Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio, Zaren
Speaker 1: Yo Elizabeth Dutton, what are you doing hanging out? Being cool? Nice?
Speaker 1: Looks good on you? Thank you? You know it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Oh girl, do I did you know that Eddie van
Speaker 1: Halen new Fred Durst? No, I did not know that.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that either, but I learned this story recently.
Speaker 1: So Eddie van Halen actually had the really interesting rivalry
Speaker 1: with Fred Durst that was momentary. So Eddie van Halen,
Speaker 1: he gets invited over to fred durst place in Beverly
Speaker 1: Hills or Limp Biscuit is like rehearsing for an album
Speaker 1: at the time, and you know, Eddi van Halen's like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to go see what the young kids
Speaker 1: are doing. So he brings the guitar over and some
Speaker 1: like an amp I guess by maybe a preamp, I
Speaker 1: don't know. He brings over like at least a guitar
Speaker 1: and he starts like jamming with Limp Biscuit and Fred Durst.
Speaker 1: So just imagine Eddie van Halen jamming with Limp Biscuit
Speaker 1: at the height of their fame, right and like some
Speaker 1: random mass mansion and Beverly Hills. Things are going well
Speaker 1: and Eddie van Halen is having a great old time,
Speaker 1: but until somebody pulls out some drugs and starts to
Speaker 1: at high and Edi van Halen is very much sober.
Speaker 1: So he gets mad and he's like, I can't believe
Speaker 1: you do that in front of me, and he leaves.
Speaker 1: But he gets in such a huff. He leaves and
Speaker 1: he forgets his guitar. So he calls back the next
Speaker 1: day and he's like, hey, fred I need to get
Speaker 1: my guitar back. It's like one of my favorites. Fred
Speaker 1: Durst doesn't answer, just totally just leaves him on red right.
Speaker 1: So Eddie van Halen's like, what's going on? Twenty four
Speaker 1: hours pass, he doesn't here. He gets mad and he's like,
Speaker 1: I am from New Jersey. This is not gonna play.
Speaker 1: So he goes and he gets into a tank, a
Speaker 1: literal tank, and he drives across l A in the
Speaker 1: tank to Beverly Hills and then he shows up in
Speaker 1: the house and he demands his guitar back. And I
Speaker 1: quote from the journalist Andrew Bennett, Eddie once bought an
Speaker 1: assault vehicle from a military auction. It has a shine
Speaker 1: gun mount on the back and it is not legal.
Speaker 1: Eddie drove that assault vehicle through l A into Beverly Hills,
Speaker 1: then parked it and left it running the front lawn
Speaker 1: of the house Lint Biscuit was rehearsing in. He got
Speaker 1: out wearing no shirt, his hair and a samurai bun
Speaker 1: on top of his head, his jeans held up with
Speaker 1: a strand of rope, and combat boots held together by
Speaker 1: duct tape, and he had a gun in his hand.
Speaker 1: Are we sure he was still sober? Exactly right? So
Speaker 1: he then demands that he gets with the gun in
Speaker 1: his hand and the comb boots, duct tape and the
Speaker 1: samurai top knot, puts the gun in Fred Durst's face,
Speaker 1: and it's like, where's my guitar? Needless to say, he
Speaker 1: got his guitar back. I just short circuit ridiculous, And
Speaker 1: I thought, because we were talking about your brother doing
Speaker 1: the duct tape on his boots, that's what made me
Speaker 1: think of it. Yeah, my brother used to tear through
Speaker 1: Doc Martin's and would then have to duct tape them together.
Speaker 1: He wasn't the only one. He and Eddie van Halen Alright,
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's ridiculous. You want to know something else.
Speaker 1: That's from Girl. I'm here for the ridiculousness, Moonshine and
Speaker 1: Daredevil Driver with Diamond Teeth. Yes, this is Ridiculous Crime,
Speaker 1: a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons
Speaker 1: It's always murder free and one ridiculous seven. I want
Speaker 1: to tell you about Franklin County, Virginia. I've been there,
Speaker 1: have you, I've not um but it's located, as you
Speaker 1: well know. It's located in the Blue Ridge Foothills in
Speaker 1: the southwestern part of the state. Very pretty. The Blue
Speaker 1: Ridge Mountains are next. Yeah. Well, it also, did you
Speaker 1: not has the nickname of the moonshine Capital of the World.
Speaker 1: Why do you think we went there? So my there
Speaker 1: with particular to history. Okay, so you know, well moonshine,
Speaker 1: as you know, I'm gonna tell you anyway. I don't
Speaker 1: like to hear myself talk. It's a high proof liquor,
Speaker 1: yes it is, and it's called moonshine because it's made
Speaker 1: by the light of the moon. Beautiful. It's also generally illegal, yep. Yeah,
Speaker 1: where it is legal, I guess if you make it
Speaker 1: commercially well there, Yeah, there are commercial versions now I
Speaker 1: knew someone who had a little cessna and he would
Speaker 1: fly a couple of states over when I lived down
Speaker 1: south and pick up real moonshine and fly it back. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But there are also companies now that outs moonshine like, yeah,
Speaker 1: so the real stuff is illegal. My dad still gets
Speaker 1: moons like when I go to visit him. He always
Speaker 1: had a hine And does he ever get the kind
Speaker 1: that they float peaches in and let it flavor like?
Speaker 1: But you know he has a guy that doesn't do that,
Speaker 1: but he does like that. Yeah, it's a popular one. Um.
Speaker 1: So there are regulations on alcohol for two main reasons.
Speaker 1: The first health and safety. That makes sense. Bad hooch
Speaker 1: can kill or blind a person. Oh you always used
Speaker 1: to hear about that and going blind with bad whiskey. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and that's that's the one thing that really came to
Speaker 1: attention during prohibition, right that m prohibition between three in
Speaker 1: the United States. Er. I just want to make sure
Speaker 1: that everyone is on the same page. Um. When the
Speaker 1: government banned booze, people made it themselves, right bathtub. Um.
Speaker 1: There's a really good book called The Poisoner's Handbook. Have
Speaker 1: you ever read that? I never even heard of it.
Speaker 1: It's a book about the birth of forensic toxicology. That's
Speaker 1: probably why I haven't heard of it. This sounds more
Speaker 1: like it's really good, but there's like it's really really interesting.
Speaker 1: There's a whole thing about how homemade alcohol was poisoning
Speaker 1: and killing people at absolutely outrageous rates during the brought
Speaker 1: during prohibition um. And then in it they talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, all of these ways and the way that
Speaker 1: then the government and all these toxicologists were measuring things
Speaker 1: and trying to figure out exactly how people were killed
Speaker 1: and what it took. Um. Why Canadian whiskey and uh
Speaker 1: Puerto Rican rummers so valued is that they continued making
Speaker 1: them and they knew that they were legit and it
Speaker 1: wasn't like you had to go down to the speakeasy.
Speaker 1: And and that's why you had then bootleggers bringing it
Speaker 1: in on secret boats and all that stuff. Um, Why
Speaker 1: would people risk this right even though they could die? Well, alcoholism,
Speaker 1: alcoholism and being human. But also that's the thing is
Speaker 1: the human you know, like people have been making alcoholic
Speaker 1: beverages since the very beginning. We had we had beer,
Speaker 1: before we had bread. Fermented drinks existed at least as
Speaker 1: early as the Neolithic period love that new Stone time
Speaker 1: ten thousand and five thousand BC. Yeah, and it's in
Speaker 1: every culture. So it's just something that people are going
Speaker 1: to consume one way or another. You take the grain
Speaker 1: you have and you fermented, and later on you're like,
Speaker 1: we could eat this too. That brings me to my
Speaker 1: second point. Yes, that about regulation. Remember I told you
Speaker 1: two main things, and this is not anything written in stone.
Speaker 1: This is just me Riffen coming up with my idea
Speaker 1: that there are too two main things. The other thing
Speaker 1: the other reason that you would regulate the production and
Speaker 1: the distribution. Yeah, money, baby, you can tax the burjeebers
Speaker 1: out of it. I was figuring. I'm sorry, I don't
Speaker 1: mean to jump here, but I was guessing. I was like,
Speaker 1: it's gotta be money. The only reason people ever do anything.
Speaker 1: You know, they care about the quality, but they want
Speaker 1: to get the cream off the top. So there's import tax,
Speaker 1: state and federal excise taxes, bar and cabaret licenses, right,
Speaker 1: so you can make you can make money out of
Speaker 1: every So moonshine. Back to moonshine. You've had it, yea often?
Speaker 1: Can you still see? No? No, it's legit, like my
Speaker 1: dad knows guys who make the good good whiskey like
Speaker 1: it's it's super clean, super clear, great taste like it is.
Speaker 1: It's they've been doing it for generations. It's not like
Speaker 1: something new to them. Their basic clear commercial operation, but
Speaker 1: just run by a family, if you want to think
Speaker 1: of it that way. And uh yeah, so it's a
Speaker 1: tried and too product. There's no like experimenting. They're not
Speaker 1: still like working out the kanks of it. So it's great.
Speaker 1: My sister's down there visiting my father right now. I
Speaker 1: could probably call it and be like, how's the moonshine
Speaker 1: to give you a fresh report? If you want, we should,
Speaker 1: we'll do that. We'll get her on. Um. I think
Speaker 1: I've had it now that you thank you for asking,
Speaker 1: and you're worried it was about to ask. I wasn't
Speaker 1: really impressed. I didn't you know you didn't like it?
Speaker 1: Do you like vodka? Uh? All right, do you like whiskey?
Speaker 1: I mean I was a gin gal. Yeah, this is why.
Speaker 1: If you don't like vodka, you probably won't like moonshine.
Speaker 1: If you don't like whiskey, you definitely did like whiskey.
Speaker 1: But if you don't like vodka and you don't like whiskey,
Speaker 1: you won't like moonshine. But if you if you like
Speaker 1: one of the two, you may, but you don't like both,
Speaker 1: you definitely won't like. Well, I I felt like something
Speaker 1: you just drink to get twisted. That's what's the purpose.
Speaker 1: It's not like an enjoyment thing. Because to me, vodka
Speaker 1: is like that you'd like alcohol, and then whiskey is
Speaker 1: like you like a sipping drink to me. So that's
Speaker 1: all I'm using. That's a good that's a good analog.
Speaker 1: Uh So let's go back Franklin County. Back to Franklin County.
Speaker 1: So the residents of this aforementioned Franklin County they've been
Speaker 1: making moonshine since around seventeen six. Damn, like pretty much
Speaker 1: when they got there, they set the flag, They're like,
Speaker 1: get up the still. It's like they started. It's like
Speaker 1: when did they get there? In the hills, it's in
Speaker 1: the Blue Ridge. The hills are just packed with all
Speaker 1: these little secret stills everywhere. The hollows and those hills
Speaker 1: are amazing, those little valleys and stuff. I mean, you
Speaker 1: can talk legitimately beautiful now before prohibition people were getting
Speaker 1: around the whole tax thing with these illegal skills between
Speaker 1: eight and eighteen ninety four, So in in a one
Speaker 1: year period, Franklin County had seventies seven legal distilleries. But
Speaker 1: so then there's this national fight against booze. Right, starts
Speaker 1: to pick up around the turn of the sentry, all
Speaker 1: post Civil War hangovers. Nineteen nine, most of Virginia was dry.
Speaker 1: Really Yeah, they started putting in the blue laws, no production,
Speaker 1: no sales, yeah, nineteen nine, and so the license distilleries
Speaker 1: start quote unquote closing. But again that's pre prohibition. In
Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen, Virginia voted to ban alcohol statewide. Get out,
Speaker 1: I will not prohibition. So we see it's you know,
Speaker 1: stairs stepping into it. The market for moonshine explodes. Now,
Speaker 1: there were plenty of these illegal skills in old Franklin
Speaker 1: County because the legal ones just suddenly are illegal. Um,
Speaker 1: if you're going to talk about moonshiners, which I am,
Speaker 1: and Franklin County prohibition, there also, Um, we really need
Speaker 1: to talk about Willie Carter Sharp. Okay, I thought were
Speaker 1: gonna talk about thunder Road, but I like this, go on.
Speaker 1: I'll singing that later Willie Carter Sharp. She is a woman.
Speaker 1: Oh look at my sexism. I'm over here picturing a
Speaker 1: dude with diamond teeth. The mother is the surgeon Willie
Speaker 1: Carter Sharp. She's born in Floyd County, which is just
Speaker 1: west of Franklin County. She's born in the early seventeen
Speaker 1: years old. She's like, you know what, I'm blowing this area.
Speaker 1: I'm going to Roanoke and going to the big city.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna work in a cotton mill like mom's like,
Speaker 1: in the head of the big city. Um So she
Speaker 1: she gets to to Roanoke and then she gets she's
Speaker 1: over it. She goes then to work in an overall
Speaker 1: factory in Lynchburg. Yeah, well, it's tough times. And then
Speaker 1: she gets a job back in Roanoke at a five
Speaker 1: and dime at a Crest five and dime store. She
Speaker 1: didn't decide to work in a paper mill a barely
Speaker 1: not as a logger. Um so she was only there
Speaker 1: for a couple of months. Then she splits. She she
Speaker 1: marries this guy, Floyd Carter, who is the son of
Speaker 1: John Carter, who was at that time the bootleg king
Speaker 1: of the city. She marries into this good legging family.
Speaker 1: She gets into the family business. She starts selling liquor
Speaker 1: around town. Like now she's doing it like to like
Speaker 1: the ladies areas, like where the men can't be, like
Speaker 1: she would go to like you know, a little I
Speaker 1: don't know whatever, the equivalent of a stitch. And and
Speaker 1: I think that she was doing that. But also, just
Speaker 1: like anybody else, she wasn't really self relegating to women
Speaker 1: only activities and family wasn't doing that interest. But she
Speaker 1: divorces Floyd. I'm pretty sure that he was in prison
Speaker 1: at the time. I might be wrong. I'm not inventing that,
Speaker 1: but I saw this thing and and it wasn't in
Speaker 1: the dream. It was a real document. But I don't
Speaker 1: know if that was an official it was. It was
Speaker 1: a divorce decree. And the thing is like in these
Speaker 1: old documents, you don't know if you're looking at the
Speaker 1: right person with that name and what have you, but
Speaker 1: or even the right record of the event, because sometimes
Speaker 1: the person will tell a lie and then the lie
Speaker 1: gets written down and you find is evidence of the
Speaker 1: lie written lately completely. And so it was a declaration
Speaker 1: that the husband was, you know, divorcing, and he was
Speaker 1: in jail, but what have you anyway? Um, she's already
Speaker 1: hall and whiskey though by the time of the divorce.
Speaker 1: What what in the world do I mean by that, Sarah,
Speaker 1: I was really curious to something you need to know
Speaker 1: about Willie. She is skilled, talented, fearless, an incredibly fast driver. Really,
Speaker 1: her skills were widely known and they were in demand.
Speaker 1: She Zaren was the queen of the rum runners. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: my girl. I can't believe I've never heard of her.
Speaker 1: I'm here to help, thank you for I want to
Speaker 1: get you. She starts working in Franklin County. She gets
Speaker 1: to the to the center of it. She charges ten
Speaker 1: dollars a car, which more than a hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: and today's dollars to pilot up to ten cars at
Speaker 1: a time on their runs out of Franklin County. When
Speaker 1: don't you pilot up to ten cars at a time? Yeah?
Speaker 1: As a pilot, she would follow the liquor cargoes and
Speaker 1: she zig zag her car along the road so that
Speaker 1: the cops couldn't overtake them. So they're just on this
Speaker 1: run and because they don't have like radios and stuff
Speaker 1: to radio ahead and be like they're coming down the
Speaker 1: road and that's what it would sound. That sounds good.
Speaker 1: Throw the spike strip. They can't do that, and so she's, ha, ha,
Speaker 1: you can't catch me in zig zag. She's like Robert
Speaker 1: Mitchum's sister in thunder Road. If Robert Mitcham had a
Speaker 1: sister in thunder Road. Yes, completely, you know that. You
Speaker 1: know the run Runner movie. He's like a badass driver totally.
Speaker 1: So she's a zigging and she's a zagging and furious.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I don't know anything about those movies.
Speaker 1: I have to tell you about them. I think um
Speaker 1: per the Richmond Times Dispatch she acted, as they quote,
Speaker 1: block car in dozens of these runs, so she was
Speaker 1: banded to their snowman, yes quote, her object being to
Speaker 1: foil pursuing officers by blocking their attempts to reach the
Speaker 1: liquor cars ahead, or to lead them off the trail
Speaker 1: in a mad dash over circuitous side roads while the
Speaker 1: main caravan continued to its destination. She really is smoking
Speaker 1: in the It was so good, so uh. Typical route
Speaker 1: would be the first stop would be the black Water
Speaker 1: filling station in Franklin County. That's where they'd load up
Speaker 1: with all the liquor. I think I was able to
Speaker 1: find this place on Google Maps. There was a column
Speaker 1: in the Franklin News Post in where a guy mentioned
Speaker 1: that that it was still standing on Route one outside
Speaker 1: Rocky Mount by the bridge over the Blackwater River, and
Speaker 1: he said it was on the Rocky Mount side. So
Speaker 1: there I was Google street View down these roads your
Speaker 1: way through. I love that. It's like a that's a
Speaker 1: fun thing for me. There's this novel by Matt BonDurant
Speaker 1: called The Wettest County in the World. You ever read
Speaker 1: It Sucks to Be You? That is a really good book.
Speaker 1: It's a fictionalized account of this time and it involves
Speaker 1: the author's real life grandpa and the family is called
Speaker 1: Wettest County in the World, The Wettest County. We'll hold
Speaker 1: on more for me. The Blackwater filling stations in the
Speaker 1: book referenced in the book. The book was turned into
Speaker 1: a movie called Lawless. Oh. It's starring one of your
Speaker 1: favorite actors, Tom Hardy, two of them, Tom Hardy and
Speaker 1: as the little brother Beef. The screenplay was by Nick Cave.
Speaker 1: I've watched this movie and I don't tell people there's
Speaker 1: there's source material. It comes from an actual book that
Speaker 1: you can read the story is dude, the the guy
Speaker 1: if he's writing about his grandfather, the guy who read
Speaker 1: the book, if that's his grandfather, that he's writing about
Speaker 1: his grandfather was an absolute, unrepentant badass. Yes, the man
Speaker 1: is just incredible, like a full cul This whole region
Speaker 1: is like a spring from which springs forth. Badass completely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the station that's in the movie was a set
Speaker 1: that they built in Georgia. If you're wondering, which I
Speaker 1: know you're not, um, but it's a great book and
Speaker 1: it's a great movie, a great book. Let's stop for
Speaker 1: a moment and pay homage to Willie by listening to
Speaker 1: some ads. I don't know what I mean by that.
Speaker 1: But when we tell you all about distracting from when
Speaker 1: we come back, i'm gonna tell you more about black
Speaker 1: Water filling Station, about rum running everything, I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you everything you want to know. Welcome back, Thanks for
Speaker 1: sticking around. I mean, I know you have important places
Speaker 1: to be. You handcuffed me to this chair. I appreciate
Speaker 1: your hearing concern in listening to my story today. I'm
Speaker 1: enjoying it. Let's get back to run running, shall we.
Speaker 1: So we're talking convoy. She's got a mighty convoy. Yes,
Speaker 1: Willie Carter Sharp. She's loading up all these these cars
Speaker 1: ten bucks of pop. She starts this convoy. They'd leave
Speaker 1: the filling station, then they go north to Roanoke, and
Speaker 1: then from there the drivers split up and they'd make
Speaker 1: deliveries in Lynchburg, Covington, Virginia. I've never been there. I
Speaker 1: don't know where it is. And then they'd also venture
Speaker 1: into West Virginia. So my favorite of the Virginia and like,
Speaker 1: come all, Willie. She also occasionally traveled as far as Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. In Baltimore. I was wondering if you got
Speaker 1: up to either Pennsylvania or DC, because if you gets
Speaker 1: into West Virginia, you're basically and what's called the Pencil
Speaker 1: Tucky region. Yeah. Well, I think sometimes she was driving
Speaker 1: so fast she didn't realize she'd gone that far. I'm
Speaker 1: in New Jersey. So anyway, she said she drove every
Speaker 1: single bit day of the year, and sometimes making two
Speaker 1: or three trips a day. I love she's making cash too.
Speaker 1: She said she piloted at least a hundred and ten
Speaker 1: gallons of liquor in a day. Damn. Yeah, her speeds,
Speaker 1: what do you think her top speed was back then?
Speaker 1: I don't even know what would be like let's say, right,
Speaker 1: my dad told me lots these stories, so you know,
Speaker 1: I got a good sense of this. Between nineteen twenty
Speaker 1: one and nineteen thirty one, she was arrested thirteen times
Speaker 1: for speeding and reckless driving. A woman after your own heart,
Speaker 1: she was called. She was called the queen of the
Speaker 1: Roanoke room runners. Yeah, she had it like airbrushed on
Speaker 1: a T shirt, sat jacket. Um, it's not exactly like
Speaker 1: we can't really pinpoint the exact amount of booze that
Speaker 1: she drove, right, because we don't. They weren't keeping close records. Um,
Speaker 1: but the notes on a criminal conspiracy the government connected
Speaker 1: her to around seventy nine thousand gallons between September of
Speaker 1: twenty and May of thirty one. Damn girl. Yeah, however,
Speaker 1: she said between seven and thirty one, quote, she helped
Speaker 1: moved out of the county nearly a hundred and forty
Speaker 1: five thousand gallons of whiskey. She's like, no, it's double that.
Speaker 1: Governor don't know nothing. Other newspaper reports said that she
Speaker 1: moved two hundred thousand to two hundred fifty gallons of liquor.
Speaker 1: Someone's exaggerating, And then I showed up and it was
Speaker 1: like four point six million, and they're like, how did
Speaker 1: you get there? You live in the sad She invented liquor.
Speaker 1: But they were all in the newspapers are saying she
Speaker 1: moved more than the men did. And she continued working
Speaker 1: as a pilot until May of nineteen thirty one, and
Speaker 1: that's when she was arrested for violating prohibition. So she
Speaker 1: was just getting hard charges the Treasury Department kind of
Speaker 1: she was, No, she was, it was the local consult
Speaker 1: I was just wondering in with It's later she gets
Speaker 1: found guilty, sentenced to three years in prison, and she
Speaker 1: served her time at Alderson Federal Prison in West Virginia.
Speaker 1: Fun facts about Alderson, Are you ready for them? Buckled in?
Speaker 1: Alderson officially opened in sam practicing my docent gigs. It
Speaker 1: was the first federal women's prison in the United States.
Speaker 1: Did you know that now you do? Willie would have
Speaker 1: most certainly been there when Eleanor Roosevelt toured the campus
Speaker 1: in May of thirty four. Two great women meeting together,
Speaker 1: they high fived, winked at each other, tour went on.
Speaker 1: The first lady, what a girl. The first lady said, quote,
Speaker 1: I think it's a very wonderful institution. It is so
Speaker 1: because you don't feel it is one of this nature.
Speaker 1: So it's a prison. Who doesnt feel like a It
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like a prison, feels like a spot. And
Speaker 1: why make it a prison? You know who else served
Speaker 1: time at this prison? Um fancy pants me, Billie Holiday,
Speaker 1: Tokyo Rose Damn and later the big boss of all bosses,
Speaker 1: Martha Stewart. So the day that Willie was released from prison,
Speaker 1: she gets subpoenaed by the grand jury for this upcoming trial,
Speaker 1: the Moonshine conspiracy trial. They're going after all the local moonshiners.
Speaker 1: She's gonna be like a star witness. Yes, there's this
Speaker 1: federal agent, Colonel Thomas Bailey. He's a he's an upright man.
Speaker 1: And is he a colonel, a Kentucky colonel or is
Speaker 1: he a military colonel? I don't know, Well, Kentucky colonels
Speaker 1: are by name only. Now I think he's a military cortinal.
Speaker 1: He where's a corset? I don't know. He was an
Speaker 1: undercover agent for the Feds. He pretended to be a
Speaker 1: moonshine buyer and went to Franklin County. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: I just keep picturing over the corset. They're like, it's
Speaker 1: the traditional dress of the moonshine. He's got tassels. Let's pretend. Um,
Speaker 1: he wasn't interested in busting the small skills. He wanted
Speaker 1: the big fish, the big dogs, the people. He wanted
Speaker 1: the ones who are running the whole operation and taking
Speaker 1: advantage of all these homegrown skills. Right, So he wants
Speaker 1: to catch the still operators and runners, but then flip them. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it's not that he's ignoring them trying to work
Speaker 1: his way up to the master. In the course of
Speaker 1: his investigation, he figured out that the distillers were paying
Speaker 1: the local sheriffs for protection. Not that big of a surprise. Um,
Speaker 1: So that that how they're avoiding all the federal Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I mean everybody knew that. That's that's the whole
Speaker 1: points is corrupt. How are you gonna get in there?
Speaker 1: Because you got enough live the sheriff and right. In fact,
Speaker 1: the governor of Virginia told state law enforcement to just
Speaker 1: take fines from people that they caught don't clog up
Speaker 1: the whole criminal justice system throwing them and it's seriously
Speaker 1: don't know. We're not going to have them go through
Speaker 1: the courts or the jail. Just pay, just get your
Speaker 1: little nut you need and then move on. So don't
Speaker 1: clogged the criminal justice system. Because in the criminal justice system,
Speaker 1: the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups.
Speaker 1: The good old boy sheriffs who take bribes and look
Speaker 1: the other way, and the moonshiners who keep the public lubricated.
Speaker 1: These are their stories. Thank you, thank you for indulging
Speaker 1: me right there. Anyway, the whole conspiracy case takes two
Speaker 1: years to build. Bailey lived undercover course for that two years,
Speaker 1: very constricted, just gathering of a and could not breathe
Speaker 1: into his course, he gathers evidence, so he's totally undercover,
Speaker 1: deep cover. When the time's right, he strikes into A
Speaker 1: grand jury is convened. Federal Willie Carter Sharp is called
Speaker 1: to testify. During her testimony, quote, her diamond studded teeth
Speaker 1: caused a sensation in the courtroom. Diamond. This woman shows
Speaker 1: up to testify in front of the grand jury wearing
Speaker 1: a grill. I mean it's a stone cold move. It's
Speaker 1: so flashy for the time to nobody's doing this is
Speaker 1: just like you haven't seen this since I don't know
Speaker 1: Cleopatras depression. She's got a faceful of diamonds. And you
Speaker 1: know what that means is if it's the depression, you
Speaker 1: have a faceful of diamonds, you're so dangerous. No one's
Speaker 1: going to try to take them out of your mouth.
Speaker 1: And they look at my fortune right here in my mouth.
Speaker 1: It is so fox on a flex. This is it's
Speaker 1: it's in poor hill country. It's a depression. Ol Gal
Speaker 1: Stretton in diamonds and her grill diamonds in her neck
Speaker 1: actually just a grill um so per this contemporary report
Speaker 1: in the Richmond Times Dispatch quote, Mrs Sharpe is credited
Speaker 1: with having outwitted state and federal prohibition officers on dozens
Speaker 1: of occasions when they attempted to capture a load of
Speaker 1: contraband liquor. Her thrilling races over the tortuous mountain roads
Speaker 1: and down the main streets of Roanoke, Rocky Mount and
Speaker 1: other mountain towns are credited as deeds of a devil
Speaker 1: may care valor, which her male counter companions seldom venture
Speaker 1: to duplicate. I love the writing in old newspapers there,
Speaker 1: like check out the eggs on this one. She's got
Speaker 1: a real pair. So um great conspiracy trial, the Great
Speaker 1: Moonshine conspiracy trial. After hearing her testimony, and I assume
Speaker 1: and testimony of others, I'm guessing also looking at evidence
Speaker 1: or whatever grand jury does, they indicted thirty four people.
Speaker 1: Quote hope that includes the sheriff. Hold onto your pants,
Speaker 1: hold onto your corset Burnett. There's in a conspiracy case
Speaker 1: that defrauded the federal government of an estimated five point
Speaker 1: five million dollars in whiskey excise taxes. That's a hundred
Speaker 1: and nineteen million dollars today. That that's a big chunk
Speaker 1: a change. Yeah, who are some of the people charged?
Speaker 1: You wanted to know who I do? I do the
Speaker 1: commonwealth attorney, a former sheriff for deputies, a former state
Speaker 1: prohibition officer, and one of the federal investigators on the case.
Speaker 1: The attorney in question was Charles carter Le, the great
Speaker 1: nephew of Robert Eally forgot about them lazy. The people
Speaker 1: charge were the big dogs, not ground level runners like
Speaker 1: Willie So Seven of the defendants, including the sheriff, immediately
Speaker 1: pled guilty. Seven others later chose not to contest the charges.
Speaker 1: Um After the grand jury indictment, Willie she's concerned that
Speaker 1: she's also going to be arrested, so she goes to St. Louis.
Speaker 1: She buys new work. I have no idea what she did.
Speaker 1: I like that she's to St. Louis. Meet me in St. Louis. Um.
Speaker 1: The Feds find her, though, and they bring her back.
Speaker 1: They haul her back to Roanoke for the trial. She
Speaker 1: was allowed to drive herself back, so they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: tap tap tap, you got it. She's a great buyers up.
Speaker 1: She was considered one of the government's ace witnesses, and
Speaker 1: she got immunity from prosecution thanks to her testimony. Will
Speaker 1: Saren Elizabeth, I want you to close your eyes and
Speaker 1: I want you to picture it. It's May nine. It's
Speaker 1: a beautiful spring day, not a cloud in the sky.
Speaker 1: You're in the courthouse in Roanoke, Virginia, and you are
Speaker 1: at the conspiracy trial that's supposed to bring down the
Speaker 1: illegal liquor trade in the Blue Ridge. A witness is
Speaker 1: called to the stand. It is the one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty witness of this trial, but is sore out of
Speaker 1: a hundred and seventy six total. God. A woman walks
Speaker 1: to the front to swear her oath to tell the truth,
Speaker 1: the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help
Speaker 1: her jaw. It's Willie Carter sharp. Hey. She approaches the
Speaker 1: stand and you get a look at this speed demon,
Speaker 1: this vixen, all white, white shoes, white dress, white hat,
Speaker 1: the very picture of virtue. But you and many in
Speaker 1: the courtroom you're waiting for one last reveal. As she
Speaker 1: turns and smiles to the judge, you're disappointed. She's taken
Speaker 1: the diamonds out of I drove three counties. Now let's
Speaker 1: take another break. I gotta get some diamonds in my girls,
Speaker 1: so give me some time. When we come back, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you what happened after she flashed her diamond
Speaker 1: less girl and started her to testimony. Yeah exactly, zaren
Speaker 1: a little bit. How's your courset so tight? And my
Speaker 1: butt store from sitting in a sea for esses? I
Speaker 1: am a mess right now? Girl, Well, let's talk. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about what's going on to this trial that you're
Speaker 1: sitting there captivated by h Willie. She's up there, she
Speaker 1: is weaving a tail, and everyone is just enamored of her,
Speaker 1: even though she doesn't have a grill in anymore. We
Speaker 1: forgive her. Yeah, They're like, she's just so cool. She's
Speaker 1: done all this crazy stuff. She probably didn't didn't want
Speaker 1: the juge to be jealous. Well, one of the people
Speaker 1: in the courtroom was Sherwood Anderson. Yes, he was covering
Speaker 1: the trial for Liberty magazine, and the peace was assigned
Speaker 1: to him by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgan. Thou Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so he's like got it from up I he wrote,
Speaker 1: he is a big one. He wrote during the trial,
Speaker 1: Willie quote told the story of mountain men become big
Speaker 1: time promoters, convoys of cars on the road at night,
Speaker 1: herself in a fast car acting as pilot, government men
Speaker 1: not fixed, coming in from Washington, the chase at night,
Speaker 1: cars scattering, dashing through the night streets of town. The
Speaker 1: big business carried on. I carried right on after prohibition ended.
Speaker 1: So he's he's just enthralled. He's loving this story that
Speaker 1: she's telling, and then he's relaying it to everyone else
Speaker 1: in this really beautiful language. Sherwood and I are of
Speaker 1: one of you, I I you are. In the article
Speaker 1: which came out in November of ninety five, Anderson called
Speaker 1: Franklin County the wettest place in the United States, and
Speaker 1: that's where we get the title of wettest county in
Speaker 1: the world. Anyway. Anderson later wrote a novel of his
Speaker 1: own called Kit Brandon in six the title character based
Speaker 1: on Willie Carter Sharp. One trial attendee said quote, I
Speaker 1: saw her go right through the main street of our town,
Speaker 1: and there was a federal car right after her. They
Speaker 1: were ganging away, trying to shoot down her tires, and
Speaker 1: she was driving at seventy five miles an hour. She
Speaker 1: got away, So her seventy five is through the middle
Speaker 1: of town. Do't even mind that is through a street
Speaker 1: that has most likely horses on it. This is a
Speaker 1: slow moving rural place. There's gonna be people who have
Speaker 1: a wagon still. Some people are gonna have tractors going
Speaker 1: into apple carts, cabbages, ducks in the road. So she
Speaker 1: finishes her testimony defense they don't even want to cross
Speaker 1: exam and they're like, no, never mind. Yeah. The trial
Speaker 1: ended after ten weeks on July one. During the trial,
Speaker 1: it was estimated that over three point five million gallons
Speaker 1: of moonshine came out of Franklin County in a four
Speaker 1: year period. That's a lot of it was. Yeah. It
Speaker 1: was also the second longest trial in Virginia to date
Speaker 1: and the longest one longest trial in Virginia. Longs trial
Speaker 1: in Virginia to date up to that point. Uh, scopes
Speaker 1: monkey trot I was in Virginia. I don't know what
Speaker 1: the treason trial of Aaron Burr in Richmond seven. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it beat that record. Per the Franklin News Post quote,
Speaker 1: twenty of the twenty three defendants were found guilty. Charles
Speaker 1: Carter Lee and two deputies were acquitted. Most of those
Speaker 1: received light sentences and were reportedly back in the business
Speaker 1: before they even started serving their jail times. Tell you
Speaker 1: when I said no, but I'm talking to under two years,
Speaker 1: super low fines. Thirty four only got probation. They never
Speaker 1: saw time after the trial. Is also, by the way,
Speaker 1: in a country that has now made like at this
Speaker 1: point prohibition has ended, so like you're busting people for
Speaker 1: a thing that is done. Yeah, exactly. The revenuers. After
Speaker 1: the trial, Anderson interviewed Sharpe for his peace and she
Speaker 1: told him, quote, it was the excitement that got me,
Speaker 1: damn right, girl, that was why she decided to be
Speaker 1: a pilot. She also told him that after she had
Speaker 1: been released from prison, women with quote some of the
Speaker 1: best blood in Virginia wrote to her asking to quote
Speaker 1: go along and a run at night. They wanted the
Speaker 1: kick of it. Yeah, she means, not like a vampire,
Speaker 1: the best blood. She means like blue bloods. Right exactly.
Speaker 1: She's like, I tasted their blood. It was exquisite, amazing
Speaker 1: that the iron count alone. They so they want the
Speaker 1: kick about that kick? Did you know? I'm sure you did,
Speaker 1: but I'll say it anyway. NASCAR can trace its origins
Speaker 1: to bootlegging. I didn't know that right. For the unfamiliar,
Speaker 1: NASCAR is the National Association for stock car racing. It's
Speaker 1: the governing body of start car racing in the US,
Speaker 1: and stock cars came from the moonshine running and stock
Speaker 1: car racing. Just in case people aren't familiar with that,
Speaker 1: it's driving hell fast around an oval track, but in
Speaker 1: a car that's stock it's not a well, it's production
Speaker 1: model cars originally, but they've now been modeled sometimes this point.
Speaker 1: But originally it was you've taken a car you can
Speaker 1: buy off the lot, and you make it faster, which
Speaker 1: is what the rum runners did exactly. Moonshine runners like
Speaker 1: Willie Carter Sharp, they souped up their cars to be
Speaker 1: able to outrun the fuzz And you're saying, but they
Speaker 1: didn't want to draw attention to themselves, and so they
Speaker 1: kept the outsides of the car looking normal. Cottage industry
Speaker 1: grows up, right, of all these local garages. They can
Speaker 1: modify the cars running. Prohibition ends, so did the need
Speaker 1: for driving like a maniac, right, at least for survival sake.
Speaker 1: But the lovely competition is still being the factist in
Speaker 1: the county. Well, and you've got all these drivers. They're
Speaker 1: just too good to stop. They don't want to waste
Speaker 1: that talent, and they want, as Willie put it, the
Speaker 1: kick of it. And they got places to do flat
Speaker 1: track racing. So yeah, So this guy, Jamie Joyce, he
Speaker 1: wrote a book called Moonshine, a Cultural History of America's
Speaker 1: Infamous liquor. He said, quote, A lot of the money
Speaker 1: that went into backing NASCAR in the very beginning came
Speaker 1: from a man named Raymond Parks. He made his money
Speaker 1: in moonshining, and he provided early financial support to NASCAR.
Speaker 1: So it's not just the drivers and the mechanics, but
Speaker 1: it's like the founders of it. One of NASCAR's early
Speaker 1: well known drivers Junior Johnson. Oh, yes, he got his
Speaker 1: start behind the wheel delivering moonshine. Yeah. He actually like
Speaker 1: he served eleven months in prison. He uh, he goes
Speaker 1: above board, right, partnering with a company to make Junior
Speaker 1: Johnson's midnight move. So he he also built distillery. Another
Speaker 1: driver was Wendell Oliver Scott and he was a black
Speaker 1: American racer from Danville, Virginia. He started as a taxi driver.
Speaker 1: My family lived in Danville for a while. Maybe you're related.
Speaker 1: He starts as a taxi driver and he's using his
Speaker 1: skills and his mechanics skills, his driving skills to haul
Speaker 1: illegal whiskey. And he became the first and only black
Speaker 1: driver to win a major league NASCAR race at the time.
Speaker 1: And then you got badass Willie Carter Sharp, pioneer of
Speaker 1: run rounding, an inspiration to stock car drivers to come
Speaker 1: even if they didn't know it. She's their spiritual mother. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Her techniques or speed or skill laid the foundation for
Speaker 1: people like the most beloved NASCAR driver of all time.
Speaker 1: I am talking, of course, about none other than Ricky Bobby.
Speaker 1: About to throw three fingers in the air, and then
Speaker 1: you throw Ricky Bobby at me, I'm like three for Dale, Right, Dale,
Speaker 1: senior fans are gonna come burned down house. I'm going
Speaker 1: to show them where it is. It's Ricky Bobby. It's
Speaker 1: not Ricky Bobby, it's Dick Trickle. That's one of the
Speaker 1: best movies ever. And what's your ridiculous takeaway, Aaron, that
Speaker 1: you think Ricky Body is better than Let's not think
Speaker 1: it's no the best driver is actually Richer Petty. And
Speaker 1: we all know, Baron, if you're not first, your last,
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just going to hold up a silent
Speaker 1: three over here for I can't stand ask much us
Speaker 1: away is that if you're ever going to testify in court,
Speaker 1: wear a grill and be a legend. Have girls get
Speaker 1: out of fashion. I don't think there's there's still a
Speaker 1: place downtown here in Oakland called Royal Blank. Oh girls
Speaker 1: are popular here and you have if you go to
Speaker 1: the Royal Blink website, they have testimonies that are pretty great.
Speaker 1: So My takeaway is just grills. That's it the end beat.
Speaker 1: You can find us online at Ridiculous Crime on both
Speaker 1: Twitter and Instagram. Hey hey pal, you got a tip
Speaker 1: for us about a ridiculous crime that you want to
Speaker 1: hear about. Do you want to confess? Email ridiculous Crime
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com And that's it. Ridiculous Crime is
Speaker 1: hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnett, produced and edited
Speaker 1: by Hooch Hustler Dave Kusten. Research is by boozebroker Marissa Brown.
Speaker 1: The theme song is by juice juggler Thomas Lee and
Speaker 1: Sauce Slinger Travis Dutton. Executive producers are Pelliatives peddler Ben
Speaker 1: Bowen and libation logistician Noel Brown. We say it one
Speaker 1: more time, de Ridiculous Crime. It's a production of iHeart Radio.
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