CHAPTER 1

Cotton Chopping Time

* * *

Acton Bend, Cotton chopping time in early May. A short blackguy about 5'5 plowing one mule and his name was Little Willyand a tall black guy named George was also plowing. JamesActon, the boss man son, was also plowing a mule. Seventy-fiveyards over where the hoe hands were chopping cotton. Late in theevening little Willy made it to the end of the row first and decidedto yell quitting time. Well the boss man's son James got mad andtold little Willy that "you know that daddy tole yall that whenhe ain't here that I am the boss out here." He looks over to makesure the hoe hands are still working and puts his hands up to hismouth and hollers "Quitting Time!" "Quitting Time!"

A day or two later, on a typical summer day, when severalof the farmers were in town sitting out front of the drugstoretelling tales to each other, five or six sitting and standing talkingabout the weather or fishing, when here comes Deacon Brownfrom the only Baptist church in town. They greet each otherand he says "Preacher Adams wants me to talk to you guysabout making up money to buy light fixtures for the church. Youknow we are about to get electricity and Preacher Adams wantsthe best." Several of the men say "yea we'll help out" and giveshim several dollars. After all, the pastor wanted the best. Theyall wound up giving him something. About that time a man bythe name of Joe Steel about 35 years old came running aroundthe corner yelling "Boys, Boys theys a load of Japs at the fillingstation on the main highway" and Deacon Brown hollered "Sonof a Bitch!" They all took off over there. About the time they gotover to the station there was a crowd gathered up around the carwith about four or five japs in it. Everybody's anger was built upfrom the war ever since Pearl Harbor. The police was there andhad everything kindly under control. They said "alright guysya'll back off and go on about your business. These is good Japs.Their just traveling through from Philadelphia on their way toCalifornia." One old guy hollered "they ain't no good Japs." OldDan Ledbetter pretty well the town drunk. He made his livingdoing odd jobs for people, like working in yards and stuff. Hecame running up with a hoe in his hand hollering "I'm gonnaget me a Jap, I'm gonna get me a Jap." The law grabbed him andpulled him back and said "them's good Japs." Old Dan said "ain'tno such a thang as a good Jap." "I tried to join to Navy in 1934,"Dan was bout 45 years old, "and they wouldn't take me because Iwas flat feeted, well flat feeted I'm a gonna get me a dad dam Jap."And the police pulled him off to one side. Another guy holleredout, "yall better not stop in Mississippi."

CHAPTER 2

Garden City

* * *

Garden City Alabama is in the southern part of CullmanCounty. And right at the end of the southside is the MulberryRiver. Across the river you got Blount County. To the Westof Cullman Co is Walker Co and just to the south joiningBlount and Walker Co is Jefferson Co where the big city ofBirmingham is. All these other counties are dry, but JeffersonCo is wet. Over on the 78 hwy out of Birmingham towardMemphis right inside the Jefferson County Line was 6 or 8girly dance halls and clubs. It was legal for them to sale beerbut it was illegal to sale whiskey. Anytime you got peoplewanting to drank they gonna want whiskey. And they willget whiskey. There was this guy named Hollis, Bill Hollis. Heowned the biggest juke joint on the strip. He had some littleone pot moonshiners making whiskey to sale at his locationand to sale at the other joints on the strip. Most of the moonshining was in the edge of Jefferson. Any kind of moonshinewas illegal. The law got so bad about busting up their stillsand in late 45 or early 46 he decided to move out of that areaover into Blount co across the Mulberry River. He had somecontacts from Garden City so they decided what all they weregoing to have to do to run the still. His contact that lived rightoutside Garden City suggested they get niggers to run thestill. That way they would do most of the work at night andif the law tried to catch em they wouldn't be able to see themrunning through the woods at night. They hired Big Georgeas the lead black man. After he was told he could make threeor four times the money making whiskey then he decided hewould do it. So he hires little Willy and a crew of five or sixother niggers to work in the woods. The railroad runs rightthrough Garden City. Mr Sam Johnson's store was on thestreet along with Prices and McAnnally's. The stores were onthe west side of the street and the railroad was on the East side.Prices and McAnnally's stores ran a rolling store. They wentout in the country and stop at people's houses selling flour,coffee, dishpans; some folks had no money but, they could selleggs, chickens and butter and buy what they needed with themoney. It didn't make any difference.

Prices and McAnnally's usually get their rolling stores back inthe evening and take inventory and reload for the next morning.Prices and McAnnally's were competitors in the grocery storebusiness. You could also buy mule gear, plow lines, and tracechains. They were competitors but they were also good neighbors.They would not run each other's route. They ran their routes fivedays a week.

Mr Sam Johnson was up the street from the others. Hedidn't run a rolling store, he was a wholesaler. Things like sugar,fertilizer, seed, and other things. Mr. Sam and Ms. Clara had ablack family that lived next to them. The woman named Ruthiewould help Ms. Clara around the house and when she was neededand she would help Mr. Sam in the store. Her husband was namedBen Rivers. He worked in the store selling fertilizer. He wouldalso take Mr. Sam's little flat bed truck and deliver fertilize to thefarmers who didn't have another way to come get it except on amule and wagon. Ben and Ruthie had a boy in 1941 and namedhim Ben and became known as Little Ben. Mr. Sam and Ms.Clara took after him like he was there own. They had lost theirson in the war. They treated him like their own son. When LittleBen got big enough every time you saw Mr. Sam you would seeLittle Ben. They would go fishing and things like that.

CHAPTER 3

Whiskey Makin

* * *

Getting back to the whiskey making deal, the contact that Hollishad in the community was a little bitty short guy about 5'1"stout as a mule about 40 years old. His name was William blackbut was known all over the country as Cracker Black. So Holliscould stay at his joint on the strip he was busy getting the set-upin the woods and organizing the niggers. Cracker Black had beenin this kind of business most of his life.

They decided to put the still a couple of miles south of theMulberry River across from the railroad tracks. They could haultheir supplies in and the whiskey out with one of the hand pumprailroad cars. He could get one from the section foreman outof Bangor. He had good friends there that could arrange it. Heplanned it that way where there would not be any tracks goinginto the woods off the main roads so they couldn't find theirstill.

The time they got a shipment of whiskey ready the plan wasto haul it back up the railroad tracks across the mulberry river.There was a big scope of woods between the river and town andthey would hide the whiskey in the woods until they got readyto ship it. Hollis was the ramrod of the whole thing. He was theone putting all the money into it. But now Cracker Black wasrunning the show telling all the black folks what they needed todo. He would tell Big George what to do and he would make sureit was done. Cracker made a deal with Mr. Sam Johnson to buythe sugar. Mr. Sam knew that Cracker had been in the businessbefore so he decided not to ask. So he didn't know but, he didknow. As far as he knew he was selling sugar.

They finally got all their equipment in the woods andeverything they needed to fire up. They decided to start off witha five hundred gallon vat. That was going to be plenty for whatthey were going to be selling. Cracker got his railroad buggy sothey would haul out a little whiskey and carry in a load of sugaror corn, whatever they needed to make the whiskey. All this hadto be done at night. Cracker had a deal with the section foremenat Bangor; everybody knew what time the train ran that's usuallyhow they set their clocks. If there was ever a change in the timethe train was running he would let Cracker know so the guyswouldn't be on the tracks that night or if it was a North Boundtrain they could use the south bound tracks.

CHAPTER 4

Making a Run

* * *

They were really making more whiskey than Hollis needed onthe strip. Cracker had some contacts in Memphis. And he toldHollis if he would keep funding the deal and Cracker would keepmaking the deals that he would start running a car once a week toMemphis. He had a guy up there that ran a lot of shot houses andhe knew he could sell the extra whiskey. He would give Hollis hiscut. In the meantime Cracker was getting ready to send his car toMemphis. He hired a guy about 23 years old named Red Turnerand had just come out of the war. He had bought him a little 41coup ford that was a pretty good hotrod. The guy was farmingwith his daddy but, was interested in making extra money withCracker. They put extra blocks under the springs so when theyloaded it down it would not appear low to the ground. Crackergot all that started and shipped out a couple of loads. A businessman out of St Louis who was coming to Birmingham a coupletimes a month got to stopping in over at Hollis' joint on 78 hwyon his way back home Just getting a little taste of night life andwhiskey and so forth. He got to asking about that good shine.He didn't ask where it comes from but, Hollis said that it can begot. So the man bought him a gallon or two on the third trip byto carry home with him. He shared it with some of his friendsand they claimed that was the best shine he had ever drank in hislife. One guy in the crowd was a guy that furnished about 150shot houses with bonded and bootleg whiskey. He wanted to getsome of this good shine. The business man told him he would askaround and see what he could find out. So on his next trip outof Birmingham he stopped in at Hollis' joint. He had a drank ortwo. He started talking to Bill about his friends and about the guywho furnished the shot houses that he was interested in buyingsome if he could get enough that would do him any good. Hollisasked "about how much are you talking about?" He said "if hebuys he would like to get about at least 300 gallons at a time."Hollis said "I don't know man it would take a big truck, but letme do some checking and see. It would probably be a monthbefore we could be ready to handle the deal." Hollis got in touchwith Cracker and told him what the deal was. All the time theyhave been splitting the difference down the middle except whatHollis bought to sell at his joint. Cracker told him said "yea I canswing it but, it will take about a month to get ready to run thatmuch." Old Cracker was slick and a fast thinker he told Hollis"we will be able to handle it but, it will take a month. Tell themwhat we have to have a gallon in Alabama, to get it up there. Theywill have to pay the freight. The watermelons and peaches andcantaloupes will be ready next month this is June. I know a guywho`s got a 41 ford tractor with a 28ft foot trailer with sideboards.He hauls all kinds of produce and in the winter he hauls applesout of North Carolina and Virginia into Birmingham. I'm prettysure I can get him to haul it."

CHAPTER 5

Making a Plan

* * *

Cracker said to tell the guy up there to make a deal with a produceman up there to take the produce. "We can't just load 300 gallonof whiskey and haul it up the road. We will have to make thislook good. We will have all the produce we need right here in thecommunity." Cracker had to get on the ball to get the whiskeymade, keep his car running to Memphis each week and get all thematerials ready and get them hauled to the location of the stilland get ready for the bigger operation.

One day Cracker went over to see Shorty Thomas aboutthe truck and trailer he owned. He lived between Hayden andBangor in Blount County. He was the one who would haul theproduce up. Cracker went by there and asked for Shorty. Mrs.Thomas knew Cracker and told him Shorty was on a trip andwhen he comes in she would have him come see him. Cracker said"Yea just tell him to come over and see me and if I'm not homeI'll be around town somewhere."

Mr. General Thomas had come into town he was a peachgrower up on Oak Grove Mountain. He grew peaches and plums.He had come into Mr. Sam's to pick-up fertilizer for the farm. Hehad brought several of his toe headed boys in with him; He andMs Pauline had ten boys that ranged in age from about 2 yearstill about 17-18 years. Mr. Sam spoke "Hey Mr. General I ain'tseen you lately, how's the peaches looking?" Mr. General said "Itlooks like it's going to be a heavy crop it's looking real good. Weare just beginning to pick a few. Not sure how the market is goingto be but we are selling them. "General and Shorty by the wayare brothers. Mr. General had several big trucks that he operatedyear round to haul apples out of the Carolinas, Virginia, andWest Virginia. He operated year round. Mr. Sam says, "How areall them boys doing and Ms. Pauline?" Mr. General said "Wellthere doing fine, I've got all the boys working picking peachesand working there at the farm."

CHAPTER 6

Revenuers

* * *

In the meantime Cracker had his deal there with Hollis and hiscar running into Memphis once a week. And it had been goingon about a month, month and a half. The revenuers or FBI havepeople monitoring the action in the shot houses around town.And this happened to be in Memphis to find out how muchwhiskey comes in and to see where it comes from also to seeif much wildcat comes in and a nose around to try to find outwhere it comes from. This one particular agent was talking toa few folks coming out of the shot houses. He walks up to thisblack guy that just came out and was higher than a Georgia Pineand he said to him "Is that good whiskey?" and the response was"Yes Suh that's good whiskey." The agent said "Well I guess I'llgo in and get me some whiskey." The other fellow said "Yes Suh!Good Alabama Whiskey." Agent said "Alabama?" He said "Yessuh somewheres north of Birmingham." The agent goes on inand has a shot himself, and hoping he could talk to some more ofthe people to get more information. He leaves there and goes tothree more shot houses. Each time he would ask for the wildcatwhiskey. He didn't want any of that bonded whiskey. He had todrink some or the folks would get suspicious of him. He visitedthree or four more that afternoon but didn't really get any moreinformation except that it had come from Alabama. He reportsto the FBI in Memphis and let the FBI in Birmingham know thatthey had whiskey coming from Birmingham into Memphis. TheFBI told them what area it might be coming from. This wasn'tthe first time the revenuers had been in town. They had a goodidea what was going on. They sent agents into Walker, Blount,and Cullman and into north Jefferson County. And they wouldget some kind of old car would buy a car in that county theywere working. Each one would have some kind of scheme to keeppeople from being so suspicious. He did have a Blount countytag and when people would ask he would make out like he wasdealing in real estate telling the people he was looking for land forsome people in Miami that had money to buy some cheap landfor sale. Land wasn't very high back then anyhow.

He started nosing around north Blount County and allaround, Garden City, Bangor, Hayden, and Blount Springs tryingto see what all he could find out. It was real slow gathering anyinformation. Time went on and some people began to tell things.He would ask questions and began to get answers. He startedparking and walking the woods around. Big George and Crackerboth had been seeing that car around. It through up a red flag sothey got more on there toes with the operation.