For the Forrest Bondurant Fans

One of the most popular searches that brings people to my blog is Forrest Bondurant.  And who can blame you?  Tom Hardy certain did a good job characterizing a brooding, bad boy Forrest in the movie Lawless.  So, I figured I  would throw a few goodies out there for all of the Forrest Bondurant fans.

 Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 4, 1931

Deputy-Sheriff Charged With Taking Bribe

Officer and Two Alleged Moonshiners Must Face Trial at Rocky Mount

ROCKY MOUNT, VA., Feb. 3 – (AP) –A deputy sheriff and two alleged violators of the prohibition law, indicted on charges growing out of an alleged act of bribery, will be tried [in] Court.

Deputy Sheriff H.T. Abshire was indicted yesterday by a Franklin County grand jury on a charge of accepting a bribe, while Jack and Forrest Bondurant were indicted on a charge of attempting to bribe officers and with transporting liquor.

The grand jury also indicted Deputy Sheriff C.L. Rakes on a charge of malicious shooting in connection with the wounding of Jack and Forrest Bondurant on December 19, when an automobile driven by Forrest Bondurant is alleged to have carried 150 gallons of liquor.

Deputy Sheriff Abshire provided bond and the bond provided by Deputy Sheriff Rakes shortly after the shooting was continued.

Forrest Bondurant is in a Roanoke hospital with a wound alleged to have been inflicted by Officer Rakes when Rakes and Abshire halted two automobiles driven by the Bondurant brothers at Magpie Creek Bridge on the Redford-Rocky Mount Road.  Jack Bondurant was in the hospital several weeks.  Officers contended the shooting occurred after the brothers objected to having their car searched and drew guns.

County authorities charge that an offer of $75 was made to the two officers to let the loaded car pass.

Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 31, 1935

Church-Goers Fear to Pass Filling Station

Franklin Supervisor Testifies of Bad Reputation of Business Place

[I removed the first first section because it did not pertain to the Bondurants]

Aged Supervisor Testifies

The filling station, R.A. Sink, for 32 years a member of the Franklin Board of Supervisors, said, was operated at Burnt Chimney by Jack, Forrest and Howard Bondurant – the first two of whom a deceased deputy sheriff, C.L. Rakes, and alleged co-conspirator, shot at a liquor blockade.  Shooting at the station made people “afraid to pass by that gas station to go to church,” the aged supervisor, bearded and slightly deaf, said.

He characterized the reputation of the brothers, who were Government witnesses, as “bad,” speaking of their truthfulness, but said he was talking chiefly about a statement R.L. Minnix, grandfather of the wife of one of the Bondurants, made before his death, that they were “the toughest mess that ever struck our section.”

[I removed the last section because it did not pertain to the Bondurants]