Rum Running Renegade: Willie Carter Sharpe

What do you get when you put a fearless woman behind the wheel of a truck filled with illicit booze on a winding country road with the feds in hot pursuit? You get the brazen capers of Willie Carter Sharpe.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio, Zaren
Yo Elizabeth Dutton, what are you doing hanging out? Being cool? Nice?
Looks good on you? Thank you? You know it's ridiculous.
Oh girl, do I did you know that Eddie van
Halen new Fred Durst? No, I did not know that.
I didn't know that either, but I learned this story recently.
So Eddie van Halen actually had the really interesting rivalry

(00:23):
with Fred Durst that was momentary. So Eddie van Halen,
he gets invited over to fred durst place in Beverly
Hills or Limp Biscuit is like rehearsing for an album
at the time, and you know, Eddi van Halen's like,
I don't want to go see what the young kids
are doing. So he brings the guitar over and some
like an amp I guess by maybe a preamp, I
don't know. He brings over like at least a guitar

(00:43):
and he starts like jamming with Limp Biscuit and Fred Durst.
So just imagine Eddie van Halen jamming with Limp Biscuit
at the height of their fame, right and like some
random mass mansion and Beverly Hills. Things are going well
and Eddie van Halen is having a great old time,
but until somebody pulls out some drugs and starts to
at high and Edi van Halen is very much sober.
So he gets mad and he's like, I can't believe

(01:04):
you do that in front of me, and he leaves.
But he gets in such a huff. He leaves and
he forgets his guitar. So he calls back the next
day and he's like, hey, fred I need to get
my guitar back. It's like one of my favorites. Fred
Durst doesn't answer, just totally just leaves him on red right.
So Eddie van Halen's like, what's going on? Twenty four
hours pass, he doesn't here. He gets mad and he's like,

(01:26):
I am from New Jersey. This is not gonna play.
So he goes and he gets into a tank, a
literal tank, and he drives across l A in the
tank to Beverly Hills and then he shows up in
the house and he demands his guitar back. And I
quote from the journalist Andrew Bennett, Eddie once bought an

(01:49):
assault vehicle from a military auction. It has a shine
gun mount on the back and it is not legal.
Eddie drove that assault vehicle through l A into Beverly Hills,
then parked it and left it running the front lawn
of the house Lint Biscuit was rehearsing in. He got
out wearing no shirt, his hair and a samurai bun
on top of his head, his jeans held up with

(02:09):
a strand of rope, and combat boots held together by
duct tape, and he had a gun in his hand.
Are we sure he was still sober? Exactly right? So
he then demands that he gets with the gun in
his hand and the comb boots, duct tape and the
samurai top knot, puts the gun in Fred Durst's face,
and it's like, where's my guitar? Needless to say, he
got his guitar back. I just short circuit ridiculous, And

(02:39):
I thought, because we were talking about your brother doing
the duct tape on his boots, that's what made me
think of it. Yeah, my brother used to tear through
Doc Martin's and would then have to duct tape them together.
He wasn't the only one. He and Eddie van Halen Alright,
So yeah, that's ridiculous. You want to know something else.
That's from Girl. I'm here for the ridiculousness, Moonshine and

(03:01):
Daredevil Driver with Diamond Teeth. Yes, this is Ridiculous Crime,

(03:25):
a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons
It's always murder free and one ridiculous seven. I want
to tell you about Franklin County, Virginia. I've been there,
have you, I've not um but it's located, as you

(03:45):
well know. It's located in the Blue Ridge Foothills in
the southwestern part of the state. Very pretty. The Blue
Ridge Mountains are next. Yeah. Well, it also, did you
not has the nickname of the moonshine Capital of the World.
Why do you think we went there? So my there
with particular to history. Okay, so you know, well moonshine,
as you know, I'm gonna tell you anyway. I don't

(04:05):
like to hear myself talk. It's a high proof liquor,
yes it is, and it's called moonshine because it's made
by the light of the moon. Beautiful. It's also generally illegal, yep. Yeah,
where it is legal, I guess if you make it
commercially well there, Yeah, there are commercial versions now I
knew someone who had a little cessna and he would

(04:28):
fly a couple of states over when I lived down
south and pick up real moonshine and fly it back. Yeah.
But there are also companies now that outs moonshine like, yeah,
so the real stuff is illegal. My dad still gets
moons like when I go to visit him. He always
had a hine And does he ever get the kind

(04:48):
that they float peaches in and let it flavor like?
But you know he has a guy that doesn't do that,
but he does like that. Yeah, it's a popular one. Um.
So there are regulations on alcohol for two main reasons.
The first health and safety. That makes sense. Bad hooch
can kill or blind a person. Oh you always used
to hear about that and going blind with bad whiskey. Yeah. Well,

(05:10):
and that's that's the one thing that really came to
attention during prohibition, right that m prohibition between three in
the United States. Er. I just want to make sure
that everyone is on the same page. Um. When the
government banned booze, people made it themselves, right bathtub. Um.

(05:31):
There's a really good book called The Poisoner's Handbook. Have
you ever read that? I never even heard of it.
It's a book about the birth of forensic toxicology. That's
probably why I haven't heard of it. This sounds more
like it's really good, but there's like it's really really interesting.
There's a whole thing about how homemade alcohol was poisoning

(05:51):
and killing people at absolutely outrageous rates during the brought
during prohibition um. And then in it they talk about,
you know, all of these ways and the way that
then the government and all these toxicologists were measuring things
and trying to figure out exactly how people were killed
and what it took. Um. Why Canadian whiskey and uh
Puerto Rican rummers so valued is that they continued making

(06:13):
them and they knew that they were legit and it
wasn't like you had to go down to the speakeasy.
And and that's why you had then bootleggers bringing it
in on secret boats and all that stuff. Um, Why
would people risk this right even though they could die? Well, alcoholism,
alcoholism and being human. But also that's the thing is
the human you know, like people have been making alcoholic

(06:35):
beverages since the very beginning. We had we had beer,
before we had bread. Fermented drinks existed at least as
early as the Neolithic period love that new Stone time
ten thousand and five thousand BC. Yeah, and it's in
every culture. So it's just something that people are going
to consume one way or another. You take the grain
you have and you fermented, and later on you're like,

(06:56):
we could eat this too. That brings me to my
second point. Yes, that about regulation. Remember I told you
two main things, and this is not anything written in stone.
This is just me Riffen coming up with my idea
that there are too two main things. The other thing
the other reason that you would regulate the production and
the distribution. Yeah, money, baby, you can tax the burjeebers

(07:22):
out of it. I was figuring. I'm sorry, I don't
mean to jump here, but I was guessing. I was like,
it's gotta be money. The only reason people ever do anything.
You know, they care about the quality, but they want
to get the cream off the top. So there's import tax,
state and federal excise taxes, bar and cabaret licenses, right,
so you can make you can make money out of
every So moonshine. Back to moonshine. You've had it, yea often?

(07:45):
Can you still see? No? No, it's legit, like my
dad knows guys who make the good good whiskey like
it's it's super clean, super clear, great taste like it is.
It's they've been doing it for generations. It's not like
something new to them. Their basic clear commercial operation, but
just run by a family, if you want to think
of it that way. And uh yeah, so it's a

(08:05):
tried and too product. There's no like experimenting. They're not
still like working out the kanks of it. So it's great.
My sister's down there visiting my father right now. I
could probably call it and be like, how's the moonshine
to give you a fresh report? If you want, we should,
we'll do that. We'll get her on. Um. I think
I've had it now that you thank you for asking,
and you're worried it was about to ask. I wasn't

(08:26):
really impressed. I didn't you know you didn't like it?
Do you like vodka? Uh? All right, do you like whiskey?
I mean I was a gin gal. Yeah, this is why.
If you don't like vodka, you probably won't like moonshine.
If you don't like whiskey, you definitely did like whiskey.
But if you don't like vodka and you don't like whiskey,
you won't like moonshine. But if you if you like
one of the two, you may, but you don't like both,
you definitely won't like. Well, I I felt like something

(08:48):
you just drink to get twisted. That's what's the purpose.
It's not like an enjoyment thing. Because to me, vodka
is like that you'd like alcohol, and then whiskey is
like you like a sipping drink to me. So that's
all I'm using. That's a good that's a good analog.
Uh So let's go back Franklin County. Back to Franklin County.
So the residents of this aforementioned Franklin County they've been

(09:10):
making moonshine since around seventeen six. Damn, like pretty much
when they got there, they set the flag, They're like,
get up the still. It's like they started. It's like
when did they get there? In the hills, it's in
the Blue Ridge. The hills are just packed with all
these little secret stills everywhere. The hollows and those hills
are amazing, those little valleys and stuff. I mean, you

(09:30):
can talk legitimately beautiful now before prohibition people were getting
around the whole tax thing with these illegal skills between
eight and eighteen ninety four, So in in a one
year period, Franklin County had seventies seven legal distilleries. But

(09:52):
so then there's this national fight against booze. Right, starts
to pick up around the turn of the sentry, all
post Civil War hangovers. Nineteen nine, most of Virginia was dry.
Really Yeah, they started putting in the blue laws, no production,
no sales, yeah, nineteen nine, and so the license distilleries

(10:15):
start quote unquote closing. But again that's pre prohibition. In
nineteen fourteen, Virginia voted to ban alcohol statewide. Get out,
I will not prohibition. So we see it's you know,
stairs stepping into it. The market for moonshine explodes. Now,

(10:37):
there were plenty of these illegal skills in old Franklin
County because the legal ones just suddenly are illegal. Um,
if you're going to talk about moonshiners, which I am,
and Franklin County prohibition, there also, Um, we really need
to talk about Willie Carter Sharp. Okay, I thought were
gonna talk about thunder Road, but I like this, go on.

(10:59):
I'll singing that later Willie Carter Sharp. She is a woman.
Oh look at my sexism. I'm over here picturing a
dude with diamond teeth. The mother is the surgeon Willie
Carter Sharp. She's born in Floyd County, which is just
west of Franklin County. She's born in the early seventeen
years old. She's like, you know what, I'm blowing this area.

(11:21):
I'm going to Roanoke and going to the big city.
I'm gonna work in a cotton mill like mom's like,
in the head of the big city. Um So she
she gets to to Roanoke and then she gets she's
over it. She goes then to work in an overall
factory in Lynchburg. Yeah, well, it's tough times. And then

(11:42):
she gets a job back in Roanoke at a five
and dime at a Crest five and dime store. She
didn't decide to work in a paper mill a barely
not as a logger. Um so she was only there
for a couple of months. Then she splits. She she
marries this guy, Floyd Carter, who is the son of
John Carter, who was at that time the bootleg king
of the city. She marries into this good legging family.

(12:06):
She gets into the family business. She starts selling liquor
around town. Like now she's doing it like to like
the ladies areas, like where the men can't be, like
she would go to like you know, a little I
don't know whatever, the equivalent of a stitch. And and
I think that she was doing that. But also, just
like anybody else, she wasn't really self relegating to women
only activities and family wasn't doing that interest. But she

(12:29):
divorces Floyd. I'm pretty sure that he was in prison
at the time. I might be wrong. I'm not inventing that,
but I saw this thing and and it wasn't in
the dream. It was a real document. But I don't
know if that was an official it was. It was
a divorce decree. And the thing is like in these
old documents, you don't know if you're looking at the

(12:49):
right person with that name and what have you, but
or even the right record of the event, because sometimes
the person will tell a lie and then the lie
gets written down and you find is evidence of the
lie written lately completely. And so it was a declaration
that the husband was, you know, divorcing, and he was
in jail, but what have you anyway? Um, she's already
hall and whiskey though by the time of the divorce.

(13:12):
What what in the world do I mean by that, Sarah,
I was really curious to something you need to know
about Willie. She is skilled, talented, fearless, an incredibly fast driver. Really,
her skills were widely known and they were in demand.
She Zaren was the queen of the rum runners. Oh yes,

(13:34):
my girl. I can't believe I've never heard of her.
I'm here to help, thank you for I want to
get you. She starts working in Franklin County. She gets
to the to the center of it. She charges ten
dollars a car, which more than a hundred and sixty
and today's dollars to pilot up to ten cars at
a time on their runs out of Franklin County. When

(13:55):
don't you pilot up to ten cars at a time? Yeah?
As a pilot, she would follow the liquor cargoes and
she zig zag her car along the road so that
the cops couldn't overtake them. So they're just on this
run and because they don't have like radios and stuff
to radio ahead and be like they're coming down the

(14:16):
road and that's what it would sound. That sounds good.
Throw the spike strip. They can't do that, and so she's, ha, ha,
you can't catch me in zig zag. She's like Robert
Mitchum's sister in thunder Road. If Robert Mitcham had a
sister in thunder Road. Yes, completely, you know that. You
know the run Runner movie. He's like a badass driver totally.

(14:37):
So she's a zigging and she's a zagging and furious.
Oh my goodness, I don't know anything about those movies.
I have to tell you about them. I think um
per the Richmond Times Dispatch she acted, as they quote,
block car in dozens of these runs, so she was
banded to their snowman, yes quote, her object being to

(15:01):
foil pursuing officers by blocking their attempts to reach the
liquor cars ahead, or to lead them off the trail
in a mad dash over circuitous side roads while the
main caravan continued to its destination. She really is smoking
in the It was so good, so uh. Typical route

(15:26):
would be the first stop would be the black Water
filling station in Franklin County. That's where they'd load up
with all the liquor. I think I was able to
find this place on Google Maps. There was a column
in the Franklin News Post in where a guy mentioned
that that it was still standing on Route one outside
Rocky Mount by the bridge over the Blackwater River, and

(15:49):
he said it was on the Rocky Mount side. So
there I was Google street View down these roads your
way through. I love that. It's like a that's a
fun thing for me. There's this novel by Matt BonDurant
called The Wettest County in the World. You ever read
It Sucks to Be You? That is a really good book.
It's a fictionalized account of this time and it involves

(16:11):
the author's real life grandpa and the family is called
Wettest County in the World, The Wettest County. We'll hold
on more for me. The Blackwater filling stations in the
book referenced in the book. The book was turned into
a movie called Lawless. Oh. It's starring one of your
favorite actors, Tom Hardy, two of them, Tom Hardy and

(16:33):
as the little brother Beef. The screenplay was by Nick Cave.
I've watched this movie and I don't tell people there's
there's source material. It comes from an actual book that
you can read the story is dude, the the guy
if he's writing about his grandfather, the guy who read
the book, if that's his grandfather, that he's writing about

(16:55):
his grandfather was an absolute, unrepentant badass. Yes, the man
is just incredible, like a full cul This whole region
is like a spring from which springs forth. Badass completely. Yeah.
So the station that's in the movie was a set
that they built in Georgia. If you're wondering, which I

(17:15):
know you're not, um, but it's a great book and
it's a great movie, a great book. Let's stop for
a moment and pay homage to Willie by listening to
some ads. I don't know what I mean by that.
But when we tell you all about distracting from when
we come back, i'm gonna tell you more about black

(17:37):
Water filling Station, about rum running everything, I'm gonna tell
you everything you want to know. Welcome back, Thanks for

(18:05):
sticking around. I mean, I know you have important places
to be. You handcuffed me to this chair. I appreciate
your hearing concern in listening to my story today. I'm
enjoying it. Let's get back to run running, shall we.
So we're talking convoy. She's got a mighty convoy. Yes,
Willie Carter Sharp. She's loading up all these these cars

(18:29):
ten bucks of pop. She starts this convoy. They'd leave
the filling station, then they go north to Roanoke, and
then from there the drivers split up and they'd make
deliveries in Lynchburg, Covington, Virginia. I've never been there. I
don't know where it is. And then they'd also venture
into West Virginia. So my favorite of the Virginia and like,

(18:51):
come all, Willie. She also occasionally traveled as far as Washington,
d C. In Baltimore. I was wondering if you got
up to either Pennsylvania or DC, because if you gets
into West Virginia, you're basically and what's called the Pencil
Tucky region. Yeah. Well, I think sometimes she was driving
so fast she didn't realize she'd gone that far. I'm
in New Jersey. So anyway, she said she drove every

(19:15):
single bit day of the year, and sometimes making two
or three trips a day. I love she's making cash too.
She said she piloted at least a hundred and ten
gallons of liquor in a day. Damn. Yeah, her speeds,
what do you think her top speed was back then?
I don't even know what would be like let's say, right,

(19:40):
my dad told me lots these stories, so you know,
I got a good sense of this. Between nineteen twenty
one and nineteen thirty one, she was arrested thirteen times
for speeding and reckless driving. A woman after your own heart,
she was called. She was called the queen of the
Roanoke room runners. Yeah, she had it like airbrushed on

(20:03):
a T shirt, sat jacket. Um, it's not exactly like
we can't really pinpoint the exact amount of booze that
she drove, right, because we don't. They weren't keeping close records. Um,
but the notes on a criminal conspiracy the government connected
her to around seventy nine thousand gallons between September of

(20:26):
twenty and May of thirty one. Damn girl. Yeah, however,
she said between seven and thirty one, quote, she helped
moved out of the county nearly a hundred and forty
five thousand gallons of whiskey. She's like, no, it's double that.
Governor don't know nothing. Other newspaper reports said that she

(20:46):
moved two hundred thousand to two hundred fifty gallons of liquor.
Someone's exaggerating, And then I showed up and it was
like four point six million, and they're like, how did
you get there? You live in the sad She invented liquor.
But they were all in the newspapers are saying she
moved more than the men did. And she continued working

(21:07):
as a pilot until May of nineteen thirty one, and
that's when she was arrested for violating prohibition. So she
was just getting hard charges the Treasury Department kind of
she was, No, she was, it was the local consult
I was just wondering in with It's later she gets
found guilty, sentenced to three years in prison, and she

(21:29):
served her time at Alderson Federal Prison in West Virginia.
Fun facts about Alderson, Are you ready for them? Buckled in?
Alderson officially opened in sam practicing my docent gigs. It
was the first federal women's prison in the United States.
Did you know that now you do? Willie would have

(21:50):
most certainly been there when Eleanor Roosevelt toured the campus
in May of thirty four. Two great women meeting together,
they high fived, winked at each other, tour went on.
The first lady, what a girl. The first lady said, quote,
I think it's a very wonderful institution. It is so
because you don't feel it is one of this nature.

(22:12):
So it's a prison. Who doesnt feel like a It
doesn't feel like a prison, feels like a spot. And
why make it a prison? You know who else served
time at this prison? Um fancy pants me, Billie Holiday,
Tokyo Rose Damn and later the big boss of all bosses,
Martha Stewart. So the day that Willie was released from prison,

(22:40):
she gets subpoenaed by the grand jury for this upcoming trial,
the Moonshine conspiracy trial. They're going after all the local moonshiners.
She's gonna be like a star witness. Yes, there's this
federal agent, Colonel Thomas Bailey. He's a he's an upright man.
And is he a colonel, a Kentucky colonel or is
he a military colonel? I don't know, Well, Kentucky colonels

(23:02):
are by name only. Now I think he's a military cortinal.
He where's a corset? I don't know. He was an
undercover agent for the Feds. He pretended to be a
moonshine buyer and went to Franklin County. I don't know why,
I just keep picturing over the corset. They're like, it's
the traditional dress of the moonshine. He's got tassels. Let's pretend. Um,

(23:28):
he wasn't interested in busting the small skills. He wanted
the big fish, the big dogs, the people. He wanted
the ones who are running the whole operation and taking
advantage of all these homegrown skills. Right, So he wants
to catch the still operators and runners, but then flip them. Okay,
so it's not that he's ignoring them trying to work

(23:48):
his way up to the master. In the course of
his investigation, he figured out that the distillers were paying
the local sheriffs for protection. Not that big of a surprise. Um,
So that that how they're avoiding all the federal Yeah,
because I mean everybody knew that. That's that's the whole
points is corrupt. How are you gonna get in there?
Because you got enough live the sheriff and right. In fact,
the governor of Virginia told state law enforcement to just

(24:11):
take fines from people that they caught don't clog up
the whole criminal justice system throwing them and it's seriously
don't know. We're not going to have them go through
the courts or the jail. Just pay, just get your
little nut you need and then move on. So don't
clogged the criminal justice system. Because in the criminal justice system,
the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups.

(24:35):
The good old boy sheriffs who take bribes and look
the other way, and the moonshiners who keep the public lubricated.
These are their stories. Thank you, thank you for indulging
me right there. Anyway, the whole conspiracy case takes two
years to build. Bailey lived undercover course for that two years,

(24:57):
very constricted, just gathering of a and could not breathe
into his course, he gathers evidence, so he's totally undercover,
deep cover. When the time's right, he strikes into A
grand jury is convened. Federal Willie Carter Sharp is called
to testify. During her testimony, quote, her diamond studded teeth

(25:21):
caused a sensation in the courtroom. Diamond. This woman shows
up to testify in front of the grand jury wearing
a grill. I mean it's a stone cold move. It's
so flashy for the time to nobody's doing this is
just like you haven't seen this since I don't know
Cleopatras depression. She's got a faceful of diamonds. And you

(25:43):
know what that means is if it's the depression, you
have a faceful of diamonds, you're so dangerous. No one's
going to try to take them out of your mouth.
And they look at my fortune right here in my mouth.
It is so fox on a flex. This is it's
it's in poor hill country. It's a depression. Ol Gal
Stretton in diamonds and her grill diamonds in her neck
actually just a grill um so per this contemporary report

(26:06):
in the Richmond Times Dispatch quote, Mrs Sharpe is credited
with having outwitted state and federal prohibition officers on dozens
of occasions when they attempted to capture a load of
contraband liquor. Her thrilling races over the tortuous mountain roads
and down the main streets of Roanoke, Rocky Mount and
other mountain towns are credited as deeds of a devil

(26:28):
may care valor, which her male counter companions seldom venture
to duplicate. I love the writing in old newspapers there,
like check out the eggs on this one. She's got
a real pair. So um great conspiracy trial, the Great
Moonshine conspiracy trial. After hearing her testimony, and I assume

(26:51):
and testimony of others, I'm guessing also looking at evidence
or whatever grand jury does, they indicted thirty four people.
Quote hope that includes the sheriff. Hold onto your pants,
hold onto your corset Burnett. There's in a conspiracy case
that defrauded the federal government of an estimated five point
five million dollars in whiskey excise taxes. That's a hundred

(27:16):
and nineteen million dollars today. That that's a big chunk
a change. Yeah, who are some of the people charged?
You wanted to know who I do? I do the
commonwealth attorney, a former sheriff for deputies, a former state
prohibition officer, and one of the federal investigators on the case.

(27:37):
The attorney in question was Charles carter Le, the great
nephew of Robert Eally forgot about them lazy. The people
charge were the big dogs, not ground level runners like
Willie So Seven of the defendants, including the sheriff, immediately
pled guilty. Seven others later chose not to contest the charges.

(28:00):
Um After the grand jury indictment, Willie she's concerned that
she's also going to be arrested, so she goes to St. Louis.
She buys new work. I have no idea what she did.
I like that she's to St. Louis. Meet me in St. Louis. Um.
The Feds find her, though, and they bring her back.
They haul her back to Roanoke for the trial. She

(28:22):
was allowed to drive herself back, so they're like, hey,
tap tap tap, you got it. She's a great buyers up.
She was considered one of the government's ace witnesses, and
she got immunity from prosecution thanks to her testimony. Will
Saren Elizabeth, I want you to close your eyes and

(28:43):
I want you to picture it. It's May nine. It's
a beautiful spring day, not a cloud in the sky.
You're in the courthouse in Roanoke, Virginia, and you are
at the conspiracy trial that's supposed to bring down the
illegal liquor trade in the Blue Ridge. A witness is

(29:04):
called to the stand. It is the one hundred and
sixty witness of this trial, but is sore out of
a hundred and seventy six total. God. A woman walks
to the front to swear her oath to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help
her jaw. It's Willie Carter sharp. Hey. She approaches the

(29:28):
stand and you get a look at this speed demon,
this vixen, all white, white shoes, white dress, white hat,
the very picture of virtue. But you and many in
the courtroom you're waiting for one last reveal. As she
turns and smiles to the judge, you're disappointed. She's taken

(29:50):
the diamonds out of I drove three counties. Now let's
take another break. I gotta get some diamonds in my girls,
so give me some time. When we come back, I'm
gonna tell you what happened after she flashed her diamond
less girl and started her to testimony. Yeah exactly, zaren

(30:33):
a little bit. How's your courset so tight? And my
butt store from sitting in a sea for esses? I
am a mess right now? Girl, Well, let's talk. Let's
talk about what's going on to this trial that you're
sitting there captivated by h Willie. She's up there, she
is weaving a tail, and everyone is just enamored of her,

(30:55):
even though she doesn't have a grill in anymore. We
forgive her. Yeah, They're like, she's just so cool. She's
done all this crazy stuff. She probably didn't didn't want
the juge to be jealous. Well, one of the people
in the courtroom was Sherwood Anderson. Yes, he was covering
the trial for Liberty magazine, and the peace was assigned
to him by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgan. Thou Oh yeah, yeah,

(31:17):
so he's like got it from up I he wrote,
he is a big one. He wrote during the trial,
Willie quote told the story of mountain men become big
time promoters, convoys of cars on the road at night,
herself in a fast car acting as pilot, government men

(31:38):
not fixed, coming in from Washington, the chase at night,
cars scattering, dashing through the night streets of town. The
big business carried on. I carried right on after prohibition ended.
So he's he's just enthralled. He's loving this story that
she's telling, and then he's relaying it to everyone else
in this really beautiful language. Sherwood and I are of

(31:59):
one of you, I I you are. In the article
which came out in November of ninety five, Anderson called
Franklin County the wettest place in the United States, and
that's where we get the title of wettest county in
the world. Anyway. Anderson later wrote a novel of his
own called Kit Brandon in six the title character based

(32:21):
on Willie Carter Sharp. One trial attendee said quote, I
saw her go right through the main street of our town,
and there was a federal car right after her. They
were ganging away, trying to shoot down her tires, and
she was driving at seventy five miles an hour. She
got away, So her seventy five is through the middle
of town. Do't even mind that is through a street

(32:43):
that has most likely horses on it. This is a
slow moving rural place. There's gonna be people who have
a wagon still. Some people are gonna have tractors going
into apple carts, cabbages, ducks in the road. So she
finishes her testimony defense they don't even want to cross

(33:04):
exam and they're like, no, never mind. Yeah. The trial
ended after ten weeks on July one. During the trial,
it was estimated that over three point five million gallons
of moonshine came out of Franklin County in a four
year period. That's a lot of it was. Yeah. It
was also the second longest trial in Virginia to date

(33:25):
and the longest one longest trial in Virginia. Longs trial
in Virginia to date up to that point. Uh, scopes
monkey trot I was in Virginia. I don't know what
the treason trial of Aaron Burr in Richmond seven. Yeah,
it beat that record. Per the Franklin News Post quote,
twenty of the twenty three defendants were found guilty. Charles

(33:49):
Carter Lee and two deputies were acquitted. Most of those
received light sentences and were reportedly back in the business
before they even started serving their jail times. Tell you
when I said no, but I'm talking to under two years,
super low fines. Thirty four only got probation. They never
saw time after the trial. Is also, by the way,

(34:12):
in a country that has now made like at this
point prohibition has ended, so like you're busting people for
a thing that is done. Yeah, exactly. The revenuers. After
the trial, Anderson interviewed Sharpe for his peace and she
told him, quote, it was the excitement that got me,
damn right, girl, that was why she decided to be

(34:33):
a pilot. She also told him that after she had
been released from prison, women with quote some of the
best blood in Virginia wrote to her asking to quote
go along and a run at night. They wanted the
kick of it. Yeah, she means, not like a vampire,
the best blood. She means like blue bloods. Right exactly.
She's like, I tasted their blood. It was exquisite, amazing

(34:53):
that the iron count alone. They so they want the
kick about that kick? Did you know? I'm sure you did,
but I'll say it anyway. NASCAR can trace its origins
to bootlegging. I didn't know that right. For the unfamiliar,
NASCAR is the National Association for stock car racing. It's

(35:14):
the governing body of start car racing in the US,
and stock cars came from the moonshine running and stock
car racing. Just in case people aren't familiar with that,
it's driving hell fast around an oval track, but in
a car that's stock it's not a well, it's production
model cars originally, but they've now been modeled sometimes this point.
But originally it was you've taken a car you can

(35:37):
buy off the lot, and you make it faster, which
is what the rum runners did exactly. Moonshine runners like
Willie Carter Sharp, they souped up their cars to be
able to outrun the fuzz And you're saying, but they
didn't want to draw attention to themselves, and so they
kept the outsides of the car looking normal. Cottage industry
grows up, right, of all these local garages. They can

(35:58):
modify the cars running. Prohibition ends, so did the need
for driving like a maniac, right, at least for survival sake.
But the lovely competition is still being the factist in
the county. Well, and you've got all these drivers. They're
just too good to stop. They don't want to waste
that talent, and they want, as Willie put it, the
kick of it. And they got places to do flat
track racing. So yeah, So this guy, Jamie Joyce, he

(36:20):
wrote a book called Moonshine, a Cultural History of America's
Infamous liquor. He said, quote, A lot of the money
that went into backing NASCAR in the very beginning came
from a man named Raymond Parks. He made his money
in moonshining, and he provided early financial support to NASCAR.
So it's not just the drivers and the mechanics, but
it's like the founders of it. One of NASCAR's early

(36:41):
well known drivers Junior Johnson. Oh, yes, he got his
start behind the wheel delivering moonshine. Yeah. He actually like
he served eleven months in prison. He uh, he goes
above board, right, partnering with a company to make Junior
Johnson's midnight move. So he he also built distillery. Another

(37:03):
driver was Wendell Oliver Scott and he was a black
American racer from Danville, Virginia. He started as a taxi driver.
My family lived in Danville for a while. Maybe you're related.
He starts as a taxi driver and he's using his
skills and his mechanics skills, his driving skills to haul
illegal whiskey. And he became the first and only black

(37:24):
driver to win a major league NASCAR race at the time.
And then you got badass Willie Carter Sharp, pioneer of
run rounding, an inspiration to stock car drivers to come
even if they didn't know it. She's their spiritual mother. Yeah.
Her techniques or speed or skill laid the foundation for
people like the most beloved NASCAR driver of all time.

(37:47):
I am talking, of course, about none other than Ricky Bobby.
About to throw three fingers in the air, and then
you throw Ricky Bobby at me, I'm like three for Dale, Right, Dale,
senior fans are gonna come burned down house. I'm going
to show them where it is. It's Ricky Bobby. It's
not Ricky Bobby, it's Dick Trickle. That's one of the

(38:08):
best movies ever. And what's your ridiculous takeaway, Aaron, that
you think Ricky Body is better than Let's not think
it's no the best driver is actually Richer Petty. And
we all know, Baron, if you're not first, your last,
I'm just I'm just going to hold up a silent

(38:29):
three over here for I can't stand ask much us
away is that if you're ever going to testify in court,
wear a grill and be a legend. Have girls get
out of fashion. I don't think there's there's still a
place downtown here in Oakland called Royal Blank. Oh girls
are popular here and you have if you go to

(38:49):
the Royal Blink website, they have testimonies that are pretty great.
So My takeaway is just grills. That's it the end beat.
You can find us online at Ridiculous Crime on both
Twitter and Instagram. Hey hey pal, you got a tip
for us about a ridiculous crime that you want to

(39:10):
hear about. Do you want to confess? Email ridiculous Crime
at gmail dot com And that's it. Ridiculous Crime is
hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnett, produced and edited
by Hooch Hustler Dave Kusten. Research is by boozebroker Marissa Brown.
The theme song is by juice juggler Thomas Lee and

(39:33):
Sauce Slinger Travis Dutton. Executive producers are Pelliatives peddler Ben
Bowen and libation logistician Noel Brown. We say it one
more time, de Ridiculous Crime. It's a production of iHeart Radio.

(39:55):
Four more podcasts to my heart Radio, visit the iHeart
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