Moonshine Suspects to Face Trial

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Moonshine Suspects to Face Trial By CHRIS KAHN, Associated Press Writer

ROANOKE, Va. (AP) - For generations, state agents have chased moonshiners in rural parts of Virginia, raiding chicken coops, tobacco barns and old warehouses for the illegal brew.

The strong country whiskey, synonymous with Appalachian culture, has made millionaires of families who've quietly produced hooch in these hills, shipping it north to shot houses in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

But with guilty pleas from some of the region's biggest bootleggers, police now are claiming a major victory against the industry.

On Monday, seven more alleged moonshiners will be in federal court, facing charges in what has become the most comprehensive moonshine investigation in Appalachia. Twelve people already have pleaded guilty, and only one defendant, Ralph Hale Sr., maintains his innocence.

Investigators hope Operation Lightning Strike, a collaboration of federal and state agents in Virginia and North Carolina, puts a lasting dent in a tradition that has remained strong in the region.

``If it doesn't ... we're in trouble,'' said Jack Allen Powell, 67, a retired agent of Virginia's Alcohol Beverage Control Board. ``As long as there's stuff to ferment, there's someone looking to make moonshine.''

Authorities estimate that moonshiners produced an estimated 1.5 million gallons of liquor from 1992 to 1999, ducking $19.6 million in federal taxes.

Franklin County, a rural area 200 miles southwest of Richmond where Hale's business allegedly thrived, embraces its moonshining tradition. T-shirts proudly proclaim the county the ``Moonshine Capital of the World.'' A high school wrestling tournament is called the Moonshine Classic. An annual charity race is named the White Lightning Run.

Whiskey first came to the mountains with Scots-Irish settlers, who mixed sugar and yeast into a tough brew. ``Moonshining,'' so named because the clandestine activity was often conducted under cover of darkness, thrived during Prohibition. White lightning flowed into speakeasies and nip joints everywhere.

In the 1950s, just about everyone in rural Virginia kept a little bottle underneath their sinks, said Powell, who wrote a book about moonshine in 1996 called ``A Dying Art.'' The untaxed stuff was cheap. And in the cities, there was just something about illicit home brew that was so much better than the rotgut you'd find in stores.

``But if you ever saw how that stuff is made, you'd never drink it,'' said Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. ``They were using old truck radiators as stills. They were using water from creeks that cattle walked through.''

Unregulated moonshine has been contaminated with anything from lye to traces of radiator fluid. But the black market continued as people from the South moved above the Mason-Dixon line.

``They never forgot where they came from,'' Powell said. ``There's something about a little bottle of moonshine ... there's a mystique there.''

It's also a cheap way to get drunk at 100 proof, or 50 percent alcohol, and $20 to $30 a gallon, McEntire said.

Authorities allege Hale, believed to be one of the biggest moonshiners in Virginia, made 213,780 gallons of moonshine with his family from 1992 to 1999. In an effort to hide the profits, including $2.9 million in unpaid federal taxes, investigators claim Hale bought property in family members' names and ran a small cattle ranch with his wife.

Hale, 61, his son Ralph Hale Jr., 22, and sister Shirley Hale Whitlow, 53, are accused of illegal production of untaxed liquor, money laundering, and other federal offenses. Hale's wife, Judy, 49, and two others face charges for minor roles in illegal moonshine operations.

Hale's defense attorney, state Sen. W. Roscoe Reynolds, did not return repeated calls to his law firm.

Hale has been arrested at least seven times for moonshining. But Virginia's penalties are minimal - from minor fines and probation to a rarely imposed three years in prison and a $1,000 fine.

What has made Operation Lightning Strike successful is that federal authorities have a wider variety of charges in their arsenal, said Bev Whitmer, a special agent with Virginia ABC based in Roanoke.

If convicted, Hale could face almost a lifetime in jail and millions in fines. Instead of taking their chances in court, most of those snared decided to plead guilty, forfeiting property and cooperating with ongoing investigations against other moonshiners.

The operation has proved decisive in choking off supplies of moonshine, nearly doubling the price of untaxed liquor in some cities. Prices for a case in Philadelphia, for example, have increased in recent years from $65 a case to $100, McEntire said.

``I'm not being naive and telling you that it's gone, though,'' McEntire said. ``There'll always be someone here trying to make a buck.''



-- Anonymous, September 08, 2001

Answers

I lived in NC for a short period of time years ago and within the first week I knew where to get 'shine and who the local bookie was - and I wasn't even looking! ! !

-- Anonymous, September 08, 2001

You must have lived around Baptists. They're all Methodists around here. Only thing you can find is bootleg Brunswick stew. (Don't ask.)

-- Anonymous, September 08, 2001

I lived in High Point. It was my first introduction to Bible belt Sunday's too and where the term "Sunday best" must have come from. I had to laugh about the women on Monday talking about what everyone wore to church and who didn't come to church etc. Of course after Sunday dinner, all of the men could be found at the local drinking establishment.

-- Anonymous, September 08, 2001

Beckie, have you read any of Clyde Edgerton's NC novels? There's Walking Across Egypt, Raney, Floatplane Notebooks, maybe one or two more. Edgerton lives in Chapel Hill and some of his books are about the characters 'round heah. I swear we know some of the same people. Hysterically funny, if you've known characters like this. Edgerton has a fine eye for the hypocrisy you and I well know, and paints hilarious pictures of the preoccupation with death and its southern rituals, green bean casseroles and sweet tea, and "what people will think."

-- Anonymous, September 08, 2001

No I haven't read any of his books, but I will have to pick one up.

The one thing I found about where I was that the poorer people would give you the shirt off of their back - the rich ignored you. High Point had pretty much two classes, very rich and very poor - there was really a middle class.

-- Anonymous, September 09, 2001



The middle class people here are worse than the elites, generally speaking. There's such an insidious, ingrown culture which is highly suspicious and resentful of outsiders. I didn't find this attitude prevailing in New Orleans (on the contrary!) or even Little Rock, although I did notice some in Norfolk, VA. Never saw it in Texas or other parts of the south, although I expect it exists in rural areas.

A good for-instance is in medical care. Most of the locals go to Durham Regional Hospital, which is staffed by local doctors. No matter how life-threatening their condition, locals refuse to go to Duke, the fifth best medical facility in the whole country, where they could be treated by--gasp!--a Jew or a Yankee-or even a A-rab or something. You should have heard the uproar when Duke bought Durham Regional a year or so ago! Eventually, locals will have to go to Duke to have some of their medical needs met but they'll be kicking and fighting all the way.

Most neighborhoods are gradually being diluted by outsiders and it's all for the best. There's still a definite division between natives and outsiders and it's going to take a couple more generations before it smooths out--if ever. The outsiders try very hard to fit in and are all very conscientious neighbors, in this immediate area, anyway.

Another case in point: one of the oldtimers just let her divorced son move into a garage apartment. Separate apartments are banned by city ordinance in this neighborhood but nobody has said anything. Four unrelated people were living in a well-liked local's rental house, but they were local deputy sheriffs with their girlfriends so nobody said anything. However, four out-of-state Duke students have moved into a 4-bedroom house a block away and everyone is up in arms. They're medical students, for God's sake, not Dekes or Pikes. They cut the grass, park off the street, take in their trash cans promptly, and don't throw loud parties (they already had a party, a quiet one). One of the locals told me they were checking on city ordinances re how many unrelated people could live in one house. So I went up to the students and told them not to tell anyone how many are paying rent there and explained why. This is just the sort of thing Edgerton relates with such delicious irony.

And needless to say, the old cow next door has been trying to run us off since we moved in.

-- Anonymous, September 09, 2001


OG, Sounds like you are living in a larger version of the town I live in :^)

If you are a Flaherty, you can do whatever you please (and their kids get away with everything).

-- Anonymous, September 09, 2001


One of the reasons I volunteer for certain political candidates ;)

-- Anonymous, September 09, 2001

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