People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1894 — BROKE UP THE GANG. [ARTICLE]

BROKE UP THE GANG.

Revenue Officers Capture a Big Crowd of Moonshiners. Louisville, Ky., Oct 8. United States Marshal Greer, aided by a score of deputies, has arrived here in charge of a band of moonshiners captured in the Big Sandy valley. The present work of extermination of stills and the illicit traffic of the upper Big Sandy valley began about six months ago, but the arrests began three months later. The intervening time was spent by Greer and his detectives in the location of the stills and the identification of their operators. In the past six months Greer and his deputies have destroyed thirty-seven separate stills and thousands of gallons of their product, commonly designated “moonshine.” They have arrested about 125 offenders and spotted numerous others who will be taken as soon as the opportunity offers. In the capture of the various gangs some thrilling work has been done and some narrow escapes experienced. Seven of Greer’s officers are now laid up for repairs at different towns in Floyd and Johnson counties, while about twenty of the moonshiners are also regaining their strength in various up-Sandy jails. These latter will follow their more fortunate fellows to Louisville and to the penitentiary as soon as their condition will admit of the change of quarters. In the gang brought here were 100 offenders. Their ages ranged from 15 to 60, and in the degree of their crime there was an equal variance. Some of the men had grown old and gray in the business, some had followed it but a short while, others had retailed the spirits for the makers, and others had boldly labeled it sorghum and brought it out by the barrel in push boats. The boys were usually the sons of the old operators, who were forced into the work from childhood and literally knew nothing else. Several women were also among the lot.