Clinch Valley News

Last Friday North Of Bandy Section

DEPUTY SID HARMAN rests against the largest still just before officers started its cribbing around the mash barrels at the destruction in their raid last Friday.

The biggest illicit whiskey manufacturing operation ever seen in Tazewell County was destroyed last Friday in a daylight raid north of Bandy on the headwaters of Indian Creek.

Local officers led by Deputy Sid Harman, ABC Officers and a Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Officer took part in the raid which destroyed 21 barrels, 700 gallons of mash and 54 gallons of the finished product.

Deputy F. W. Vance contributed largely to the success of the raid with trips into the area on each of the four days preceding the raid. The operation had been under surveillance for four days by Vance, Deputy Sid Harman, ABC Officers, W. W. Moore and R. P. Richardson, and Federal Officer, V. M. Dorsey.

Four operative stills were put out of operation and a fifth in the process of being moved was found and destroyed. The equipment at each still was either confiscated for evidence or totally destroyed, with the exception of the cap from one boiler which could not be found.

Equipment which was destroyed or confiscated included 21 wooden barrels, assorted 60-gallon steel drums, four copper worms, three copper caps, four boilers or pots ranging from 75- to 200-gallon capacity, numerous jugs, jars and bottles, plastic water hose, and two tanks of bottled gas.

Apparently the moonshiners knew that the officers were planning a raid. They ran one of the stills on the night before, turned the pot up and chopped holes in it-a sort of nose-thumbing gesture. They hid the rest of the distilling apparatus. After finishing the chopping process which the moonshiners started, the officers located all but one piece of the still, including 30 gallons of whiskey, about a mile from the still site on a broad, flat ridge top.

The moonshiners had laboriously carried their equipment and their whiskey from this still and hidden it piece by piece and case by case over the laurel ridge. A painstaking and thorough search, however, uncovered most of the equipment and whiskey-a tank of gas here, the worm a half-mile away, a case of full half-gallon fruit jars here, a case there, etc. The search for this equipment led ABC Officer R. P. Richardson to the inoperative still.

If the moonshiners sweated carrying their precious implements into the brush to hide it, the law officers sweated equally as much locating it and lugging it back out. Every officer was sweat-soaked by the time the search was over.

The other stills were left intact by the moonshiners. No attempt had been made to hide any of the equipment.

At each still, the broken barrels of mash made little rivers down the hollows which were virtually dry, and the full-blown fragrance of rotting apples permeated the air of the wooded hillsides. Great swarms of flies and gnats were to be seen as the officers uncovered each barrel of mash and turned it over. The ground was blackened with the charred wood from the fires. The use of bottled gas was apparently a recent innovation and no burner was found.

The moonshiners were using submarine-type boilers or pots made of galvanized sheet steel and wood. No copper pots were found, although the caps and worms were made of copper.

Zerex cans and zinc buckets were also used-apparently to dip the beer from barrel to pot. Modern plastic hose furnished the water line for the cooling barrels.

The moonshiners were making sugar whiskey, but were using a good quantity of corn and also adding raisins. Four of the stills were covered with poles and tar-paper.

The entire operation showed evidence of having been in operation for a considerable time. Officers estimated that the operators had a potential productive capacity of 100-150 gallons per week and could net from $600 to $1000 per week, even if they had to pay a premium price for sugar.

(Other pictures on page 5).
Officers Destroy Large Moonshine Operation
In Tazewell Last Friday In Daylight Raid.

Upper left: R. P. Richardson, ABC Officer, and Deputy Leonard Spangler are dismantling a 6-barrel operation as Deputy Ralph Short looks on. The still was run the night before the raid, and the pot had been cut up by the moonshiners.

Middle left: Jack Sargent and V. M. Dorsey take inventory of a 2-barrel still prior to "busting her up." This still had two full barrels of mash that were "ready to go."

Lower left: Deputy Spangler and ABC Officer Richardson cut up the largest still in the group a 7-barrel still with mash ready to be distilled.

Upper right: Richardson and Federal Officer Dorsey get set to break up the still which was in the process of being moved to a new location.

Middle right: This was a 4-barrel still before destruction. In the foreground are empty sugar sacks and assorted paraphernalia. This still was also ready to be run.

Lower right: Deputies Short and Spangler, ABC Officer, W. W. Moore, and Federal Officer Dorsey get set to finish the destruction of the still which was partially destroyed by the moonshiners. (Shown in upper left also.)