk will address how sick went on following prohibition in Alberta to become the most successful brewer in the world by 1950, while how long-time colleague Emilio Picariello was convicted of murder and hanged in 1923.