Page 10 - Discover Fall 2021
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secret behind their success. At that time, in many make a living. In Franklin County, the devastation
states it was illegal to search a woman, or at the very of the local chestnut tree caused extreme economic
least, considered most improper. Back then, it was hardship, and it coincided roughly with Prohibition.
considered insulting to accuse a woman of such a These people saw moonshining as a way out, a means
crime. The women would often hide flasks under of putting food on the table.
their clothing, and dare the lawmen to search them,
In addition to the aforementioned social
threatening to sue them if they laid hands on them.
constructs, women had another advantage over men
The attitude was so prevalent that those on the with respect to the trade: They were much better at
side of the law often refused to believe that a still keeping their activities under wraps. Whereas men
was being operated by a woman, choosing instead were more likely to be loud and boastful, the women
to blame it on her male relatives. Juries were very kept relatively silent. Men would resort to violence
reluctant to convict mothers and grandmothers of at times to settle disputes; the women would resolve
bootlegging, so that even when they were caught, their problems more quietly.
they often got off with little or
So while the likes of Popcorn
no punishment.
Sutton and the Bondurant
In one case, Esther Matson, a brothers made all of the
22-year-old woman bootlegger headlines, the women worked
in Denver, was sentenced to more stealthily. Franklin
attend church every Sunday County, VA is well known as
for 2 years. In 1925, a woman the “Moonshine Capital of the
in Milwaukee pled guilty to World”, and likely deservedly
earning $30,000 a year from her so. What is less known is that
bootlegging operation. That’s one of the most successful of
over $400,000 a year in today’s all moonshiners was a Franklin
dollars. She was fined $200, and County woman by the name
sentenced to a month in jail. A of Diana Marie Sharpe, who
woman in Michigan who was went by the alias “Willie Carter”
convicted of moonshining was Sharpe.
pardoned by the President of the
In her time, she ran over 200,000 gallons of shine
United States, Warren G. Harding. In another case,
from Virginia, much of it across state lines, earning
Ohio governor Vic Donahey commuted a woman’s
her the nickname The Rum Running Queen. Willie
sentence to a mere five days.
was quoted as saying, “It was the excitement that got
Moonshiners eventually realized that law me. Cars scattering, dashing along the streets.” She
enforcement officers were much less likely to suspect was prominently featured in the Great Moonshine
women of bootlegging, and while some were actually Conspiracy trial in Franklin County, and newspaper
employed as moonshiners, others were hired to just accounts of her testimony reported that spectators
“ride along” with the actual moonshiners, because were fixated on the diamonds in her teeth. She
their presence made it far less likely that the vehicle reportedly had “movie star good looks”, and while
would be stopped. In the words of a newspaper perhaps less well known in this country, she seems to
reporter at the time, “No self-respecting federal agent have captured the fancy of the French. At least one
likes to hold up an automobile containing women.” French film has chronicled her escapades, and there
is also a Tavern in Montpelier, France that is named
It is alleged that women moonshiners probably
for her as well.
outnumbered the men by as much as 5 to 1. Many
of them were honest folk who just needed a way to Another noteworthy female moonshiner,
8 Discover Smith Mountain Lake FALL 2021