the government, over $68 million today. The conspiracy was discovered when undercover federal agent Colonel Thomas Bailey posed as a small scale buyer in 1934. He successfully turned small time distillers into informants. After a year, he unravelled Sheriff Hodges’ payment system. Roughly six years prior, Sheriff Hodges divided the county into districts headed by deputies. Each deputy was ordered to find moonshiners and collect protection money; $25 per still, $10 per load of whiskey, and $5 per filling station.
The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935 was the second longest case in Virginia’s history. 176 witnesses were called to the stand by the government. One of the witnesses, Mrs. Willie Carter Sharpe, had been a driver and stated she moved more than 220,000 gallons between 1926 and 1931. The indicted included 19 moonshiners, nine government officials, and a corporation. After a ten week trial, the jury reached a verdict within two days on July 1, 1935. Twenty of the defendants were found guilty.
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