Author name: Alfred

One of my grandfathers was a moonshiner and the other was a section hand for Southern Railway so it seems inevitable that I would wind up writing about the Blue Ridge. I've covered the textile and furniture industries for publications like Textile World and Furniture Today. Currently I'm an editor for NCEES.

The Forgotten Fugitive: John Paul Scott’s Daring Alcatraz Escape S01 E04

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Sources Nancy Licht Miljanich and Golden Gate Conservancy. 2014. Alcatraz Escape Files: From the Official Records. San Francisco, Calif.: Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Fort Worth Star-Telegram, TX, Monday, December 4, 1950, Page 1, “Two Men Hurt in Gun Fight at Sherman Police Station” Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY, Wednesday, January 9, 1957, “Two Suspects in Bank Shooting Caught […]

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Gunslinging Moonshiners: Who Made It Out Alive? S01 E03

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Lewis Redmond Stewart, Bruce, King of the Moonshiners: Lewis R. Redmond in Fact and Fiction (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2008)Arthur, John Preston, Western North Carolina: A History from 1730-1913 (Raleigh, NC: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., 1914)Tinsley, Jim Bob, The Land of Waterfalls: Transylvania County, North Carolina (Brevard, NC: J.B. and Dottie Tinsley,

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NC Moonshine Mysteries: One Tall Tale, One True Legend S01 E02

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Sources Charles Foilas 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,

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A photo of a tunnel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike at night and a handgun.
Pennsylvania Turnpike image from the Library of Congress.

Who Was the Phantom Killer of the Pennsylvania Turnpike?

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About 4 pm on July 25, 1953, Lester Woodward, a 30-year-old truck driver, was found shot to death in the cab of his car carrier parked beside the Pennsylvania Turnpike about a mile west of the Irwin Interchange. His empty wallet was found on the floor of the cab. Police theorized Woodward had pulled over

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Black & White image of a High Standards revolver
Revolver image from the Smithsonian Institution (Public Domain)

The NC Store Burglary That Ended in a Gun Battle

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It was a rainy Friday night in February 1901 in the village of Emma, NC, three miles west of Asheville. Five men were on a collision course. Three would leave with gunshot wounds. Two would die. Sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 pm, Samuel Alexander closed D.J. McClelland’s store, which also housed the Emma Post Office,

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Drawing of men wrestling
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Larkin Liles, Man of Honor and Mayhem: Fact or Fiction

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As you know, I spend a bit of time scouring Appalachian history books in search of extraordinary crime stories and often try to separate the facts from the legends. I’ve pulled stories from Western North Carolina: A History (1730-1913) (1914) by John Preston Arthur, A History of Buncombe County, North Carolina (1930) by F. A.

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People standing outside a cave near Asheville, NC.
From the Massengill Postcard Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Public Domain

Charles Folias, Whiskey Caveman: Fact or Fiction

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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

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