A vignette of a former working still on display at the Berkeley County Museum & Heritage Center in Moncks Corner
John G. Richards, the Governor of South Carolina from 1927 to 1931, was a fierce Prohibitionist and strict observer of blue laws who aimed to rid the state, and Hell Hole Swamp, of its illicit corn whiskey trade.
Examples of vintage stills in the Southeast.
With its thick forests and unimproved roads, Hell Hole Swamp made an ideal location for illicit liquor production.
Sabb Canty Cumbee, aka the “king of Hell Hole Swamp,” was the leader of one of the Berkeley County moonshine gangs. In 1926, he was seriously wounded in an ambush by a rival gang that left his son LeGrand dead.
(Left to right) Al Capone, David Shuler, and an unknown man in Hell Hole Swamp; “Mr. Shuler ran a mercantile store in Jamestown. This photo hung in his store until it closed,” says Jamestown resident Douglas Guerry.
Infamous Chicago mobster Al Capone is said to have conducted business with Hell Hole bootleggers, allegedly meeting them at a roadhouse in St. Stephen a number of times.
Part of the McKnight gang, 30-year-old “Sporty” Thornley (left) was arrested and convicted of the assassination of State Senator Edward J. Dennis in July 1930.
Senator K.D. McKellar of the Brookhart Committee, which investigated the Hell Hole raids
US Senator Smith Wildman Brookhart of Iowa, the namesake of the Brookhart Committee, which investigated discrepancies and corruption revealed in the Hell Hole raids.
A view of a still site; a boiler would be set up in a remote area, preferably on a small stream since water was essential for production.
A photograph of Moncks Corner on the day of the great shoot-out between rival bootlegging gangs, the McKnight organization and the Villeponteaux clan, in 1926
More than a year into Prohibition, readers of The Charleston Evening Post no doubt appreciated cartoonist Rube Goldberg’s “mocktail” commentary on legal drinks.
Raids of stills took place throughout the state, with authorities taking possession of the liquor, as shown in this circa-1930s photograph taken in Pickens County.
Read up on kingpins, corruption, and infamous mobster Al Capone
