The Last of the Appalachian Moonshiners.
Popcorn Sutton died on March 16, 2009 of unnatural causes; he committed suicide.
He was facing 18 months in the slammer after having been found guilty of manufacturing White Lightning. He made it from a secret family recipe handed down over the generations.
Popcorn plied his trade in the Hills of Tennessee and when he died, he was the last of the genuine American Bootleggers.
I encourage you to look up Popcorn on Google for no other purpose than to view his image. He was – by his appearance alone – the quintessential real mccoy. That he was able to out fox the ‘Revenuers’ for so long in this modern age is a testimony to his cunning and perseverance.
That he took his own life after living free for all of his life is, I believe, understandable.
Had I been Governor of Tennessee, at the time of Popcorn Sutton’s conviction, I would like to think I would have granted him a Pardon and made him the State’s Ambassador of the Hill Country. What a tourist attraction he would have made. Perhaps though it would not have been doing Popcorn a favour given his years of living a more or less solitary existence.
But I suspect, that had the Governor done just that, the fair State of Tennessee would have made up the lost revenue and more it conceded to Popcorn’s manufacturing over the years.
America is a poorer place without Popcorn Sutton. We have all suffered a loss whether we were personally aware of it or not.
As I see it …
‘K. D. Galagher’
