Famed Appalachain moonshiner gets 18 months
If you didn't catch it, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal misspelled "Appalachian." In a headline, no less. And in more than one place on the online edition, both on its front page and on the stand-alone story. It's spelled correctly in the Associated Press text. The misspelling might be easier to miss if it wasn't the name of a massive mountain range, and a university, and a walking trail, and used in the names of numerous businesses in the region, and if it wasn't in the headline itself.
But the bigger news is poor ol' Popcorn, and his getting caught again, and getting sentenced again.
Twice in the past week, I've watched ol' Popcorn on public television, making moonshine in a documentary that was aired just last night on SCETV. He's an artist at it, that's for certain, and a scientist of it.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one watching that documentary. Prosecutors used material from it in court against Popcorn.
A federal judge turned aside public pleas for leniency and sentenced famed Appalachian moonshiner Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton to 18 months in prison. The bearded 62-year-old Parrottsville author of the book "Me and My Likker" pleaded guilty in April to two counts charging him with illegally producing distilled spirits and being a felon in possession of a .38-caliber handgun.
U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer sentenced him on Monday to 18 months on each count, to run concurrently, and ordered him to "self-report" to prison when marshals call.
The Greeneville Sun reported that hundreds of people from North Carolina and Tennessee signed petitions supporting Sutton. "We trust him in any matters of great importance in our everyday lives and would welcome him as a neighbor," the petitions said. But the judge doubted many would think that placing a man convicted five times on probation again would serve their interests. Most would say, "no," he said.
Sutton has been running afoul of the law at least since 1974, when he was charged by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms with multiple violations of liquor tax laws. He was convicted in 1981 and 1985 in Haywood County, N.C., on charges of possessing controlled substances and assault with a deadly weapon.
In 2007, firefighters putting out a fire at his Parrottsville property discovered 650 gallons of untaxed alcohol, leading to a probationary sentence from Cocke County for untaxed liquor. In March 2008, he told an undercover agent he had 500 gallons of moonshine in Tennessee and 400 gallons in Maggie Valley, N.C., ready for sale. Federal authorities arrested him days later, leading to Monday's charges.
Sutton's 1999 book "Me and My Likker: The True Story of a Mountain Moonshiner" tells his life's story and describes his "profession" and personal philosophy.
During Monday's hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Reeves played videos showing Sutton surrounded by firearms and demonstrating how to make moonshine whiskey.
He's an honest man -- he told the revenuers just how much he had, and where it was. And he's a learned man, having written a book ten years ago about his life and livelihood. And he's an industrious man; he can't be lazy and make 1,550 gallons of moonshine in the past two years. He is, in fact, just the sort of man our economy needs to get us back on our feet.
Well, maybe after his probation is up, if his health holds out, he can get back to work.
And maybe President Barack Obama will pardon him.
