Legendary moonshiner dead at 101
Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 7:01 amLegendary moonshiner dead at 101
CLEVERTOWN, Ky., Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Maggie Bailey, a Kentucky bootlegger who spent years selling moonshine without a conviction, has died at the age of 101.
Bailey first got involved in illegal alcohol sales at the age of 17 and continued until she was 95, winning the nickname "Queen of the Mountain Bootleggers," the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. She was so loved in Harlan County that juries simply would not bring in a guilty verdict.
"Everybody knew her and she had helped everybody," Helen Halcomb, wife of Bailey's nephew, told the newspaper. "Why do you bite the hand that feeds you, as the old saying goes."
U.S. District Judge Karl Forester said that he was Bailey's lawyer for some years.
"She was an expert on the Fourth Amendment," he said. "She knew the laws of search and seizure as well as any person I've known."
Friends remember Bailey as someone who helped families with food in times of need and put several young people through college. She herself lived modestly, conducting her business in uniforms that said "National Distillery" that were handed down from a sister who worked there.
Bailey was a widow and is survived by nieces and nephews.
CLEVERTOWN, Ky., Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Maggie Bailey, a Kentucky bootlegger who spent years selling moonshine without a conviction, has died at the age of 101.
Bailey first got involved in illegal alcohol sales at the age of 17 and continued until she was 95, winning the nickname "Queen of the Mountain Bootleggers," the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. She was so loved in Harlan County that juries simply would not bring in a guilty verdict.
"Everybody knew her and she had helped everybody," Helen Halcomb, wife of Bailey's nephew, told the newspaper. "Why do you bite the hand that feeds you, as the old saying goes."
U.S. District Judge Karl Forester said that he was Bailey's lawyer for some years.
"She was an expert on the Fourth Amendment," he said. "She knew the laws of search and seizure as well as any person I've known."
Friends remember Bailey as someone who helped families with food in times of need and put several young people through college. She herself lived modestly, conducting her business in uniforms that said "National Distillery" that were handed down from a sister who worked there.
Bailey was a widow and is survived by nieces and nephews.