Eric Sebso (died November 1920) was a Bureau of Prohibition agent and the partner of Agent Nelson van Alden. Sebso was corrupt, receiving money from Atlantic County Treasurer Enoch Thompson; Van Alden drowned Sebso in a stream near Mays Landing while attempting to baptize him.
Biography[]
Eric Sebso was born to a Jewish family in New York City, and he decided to join the Bureau of Prohibition as a federal agent after working in the city. Sebso was a member of the inaugural class of the Bureau, becoming an agent at the start of Prohibition in January 1920; he was assigned to work as Nelson van Alden's partner.
Van Alden and Sebso investigated bootlegging in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and County Treasurer Enoch Thompson managed to corrupt Sebso with bribery. When the Bureau captured Billy Winslow, who threatened to testify against Jimmy Darmody over their roles in the Hammonton ambush, Sebso was bribed to kill Winslow. Sebso told Van Alden that Winslow should be taken to New York, away from Thompson's reach, and Sebso drove Winslow. They pulled over so that Sebso could relieve himself, and he let Winslow out so that he could stretch his legs. However, he proceeded to shoot Winslow in the forehead before hitting himself in the head with a rock; when he returned to the bureau, he claimed that Winslow had attacked him with the rock, and that he had shot him in self-defense.
Death[]
Sebso after being drowned
Van Alden never trusted Sebso after Winslow's death, and he decided that the only way to gain his trust was to have him baptized as a Christian. He headed to a gathering of an African-American Protestant congregation at a creek near Mays Landing, near where they had previously been searching for a local still. There, Van Alden gained permission from the pastor to baptize Sebso himself. Sebso repeatedly refused to be baptized, and Van Alden violently shoved him underwater each time. The last time, he held Sebso underwater until he drowned, claiming that he had done God's work by killing the "wicked".