Prohibition in Bardstown: Bourbon, Bootlegging & Saloons by Dixie Hibbs

Author:Dixie Hibbs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

LAWBREAKERS

Archie Spalding, his relatives and friends, were not violating their consciences or moral convictions—they were violating the prohibition laws—but otherwise they were good, honest and reliable citizens of the community and state. Archie Spalding and the majority of liquor law violators in Nelson County were certainly a different kind of moonshiner than the thousands of violators that I arrested in the hills of Kentucky, Tennessee or the large cities of the Midwest.

—“Big Six” Henderson, U.S. marshal and ATF agent

At the sixteen remaining distilleries, an effort to market the stored spirits before the ban had lowered some inventory, but many barrels resided in the warehouses. In March 1924, there were an estimated 600,000 gallons of whiskey in Nelson County, all of which were supposed to be under lock and key. Distillers, not to mention their customers, were less than pleased at the shutting down, closing up and guarding of the warehouses with all those barrels of whiskey just sitting there. You can guess what happened. Wicked minds, desperate to slake their thirst and fill their pockets, found ways to access all that stored alcohol.

Tales of owners or robbers sneaking into warehouses at night and siphoning off whiskey out of the barrels, then refilling them with water, are documented by many Bardstown residents. Jack Muir, in a recorded interview, tells about a moonshiner working at his still after nightfall, putting wood on the fire to keep it going. When agents swarmed around him, he ran until he fell down, whereupon he hid in the bushes. Shots kept coming close to him, and he wondered about the accuracy of the revenuers until he realized he’d left his flashlight in his hip pocket and turned on! Once he switched it off, he was able to flee undetected but lost his still.

FIRE!

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