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Revenuer man: Wilkes County ATF agent's book tells tales of chasing moonshiners
Photo Courtesy of Bob Powell
Bob Powell works at a raid in Wilmington in 1963.
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Published: June 27, 2009
WILKESBORO - Bob Powell was armed with a slingshot that dark night when he went to do surveillance on a reported moonshine operation off Old N.C. 60 in Wilkes County.
When a pack of dogs began barking, as he had figured that they would, Powell opened up a pack of wieners and started launching them with his slingshot.
The dogs stopped barking and wolfed down the wieners. Powell and a partner never did arrest the suspected moonshiners, but at least they were able to slip away unnoticed.
Powell, a well-known Wilkes County character noted as much for his quirky humor as his career as a revenuer, for years has been telling tales to Rotarians and others about his 26-year career in law enforcement. As agent in charge of the Wilkes County office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms from 1968 to 1975, he has been a featured speaker for stories from the old moonshine days.
At 79, he's gaining a larger audience with his new self-published book, Moonshiners, Fast Cars and Revenuers: Moments from My Life in Law Enforcement.
A few former Wilkesboro agents will swap tales and help Powell celebrate his book during his first public book signing from noon to 2 p.m. today at the Wilkes Heritage Museum.
Also expected is Beulah Souther, now 81, the office's longtime secretary, who still lives in Wilkes County.
She grew into a seasoned part of the team, but she and Powell still joke about her first week when she hid behind a closed door after spotting revenuers bringing in her neighbor in handcuffs.
She hadn't ratted out her neighbor but she was worried that he would think that she had. Experience taught her to take such things in stride.
Souther was manning the office radio one day when she heard an agent call out a familiar name of a man he had in custody.
"Who did you say?" she asked.
As it turned out, it was her other neighbor. The man heard her over the radio, recognized her voice, and they later shared a good laugh about it.
Powell said that Souther got to be so good at her job, that he would have issued her a badge and gun if he could have.
Powell's book names people such as Souther and his fellow agents, but he leaves out the names of the people he arrested -- "because of their families and things of that nature," he said.
"I kind of had an unwritten rule if I caught a 12-, 13- or 14-year-old boy down there, I'd get him by the seat of his pants and take him to his mother and say, ‘Here he is, if I catch him again, I'll have to take him in.'" He never did take in a moonshiner who was that young.
Most of his stories are told on himself. Powell tells about dipping his fingers in suspected moonshine mash one dark night.
He tasted it to see how far along the fermentation process had gotten. "Man, that mash tastes funny," he told other agents.
When they came back the next night, he tasted it again. He flipped on his flashlight, cupping his hands around the lens so the light wouldn't give him away.
He saw that the barrel held old rotting mash, crawling with maggots. Thirty years later, he said he still shudders when he thinks about it.
One of his best stories is about how he wound up outside the Wilkesboro federal building after midnight in his underwear and T-shirt, with his trousers, shirt and shoes locked inside the ATF office, along with his keys.
His wife, Betty, had a good laugh about it. With a little coaxing, he might just tell that story today.
■ Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at 336-667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com.
■ Bob Powell's book Moonshiners, Fast Cars and Revenuers: Moments from My Life in Law Enforcement is available in the gift shop of the Wilkes Heritage Museum in the old white Wilkes County Courthouse. The 65-page, hardback book is $35. For more information, call the Wilkes Heritage Museum at 336-667-3171.
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