Legal News

Popcorn Sutton, Legenday Moonshiner, Headed to the Pokey

By Nathan Koppel

With the economy now reminiscent of the Great Depression, we bring you some legal news straight out of Prohibition.

Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, a legend of Appalachia, is headed to prison for moonshining and weapons charges. (In case you couldn’t guess, he’s the fellow in the hat in this AP photo.)

Last year, Sutton pleaded guilty to illegal production of distilled spirits and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. A federal judge Monday sentenced him to 18 months in prison, the Asheville Citizen Times reports.

“I’m a very sick man,” Sutton told the paper. “I’d like to die at home instead of in a penitentiary.”

Sutton was arrested in March for allegedly running a moonshining operation that produced hundreds of gallons of the hard stuff.

The defendant was well known thanks to his book “Me and My Likker,” along with Internet videos and cable TV documentaries on how to make moonshine.

Robert Reeves, a federal prosecutor, introduced several of the videos Monday in court, claiming they showed that Sutton “flaunted criminal activity.”

“Your moonshining is a violation of the law,” the judge told Sutton. “I don’t care how it is glamorized on the History Channel or the Discovery Channel.”

We have to imagine that Popcorn is a fan of George Jones, a/k/a “The Possum,” one of the legends of country music.

Here are lyrics from his classic, “White Lightning”

Well in North Carolina, way back in the hills
Me and my old pappy had a hand in a still
We brewed white lightnin’ ’til the sun went down
Then he’d fill him a jug and he’d pass it around
Mighty, mighty pleasin, pappy’s corn squeezin’
Whshhhoooh . . . white lightnin’

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 28, 2009 (boomark / email).