The September 29, 1882, New York Times carried the following item on the front page:
NOVEL CAPTURE OF A MOONSHINER
DRIVEN FROM HIS HIDING PLACE BY RATTLESNAKES
“DALLAS, N.C., Sept. 28.–An old moonshiner named Charles Folias, for whom the revenue officers have been searching for a long time, was captured in the northern part of this county yesterday under somewhat peculiar circumstances. Folias operated with illicit stills in a small corner on the side of a creek. In order to prevent the officers from tracking him to his hiding place, he always waded the stream and thus avoided making any tracks. Yesterday, a gang of officers were in the neighborhood of the illicit, still hunting other moonshiners supposed to be in that locality. Folias became aware of their presence and made for his hole in the ground with all possible speed.
“Upon entering the mouth of the cavern, the illicit distiller discovered a nest of rattlesnakes. He managed to reach the boller and seize a dipper of boiling corn juice, which he hurled at his assailants. He soon dispatched the snakes, but before he could make his way to a place of safety in the cave, several of the venomous reptiles continued the attack. Follas saw that if he remained, he would be killed, and he took the only alternative, which seemed to be left-backed out of his underground still-house and gave himself up to the government officers outside with the remark, “Gentlemen, I want it understood that I was forced to surrender on account of the infernal snakes inside, and you deserve no credit for it.” The officers had been hunting Follas in vain for years.”
This short 264-word article had everything: an illicit moonshine distillery, a cave, a slippery moonshiner, and snakes: aggressive, venomous snakes—big ones. The story was irresistible—so irresistible that on that same day, the same article appeared in the Boston Globe, Lancaster Daily Intelligencer, and the Indianapolis News. It would appear in additional northern newspapers in early October, from the Buffalo, NY, Courier Express on October 2nd to the Nanaimo Daily News in British Columbia on October 21. Subscribed
I could not find it in any North Carolina newspapers, which seemed odd, so I reached out to a librarian at the State Library of North Carolina. She found the article on page one of the Greensboro North State newspaper on October 12, two weeks after its premiere in the NY Times and Boston Globe. The story does not seem to have run in any other NC newspapers.
How did Folias avoid being on the front page of his hometown paper, the Gaston Gazette, or the Charlotte Observer just down the road? The librarian attempted to locate Charles Folias in census records for 1860, 1870, and 1880 without any luck. There is no mention of him before the serpent-assisted arrest or stories about him after his brush with venomous death. No trial coverage. No prison sentence.
The Salisbury, Connecticut, Western News and the Morrisville, Vermont, News and Citizen state that their reports were based on a letter from Dallas, NC. Some of the articles are shorter and have fewer details, but none of them have additional details. Some of the later articles start with this wry observation:
“It is so seldom that rattlesnakes perform a public service that an exception to their general line of conduct is worth recording.”
So even though you will find accounts of Charles Foilas in newspapers, websites, and in more than one book, I have $5 American that says the wily moonshiner existed only in the imagination of a Gaston County letter writer.
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Click the link below to see an incredible 45-second cinematic masterpiece that tells this story.
For the all-too-true story of moonshiner Josiah “Joe Banty” Gregory and his 1921 reign of terror in Cades Cove, TN, click the link below.
Moonshiner’s December 1921 Cades Cove Crime Spree
Sources
Stewart, Bruce E. 2018. Moonshiners and Prohibitionists: The Battle over Alcohol in Southern Appalachia. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press Of Kentucky.
New York Times, Friday, September 29, 1882, Page 1, “Novel Capture of a Moonshiner”
Connecticut Western News, Salisbury, Wednesday, October 04, 1882, Page 1, “Novel Capture of a Moonshiner”
Greensboro North State, NC, Thursday, October 12, 1882, Page 1, “Novel Capture of a Moonshiner”