WEBVTT - Rum Running Renegade: Willie Carter Sharpe 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.920 Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio, Zaren 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:08.639 Yo Elizabeth Dutton, what are you doing hanging out? Being cool? Nice? 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:10.840 Looks good on you? Thank you? You know it's ridiculous. 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:14.880 Oh girl, do I did you know that Eddie van 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.880 Halen new Fred Durst? No, I did not know that. 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.280 I didn't know that either, but I learned this story recently. 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:23.680 So Eddie van Halen actually had the really interesting rivalry 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:27.280 with Fred Durst that was momentary. So Eddie van Halen, 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:30.560 he gets invited over to fred durst place in Beverly 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.400 Hills or Limp Biscuit is like rehearsing for an album 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:36.120 at the time, and you know, Eddi van Halen's like, 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:37.320 I don't want to go see what the young kids 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:39.519 are doing. So he brings the guitar over and some 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:41.560 like an amp I guess by maybe a preamp, I 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:43.200 don't know. He brings over like at least a guitar 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.800 and he starts like jamming with Limp Biscuit and Fred Durst. 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.159 So just imagine Eddie van Halen jamming with Limp Biscuit 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:52.040 at the height of their fame, right and like some 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.720 random mass mansion and Beverly Hills. Things are going well 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:57.600 and Eddie van Halen is having a great old time, 0:00:57.640 --> 0:00:59.920 but until somebody pulls out some drugs and starts to 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:02.280 at high and Edi van Halen is very much sober. 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:04.080 So he gets mad and he's like, I can't believe 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:05.319 you do that in front of me, and he leaves. 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:07.399 But he gets in such a huff. He leaves and 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:09.920 he forgets his guitar. So he calls back the next 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:11.600 day and he's like, hey, fred I need to get 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:13.760 my guitar back. It's like one of my favorites. Fred 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:18.000 Durst doesn't answer, just totally just leaves him on red right. 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:23.200 So Eddie van Halen's like, what's going on? Twenty four 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.680 hours pass, he doesn't here. He gets mad and he's like, 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:28.880 I am from New Jersey. This is not gonna play. 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:32.440 So he goes and he gets into a tank, a 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:36.880 literal tank, and he drives across l A in the 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.319 tank to Beverly Hills and then he shows up in 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.240 the house and he demands his guitar back. And I 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:49.080 quote from the journalist Andrew Bennett, Eddie once bought an 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:51.960 assault vehicle from a military auction. It has a shine 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:54.360 gun mount on the back and it is not legal. 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.080 Eddie drove that assault vehicle through l A into Beverly Hills, 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:00.800 then parked it and left it running the front lawn 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.680 of the house Lint Biscuit was rehearsing in. He got 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.880 out wearing no shirt, his hair and a samurai bun 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:09.480 on top of his head, his jeans held up with 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:13.000 a strand of rope, and combat boots held together by 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.799 duct tape, and he had a gun in his hand. 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:19.200 Are we sure he was still sober? Exactly right? So 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:21.919 he then demands that he gets with the gun in 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:24.000 his hand and the comb boots, duct tape and the 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.600 samurai top knot, puts the gun in Fred Durst's face, 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.359 and it's like, where's my guitar? Needless to say, he 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:39.000 got his guitar back. I just short circuit ridiculous, And 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:41.359 I thought, because we were talking about your brother doing 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.160 the duct tape on his boots, that's what made me 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.280 think of it. Yeah, my brother used to tear through 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:50.880 Doc Martin's and would then have to duct tape them together. 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:55.440 He wasn't the only one. He and Eddie van Halen Alright, 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:57.840 So yeah, that's ridiculous. You want to know something else. 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:01.080 That's from Girl. I'm here for the ridiculousness, Moonshine and 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:25.240 Daredevil Driver with Diamond Teeth. Yes, this is Ridiculous Crime, 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:29.480 a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:37.800 It's always murder free and one ridiculous seven. I want 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.720 to tell you about Franklin County, Virginia. I've been there, 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:45.800 have you, I've not um but it's located, as you 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.240 well know. It's located in the Blue Ridge Foothills in 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:51.000 the southwestern part of the state. Very pretty. The Blue 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.080 Ridge Mountains are next. Yeah. Well, it also, did you 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.360 not has the nickname of the moonshine Capital of the World. 0:03:56.480 --> 0:04:00.160 Why do you think we went there? So my there 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.960 with particular to history. Okay, so you know, well moonshine, 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:05.840 as you know, I'm gonna tell you anyway. I don't 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.640 like to hear myself talk. It's a high proof liquor, 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:12.760 yes it is, and it's called moonshine because it's made 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:18.719 by the light of the moon. Beautiful. It's also generally illegal, yep. Yeah, 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.440 where it is legal, I guess if you make it 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.640 commercially well there, Yeah, there are commercial versions now I 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:28.000 knew someone who had a little cessna and he would 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.039 fly a couple of states over when I lived down 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:35.680 south and pick up real moonshine and fly it back. Yeah. 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:40.560 But there are also companies now that outs moonshine like, yeah, 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.640 so the real stuff is illegal. My dad still gets 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:46.400 moons like when I go to visit him. He always 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:48.640 had a hine And does he ever get the kind 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:51.240 that they float peaches in and let it flavor like? 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:53.400 But you know he has a guy that doesn't do that, 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:57.000 but he does like that. Yeah, it's a popular one. Um. 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:00.120 So there are regulations on alcohol for two main reasons. 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.720 The first health and safety. That makes sense. Bad hooch 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:06.960 can kill or blind a person. Oh you always used 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:10.120 to hear about that and going blind with bad whiskey. Yeah. Well, 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.080 and that's that's the one thing that really came to 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:18.039 attention during prohibition, right that m prohibition between three in 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.880 the United States. Er. I just want to make sure 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.480 that everyone is on the same page. Um. When the 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:31.479 government banned booze, people made it themselves, right bathtub. Um. 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:33.880 There's a really good book called The Poisoner's Handbook. Have 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.080 you ever read that? I never even heard of it. 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:39.320 It's a book about the birth of forensic toxicology. That's 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.960 probably why I haven't heard of it. This sounds more 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:47.599 like it's really good, but there's like it's really really interesting. 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:51.719 There's a whole thing about how homemade alcohol was poisoning 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:55.440 and killing people at absolutely outrageous rates during the brought 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:59.080 during prohibition um. And then in it they talk about, 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:01.720 you know, all of these ways and the way that 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:05.200 then the government and all these toxicologists were measuring things 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.960 and trying to figure out exactly how people were killed 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:11.360 and what it took. Um. Why Canadian whiskey and uh 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.839 Puerto Rican rummers so valued is that they continued making 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:15.440 them and they knew that they were legit and it 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:17.279 wasn't like you had to go down to the speakeasy. 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.159 And and that's why you had then bootleggers bringing it 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:24.039 in on secret boats and all that stuff. Um, Why 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:28.800 would people risk this right even though they could die? Well, alcoholism, 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.520 alcoholism and being human. But also that's the thing is 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:35.080 the human you know, like people have been making alcoholic 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:37.599 beverages since the very beginning. We had we had beer, 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:42.200 before we had bread. Fermented drinks existed at least as 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.880 early as the Neolithic period love that new Stone time 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.159 ten thousand and five thousand BC. Yeah, and it's in 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:51.960 every culture. So it's just something that people are going 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:53.960 to consume one way or another. You take the grain 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:56.520 you have and you fermented, and later on you're like, 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.240 we could eat this too. That brings me to my 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:03.400 second point. Yes, that about regulation. Remember I told you 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.799 two main things, and this is not anything written in stone. 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.840 This is just me Riffen coming up with my idea 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.520 that there are too two main things. The other thing 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:16.400 the other reason that you would regulate the production and 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:22.160 the distribution. Yeah, money, baby, you can tax the burjeebers 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:23.800 out of it. I was figuring. I'm sorry, I don't 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:25.400 mean to jump here, but I was guessing. I was like, 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:27.800 it's gotta be money. The only reason people ever do anything. 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:29.680 You know, they care about the quality, but they want 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:33.840 to get the cream off the top. So there's import tax, 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:38.000 state and federal excise taxes, bar and cabaret licenses, right, 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.200 so you can make you can make money out of 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:44.600 every So moonshine. Back to moonshine. You've had it, yea often? 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.160 Can you still see? No? No, it's legit, like my 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:52.920 dad knows guys who make the good good whiskey like 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:56.720 it's it's super clean, super clear, great taste like it is. 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:58.960 It's they've been doing it for generations. It's not like 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.320 something new to them. Their basic clear commercial operation, but 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:03.000 just run by a family, if you want to think 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.080 of it that way. And uh yeah, so it's a 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.800 tried and too product. There's no like experimenting. They're not 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.600 still like working out the kanks of it. So it's great. 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:12.680 My sister's down there visiting my father right now. I 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:14.480 could probably call it and be like, how's the moonshine 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.280 to give you a fresh report? If you want, we should, 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:20.040 we'll do that. We'll get her on. Um. I think 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:22.640 I've had it now that you thank you for asking, 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:26.760 and you're worried it was about to ask. I wasn't 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:28.960 really impressed. I didn't you know you didn't like it? 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:34.120 Do you like vodka? Uh? All right, do you like whiskey? 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.280 I mean I was a gin gal. Yeah, this is why. 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:38.160 If you don't like vodka, you probably won't like moonshine. 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.680 If you don't like whiskey, you definitely did like whiskey. 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:42.960 But if you don't like vodka and you don't like whiskey, 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:44.720 you won't like moonshine. But if you if you like 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:46.640 one of the two, you may, but you don't like both, 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:48.960 you definitely won't like. Well, I I felt like something 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.120 you just drink to get twisted. That's what's the purpose. 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:54.839 It's not like an enjoyment thing. Because to me, vodka 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.160 is like that you'd like alcohol, and then whiskey is 0:08:57.200 --> 0:08:59.480 like you like a sipping drink to me. So that's 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:01.240 all I'm using. That's a good that's a good analog. 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:07.280 Uh So let's go back Franklin County. Back to Franklin County. 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.520 So the residents of this aforementioned Franklin County they've been 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.679 making moonshine since around seventeen six. Damn, like pretty much 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.760 when they got there, they set the flag, They're like, 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:20.199 get up the still. It's like they started. It's like 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:22.760 when did they get there? In the hills, it's in 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:25.520 the Blue Ridge. The hills are just packed with all 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.560 these little secret stills everywhere. The hollows and those hills 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:30.720 are amazing, those little valleys and stuff. I mean, you 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:35.680 can talk legitimately beautiful now before prohibition people were getting 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:39.680 around the whole tax thing with these illegal skills between 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.640 eight and eighteen ninety four, So in in a one 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:52.600 year period, Franklin County had seventies seven legal distilleries. But 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:55.760 so then there's this national fight against booze. Right, starts 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:58.240 to pick up around the turn of the sentry, all 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:03.439 post Civil War hangovers. Nineteen nine, most of Virginia was dry. 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:10.000 Really Yeah, they started putting in the blue laws, no production, 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:15.480 no sales, yeah, nineteen nine, and so the license distilleries 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:20.880 start quote unquote closing. But again that's pre prohibition. In 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:25.959 nineteen fourteen, Virginia voted to ban alcohol statewide. Get out, 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:31.600 I will not prohibition. So we see it's you know, 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:37.360 stairs stepping into it. The market for moonshine explodes. Now, 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.280 there were plenty of these illegal skills in old Franklin 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.520 County because the legal ones just suddenly are illegal. Um, 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.800 if you're going to talk about moonshiners, which I am, 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:53.120 and Franklin County prohibition, there also, Um, we really need 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.720 to talk about Willie Carter Sharp. Okay, I thought were 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.040 gonna talk about thunder Road, but I like this, go on. 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.760 I'll singing that later Willie Carter Sharp. She is a woman. 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.000 Oh look at my sexism. I'm over here picturing a 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.640 dude with diamond teeth. The mother is the surgeon Willie 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:14.200 Carter Sharp. She's born in Floyd County, which is just 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:18.840 west of Franklin County. She's born in the early seventeen 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:21.640 years old. She's like, you know what, I'm blowing this area. 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:23.680 I'm going to Roanoke and going to the big city. 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:28.240 I'm gonna work in a cotton mill like mom's like, 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.720 in the head of the big city. Um So she 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:35.200 she gets to to Roanoke and then she gets she's 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:37.840 over it. She goes then to work in an overall 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:42.360 factory in Lynchburg. Yeah, well, it's tough times. And then 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:44.880 she gets a job back in Roanoke at a five 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.000 and dime at a Crest five and dime store. She 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:49.520 didn't decide to work in a paper mill a barely 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.520 not as a logger. Um so she was only there 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.560 for a couple of months. Then she splits. She she 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.520 marries this guy, Floyd Carter, who is the son of 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.280 John Carter, who was at that time the bootleg king 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:06.520 of the city. She marries into this good legging family. 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:09.960 She gets into the family business. She starts selling liquor 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.240 around town. Like now she's doing it like to like 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:14.520 the ladies areas, like where the men can't be, like 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:16.240 she would go to like you know, a little I 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:18.240 don't know whatever, the equivalent of a stitch. And and 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.319 I think that she was doing that. But also, just 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:25.280 like anybody else, she wasn't really self relegating to women 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:29.200 only activities and family wasn't doing that interest. But she 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:33.600 divorces Floyd. I'm pretty sure that he was in prison 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.600 at the time. I might be wrong. I'm not inventing that, 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.560 but I saw this thing and and it wasn't in 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.520 the dream. It was a real document. But I don't 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:44.400 know if that was an official it was. It was 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.440 a divorce decree. And the thing is like in these 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:49.640 old documents, you don't know if you're looking at the 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.080 right person with that name and what have you, but 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:54.880 or even the right record of the event, because sometimes 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:56.920 the person will tell a lie and then the lie 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.320 gets written down and you find is evidence of the 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:03.119 lie written lately completely. And so it was a declaration 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.719 that the husband was, you know, divorcing, and he was 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:09.120 in jail, but what have you anyway? Um, she's already 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.320 hall and whiskey though by the time of the divorce. 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:14.319 What what in the world do I mean by that, Sarah, 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.920 I was really curious to something you need to know 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:26.160 about Willie. She is skilled, talented, fearless, an incredibly fast driver. Really, 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.600 her skills were widely known and they were in demand. 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:33.720 She Zaren was the queen of the rum runners. Oh yes, 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:36.120 my girl. I can't believe I've never heard of her. 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:38.280 I'm here to help, thank you for I want to 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:43.320 get you. She starts working in Franklin County. She gets 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.480 to the to the center of it. She charges ten 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:49.120 dollars a car, which more than a hundred and sixty 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:52.840 and today's dollars to pilot up to ten cars at 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.760 a time on their runs out of Franklin County. When 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.840 don't you pilot up to ten cars at a time? Yeah? 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:03.960 As a pilot, she would follow the liquor cargoes and 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.320 she zig zag her car along the road so that 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:11.200 the cops couldn't overtake them. So they're just on this 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.120 run and because they don't have like radios and stuff 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.400 to radio ahead and be like they're coming down the 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.800 road and that's what it would sound. That sounds good. 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:25.480 Throw the spike strip. They can't do that, and so she's, ha, ha, 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.480 you can't catch me in zig zag. She's like Robert 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.400 Mitchum's sister in thunder Road. If Robert Mitcham had a 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.360 sister in thunder Road. Yes, completely, you know that. You 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:36.960 know the run Runner movie. He's like a badass driver totally. 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:41.720 So she's a zigging and she's a zagging and furious. 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.760 Oh my goodness, I don't know anything about those movies. 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.760 I have to tell you about them. I think um 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.560 per the Richmond Times Dispatch she acted, as they quote, 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:55.000 block car in dozens of these runs, so she was 0:14:55.040 --> 0:15:01.120 banded to their snowman, yes quote, her object being to 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:05.400 foil pursuing officers by blocking their attempts to reach the 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.840 liquor cars ahead, or to lead them off the trail 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.600 in a mad dash over circuitous side roads while the 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.520 main caravan continued to its destination. She really is smoking 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:26.160 in the It was so good, so uh. Typical route 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.240 would be the first stop would be the black Water 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.080 filling station in Franklin County. That's where they'd load up 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.440 with all the liquor. I think I was able to 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.840 find this place on Google Maps. There was a column 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:41.080 in the Franklin News Post in where a guy mentioned 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:44.680 that that it was still standing on Route one outside 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:49.000 Rocky Mount by the bridge over the Blackwater River, and 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.160 he said it was on the Rocky Mount side. So 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:56.160 there I was Google street View down these roads your 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:58.720 way through. I love that. It's like a that's a 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.640 fun thing for me. There's this novel by Matt BonDurant 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:04.760 called The Wettest County in the World. You ever read 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.200 It Sucks to Be You? That is a really good book. 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:11.160 It's a fictionalized account of this time and it involves 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.120 the author's real life grandpa and the family is called 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.200 Wettest County in the World, The Wettest County. We'll hold 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:21.600 on more for me. The Blackwater filling stations in the 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.960 book referenced in the book. The book was turned into 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:28.600 a movie called Lawless. Oh. It's starring one of your 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:32.600 favorite actors, Tom Hardy, two of them, Tom Hardy and 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:38.360 as the little brother Beef. The screenplay was by Nick Cave. 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:41.680 I've watched this movie and I don't tell people there's 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.280 there's source material. It comes from an actual book that 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:49.880 you can read the story is dude, the the guy 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:52.840 if he's writing about his grandfather, the guy who read 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.200 the book, if that's his grandfather, that he's writing about 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:59.760 his grandfather was an absolute, unrepentant badass. Yes, the man 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.160 is just incredible, like a full cul This whole region 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:09.480 is like a spring from which springs forth. Badass completely. Yeah. 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:12.960 So the station that's in the movie was a set 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:15.480 that they built in Georgia. If you're wondering, which I 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:18.800 know you're not, um, but it's a great book and 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.439 it's a great movie, a great book. Let's stop for 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:27.520 a moment and pay homage to Willie by listening to 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:29.240 some ads. I don't know what I mean by that. 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.720 But when we tell you all about distracting from when 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.760 we come back, i'm gonna tell you more about black 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:42.120 Water filling Station, about rum running everything, I'm gonna tell 0:17:42.119 --> 0:18:05.800 you everything you want to know. Welcome back, Thanks for 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.480 sticking around. I mean, I know you have important places 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.400 to be. You handcuffed me to this chair. I appreciate 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.639 your hearing concern in listening to my story today. I'm 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.320 enjoying it. Let's get back to run running, shall we. 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:24.359 So we're talking convoy. She's got a mighty convoy. Yes, 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.800 Willie Carter Sharp. She's loading up all these these cars 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.280 ten bucks of pop. She starts this convoy. They'd leave 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:37.000 the filling station, then they go north to Roanoke, and 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.400 then from there the drivers split up and they'd make 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:43.840 deliveries in Lynchburg, Covington, Virginia. I've never been there. I 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:46.000 don't know where it is. And then they'd also venture 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:51.080 into West Virginia. So my favorite of the Virginia and like, 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:56.320 come all, Willie. She also occasionally traveled as far as Washington, 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:58.320 d C. In Baltimore. I was wondering if you got 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:00.960 up to either Pennsylvania or DC, because if you gets 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:03.639 into West Virginia, you're basically and what's called the Pencil 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.320 Tucky region. Yeah. Well, I think sometimes she was driving 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.600 so fast she didn't realize she'd gone that far. I'm 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:15.320 in New Jersey. So anyway, she said she drove every 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:17.680 single bit day of the year, and sometimes making two 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.920 or three trips a day. I love she's making cash too. 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:24.920 She said she piloted at least a hundred and ten 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:28.840 gallons of liquor in a day. Damn. Yeah, her speeds, 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:31.480 what do you think her top speed was back then? 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:38.119 I don't even know what would be like let's say, right, 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:42.280 my dad told me lots these stories, so you know, 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.439 I got a good sense of this. Between nineteen twenty 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:49.320 one and nineteen thirty one, she was arrested thirteen times 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.879 for speeding and reckless driving. A woman after your own heart, 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:59.919 she was called. She was called the queen of the 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.840 Roanoke room runners. Yeah, she had it like airbrushed on 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:08.320 a T shirt, sat jacket. Um, it's not exactly like 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:10.840 we can't really pinpoint the exact amount of booze that 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:15.040 she drove, right, because we don't. They weren't keeping close records. Um, 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:22.200 but the notes on a criminal conspiracy the government connected 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:26.080 her to around seventy nine thousand gallons between September of 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:30.480 twenty and May of thirty one. Damn girl. Yeah, however, 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:35.200 she said between seven and thirty one, quote, she helped 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:37.960 moved out of the county nearly a hundred and forty 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:41.480 five thousand gallons of whiskey. She's like, no, it's double that. 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:46.040 Governor don't know nothing. Other newspaper reports said that she 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:49.679 moved two hundred thousand to two hundred fifty gallons of liquor. 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.440 Someone's exaggerating, And then I showed up and it was 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:56.159 like four point six million, and they're like, how did 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.240 you get there? You live in the sad She invented liquor. 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:03.320 But they were all in the newspapers are saying she 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:07.359 moved more than the men did. And she continued working 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.320 as a pilot until May of nineteen thirty one, and 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:14.119 that's when she was arrested for violating prohibition. So she 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:20.080 was just getting hard charges the Treasury Department kind of 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:23.320 she was, No, she was, it was the local consult 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:26.560 I was just wondering in with It's later she gets 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:29.840 found guilty, sentenced to three years in prison, and she 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.040 served her time at Alderson Federal Prison in West Virginia. 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:37.960 Fun facts about Alderson, Are you ready for them? Buckled in? 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:44.159 Alderson officially opened in sam practicing my docent gigs. It 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:46.840 was the first federal women's prison in the United States. 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:50.639 Did you know that now you do? Willie would have 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:54.680 most certainly been there when Eleanor Roosevelt toured the campus 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.439 in May of thirty four. Two great women meeting together, 0:21:57.640 --> 0:22:01.040 they high fived, winked at each other, tour went on. 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:05.720 The first lady, what a girl. The first lady said, quote, 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.240 I think it's a very wonderful institution. It is so 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:11.479 because you don't feel it is one of this nature. 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:13.679 So it's a prison. Who doesnt feel like a It 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:15.600 doesn't feel like a prison, feels like a spot. And 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:18.840 why make it a prison? You know who else served 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:25.040 time at this prison? Um fancy pants me, Billie Holiday, 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:30.520 Tokyo Rose Damn and later the big boss of all bosses, 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:40.639 Martha Stewart. So the day that Willie was released from prison, 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.879 she gets subpoenaed by the grand jury for this upcoming trial, 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:50.720 the Moonshine conspiracy trial. They're going after all the local moonshiners. 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:53.320 She's gonna be like a star witness. Yes, there's this 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:57.720 federal agent, Colonel Thomas Bailey. He's a he's an upright man. 0:22:57.920 --> 0:22:59.760 And is he a colonel, a Kentucky colonel or is 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:02.040 he a military colonel? I don't know, Well, Kentucky colonels 0:23:02.080 --> 0:23:04.240 are by name only. Now I think he's a military cortinal. 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:09.720 He where's a corset? I don't know. He was an 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:13.359 undercover agent for the Feds. He pretended to be a 0:23:13.359 --> 0:23:16.680 moonshine buyer and went to Franklin County. I don't know why, 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:21.440 I just keep picturing over the corset. They're like, it's 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:28.560 the traditional dress of the moonshine. He's got tassels. Let's pretend. Um, 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.560 he wasn't interested in busting the small skills. He wanted 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:35.800 the big fish, the big dogs, the people. He wanted 0:23:35.800 --> 0:23:38.800 the ones who are running the whole operation and taking 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:42.760 advantage of all these homegrown skills. Right, So he wants 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:46.359 to catch the still operators and runners, but then flip them. Okay, 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:48.880 so it's not that he's ignoring them trying to work 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:51.000 his way up to the master. In the course of 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:54.560