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Subject: [KYBELL] Six Moonshiners Held on $1000 Bail, 1921, Bell Co.
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 09:03:35 EDT

Subject: [KYF] NEWS: Six Moonshiners Held on $1000 Bail, 1921, Bell Co.
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2003 7:37 PM


Submitted by Mary Lou Hudson
<http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00005.html#0001143>;

Middlesboro Daily News, Middlesboro, KY Jan. 25, 1921

Six Moonshiners Caught Near Here Held In $1000 Bail
Three Of The Men Caught In Mingo Hollow Raid Are Released For Lack Of
Evidence At Hearing In Knoxville Monday
At the preliminary hearing given the nine men arrested Sunday by a posse
of Federal and State officers in the raid made on deserted mine No. 4 of the
Fork Ridge Coal Company in Mingo Hollow, before United States Commissioner
Pike Powers, Jr., at Knoxville, five of the men, Logan Francis, Phil
Norton, W.T. McCrary, Sherman Norton and J.F. McCrary were bound over to the
Federal court under $1,000 bond each on charges of violating the internal
revenue laws, while John Williams was bound over to the court on a charge of
possessing liquor.
Dolph Francis, Harvey Hooper and John Francis were released as
Commissioner Powers did not believe that the evidence against them was
sufficient to warrant their detention.
Evidence brought to light at yesterday's preliminary hearing disclosed
that a 40-gallon still, together with a large quantity of beer, liquor, mash
and other material used by the moonshiners was captured in a deserted mine
known as mine N. 4 of the Fork Ridge Coal company. The still itself was
found 250 yards from the entrance of the mine, and to get to the still the
officers had to go in a boat across a pond which separated the mouth of the
mine and the point where the still was operated.
In the mouth of the mine W.T. McCrary, or Bill, the son of Frank McCrary,
had a number of hogs and had stored some provisions including some sweet
potatoes according to the officers.
The mine was very close to the home of the McCrarys and not far from the
home of Logan Francis. According to the testimony 700 pounds of sugar in
100 pound sacks was found beneath beds in the home of Logan Francis, while
some hobnailed shoes found there showed the same imprint as some discovered
in the mine.
More than 150 gallons of mash were found in the mine, the officers said,
while McCrary's home yielded a meal grinder. All but John Williams were
arrested in or near the mine, but Williams was apprehended in Middlesboro
after the officers had returned from the raid. All the men were lodged in
the Knox county jail at Knoxville Sunday night, being taken from here on the
Southern train Sunday afternoon. Phil and Sherman Norton are still in jail
there on default of bond.
The three men who did get out on bond were plentifully supplied with
money. Logan Francis and the two McCrarys put up cash bonds. Frank McCrary
had $2,230 in currency on him when arrested. One of the men up seven $500
bills and the remainder in twenties, while the other gave fifty $20 bills.

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