Rum Running Renegade: Willie Carter Sharpe

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 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 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, 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 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 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 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

Daredevil Driver with Diamond Teeth. Yes, this is Ridiculous Crime, 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 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 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 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 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, 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. 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 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 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 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, 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 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?

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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. 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. 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 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.

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 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 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. 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, 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 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 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. 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 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 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

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

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

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, 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 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, 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

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 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 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 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 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 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. 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, 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 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, 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 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 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. 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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

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. 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. 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 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

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 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 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 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 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,

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, 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 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 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

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 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 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

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 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, 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 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 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 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 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

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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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