Bootlegger Crackup

Today you can get an "adult beverage" in area liquor stores, or imbibe in some local venues, but during Prohibition you usually got your liquor from a neighbor who either manufactured his own, or acquired it from a “bootlegger” who in turn imported it from outside the area. And it was one of these importing operations that was involved in a memorable incident on an area highway. An article in the Athens Weekly Review of December 17, 1931 described the accident that occurred two days before under the headline: “Two Injured, Liquor Cargo seized as Three Cars Collide East of Town."

"The efforts of a determined liquor runner to bring his cargo of liquor across East Texas to Dallas resulted in a three-car collision and the injury of two Henderson County men...," the reporter said. He added that the accident “...occurred two and a half miles northeast of Athens "on the Tyler highway.” Two local men had cuts and bruises as "the liquor runner's Hudson super-six sedan crashed into their truck which was stalled at point near the Harris filling station." The Hudson also struck and damaged a car driven by Dr. H. R. Tucker.

Sheriff Joel Baker and Athens police officers Jack Wofford and Shug Stirman arrived on the scene and found that the heavily damaged Hudson sedan was loaded with liquor. This consisted of "130 quarts of whiskey, 3 one-gallon demi-johns of rum and 3-gallon containers. The illicit cargo was transported to Athens and ‘locked up in the special liquor cell in the county jail.’"

The injured men were treated and sent home for continued medical care.

According to Dr. Tucker, he and the three passengers in his Chevrolet had approached the filling station when the Hudson came speeding toward them, then struck the stalled truck, knocking it into a ditch. The Hudson then slid into Dr. Tucker's car. Added the doctor: "If the driver had managed to avoid hitting the truck, he would have struck our car head-on."

When it was over Dr. Tucker said that when he tried to locate the car that had driven into them, he "...could find no trace of the driver of the liquor car. He evidently had darted off into the nearby woods." The time of the accident was about 7 p.m. so it was dark at that hour so as the reporter put it, "the occupants of the car evidently taking advantage of the confusion to escape into the darkness.” He added, “that the occupants of the abandoned car had prepared themselves to get their cargo of liquor through to their destination at any cost was borne out by the fact that an automatic shot gun loaded with buck shot and a .338 automatic pistol were found placed convenient to hands of the driver."

The liquor cargo, which was mainly destroyed in the collision, was thought to have come from perhaps New Orleans.

Clues in the car provided some information. There was a hat with a Dallas store name, a shirt with a laundry mark, and this caused authorities to reason that the car was headed for Dallas. They discovered that the liquor had been covered by old quilts and a bunch of sugar cane.

The reporter related, "It was thirty minutes after the accident before officers arrived on the scene and it was learned that several bottles of the liquor were stolen by early arrivals at the wreck. One woman is reported to have carried off considerable liquor."

In an attempt to find the absconded liquor traffickers authorities searched the town and there was also speculation that there had been a car following the cargo and after the accident this vehicle had picked up those in the wrecked car and driven to Dallas.

As more details came in there was more information in the December 31, 1931 Weekly Review as authorities reported that the cargo was the property of a Louisiana based "liquor ring." It was discovered that the car was part of a "big transport fleet" operated by Big Jim Clarkson who had recently been apprehended in Morgan City. As the reporter put it, "The alleged 'big shot' liquor baron operated a vessel off the Louisiana coast and had the various brands of imported liquor shipped from Morgan City by both automobile and train to various parts of the U.S." As local officers had theorized, the cargo in the Athens wreck was on its way to Dallas.

Federal agents had apprehended Clarkson south of Morgan City in a fishing camp a location equipped with radios that were believed to be used to contact 'rum runners" off the coast.