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Saturday, January 29, 2022

Police Find Clever Still in Winslow McCain Home, Jan. 29, 1922

Seek Owner of Hootch Plant. . . Novel Still Seized at Home of Negro on Boundary Street

The most novel liquor-making outfit yet fund by either city or county officers was seized Saturday night at the intersection of Boundary street and the Southern Railway tracks in the home of Winslow McCain, a negro.

Four hundred gallons of beer, about ready to be transformed into liquor, and a 40-gallon still were found in the basement with a pipe running into the chimney and out through the roof so that odors from the hootch-making outfit went up with the smoke.

The affair was so novel that Judge J. Bis Ray, who was spending Saturday night in Charlotte, went with Deputy Sheriff Vic Fesperman, City Solicitor Tom Guthrie and a number of police officers to see the still in its place. On the advice of Judge Ray the whole outfit, vats, still, “beer,” some liquor already made and much paraphernalia was bought to the police station in a truck and will be a part of the evidence against McCain, the owner of the still, if he is ever caught—he wasn’t at home last night when the officers raided the house and his wife and child could not or would not throw any light on his whereabouts.

Motorcycle Officers McGraw and Blackburn are credited with having scented the presence of the outfit and decided it was worth looking into. They suspected, from certain evidence in their possession, that the liquor-making outfit was hidden in the house and obtained from Night Desk Sergeant White, who is also a justice of the peace, a search warrant. Armed with this, they took Detective Tom Gribble and went to search the premises. They reported their rich find and Judge Ray, Deputy Sheriff Fesperman, Solicitor Guthrie and others went down to see the place.

From The Charlotte News, January 29, 1922

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