Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda land Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio. The first attempt at snatching
Speaker 1: and ransoming Abraham Lincoln's body was in eighteen seventy six
Speaker 1: by a gang called the Logan County Boys. It didn't
Speaker 1: work out as girl see, but it wasn't the only
Speaker 1: attempt at snatching Lincoln's remains. Welcome to criminal Lea, I'm
Speaker 1: Marian tram Marquis and I'm Holly Fry. The Logan County Boys,
Speaker 1: led by crime Boss James Big Jim Kennally, planned to
Speaker 1: quote steal Old Lincoln's bones, or at least so. One
Speaker 1: of the men told the woman that he had met
Speaker 1: in the town shortly before their caper. He even told
Speaker 1: her the details, like exactly when they planned to do it.
Speaker 1: That woman reported the information to the authorities, who then
Speaker 1: warned the tomb's custodian, that was a man named John
Speaker 1: Carroll Power. Power reported it to the Lincoln Monument Association,
Speaker 1: the local group who oversaw the tomb, but nothing was
Speaker 1: done about it, and when the gang sobered up and
Speaker 1: realized what they had admitted to, they fled the scene.
Speaker 1: John Carroll Power went on to write a book about
Speaker 1: the attempted crime, and in it says, quote, it seemed
Speaker 1: to the authorities so incredible that no attention was given
Speaker 1: to it. Power continued quote, Whiskey alone is entitled to
Speaker 1: the credit of having thwarted this well laid scheme. There's
Speaker 1: an alternate version of that story. There's actually two alternates.
Speaker 1: The second version involved a counterfeiter named Thomas Sharp in
Speaker 1: his gang instead of the Logan County Boys. In preparation,
Speaker 1: Sharp's men moved to Springfield, Illinois, where they opened a
Speaker 1: dance hall and a saloon. Unfortunately for the men, though
Speaker 1: this part of the story remains the same, Sharp bragged
Speaker 1: about their plans to a woman, Bell Bruce, who in
Speaker 1: turn informed the police. With their scheme compromised, Sharp and
Speaker 1: his men had no other choice but to abort the
Speaker 1: plan and return home. The third version here it's it's
Speaker 1: basically the same exact premise, but the gang was Ben
Speaker 1: Sheridan and four of his men. Canally would need a
Speaker 1: new plan to spring his man, Benjamin Boyd from prison. Wait,
Speaker 1: who you may be wondering, that's right. This plan wasn't
Speaker 1: really about ransoming of presidential corpse. That was just a
Speaker 1: means to an end. Canally was the leader of one
Speaker 1: of the nation's largest counterfeiting rings, and Benjamin Boyd was
Speaker 1: his engraver. He needed to spring Boyd from behind bars,
Speaker 1: so Canally hatched a second scheme, another attempt at stealing
Speaker 1: Lincoln's corpse, and it went like this. A new team
Speaker 1: would steal the coffin from the tomb and haulot by
Speaker 1: wagon two hundred miles north to the Indiana Dunes. That's
Speaker 1: where they'd hold it until the state of Illinois paid
Speaker 1: a ransom of two dollars in cash to get it back,
Speaker 1: and the gang got a full pardon for Boyd. But
Speaker 1: Canally's mistake here in his second round was who he
Speaker 1: allowed to have a role in the caper. So let's
Speaker 1: take a look at the players. First, of course, there's
Speaker 1: a man at the top, James Connally. Big Jim Connally was,
Speaker 1: as we said, a crime boss who led a successful
Speaker 1: Midwestern counterfeiting racket. He also was co owner of a
Speaker 1: drinking establishment called The Hub, which was located at two
Speaker 1: nine West Madison Street in Chicago. It was well known
Speaker 1: and friendly to counterfeiters, and it is featured in this story.
Speaker 1: Connally was a man once described by a local reporter
Speaker 1: as quote a born crook. He may have been a
Speaker 1: wholesaler of counterfeit bills during the time of the Lincoln Caper,
Speaker 1: but Connally had spent time in prison. He had served
Speaker 1: a five year sentence in the Illinois State Penitentiary at
Speaker 1: Joliet for passing a bogus fifth dollar bill in Peoria.
Speaker 1: And then these are his men for the new and
Speaker 1: improved Lincoln job. One Benjamin Boyd was the man with
Speaker 1: the plates. He was an engraver, and he was at
Speaker 1: the time of his story serving a sentence at the
Speaker 1: State Penitentiary in Juliet. He is ultimately the reason for
Speaker 1: this crime, so he is on this list. Two Terence
Speaker 1: Mullin was a counterfeiter, bartender and co owner of the
Speaker 1: Hub with James Canally. Three Jack Hughes was a counterfeiter
Speaker 1: and a close friend of Terence Mullein. For Lewis Swiegels
Speaker 1: was a small time thief, possibly from Wisconsin. He is
Speaker 1: the wild card here in this group. One important fact
Speaker 1: unknown to the Canally gang is that Lewis was an
Speaker 1: informant or what was known as a roper, to the
Speaker 1: Chicago Secret Service. I'm also going to note here that
Speaker 1: a friend of Swiegel's, a man named Bill Brown, also
Speaker 1: known as Bill Neely, is mentioned in some but definitely
Speaker 1: not all accounts of this story as a wagon driver. He,
Speaker 1: like Swiggles, is also mentioned as with the Secret Service
Speaker 1: and pretending to be on Canally's team. Bill is a
Speaker 1: man who may or may not have been present at
Speaker 1: this caper and five. Patrick Tyrrell was head of the
Speaker 1: Secret Service bureau in Chicago. Tyrrell was the agent who
Speaker 1: had chased Benjamin Boyd for more than eight months through
Speaker 1: five states before he caught him in the small Mississippi
Speaker 1: River town of Fulton, Illinois. Tyrrell, at the time of
Speaker 1: this story was running Swiggles as an informant. Let's clear
Speaker 1: up any confusion about why U. S. Secret Service agent
Speaker 1: Patrick Tyrrell would be pursuing a bunch of counterfeiters. It's
Speaker 1: as simple as this. The role of the Secret Service
Speaker 1: wasn't the same when it was created in eighteen sixty
Speaker 1: five as it is today and since the assassination attempt
Speaker 1: of President McKinley in nineteen o one, and the group
Speaker 1: is tasked with the full time protection of the President
Speaker 1: of the United States, but a hundred and fifty seven
Speaker 1: years ago they were created as a bureau in the
Speaker 1: Treasury Department, and task was suppressing widespread counterfeiting, which was
Speaker 1: a huge problem throughout the country at the time. Nearly
Speaker 1: one third of all US currency and circulation at the
Speaker 1: end of the Civil War was counterfeit. That's an estimate
Speaker 1: that we've seen rise up to nearly one half in
Speaker 1: some account. The Secret Service Division's goal was to stabilize
Speaker 1: the country's financial system. In eighteen sixty seven, the Secret
Speaker 1: Services responsibilities grew to include some new things. Here's what
Speaker 1: it looked like, according to their website, detecting persons perpetrating
Speaker 1: frauds against the government. This appropriation resulted in investigations into
Speaker 1: the Ku Klux Klan, non conforming distillers, smugglers, mail robbers,
Speaker 1: land frauds, and a number of other infractions against federal laws.
Speaker 1: The Canally Gang was a group of counterfeiters operating out
Speaker 1: of the Midwest, and they were doing well for themselves
Speaker 1: until their expert bill engraver moneymaker Benjamin Boyd, was arrested
Speaker 1: and jailed. It said Boyd may have been the best
Speaker 1: in the country and that much of the counterfeit currency
Speaker 1: around the country could be traced back to him until
Speaker 1: that is, when he was captured in Fulton in eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy five. He was convicted on charges of forging a
Speaker 1: fifty dollar bill, It's reported, and sentenced to ten years
Speaker 1: at Juliet. Making counterfeit money meant your currency had to
Speaker 1: look identical, exactly like the real currency. One of Boyd's
Speaker 1: five dollar plates was so perfect that more than three
Speaker 1: hundred thousand bills were known to have been printed from
Speaker 1: it and passed without mishap by their one gang alone.
Speaker 1: The U. S. Treasury finally paid him its ultimate tribute.
Speaker 1: The department recalled it's genuine fives from circulation without Boyd
Speaker 1: and his talent. With those plates, the criminals were suddenly
Speaker 1: out of business. Boyd was the one with the skills,
Speaker 1: and the way they saw it, ransoming Lincoln's body was
Speaker 1: the only way now to get Boyd out of prison
Speaker 1: and then get back to business. I do have to
Speaker 1: wonder why they were like, this is the only possible.
Speaker 1: It's got to involve Lincoln. Period. We are going to
Speaker 1: take a moment for a word from our sponsor, and
Speaker 1: when we're back we will talk about which cemetery Abraham
Speaker 1: Lincoln is buried in and why welcome back to Criminalia.
Speaker 1: Lewis swiggles is quote the boss body snatcher in Chicago.
Speaker 1: We'll see about that. Shortly after ten p a month
Speaker 1: April fourteenth, eighteen sixty five, while attending a performance of
Speaker 1: the play Are American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth.
Speaker 1: He died at seven two am on April fift eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five, and it's estimated his body has moved as
Speaker 1: many as seventeen times since its original burial. After his assassination,
Speaker 1: it was debated where the president's body would be buried.
Speaker 1: The town leaders of Springfield, Illinois, saw the potential of
Speaker 1: this tomb for their local economy, and they argued that
Speaker 1: he should be buried within the limits of the city
Speaker 1: that he had called home. But Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham
Speaker 1: Lincoln's wife, wanted his body to be interred at oak
Speaker 1: Ridge Cemetery, just north of Springfield, and according to records,
Speaker 1: that was what he had wanted, and the oak Ridge
Speaker 1: Cemetery was selected. Oakridge was located about two miles outside
Speaker 1: of town, and it didn't have the kind of security
Speaker 1: you might imagine a presidential grave might be given. For instance,
Speaker 1: there was no night watchman to patrol the area that
Speaker 1: was going to house the president's tomb. At first, the
Speaker 1: remains of both Abraham and his son Willie, who had
Speaker 1: died of typhoid fever at age eleven during his father's presidency,
Speaker 1: were placed in the public receiving bolt from May until
Speaker 1: mid December of eighteen sixty five, while the final tomb
Speaker 1: was being constructed. From December eighteen sixty five through September
Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy one, the remains of the president and
Speaker 1: two of his sons, Willie and also Eddie, who had
Speaker 1: died of pulmonary tuberculosis at age four, were moved into
Speaker 1: a temporary above ground tomb constructed on the northeast side
Speaker 1: of the hill at Oak Ridge. Over the years, his
Speaker 1: tomb has undergone several transformations. Lincoln's body was long considered
Speaker 1: at high risk from grave robbers, which brings us back
Speaker 1: to Canal He's gang. The men converged on Chicago, and
Speaker 1: it was at the Hub where they worked out their plan.
Speaker 1: Terence Mullen was in He and Kennally were close partners.
Speaker 1: Jack Hughes, too was in Hughes was excellent not at
Speaker 1: making phony money, but at passing phony bills. He's described
Speaker 1: as an honest looking man, all was well dressed and
Speaker 1: with a respectable beard. His days were spent going from
Speaker 1: store to store, making one small purchase at each and
Speaker 1: paying with a crisp new counterfeit bill. In September of
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy four, in Washington Heights, Illinois, Hughes was arrested
Speaker 1: by Secret Service agents and he was indicted for passing
Speaker 1: five counterfeit bills. Hughes had jumped bail, though, and was
Speaker 1: being sought by what seemed to be every policeman in
Speaker 1: Chicago when he joined the plot to kidnap Abraham Lincoln's
Speaker 1: corpse and free Benjamin Boyd. But Kenneally needed more hands,
Speaker 1: rely doable strong men to pull off this heist, so
Speaker 1: the guys approached a man named Lewis Swiegel's, a small
Speaker 1: time crook and sometimes horse thief who had become a
Speaker 1: frequent customer of the pub. Involving Louis Wiggles was the
Speaker 1: beginning of the end really of this plan. Remember Lewis
Speaker 1: was a federal informant whose job it was to report
Speaker 1: back on any of the gang's criminal activities. So well,
Speaker 1: let's just keep going. During his con fab with the group,
Speaker 1: when Mullen asked what Swiegel's occupation was, he replied, quote,
Speaker 1: I'm the boss body snatcher of Chicago. That might be
Speaker 1: a strange statement to make in a job interview today,
Speaker 1: but in the late eighteen hundreds it might not have
Speaker 1: been so much the oddity, and certainly not among thieves.
Speaker 1: Stealing and supplying corpses was, of course a big business
Speaker 1: for those who were getting paid by medical schools to
Speaker 1: supply fresh cadavers, but there are no laws to punish
Speaker 1: body snatchers, at least not in most of the state. Anyway,
Speaker 1: these guys were snatching a body, and if you didn't
Speaker 1: have anybody snatching experience, wouldn't you want the boss body
Speaker 1: snatcher of Chicago on your team? Of course you would.
Speaker 1: He made the cut. As the counterfeiters created their plan,
Speaker 1: Louis shared every detail with the secret Services. Patrick Tyrrell.
Speaker 1: Tyrelle in turn told Lincoln's only surviving son, Robert, a
Speaker 1: Chicago attorney, but asked that Robert let the plot move
Speaker 1: forward so he could catch the kidnappers in the act.
Speaker 1: Catching them in the act would likely increase the chance
Speaker 1: of conviction, so Robert agreed. On November six, six, Mullen, Hughes,
Speaker 1: and Swiegels cut a train from Chicago to Springfield. Connally
Speaker 1: did not join them. Little did they know, though, that
Speaker 1: they were being tailed. Tyrrell was in the rear passenger
Speaker 1: car with two hired operatives from the Pinkerton National Detective
Speaker 1: Agency in Chicago. Those were men named John C. McGinn
Speaker 1: and George hay. During the afternoon, two additional men were
Speaker 1: also brought in, detectives John McDonald and John English. The
Speaker 1: gang was also being tailed by a Chicago Daily Tribune reporter.
Speaker 1: The next night, on the seventh, Mullen and the gang
Speaker 1: made their attempt, but things didn't go exactly as planned,
Speaker 1: or really they didn't go very well at all. In fact,
Speaker 1: things have been described as having gone poorly for both
Speaker 1: the cops and the robbers. It was election night. The
Speaker 1: presidential contest between Republican Rutherford Behayes and Democrats Samuel Tilden
Speaker 1: was heated, and it was a pretty good assumption that
Speaker 1: most Springfield residents would be downtown celebrating and waiting for
Speaker 1: results to come in. They certainly would not be anywhere
Speaker 1: near oak Ridge Cemetery. So to keep the attempted heist
Speaker 1: all together, we're going to take a moment for a
Speaker 1: word from our sponsor here, and when we're back, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about how Canally's gang not only did not have
Speaker 1: the skills for burglary, they didn't even bring the right
Speaker 1: tools for the job. Welcome back to Criminalia. So did
Speaker 1: the Canally counterfeiters get Benjamin Boyd out of prison? Let's
Speaker 1: find out. We mentioned earlier how oak Ridge Cemetery was
Speaker 1: a bit lacking in security measures. To enter the tomb,
Speaker 1: the gang would only have to break up padlock to
Speaker 1: reach Lincoln's white marble sarcophagus. According to Thomas Crawwell, author
Speaker 1: of Stealing Lincoln's Body Quote, there was no night watchman,
Speaker 1: and the custodian of the tomb lived in Springfield to
Speaker 1: three miles away. The only security, if you call it, that,
Speaker 1: was a single padlock. Swiegels later said, as reported in
Speaker 1: the Illinois State Journal on November that while Mullin's gang
Speaker 1: were capable counterfeiters, they did not have the skills for burglary,
Speaker 1: especially when it came to bringing the right tools. Tyrrell
Speaker 1: his agents, plus the Pinkerton detectives, arrived at the tomb
Speaker 1: before Canali's gang hid and waited for the counterfeiters to
Speaker 1: show up. When Mullin and his men did show, they
Speaker 1: quietly sneaked up to the monument, but immediately their problems began.
Speaker 1: Mullin brought along a carpet bag containing quote, a can
Speaker 1: of blasting powder and a fathom of fuse, a hammer,
Speaker 1: steel punch drills, a steel saw, a file, and other
Speaker 1: various small tools they needed to saw the metal padlock
Speaker 1: off the door to the catacomb, but the saw they
Speaker 1: had brought with them was flimsy. In fact, it was
Speaker 1: so flimsy it broke in the process. Not a bunch
Speaker 1: to runaway and regroup. Instead, they used a three sided
Speaker 1: metal file and it worked, but it took them half
Speaker 1: an hour just to get the one lock off. Once
Speaker 1: they were inside, they used a crowbar to open the
Speaker 1: sarcophagus lid, but then the problems just kept coming. The
Speaker 1: inner lid was secured by several copper dowels, which they removed.
Speaker 1: They balanced it crosswise across the foot of the sarcophagus,
Speaker 1: removed the piece at its head, and then slid lincoln
Speaker 1: cedar covered lead coffin part of the way out, but
Speaker 1: they were only able to pull it out about a foot.
Speaker 1: Lincoln's five pound coffin was simply too heavy for them
Speaker 1: to move. Mullins sent Swiegels to find another pair of hands,
Speaker 1: and that is the moment when the informants signaled to
Speaker 1: Tyrrell that it was time to start their raid. Why
Speaker 1: did it take so long to tip off Tyrell and
Speaker 1: his men? The signal from Swiegels was the lighting of
Speaker 1: a cigar, but that required Lewis to go outside, and
Speaker 1: he hadn't had a chance because he'd been tasked with
Speaker 1: holding a lantern while Mullin and Hughes worked. But finally
Speaker 1: he had his chance. The agents sprung from their hiding
Speaker 1: places and dashed to the scene of Mullin's men. In
Speaker 1: their excitement, one agent accidentally fired his weapon. Startled by
Speaker 1: the gunfire, the kidnappers fled. When the agents got to
Speaker 1: the sarcophagus, all that was left on the scene were
Speaker 1: the crowbar, a broken saw, and a few other scattered
Speaker 1: tools not to be Deterred by their own error, the
Speaker 1: Secret Service agents and Pinkerton detectives fanned out in an
Speaker 1: effort to catch Mullin and his men. Tyrrell, it's reported,
Speaker 1: took to the tubs roof where he spied a couple
Speaker 1: of men down below. Without any verification. He shot at
Speaker 1: them and they returned fire, and when Tyrell called for backup,
Speaker 1: one of the men on the ground called out, quote, Tyrrell,
Speaker 1: is that you That's right. Tyrell and the authorities were
Speaker 1: shooting at each other and their own people. Tyrrell reported
Speaker 1: to Secret Service headquarters that it was quote one of
Speaker 1: the most unfortunate nights I have ever experienced. Yet God
Speaker 1: protected us in doing right well. Tyrrell was busy swallowing
Speaker 1: his pride on that last act at Lincoln's tomb, Mullen
Speaker 1: and Hughes made their way back to the Hub. It
Speaker 1: took a few days, but Tyrell finally arrested them. Also
Speaker 1: at the Hub, grave robbing and body snatching laws were,
Speaker 1: like we said, barely in existence, if at all, because
Speaker 1: that wasn't a crime, nor were they facing any specific
Speaker 1: counterfeiting charges from the attempt at theft. Mullen and Hughes
Speaker 1: faced charges of petty theft, which would have been for
Speaker 1: trying to steal Lincoln's coffin, which had cost reportedly at
Speaker 1: most seventy five dollars. The two men were tried the
Speaker 1: following May and both were convicted. Hughes and Mullen were
Speaker 1: sentenced to Juliet Penitentiary for quote one year each, one
Speaker 1: day of which is to be in solitary confinement, and
Speaker 1: the balance at hard Labor. Prison. Records do show that
Speaker 1: each served his full sentence, after which he was disappeared
Speaker 1: without a trace. They were, if you didn't recognize it,
Speaker 1: sent to the same prison from which they had been
Speaker 1: trying to spring their engraver, Benjamin Boyd. When the first
Speaker 1: reports of the attempted body snatching were published, many people,
Speaker 1: including other detectives and other newspaper editors, thought the whole
Speaker 1: thing was a hoax. Quote. In some cities, the Lincoln
Speaker 1: break in didn't get any coverage. That is according again
Speaker 1: to Thomas Crawell, and he continued quote. In some cases
Speaker 1: newspapers printed the story, but they told their readers it
Speaker 1: wasn't true. But once it was verified, it was blamed
Speaker 1: on a whole lot of people. None of whom were
Speaker 1: James Cannally, Terence Mullen, or Jack Hughes. Some people blamed
Speaker 1: the Democrats, while others pointed fingers at the former Confederates
Speaker 1: in Illinois. Rumors in Chicago suggested that it was a
Speaker 1: plan by one of the detectives to help him win
Speaker 1: election for chief of Police. A few days after Mullin
Speaker 1: and his men attempted their theft and ransoming, Lincoln's coffin
Speaker 1: was moved to the tomb's earthen floorid basement for safety,
Speaker 1: hidden in an unmarked grave, on September one, he was
Speaker 1: permanently buried at Robert's request, ten ft beneath the catacomb
Speaker 1: and an enclosure of concrete and steel. Today, the Lincoln
Speaker 1: Tomb State Historic Site is the final resting place of
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary, and three of their four sons, Edward, William,
Speaker 1: and Thomas, who was known as Tad. Their eldest son, Robert,
Speaker 1: died in ninety six at a j d two, and
Speaker 1: he is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. In nineteen sixty,
Speaker 1: the Lincoln Tomb was designated a National Historic Landmark, and
Speaker 1: it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty six. Today it is operated by the
Speaker 1: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The president's remains are in a
Speaker 1: concrete vault, still ten ft below the marble floor of
Speaker 1: the burial chamber, just as Robert had requested back in
Speaker 1: nineteen o one. Crypts in the chamber south wall hold
Speaker 1: the remains of Abraham's wife Mary, and sons Edward, Willie
Speaker 1: and Tad. Tad, the Lincoln's youngest son, died of heart
Speaker 1: failure in July of eighteen seventy one at the age
Speaker 1: of eighteen, and it's actually his remains that were the
Speaker 1: first to be interred in what is today's Presidential Tomb.
Speaker 1: The remains of his father and his two brothers joined
Speaker 1: him on September nineteenth, eighteen seventy one. Mary was laid
Speaker 1: to rest there in July of eighteen eighty two, just
Speaker 1: a few days after her death. I liked that when
Speaker 1: I was learning about this story, it's often described as
Speaker 1: being one that has been forgotten in history, that Lincoln
Speaker 1: went on tour for about two weeks after he'd been assassinated,
Speaker 1: and no one then ever talks about the fact that
Speaker 1: his afterlife was not secure. He only had a padlock.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. One thing we do not talk
Speaker 1: about in this episode, my dear, is any sort of
Speaker 1: embolming fluid. So I was wondering if perhaps you might
Speaker 1: step into your area here and have a nice cold glass. Yes,
Speaker 1: come have some embolming fluid. I bet anyone who knows
Speaker 1: my mind, even marginally could guess what the most inspirational
Speaker 1: two words of this episode were, and feel free to
Speaker 1: tag that on Twitter. That is non conforming distiller. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. So when every single time I had to
Speaker 1: read that, I was always like, I want to dive
Speaker 1: deeply into exactly what that means, but I also don't
Speaker 1: want to know at all. I want my assumption of
Speaker 1: what that means. We're going to talk a little about
Speaker 1: a possibility, which is moonshine, because that's, of course what
Speaker 1: I thought of, And moonshine is a fascinating thing and
Speaker 1: has a really fascinating history. It started to be made
Speaker 1: in the US in the late eighteenth century because of
Speaker 1: the whiskey texts. There was a whole whiskey rebellion associated
Speaker 1: with that, but that is very different and much bigger story.
Speaker 1: But the thing is today, right, you can buy moonshine
Speaker 1: at liquor stores and beautiful packaging in a variety of
Speaker 1: tempting and delicious flavors. And you may be like, wait,
Speaker 1: is this really made in a still in the forest
Speaker 1: at night? Probably not. That is, of course, where moonshine
Speaker 1: gets its name, is that people were doing it in
Speaker 1: the dead of night, out in the woods, often under
Speaker 1: the light of the moon. But some of the problem
Speaker 1: with labeling something as moonshine or not is that you
Speaker 1: can kind of label a lot of things moonshine because
Speaker 1: the definition of moonshine is really flexible. It's not like
Speaker 1: other spirits where they're very specific guidelines. It can be
Speaker 1: made with any fermentable starter, and it is now considered
Speaker 1: by a lot of people to be a craft spirit.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are really starting their own moonshine
Speaker 1: distilleries and making some very interesting stuff. But it's a
Speaker 1: really good neutral spirit, and it mixes with a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff. I will tell you I love nothing more
Speaker 1: in the autumn than getting my pumpkin moonshine and using
Speaker 1: it in everything. But today we're just going with your
Speaker 1: standard moonshine. If you really wanted to go with a flavor.
Speaker 1: I would say pick apple here, but here we go.
Speaker 1: This is just called non conforming distiller and it is
Speaker 1: a very simple recipe and really great. If you, like us,
Speaker 1: are in the Northern Hemisphere headed into those hot months,
Speaker 1: this might be one that you'll want to drink a
Speaker 1: lot of. It is an ounce and a half of
Speaker 1: moonshine line, three quarters of an ounce of lemon juice,
Speaker 1: three quarters of an ounce of hybiscus syrup, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna shake that and a shaker with ice, pour it
Speaker 1: over fresh ice, strain it out of that ice you used,
Speaker 1: and then you will top it not with bubbles, but
Speaker 1: with four ounces of unsweetened apple juice. And it takes
Speaker 1: on this fun sort of apply hibiscus flavor. It's very refreshing.
Speaker 1: It has a surprisingly soft flavor. It's not too bity
Speaker 1: because of the the hybiscus flavor and the lemon really
Speaker 1: take any bite off the moonshine. It's quite lovely and
Speaker 1: you can drink a lot of it without realizing it,
Speaker 1: and don't if you are really a bubbles person like
Speaker 1: I love bubbly drinks more than still drinks, so I
Speaker 1: would normally put maybe just a little a little splash
Speaker 1: of lemon lime soda on top, or even a ginger
Speaker 1: ale if you want more in that flavor range. That
Speaker 1: would be great for as we head in the latter
Speaker 1: half of summer towards autumn. But the easiest thing on
Speaker 1: earth if you want to make the mock tail version,
Speaker 1: just leave the moonshine out, because the lemon and hibiscus
Speaker 1: and apple juice is just great on its own and
Speaker 1: makes a very beautiful, pretty colored, yummy, yummy drink. So
Speaker 1: that is the non conforming distiller a little tiptoe into
Speaker 1: moonshine country, Although please buy your moonshine from a liquor
Speaker 1: store where it is actually like. It may not be
Speaker 1: regulated regarding what can be called it, but it's a
Speaker 1: little bit safer than something you might get out of
Speaker 1: a roadside stamp from a forest. Still, so yes, please
Speaker 1: buy your moonshine from a reputable liquor store. That's just
Speaker 1: for safety. It is for your safety. We hope that
Speaker 1: you have made this through unscathed and that you don't
Speaker 1: get arrested for any foolish crimes like stealing a president's body,
Speaker 1: and we hope that you've enjoyed this time. We certainly
Speaker 1: thank you for spending it with us, and we will
Speaker 1: see you right back here next week with another tail
Speaker 1: of body snatching. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land
Speaker 1: Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from Shondaland Audio, please visit the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.