Visiting Our Past: Sheriff Bailey chased moonshine, tall tales
View Comments "I was deputy sheriff in three Tennessee counties!" Jesse James Bailey told UNC Asheville historian Louis Silveri in 1972, talking about his brief term as sheriff of Madison County, 1920-22, during Prohibition. Sometimes, Bailey would get a good lead — for instance, a fellow might "get mad at his neighbor (and) say, 'Well, Ole John's a-stilling or a-handling liquor'" — and when Bailey went to investigate, the moonshiner would jump the boundary to Unicoi, Greene or Cocke county. Tennessee violators would likewise hide out in Madison County. "I inaugurated a new technique," Ba...
Source: citizen-times.com