Hauling Illegal Liquor | National Geographic

Hauling Moonshine required fast cars with devious modifications to outrun police and successfully deliver the illegal liquor.
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Hauling Illegal Liquor | National Geographic
• Hauling Illegal Liquor...
National Geographic
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[@keithm5224]

$150 even in the late 50's was well over $1,200 today!

[@AmericanRebel.Crusader]

Keith M $150 is kinda a lot day

[@gemizu4874]

$150 a day is great pay for driving fast cars at night!

[@Vincetagram]

​@@gemizu4874 not when you consider how much some people make off one street race

[@JOHNRMECH]

Over 107 ounces of silver.

[@Jaxon-iu6vb]

$1,200 3 years age is well over $1,600 today

[@RamblerTurbo]

Ultimate sleeper performance car....the moonshine car. Designed to be the fastest and the least eye catching. I wouldn't want a flashy car, too obvious and conspicious, says "arrest me!" gimme a 'shine car!!

[@marleyboy7732]

Love hearing the elders talk about their wild days & ghost stories.

[@johnclark5114]

As a boy in Gainsborough TN, the neighbor always haulin old tires in his mid fifties Chevy pickup until rear ended once. Shine all over the road.

[@stonerman15]

Oh nooo lawd

[@notagain49]

Screw the 50's I hauled in the 60's and the 70's as well. Paid for my first Son being born and bought my first house hauling shine.

[@NIKOLAP7]

The moonshine was still a lot cheaper because it wasn't taxed.

[@migueldenboer5186]

150$ a run is alot, even nowadays

[@NIKOLAP7]

​@@migueldenboer5186Indeed, even today $150 in one night is a lot. $150 in 1940 is approx. $3300 today. Most people don't make $3300 per month in USA.

[@HunterMann]

I suppose the modern day version of this is haulin' pot from the growing areas to the big city. Yee-haw!

[@stonerman15]

@i hate you skum all drugs etc

[@Zanelander]

They just use crown vics and Chrysler 300s.

[@robertrishel3685]

There is no modern version.... not with modern draconian laws and militaristic law enforcement.

[@fissionplane32]

@i hate you skum yeah but the race for fast cars, high horsepower and nimble handling is gone, police have helicopters and will catch you easily.

[@fissionplane32]

@i hate you skum yeah that also xD, having a fast car is pointless now as everything is digitised and documented, you'll just end up having to get beater cars that you throw away after each chase

[@cammontreuil7509]

Now I understand why my uncle's back in the day used to put a caddy motor in their chevys.

[@snickbick]

Hehe, in the South, we start driving once we can see over the wheel. ;)

[@tvsnake7841]

Chiara Rossi really?

[@kitkatkid1976]

Ain’t that the truth Qlthough i could see over the wheel when i was about 10

[@547ak6]

TvSnake Yes, people in the South start driving earlier

[@jackthorton10]

@@547ak6 The unstoppable love of the revving automobile

[@grantburris]

You're right. When I began driving I had to look through the steering wheel. Of course the wheels were a little bigger than today.

[@jacobirvine704]

My grandfather was a moonshiner. Ran his goods in a heavily modified 1936 Buick!

[@geomodelrailroader]

Bootlegging lead to the founding of NASCAR everyone's favorite event.

[@gearshifterg9756]

I'm so tired of hearing that fable. Racing was around well BEFORE bootlegging.

[@patrickprice3230]

Everyone?

[@kazoolordhd6591]

Boring race but cool story behind it

[@superspooky4580]

@@gearshifterg9756 yes car racing was around before but that’s not what he said now was it. Read it again. Founding of NASCAR not racing in general.

[@gearshifterg9756]

@@superspooky4580 Yes, I know what he said. Same thing that has been said over and over. Pay attention. Anything involving wheels and people create competition.

[@123cameltosis]

Moonshining kept on after prohibition. The guys who made the moonshine didn't want to have their products taxed and regulated, so they did it illegally.

[@NIKOLAP7]

The untaxed alcohol was much cheaper and just as good.

[@ostrich67]

@@NIKOLAP7 Nah. They used old car radiators in their stills, and the lead solder would leach out into the product.

[@tombstone5860]

@@ostrich67 that's government propaganda. During prohibition, the U.S. government purposely poisoned alcohol to deter the public from breaking the law killing thousands of their own citizens. If anyone made hooch from an old radiator, I'll bet he was colluding with the revenue service.

[@brennanc4321]

Most alcohol consumed during prohibition wasn't made clandestinely, rather it came the same breweries, vineyards and distilleries it always came from. It had to be either smuggled in or "robbed" during transit. Moonshine was sort of always an option, just people really didn't prefer it. The scandal pertaining to poisoning alcohol was the Jamaican ginger incident, this was in the tail end of the prohibition which was the early days of the depression so people started to drink whatever they could that had alcohol in it. The issue with the black market in general is having the alcohol tainted this could happen from poor technique or people trying to make more money, it could be as harmless as adding water to adding toxic chemical's to make people believe it's more powerful. Something alot of people forget is that most states had prohibited alcohol already, or were mixed on it and in a handful of states it lasted through the thirties and in a few today prohibition is defacto.

[@Partnerthedog]

Anyone who doesn't know: the video ends just before saying this is how Nascar was started true facts

[@johnfarina6155]

I rode in a '40 Ford coupe on the country roads in upstate New York back in the Sixties. Pretty stock from what I recall and a great car.

[@Ben-Rogue]

Funny how America now looks back on moonshine runners with nostalgia and respect, but people smuggling weed are still seen as dangerous criminals. Ah the hypocrisy!

[@MassiveBig]

Depends on the state. Where i live in Michigan you can drive around with ounces nd the cops can't do anything about it.

[@MassiveBig]

You just can't have a crazy amount like pounds of it though

[@jackh1577]

In 50 years it will be looked back in the same way

[@untrainedmechanic]

Moonshine is still illegal....

[@themadscientest]

Illegal growers turned legal are highly respected, times will change just like they did about alcohol and we can all have a laugh over a bong or brownies.

[@SantiagoMAXIMOleon]

Love how these old timers talk bout the good ole days

[@Mattessj]

Nascar used these legends when it first started on Daytona beach

[@grantburris]

The most successful moonshiners were the ones with the least obvious vehicle. Wild crazy driving would get you stopped quickly. That's the last thing a hauler wanted. I've been that hauler. Horsepower is wonderful. On the track or in the backwoods. However, there is no substitute for driving skill.

[@eurekasevenwave2297]

I seem to remember Willie Clay Call's favorite vehicle was a 1961 Chrysler New Yorker, otherwise known for being a upper-scale high class car. He said that was his best car for hauling moonshine. I can imagine why because I don't think any LEO would suspect that car of hauling liquor.

[@daviddavid5880]

Well....calling it "whiskey" is a bit charitable.

[@KD-nb3mp]

Thats right😂

[@robertfitzsimmons9428]

“I think the fastest car I ever drove was moonshiner”....Junior Johnson.

[@mercenarybdu]

hahahaha that was really good to hear such a tale worth the time.

[@notgraham.7215]

Illegally hauling liquor is what I do once I go over my DOT 14hr mark but still haven't gotten where I want to be lol

[@crematedable]

You put the elog on personal conveyance though right? 😂

[@greaselightning2122]

I love that guy lol 14 dint need a license bc I wasent gonna stop lol that's awesome

[@wakenbake005]

awesome story

[@ellum77]

anyone an idea where I can get the full version of the video?

[@carron92]

very interesting!

[@Spiralworm]

Ok thanks guys. Appreciated the input even the not so friendly one.

[@boostaddict_]

My great grandfather was a bootlegger. A long time ago. He had a 1929 Mclaughlin Buick roadster with a V16. Wish it was still in the family but my great uncle wrapped it around a tree in the 60s lol.

[@daancincurlz]

oooohhhh moonshine....yum yum yum!!! =)

[@bonebaron666]

good job

[@50zcarsman]

So, his savings of the Federal taxes on liquor, and the markup the 'shiner could put on a quart of hooch if he could just get it to the county seat, combined, were such that he could pay a young guy **$A HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS (in '50s dollars) a load**?! Unbelieveable.

[@lulutileguy]

like learning about the pre v8, cops had cars also and radio

[@historicaltruther6300]

@nationalgeographic We want the full-length documentary!! 😩

[@Shawn_the_Protogen]

Moonshiners really kick started not just Nascar but the tuner scene.

[@gregghatfield9946]

Where was nitrous and turbo when ya needed it ,,, lol. Long live Moonshine

[@geomodelrailroader]

Back in the Moonshine days they were not racing to get the checkered flag they were racing to escape the law. Moonshine cars were built for one reason to outrun and escape The Cops. Soon other shiners were trading in their stills for a drivers seat in a car and thats when Big Bill France came around and with that NASCAR was born and they have been racing at Daytona ever since.

[@terrencejohnson85]

Lots of places were damp back then!

[@hatred9427]

It's crazy how we are still able to meet and talk with the guys who made NASCAR happen. Well, they're becoming scarse unfortunately. Godspeed.

[@assymcgee2835]

Had a chance to buy a supposed Willie Clay Call ford Sedan once, still.kicking myself for not having the money, but it was pretty crusty. Was definitely a bootleggers car. One homemade race style seat and an old old black repaint.

[@lewspeedwagon6330]

Shoot, I drive anything older than a 1965 today, and the lights aren't to good @ night...

[@OldsVistaCruiser]

I had halogens in a '59 Olds 98. The high beams and low beams were separated by the turn signals. That car had the brightest headlights of any car I ever owned!

[@lewspeedwagon6330]

OldsVistaCruiser , but, in 59, halogens weren't available, when the car was new... may not have been available in 65

[@OldsVistaCruiser]

@@lewspeedwagon6330 - I owned the car from 1991-1998, and retrofitted halogens very early in my ownership. They first came out in the late 1970s.

[@chunkiermango7982]

My 92 has useless brights, actually worse then low beams

[@balasmj]

0:58 Aaaaaah... So thats where the term 'how loooooow can you goooooo' came from...

[@joffreyverbeeck1640]

what is the song starting at 2:38, please?

[@JG-fe1gx]

My grandpa used to make liquor in Arkansas. He said he never liked to drive fast so he left that to his brothers

[@rhodeswayne55]

I love the true storys like this one with the real guys that did it they realy are true Hot Rodders. I would of loved to take my 1952 plymouth @ go flying down the back roads hauling something like that just to see how it realy was back then. Is there A surtant year @ model of A plymouth that the old moonshiners might of drove ? because I was thinking about making A old plymouth in to A tribute car for moonshiners like A 1948 plymouth coupe thanks for posting this video I would love to see more

[@jac1461]

The stuff that they are transporting is MUCH stronger than A LOT more illegal

[@ZorroinArkham]

In modern terms that is $1800 for a 30 minute drive.

[@alexanderjames6274]

this just popped up in my reccomendeds, when it came out, I was six days old

[@pubrally]

hey thanks apple gonna go grab some books tomorrow nothing like readin on the porch sippin shine

[@nrw6891]

this is my home sweet home

[@leonolanofficial4581]

The General lee is based off a car called traveller wich was a 50s ford that used go run shine

[@jessiehughes9432]

'Stroker Ace was born to race' 🎸🎻🎶

[@KingSNAFU]

Always going to miss Ol' BP.

[@tomasbaco5479]

Does anyone know the name of this documentary ?

[@k4n399]

wow they caught that guy after 50 years ago lol

[@bloodfarmer]

is there a full version of this?

[@Nathan15038]

I’m more into the engine or power upgrades of the bootlegger cars

[@TXTGAL101]

I’m from Wilkes County and this is accurate

[@dunhillsupramk3]

the funny thing now is that it'll cost you like $150 in gas alone.. (today that $150 is like $1600 and thats not really that much money with all the risk involved)

[@Tjspycorp]

The cost of living was cheaper though. So making the equivalent of 1600 a weekend was a real good living. Especially out in the country

[@k3kboi665]

Making 1600$ a *DAY* is great also this is not like running drugs, you are not going away for decades even if caught

[@dunhillsupramk3]

@@k3kboi665 lets look at this and really break it down, you ain't going to be running everyday (more likely than not you're going to be making a run once maybe 2times a week) cars back then would've cost you like $25k-$30k and you have to remember that back then car parts was unreliable when compared to today cars and if they was running these cars hard i would expect something to break every run they made, sure the gas was cheap when compared to today but there was much more repairs heck back then it was common for ppl to change their oil every 1000mi and rebuild a carb every 3k miles... and running a car hard means that the tires are going to wear faster (nothing like today tires)

[@NIKOLAP7]

Those days weren't really shiny in terms of economy, so $150 were a lot of money for some people who were poor.

[@animebsd]

love this video love shine also :) mmmmmm

[@SlowSTEN]

God, could you imagine that going on today? Like just somebody rocking a Toyota Supra lmao

[@k3kboi665]

Dosent have enough boot spaces and is the opposite of unsuspicious

[@izzmus]

Bootleggng tofu to the top of the mountain every night

[@markowens7785]

I know these people,, I live in North wilkesboro

[@JRattlesnake]

And that is how NASCAR was born!!!!

[@peterboyd7304]

candles for lights.

[@123bobobrazil]

lol Thus Nascar was born

[@geomodelrailroader]

yup and they have been racing at Daytona ever since.

[@tjriddle8103]

My great grandfather said he would put mothballs in the gas tank so it would run on "high test" gas

[@dirtyworks13]

What year was prohibition ? I thought it was a long, long time ago. How are this guys still alive and relatively young?

[@kurtiskaskowski5386]

scumgod13 prohibition was from 1920-1933, but this was after prohibition, many many counties remained dry counties, even to this day. We have a couple in Wisconsin, but if you go into the "bible belt" and down south, there are still many dry counties and many people still bootleg liquor into them.

[@kurtiskaskowski5386]

It's a federal vs state thing. Kind of like how Colorado legalized marijuana, but it's not a federal law yet so technically a federal agency like the DEA can still bust anyone in Colorado if they want.

[@mkl62]

This is how NASCAR got started.

[@uncivilized007]

It almost seems comical now to think of them racing around just to get their alcohol where it was going.

[@kurtiskaskowski5386]

Amanda Mackey comical now? There are still many many many counties that are dry.

[@crimsonwhite1]

the birth of NASCAR

[@giansotolongo702]

i wish i grew up in that age ide be the most wanted shiner around

[@Bobbyliscious]

$200.00 and make a car that can run on Moonshine

[@nickchenoweth9375]

What’s the title of this doc

[@someboiwhogivesadamn]

Pay attention car enthusiasts, you're seeing the beginnings of our modern day tuning culture.

[@thetukter57]

Anybody know the song at about 01:55?

[@mercedescl]

American AE86! 20+ years earlier!

[@brody5529]

now we got lean and hellcats

[@cheddyrod]

Prohibition started in 1919.

[@guitarphillip]

@Comeback209 Moonshine is whiskey not beer

[@GhostOfDamned]

M👀nshine Racing

[@dankmcdankface]

why are some whiskeys are illegal?

[@Unknown_Ooh]

Only drove at night? Why didn't they just drive normal cars during the day? Wouldn't it be harder for the police to catch you by blending in?

[@maybenot6075]

It became a game between the drivers and the law, from all iv seen on it that was basically the reason.... either that or america was backwards and everyone was getting smashed at 6am

[@commanderwhite12]

Less people on the road, cause everyone is in bed and less cops then what would be out at day back then. If they lost you they'd probably never find you at night. Daytime could be risky, though I'm sure there was alot of day running.

[@felixromano3091]

150 dollars is a little over 1700 in 2021 that is good money 😂

[@mitchrapp2556]

My grandfather and his brothers were bootleggers in West (by God) Virginia. Oh the stories I heard sippin moonshine.

[@johndunn9819]

Didn't they use moonshine as a fuel? Kind of an alcohol burning engine?

[@k3kboi665]

Ofcourse not. Old engines dont like that at all.

[@OffGridInvestor]

@@k3kboi665 MOST old engines actually RUN FINE on alcohol and I know SEVERAL people who have done it. Works well on the old VW hippy vans too. Basically you drive with the choke out. HOWEVER moonshine isn't strong enough and why would you waste good moonshine that's FAR far more expensive than gasoline.

[@agcacustoms2852]

And that ladies and gentlemen was how nascar was born.

[@thesausage351]

Carburettors don’t jack up the engines capacity.

[@thesausage351]

@andrew powers ah, yeah, I’m aware of that. Carburettor size or amount doesn’t impact the engines capacity at all though.

[@thesausage351]

@andrew powers no most likely someone wrote a script after reading a magazine and they’ve got no idea about engines so just picked a few buzz words.

[@ryancahill4789]

And that’s how nascar was born

[@SiliconBong]

'Homemade' Whisky.

[@MrStickman1997]

red dead redemption anyone?

[@sayfaylo]

Rub'ning alcohol...100%

[@elit3darkness]

Can ya imagine if they prohibbited cigs yes lung cancer rates would drop but we'd have mass genocides/suicides waiting in front of the stop and go

[@clay6145]

I believe sometimes you gotta do around to make a right to feed your family

[@jamesejudy3]

@MusicLopez123 that's the price we pay for "free". Quit whining! ;)

[@hanohano0326]

We need translat in Arabic

[@jefferyschirm4103]

Did you go go to the funerals.

[@GuninGames]

Inital D, American version

[@urban22s]

@knightryderrwn There have always been kids who have sex, and if certain drugs were widely available then, the chances are they would have taken them.

[@ladiesmanmatt]

@Comeback209 Well back then they were just smuggling beer now people are smuggling drugs and human slaves

[@jimpikoulis6726]

Bootlegging moonshine drivers lol

[@smartkitmj]

This sounds like the "Cheaters" announcer with a horrible fake Southern accent.

[@Spiralworm]

Why was moonshine illegal? Wasn't it normal alcohol. Apparently nothing is wrong with drinking it or whatever is done with it today because those guys don't seem to be afraid of going to jail anymore.

[@bcubed72]

Alcohol is still illegal if you don't pay the $27/gallon tax on it.