Ed Hunter Raiding Whiskey Still

The image shows the late Journal editor emeritus Bill Kinney, at right, pouring out bottles of moonshine at a still bust. An Aug. 15, 1955, Journal article reported on a “monster still smashed off (the) Four Lane Highway (U.S. Hwy. 41).” The still was “the largest illicit whiskey-making distillery ever discovered in Cobb (County).” The article said “the factory-type moonshine plant, valued by federal revenue agents at about $15,000, was capable of turning out nearly 400 gallons of liquor daily with an income of about $3,000 a day for its owners.” The still, “a 100 by 300 still house cleverly camouflaged and half-buried in a hillside,” was found behind a “sprawling grey brick ranch type house in the fashionable Rottenwood Creek section.” Revenue agents and GBI officers said it was the second largest still ever found in Georgia. (today it was near 41 just before Delk Road Bridge) The still was believed to have been operating since the fall of 1954 and required “a half dozen or more men” to operate it. Trails were found leading to look-out points in the hills behind the still and several buck-shot shells were found at one site indicating that the watchers were armed. Officers were reported as finding - 1,181 gallons of moonshine, neatly packed in one-half gallon jars stored inside the still house; nine tons of sugar - 180 bags of 100 pounds each; 42 (hogshead) barrels, each of 220-gallon capacity, of fermenting mash; 140 cases of empty fruit jars, each case containing 12 one-half gallon jars; a 30-horsepower, upright steam boiler attached to a 2,000-gallon still, a 1,000-gallon pre-heater and a 750- and a 500-gallon vat; 350 gallons of fuel oil; and in 100 pound bags were 15 bags of malt, nine bags of meal and eight bags of “brand” and three 50 pound cartons of yeast. The “area below the distillery turned into mash by the poured out liquor” and that “cattle drank from these pools of whiskey and passed out in minutes.” Photo courtesy of the Marietta Daily Journal and Marietta Museum of History See less Comments Eddie Hunter That is my Daddy (Ed Hunter) with the white shirt. He was the Chief of the Cobb County Police at the time).