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Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The concierge

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Speaker 1: in Chicago's German House received a complaint to the night

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Speaker 1: of October sixteenth, n The callers said loud noises were

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Speaker 1: coming from room eleven o five. When the concierge arrived

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Speaker 1: at the room, he heard odd sounds, but they didn't

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Speaker 1: seem excessive. He knocked and called out repeatedly, but no

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Speaker 1: one answered. Concerned, he called the police. By the time

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Speaker 1: the detective arrived, the room was silent. He knocked, but

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Speaker 1: not getting a reply, he tried the door, Finding it unlocked,

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Speaker 1: he stepped inside. The blood was everywhere, the walls, the ceiling,

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Speaker 1: the floor, or the sheer amount of it surprised him.

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Speaker 1: A man, also covered in blood and wearing a woman's

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Speaker 1: kimono style robe, stood beside the bed, calmly puffing away

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Speaker 1: on a cigar. A woman lay sprawled on the bed,

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Speaker 1: her face partially obscured by a bloody handkerchief. Her throat

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Speaker 1: had been cut from ear to ear. She had also

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Speaker 1: been shot twice in the chest. The man, identified as

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Speaker 1: William Jeney Ellis, confessed to killing his wife, Eleanor. She

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Speaker 1: was a prominent socialite and he suspected she had been

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Speaker 1: having an affair. He told the police that she was

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Speaker 1: the grandest little woman in the world. She had begged

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Speaker 1: for her life, but had been in a jealous rage.

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Speaker 1: For the prosecution, the case was open and shut. William

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Speaker 1: thought differently and hired a very specific lawyer, one who

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Speaker 1: had already represented several men accused of killing their wives.

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Speaker 1: In one case, the lawyer, George Remis, had shocked the

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Speaker 1: jury by taking swigs of the poison his defendant had

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Speaker 1: allegedly used to kill his wife. The act convinced the

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Speaker 1: jury his client couldn't have possibly poisoned her. After his

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Speaker 1: client walked free, George admitted he had made an elixir

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Speaker 1: to neutralize the poison. You see, before he was a lawyer,

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Speaker 1: he had worked for years at his uncle's pharmacy. As

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Speaker 1: an adult, he had even owned a couple of drug

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Speaker 1: stores before switching careers. He advised William to plead temporary

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Speaker 1: insanity in March of nineteen fourteen. George argued before the

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Speaker 1: court that his client hadn't been in his right mind

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Speaker 1: when he killed his wife and therefore could not be

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Speaker 1: held responsible. He pulled out all his theatrics, weeping and pacing.

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Speaker 1: He swore to the jury and judge that his client

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Speaker 1: was remorseful and truly had no idea what had happened

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Speaker 1: until he found himself standing beside the bed. The jury

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Speaker 1: didn't buy into the total lack of responsibility and returned

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Speaker 1: a guilty verdict, much to George's surprise. However, to his delight,

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Speaker 1: they did buy the insanity plea and spared William's life.

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Speaker 1: The judge handed down a fifteen year sentence with a

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Speaker 1: chance for early parole. George had become quite successful at

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Speaker 1: defending men who murdered their wives, but by nineteen nineteen,

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Speaker 1: another opportunity presented itself. The Volstead Act, also known as

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Speaker 1: the National Prohibition Act, was gaining ground. George sensed an opening.

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Speaker 1: With his knowledge in pharmaceuticals and the law, he thought

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Speaker 1: he just might have something even more lucrative than being

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Speaker 1: a defense attorney. I'm Lorn Vogelbaum, Welcome to American Shadows.

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Speaker 1: Although he primarily handled murder cases, George Dreamis was adept

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Speaker 1: at keeping up with various laws outside his specialty. The

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Speaker 1: more he read into the Volstad Act. The more he

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Speaker 1: liked the loophole. He had discovered the Act had noble goals,

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Speaker 1: like protecting women and children from abusive alcoholic husbands and fathers.

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Speaker 1: The theory went that outlawing alcohol would put an end

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Speaker 1: to the epidemic of abuse. The law didn't stop people

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Speaker 1: from drinking, though sales went underground and behind the counter.

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Speaker 1: As the son of an abusive alcoholic himself, you might

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Speaker 1: have thought George would be against adding to the problem. Instead,

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Speaker 1: he focused on the potential profits. The loophole was entitled

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Speaker 1: to Section six, alcohol could be bought and sold for

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Speaker 1: medicinal purposes. All anyone needed was a doctor's prescription and

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Speaker 1: a pharmacy to fill it. George owned a couple of

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Speaker 1: pharmacies and knew he could easily buy off a few doctors.

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Speaker 1: He deemed the loophole the greatest comedy and perversion of

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Speaker 1: justice he had ever seen, and began to meticulously plot

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Speaker 1: how to take advantage of it. First, he closed his

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Speaker 1: Chicago law practice and moved to Cincinnati, where most of

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Speaker 1: the country's pre prohibition whiskey had been stored. Next, he

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Speaker 1: bought up whiskey distilleries and drug companies, making sure He

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Speaker 1: listed different names as the owner of each business. Then

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Speaker 1: he bribed state prohibition directors to look the other way,

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Speaker 1: and finally he organized a transportation company to move the alcohol.

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Speaker 1: All told, he stood to make a hefty fortune. But

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Speaker 1: there was more. The real money was in the black market.

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Speaker 1: George had the product, now he needed to divert it.

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Speaker 1: He had a plan for that too, hire gangs to

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Speaker 1: hijack his own trucks. The scheme, which he called the Circle,

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Speaker 1: was complex and honestly brilliant, and just as he had hoped,

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Speaker 1: the money poured in. He hired secretaries to falsify paperwork,

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Speaker 1: chauffeur a personal He also hired a real estate broker

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Speaker 1: named Connors to handle his property and distillery deals. Of

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Speaker 1: all his underlings and employees, George liked Connors the most,

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Speaker 1: and though he trusted the realtor enough to share integral

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Speaker 1: parts of his operation, there was one person he trusted

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Speaker 1: even more. His second wife, Imagine, was a beautiful young woman,

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Speaker 1: her figure voluptuous, her dark hair and eyes striking. She

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Speaker 1: had a young daughter, Ruth, from her first marriage. George

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Speaker 1: called Imagine his partner in everything. He was truly smitten.

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Speaker 1: The two had met in nineteen fifteen, when she walked

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Speaker 1: into his office and asked him to handle her divorce.

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Speaker 1: George commiserated with her over his own rocky marriage to Lillian,

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Speaker 1: with whom he had a daughter, Ramala. His wife had

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Speaker 1: threatened divorce before, stating had been cruel to her and

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Speaker 1: their daughter. Imagine made herself his confidant and indispensable to

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Speaker 1: his law practice. He gave her a sizeable allowance, enabling

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Speaker 1: her to quit her day job and live in comfort.

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Speaker 1: George adored Imagine in Ruth more than his wife and daughter,

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Speaker 1: and doated on them every chance he got. He saw

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Speaker 1: himself as their knight in shining armor, once beating a

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Speaker 1: plumber who tried swindling Imagine for a higher fee. The

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Speaker 1: assault pace went to court, but George painted himself as

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Speaker 1: defending Imogine's honor, denying the affair and stating that he

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Speaker 1: was simply there to support her through her divorce. The

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Speaker 1: jury found him not guilty. This was the last straw

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Speaker 1: for Lilian, and she filed for divorce in nineteen twenty,

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Speaker 1: winning a generous settlement and a trust fund for their daughter.

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Speaker 1: After the divorce, George sold everything, married Imogine, and moved

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Speaker 1: his new family to Cincinnati. The loophole had not made

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Speaker 1: him simply wealthy. George had become exceedingly rich. His business

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Speaker 1: and influence extended across the country, even to the White House.

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Speaker 1: He and Imogine settled into a mansion overlooking the Ohio River.

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Speaker 1: The couple through lavish parties and gave their guests expensive gifts.

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Speaker 1: George quickly made connections in high places. Attorney General Henry

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Speaker 1: Daherty worked closely with George and promised him protection from

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Speaker 1: any legal trouble in the business. George even met President

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Speaker 1: Warren G. Harding, who was notoriously linked with the criminal underworld.

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Speaker 1: For a while, George was untouchable and life was good.

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Speaker 1: Then the President died in office and Harry's prohibition operation

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Speaker 1: came under scrutiny. Two months later, agents arrested George for

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Speaker 1: violation of the Volstad Act, among other crimes. In he

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Speaker 1: was sent to a federal penitentiary in Atlanta. To salvage

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Speaker 1: his wealth and empire, he parented the person he trusted

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Speaker 1: with everything, imaging granting her power of attorney if anyone

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Speaker 1: could hide the money, she could. George was sentenced to

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Speaker 1: two years in the Atlanta Prison and given a ten

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Speaker 1: thousand dollar fine. The money wasn't a problem, the sentence was.

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Speaker 1: He was furious with the Attorney General for not upholding

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Speaker 1: his promise of protection. Federal agents were still digging into

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Speaker 1: George's finances. He felt like the world had come crashing

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Speaker 1: down on him, but at least he had Imogene. She

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Speaker 1: sauntered into the clerk's office wearing a red dress and

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Speaker 1: signed for her husband's bonds, freeing him until January, when

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Speaker 1: he started serving his time. She moved to Atlanta and

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Speaker 1: visited her husband almost every day. Life inside the prison

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Speaker 1: may not have been as glamorous as his outside life,

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Speaker 1: but George hardly lived like most inmates. His donations to

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Speaker 1: the warden allowed him to have a private cell, a

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Speaker 1: new mattress with expensive sheet, a private bath, his own refrigerator,

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Speaker 1: and instead of doing labor, he worked in the prison library.

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Speaker 1: He ate separately from the other inmates, often dining with

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Speaker 1: the warden, and the two had lavish meals served on

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Speaker 1: fine china and linen's Imagine was allowed both social and

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Speaker 1: conjugal visits and often brought him home cooking. He was

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Speaker 1: prone to fits of anger that he claimed were temporary

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Speaker 1: outbursts of insanity from having the world he had built

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Speaker 1: for himself destroyed, making those fits worse. The Bureau of

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Speaker 1: Investigation was intent on finding out where he had hidden

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Speaker 1: the money. Little did he know that sent one of

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Speaker 1: their best agents to pose as a prisoner and gain

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Speaker 1: his trust. Franklin Dodge was charming and young, just thirty

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Speaker 1: years old, with dark hair and good looks. He made

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Speaker 1: himself sympathetic to George, and before long he found out

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Speaker 1: that George had placed all his trust and business affairs

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Speaker 1: with Imagine. With this information in hand, frank And left

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Speaker 1: the prison to work on the case. Word traveled, though

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Speaker 1: before long George found out that Franklin had been a

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Speaker 1: plant and requested a meeting, intending to bribe the agent.

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Speaker 1: When that didn't work, he offered info on prominent leaders

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Speaker 1: from Ohio to the White House in exchange for a pardon.

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Speaker 1: Franklin said, did have to think about that and check

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Speaker 1: with the office. George had an ace up his sleeve, though,

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Speaker 1: knowing the agency was investigating his wife. He asked Imagine

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Speaker 1: to cozy up to Franklin and convinced the agent to

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Speaker 1: see things differently. A life in prison was getting increasingly worse.

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Speaker 1: The warden was on trial for corruption, ending many of

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Speaker 1: his former favors, and George's fellow inmates told him that

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Speaker 1: Imagine had been getting real cozy with Franklin. The two

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Speaker 1: had been seen strolling the streets and dining out together.

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Speaker 1: George angrily dismissed their accusations, thinking that his wife was

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Speaker 1: only doing what had asked and nothing more. But when

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Speaker 1: frank Lynn abruptly left the bureau and the two still

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Speaker 1: spent time together, he suspected his wife might actually be

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Speaker 1: having an affair. By the end of August, George's sentence

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Speaker 1: had been shortened. Soon he'd be a free man. Imagine

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Speaker 1: visited him, though their conversation seemed strained. Convinced that once

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Speaker 1: he was free, things would go back to normal, he

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Speaker 1: gave her a diamond ring, promising they'd have a quiet

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Speaker 1: and happy life together. After the visit, George felt pretty

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Speaker 1: good about the future again, until a package arrived that afternoon.

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Speaker 1: He opened it to find divorce papers. Stunned, he tried

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Speaker 1: talking to Imagine, but she refused to stop the divorce.

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Speaker 1: George walked out of the penitentiary on September two. All

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Speaker 1: he had left were the clothes on his back and

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Speaker 1: the pending divorce papers and a check for thirty six

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Speaker 1: dollars that Imagine had sent him. He had put Imagine

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Speaker 1: in charge of everything to prevent the government from seizing

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Speaker 1: his assets. She had sold off most everything. His entire

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Speaker 1: empire had been systematically dismantled. All the cash was gone too.

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Speaker 1: He realized the colossal mistake had made a trust in

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Speaker 1: woman who had helped him dupe his first wife. He

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Speaker 1: returned to Ohio and was livid when he discovered that

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Speaker 1: Imagine and Franklin had been living together at their mansion.

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Speaker 1: He found little comfort in the frens he had left.

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Speaker 1: They all thought that Imagine had earned everything she had.

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Speaker 1: Feeling betrayed by every one he had ever trusted, George

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Speaker 1: began plotting once more, this time for revenge. Little did

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Speaker 1: he know Imagine and Franklin weren't done plotting either. Not

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Speaker 1: long after his release, George found himself before immigration authorities

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Speaker 1: to prove he had come to the States legally as

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Speaker 1: a child. It seemed that Imaging and Franklin were trying

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Speaker 1: to have him deported. The immigration courts dismissed the case,

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Speaker 1: but his troubles were far from over, the word came

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Speaker 1: down that the couple had spent fifteen thousand dollars of

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Speaker 1: his money to hire a hitman. George called the Bureau,

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Speaker 1: offering himself as a star witness in upcoming prohibition trials.

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Speaker 1: As a former kingpin bootlegger with ties to the Harding administration,

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Speaker 1: his testimony and knowledge would be invaluable. His network had,

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Speaker 1: after all, supplied most of the nation's illegal liquor. He

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Speaker 1: told them he could testify against the mob in New

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Speaker 1: York City and the underworld's fastest rising star in Chicago,

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Speaker 1: al Capone. The Bureau agreed. While acting as a professional witness,

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Speaker 1: George worked diligently to recoup some of his lost assets.

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Speaker 1: He provoked Imaging's power of attorney, placing it instead with

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Speaker 1: Blanche Watson, a whiskey dealer he had once worked with,

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Speaker 1: a shrewd businesswoman. She began sorting out how much money

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Speaker 1: Imagine and Franklin had taken. Most assets hadn't left paper trail.

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Speaker 1: George had been careful about that, and it had come

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Speaker 1: back to bite him. Meanwhile, friends told him about his

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Speaker 1: wife's exploits. During his time in prison, it seemed everyone

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Speaker 1: had known about the affair the warden had been dining

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Speaker 1: with had caught Imagine and Franklin in a very intimate

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Speaker 1: position on the sofa in his office. Imagine had bought

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Speaker 1: seven cars while he was in prison, and had given

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Speaker 1: at least one of them to Franklin. George spent his

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Speaker 1: days walking the empty mansion and probably wondering when the

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Speaker 1: government would seize it, and thinking of Imagine's betrayal. Angrier

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Speaker 1: than ever, George cross petitioned the divorce, refuting Imagine's claims

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Speaker 1: of cruelty. It wasn't lost on him that she had

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Speaker 1: used Lillian's reason for divorce in his filing, though he

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Speaker 1: cited infidelity. The cross petition enraged Franklin, as in pen

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Speaker 1: did back then. While men having affairs wasn't particularly looked

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Speaker 1: down on, a woman having one was. As George had

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Speaker 1: come to Imagine's defense years ago, it was now Franklin's turn.

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Speaker 1: The former Bureau agent told the press that Imagine was

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Speaker 1: an honorable woman and that he was simply assisting her

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Speaker 1: with her divorce. George had other words for the press.

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Speaker 1: His wife had invested her own money into his business

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Speaker 1: and did see her in jail. He left out that

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Speaker 1: He wanted her behind bars, not because it was justice,

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Speaker 1: but from spite that his former mistress turned wife had

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Speaker 1: left him for someone else. George acquired a cult forty

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Speaker 1: five from the current Attorney General, saying he needed it

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Speaker 1: in case another hit man came calling a bad idea

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Speaker 1: for sure, though it was about to get worse. One morning,

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Speaker 1: as Imagine walked with friends and her lawyer to the

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Speaker 1: Atlanta courthouse, George passed by and she shrieked. It's not

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Speaker 1: clear if he whispered a threat to her or she

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Speaker 1: caught sight of the gun, but she begged him not

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Speaker 1: to kill her. George rolled his eyes and remarked to

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Speaker 1: a nearby reporter how dramatic his wife could be, especially

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Speaker 1: when playing the victim. He met up with her a

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Speaker 1: couple more times that year. He wanted his money back,

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Speaker 1: and Imagine seemed interested in mending their marriage. George went

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Speaker 1: back to prison throughout nine for a final charge against him.

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Speaker 1: When he was released, he was scheduled for another court

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Speaker 1: appearance his divorce. On October six of n he asked

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Speaker 1: friends to allow him a few private words with Imagine. Alone.

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Speaker 1: He spotted her dressed in black and accompanied by her daughter, Ruth,

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Speaker 1: who had turned out to look exactly like her mother, Imagine,

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Speaker 1: didn't have any intention of talking to George and hailed

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Speaker 1: a cab. George ordered his driver to follow them and

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Speaker 1: cut the cab off. Imagine ran from the cab, and

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Speaker 1: he set out after her. He caught her and spun

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Speaker 1: her around to face him, Seeing the colt in his hand,

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Speaker 1: she professed her love for him. George replied that he

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Speaker 1: who danced down the Primrose Path must also die on it.

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Speaker 1: Then he pulled the trigger behind him. Ruth began to scream.

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Speaker 1: He turned himself in and confessed. For Charles P. Taft,

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Speaker 1: a prosecutor and son of the former president, it was

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Speaker 1: an open and shut case. George had other plans, though.

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Speaker 1: He pleaded insanity due to his wife's affair, and, just

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Speaker 1: like the case back in nineteen fourteen, the jury found

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Speaker 1: him not guilty due to insanity. George laughed heartily at

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Speaker 1: the verdict. He had gotten his revenge, but he didn't

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Speaker 1: laugh for long. Instead of prison, the state temporarily had

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Speaker 1: him committed to an asylum. It's barely a footnote, really,

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Speaker 1: Maybe something scribbled on a cocktail napkin or a rumor

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Speaker 1: passed along by hotel staff or guests at a party,

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Speaker 1: their heads pressed against one another as they whisper. He

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Speaker 1: met him right here. According to the seal Bach Hotels history,

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Speaker 1: the two men met at the bar one night, a

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Speaker 1: larger than life racketeer and the reluctant soldier who favored

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Speaker 1: the bar whenever he was on weekend leave. They definitely

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Speaker 1: didn't become friends. They might not have so much as

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Speaker 1: exchanged a single word. But while the kingpin wasn't likely

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Speaker 1: to remember the young man in a Brooks Brothers suit,

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Speaker 1: the young man certainly remembered him. The soldier had walked

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Speaker 1: in one night, just as had done countless times before,

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Speaker 1: with high hopes spend enough money to buy liquor. While

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Speaker 1: every time before he had walked out and drunk and

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Speaker 1: empty handed, this particular night, he walked out with exactly

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Speaker 1: what had been looking for. No, not one of the

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Speaker 1: many attractive women or in entry level position in the

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Speaker 1: bootlegging business. He left inspired, and it's easy to see

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Speaker 1: where he got it. The seal Box Hotel is as

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Speaker 1: grand as it is historic, an example of bose are architecture,

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Speaker 1: with high ceilings, sweeping staircases, and opulent chandeliers. The hotel

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Speaker 1: is a wedding hot spot, and in nineteen twenty it's

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Speaker 1: characteristic combination of French Neo Classicism, Renaissance and Baroque styles

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Speaker 1: made the hotel's Rascalar ballroom the place to be seen.

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Speaker 1: The twenty one year old soldier found the place unlike

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Speaker 1: any other. The bartenders served cold gin on a copper

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Speaker 1: topped bar. Pretty girls were plentiful, as were the men

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Speaker 1: anxious to meet them. Brisk jazz played in the background,

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Speaker 1: inviting many to dance. Romances bloomed and faded in the

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Speaker 1: blink or wink of an American Women had just won

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Speaker 1: the right to vote, and some had taken to wearing straight,

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Speaker 1: loose knee length dresses and skirts. They cut their hair

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Speaker 1: into bobs, drank and smoked cigarettes, and were considered far

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Speaker 1: too independent for polite society. Known as flapper girls, they

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Speaker 1: were the icon of the Roaring twenties. Celebrities often flocked

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Speaker 1: the ballroom, as did racketeers and mobsters like Al Capone,

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Speaker 1: Lucky Luciano, and George Remus. As the music played and

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Speaker 1: the liquor flowed underworld kingpins smoked cigars, drank bourbon, and

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Speaker 1: played cards. All the while the soldiers sat on a

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Speaker 1: bar stool, watching and scribbling down notes. Little did he

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Speaker 1: know that the party lifestyle he witnessed would soon become

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Speaker 1: his own. Of all the men in attendance, though one

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Speaker 1: in particular stuck out, George Remus, the bootleggers over the

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Speaker 1: top personality had been exactly what he was looking for.

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Speaker 1: After leaving the hotel, the soldier read up on him.

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Speaker 1: The rest, as they say, is history. That young soldier

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Speaker 1: wrote what's considered one of America's greatest novels. It's said

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Speaker 1: that the hotel in the book was modeled after the

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Speaker 1: Seal Box itself, and that the main character, Jay was

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Speaker 1: inspired by George Remus. The novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, author

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Speaker 1: of The Great Gatsby. There's more to this story. Stick

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Speaker 1: around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.

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Speaker 1: The word conjures up backhill distilleries, speakeasies, and the legal

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Speaker 1: bootleg operations during Prohibition, but for much of American history,

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Speaker 1: moonshine was legal. The earlier English colonists didn't take to

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Speaker 1: the new waves of Scottish and Irish immigrants, forcing them

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Speaker 1: to form their own communities. Most settled in the Appalachians,

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Speaker 1: where they distilled liquor, mostly whiskey. While the colonists weren't

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Speaker 1: thrilled with the newer immigrants, they were happy to have

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Speaker 1: them fight against the British and the American Revolution. But

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Speaker 1: when the war ended, the gratitude ended and the Irish

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Speaker 1: and Scottish retreated to the mountains. Though they had found

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Speaker 1: a new business selling moonshine. The liquor became popular during

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Speaker 1: times of stress and economic hardship. In the late seventeen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: the government sought to tax the liquor, causing farmers and

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Speaker 1: distillers to protest. Known as the Whiskey Rebellion, The skirmish

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Speaker 1: became the first known test of the newly formed government.

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Speaker 1: When the conflict ended, moonshiners found ways to evade taxes

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Speaker 1: until the Civil War. Until then, most Americans saw the

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Speaker 1: distillers as farmers looking for an extra way to stay afloat.

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Speaker 1: But once again the government stepped in. Moonshine wasn't the

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Speaker 1: legal of farmers, and distillers could make all they wanted,

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Speaker 1: and consumption wasn't the problem either, but selling it required

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Speaker 1: paying taxes, and no other state got more aggressive about

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Speaker 1: tax in liquor than Georgia. Unfortunately for the federal agents

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Speaker 1: sent into the state's northern hills to collect the moonshiners

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Speaker 1: were equally aggressive and resistant to their presence. Violence often

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Speaker 1: erupted between agents and still operators. When public opinion about

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Speaker 1: collecting taxes on liquor shifted in favor of the government,

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Speaker 1: moonshiners took to assaulting anyone they thought had turned them in.

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Speaker 1: But the people who most often routed out the distillers

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Speaker 1: were other moonshiners trying to take out the competition, and

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Speaker 1: the real divide between the general public and distillers came

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Speaker 1: when there were shootouts in the streets. This started the

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Speaker 1: Moonshine Wars, which lasted from eighteen seventy until eighteen nine.

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Speaker 1: Federal agents had a hard time shutting down the distillers

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Speaker 1: who didn't pay taxes because they couldn't find where they

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Speaker 1: had hidden their stills. Those who lived in the hills

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Speaker 1: knew every back road and trail, and the big city

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Speaker 1: agents didn't. The moonshiners who had served in the war

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Speaker 1: also knew a few tricks when it came to defending

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Speaker 1: their property. In the spring of eighteen seventy eight, Lieutenant

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Speaker 1: McIntyre of the U S Army was murdered while assisting

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Speaker 1: Deputy Marshal's raid Gilmer County. The deputies became convinced the

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Speaker 1: killer had been one of the two Jones brothers and

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Speaker 1: set out to capture them. The arrest wouldn't be easy.

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Speaker 1: The Jones family lived in the most remote section of

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Speaker 1: the county. The brothers easily eluded authorities for the better

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Speaker 1: part of a year. At one point, the search party

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Speaker 1: for the brothers exceeded fifty men. They raided Ayrs Jones home,

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Speaker 1: but found only his wife and children present. Raids on

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Speaker 1: the family property also turned up nothing, and though some

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Speaker 1: family members were arrested, no warrants for the search had

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Speaker 1: been given. Judges in Atlanta had no reason to hold

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Speaker 1: the family and released them. The agents were relentless, though

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Speaker 1: vowing revenge for McIntyre's death. Once they finally caught up

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Speaker 1: with the brothers, they were brought to Atlanta for trial.

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Speaker 1: As spectators gasped at the sight of them. The men

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Speaker 1: were massive, their long black hair was unkempt and wooly,

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Speaker 1: and their thick beards and fierce eyes gave them a wild,

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Speaker 1: unsettling look. The deputies didn't have enough evidence to convict them,

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Speaker 1: and the men were acquitted. They immediately headed back to

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Speaker 1: Gilmer County and the moonshine business they're brushed with the

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Speaker 1: law didn't end with their release, though their business increased,

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Speaker 1: drawing the attention of federal agents once more. Though the

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Speaker 1: agents issued warrant after warrant and conducted search after search,

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Speaker 1: the Jones brothers managed to keep on the move. The

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Speaker 1: rumors that had relocated to Chattanooga County surfaced, and agents

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Speaker 1: assembled another man hunt. Though they didn't have high budgets

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Speaker 1: or government connections, the brothers managed to disappear into the mountains,

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Speaker 1: picking a path if you wanted to follow. American Shadows

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Speaker 1: is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written by

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00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:28,120
Speaker 1: Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed, and produced by Miranda

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Speaker 1: Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams,

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Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show, visit

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00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:39,960
Speaker 1: Grim and Mild dot com. From more podcasts from iHeart Radio,

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00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:43,880
Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:44,960
Speaker 1: get your podcasts,