An interesting article and documents from the archives of the Library of Virginia about the automobiles seized during the events depicted in the new film.
http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2012/08/29/lawless/
Looks like an entertaining film!
Didnt see much automobile being seized but it does look like a nice bootleg wiskey movie.. Looking foward to seeing it when it comes out
My grandfather went to Federal Prison twice for bootleggin'. Spent a year inside each time. They never took his car. That was in Wilkes County, NC.
I don't know the first time he went, but the last time was in 1969 when he was 65 years old.
My Grand Pa would buy at Auction Seized Bootlegger cars,They were well tuned and in great running shape. To pay for them you would pay a visit to "Joe" a Lodge member for a loan.
Grand Pa hated banks and would not deal with them. Funny thing..my 29 year old son wont go near a bank,just like his Great Grand Pa.
Wick
My middle name comes from my great grandfather who was shot by revenuers while making some of that fine Georgia Moon during prohibition.
He shot at them, they shot him dead.
My grandfather hauled shine in a '57 Olds with the J-2 package in the 1960s.
"There's two kinds of moon, the drinkin' kind and the sellin' kind"
It is back in the 20's, during prohibition, that, out of necessity for the backwoods bootleggers to outrun the revenooers, the the souped up stock car came about. When the bootleggers weren't running moonshine, they would race eachother on crude tracks. Before seat belts, roll bars and other safety developments, many died in horrendous fiery high speed accidents during these races. Nascar eventually evolved from these humble beginnings. Jim Patrick
The only time they would confiscate a vehicle was when it was used during the commission of a crime. They would not go and raid a still and take the owner's car or truck that was parked in the driveway unless it was loaded with illegal booze. If it was empty they left it alone. They could take it legally if it was hauling processed hootch but not if it was bringing raw grain to or from one place to another. The laws are written and they must be enacted and carried out.
I lived in the harbor area and there was a lot of bootlegging done with boats in the San Pedro area now called the Los Angeles Harbor. They played a game and very few shots were fired. When the Coast Guard captured a hot rod boat they used it to chase the bootleggers who had to then make a faster boat. They used a lot of Liberty V12 aircraft engines in those boats.
My dad stored a lot of lubricating oil in five gallon square cans.
My father said you could tell if moonshine was high in alcohol content if you poured some out at lit it with a match. If the moon shine was still burning when it hit the ground it was of high alcohol content. I have a high quality copper still from the 20s. It holds about 5 gallons. I have never tried it out. One can buy cheap wine and turn it into brandy with one of these stills.
Frank Harris from Long Beach & Big Bear said:
I lived in the harbor area and there was a lot of bootlegging done with boats in the San Pedro area now called the Los Angeles Harbor. They played a game and very few shots were fired. When the Coast Guard captured a hot rod boat they used it to chase the bootleggers who had to then make a faster boat. They used a lot of Liberty V12 aircraft engines in those boats.
Frank they call this unlimited hydroplane racing now.....
But my grandfather also said, if you were runnin' shine you didn't haul ass like you see in the movies. You drove and took your time so as not to raise suspicion. He didn't actually get caught on the major road the last time he was caught. The Agents had his property under surveillance. They were hiding in the tree line just across the property line. When he got in the car, they allowed him to cross the property line and then pulled out of the woods into a road block.
That was the only way they could catch him because he had multiple still sites, including ones underground hidden on his 96 acres of mountain land.
My mother and her siblings used to ride on a hollowed-out back seat with a blanket over it to "go to town" to deliver product.
She was born in 1946, so he was still running shine up until the 60's. No telling how long before that, since he was born sometime between 1900 and 1904.