The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1921-03-15
WHISKY RAIDS
ARE BLoODLESS
Eight Stills Are Destroyed In the
Mountains oil Kentucky With.
out a Casualty.
MAKES INTERESTING STORY
Although Numerous Shots Were Fired
BY Revenue Men and M~ountalneers,
Not . Death 10 Reported
Chase Leads to Stills.

Lexington. ky.-RaIds upon noon
shine stills In the mountains Of Ken
lucky have become b~loodless, accord.
Ing 10 government agents who recent.
ly conducted n Of the most lmpor-
tant raids made In years.
Whether the shooting eye" ~ the
mounfalneer or the secret service
rrent has become dImmcd or whether
the desire for less killing has reached
Into the far mountain recesses N u
disputed point. but the fact remains
that u revenue agents rnldcd and de-.
stroycd eight large stills IN whitley
county. fired numerous shots and were
fred nj numerous times. but. SO fur
ms ls known, not a casualty was re-
corded.
Standing In clumrs Of sparse shrub
bery on the top Of knobs along Laurel
Fork, In Whitley county. scntrles
posted apparently by moonshlners
watched the operations Of federal pro.
hlbltIon officers during the recent sen.
satlonal raid In the "South America"
section Of Whitley county. according
10 members Of the patty. The raiders
from the Office Of Chief Field Deputy
Y. q. Mcfarland were reticent about
the battle reported TO have ragged about
the stills. "There wasn't n thing in
IT, they were unanimous I'm saving.
I'VE just went in there and destroyed
eight stills. There were q lot Of shots
fired. but how many OF them were
fired at us we don't know. That was
all there was n IT,"
Number Of Shots Fired.
The raiders from the local office
were Steven Cornet and Charles Win
frey. who were the leaders Of the
raid; J. II. Reynolds and Joe Cava-
naugh. They were accompanied by
Sheriff Renfro of Whitley county and
sever deputies.
Steve Cornet. after some persua-
sion. told of the raid. eve left VIII
liamsburg on the morning Of December
3 and went via Holden. Tenn, the
nearest railroad point, into the Sec
tion Of Whitley county, known 10 the
natives as South America" he said.
I'VE hunted there for stills In the hol-
lows OF Laurel Fork and Olean Fork,
sources Of the Cumberland river. We
destroyed eight stills in all.
THE first still destroyed was one
owned by Dewitt Gibson. We ar
rested the three Gibson boys without
any trouble. They were ut their home.
The next still we believe belonged TO
a man named Williams. The next two
DESTROYED were owned by persons
whose names we could not ascertain.
We had no trouble the first day, al
though a number of shots were fired
In the distance. | could not say posi-
lively that the shots were fired at us,
but think that possibly they were sig.
nails to warn the countryside that
raiders were about. We could see
men standing on the top Of the knobs,
where they could see the road wind
ing around the banks of Laurel Fork,
which, | believe, Is the crookedest
stream In the world. Sometimes It is
bard to tell which way it runs.
"The second day we continued the
search along Laurel Fork. 1t was at
this time that the nearest to any real
trouble occurred. We left an old mrn
named Parsons and another man to
guard the mouth of a hollow while we
searched 1t. Just after we left the
guards a mountaineer popped out from
behind a tree, fired several shots Mt
the guards with a pistol and ran.
Chase Leads to Stills.
1--WE gave chase, firing as we ran.
The man fell, but when we searched
we could find no trace of him. This
led to n of the amusing incidents of
the trip. During the chase we found
two stills of which we had had no ink
ling. The man led my party directly
to an ~SO-gallOn still, which we de-
stroyed. Another section Of the party
1--WE had become divided during the
,hase) found the second still on the
opposite side of the hill from that
Town which the fugitive ran. We did
lot find out who owned either still.
I'VE then went up a hollow, where
We found another still. This was a
'ough hollow, and we had to climb
'ver powders and hang IN to trees
0 get to the still. We then started in
he opposite direction. Two miles
lown another rough hollow we found
he last still destroyed.
"A lot Of shots were fired on the
econd day by both natives and our
but nobody vas hurt"