NewSouth

Breaking Up Moonshine Stills
A Career Revenuer's Life

When Tom Allison became a U.S. revenue agent in 1955 in Anniston, Alabama, he was issued a .38-caliber revolver, a badge, a box of ammunition, and a pair of handcuffs. He had to supply his own holster and a pair of lightweight boots for chasing fleeing suspects through the woods and fields and across the branches of mostly rural counties. He was later transferred to the Montgomery office, where he continued his career of enforcing the laws against illegal whiskey stills. For three decades, Allison and his fellow officers located and staked out stills, caught the "violators" when they could, and broke up their operations. Along the way he saw and heard it all, and his stories of his experiences are as potent as the shine he worked to eliminate. Here are the first-person stories of lawmen, informants, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and, of course, the shiners themselves. Allison's Moonshine Memories is part memoir, part history, part folklore, and thoroughly entertaining.