Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton stared at me from a Wanted Poster on the wall of Savannah, Georgia’s Prohibition Museum. A moonshiner, it said, designated as “armed and dangerous.” With a name like that, there had to be a story.

Some readers may already have heard of Popcorn who was born in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, in 1946. He’s been an icon of sorts, representing Appalachia’s culture in books, film, and on The Discovery Channel’s Moonshiners. A bit of research took me to a fascinating world.

First, that nickname. Marvin grew up rough and, as a hot-tempered young man, loved to drink. When the popcorn machine at a local watering hole malfunctioned, he furiously whacked it with a pool cue. I don’t know if he got anything to eat, but he secured a lifelong handle for himself.

With a wiry frame, overalls, a frizzled gray beard, and slouch hat, he resembled the caricature of an old hillbilly. He could’ve been mistaken for a tourist attraction, but he seemed to be the real deal.

When asked why moonshine, he said, “Well, Pa always made it, and Pa’s Pa always made it. And Pa’s Mama’s Pa always made it.” He decided, “I guess I’ll make it, too.”

A chain-smoker and drinker himself, Popcorn said, “I guess that old smokin’ and drinkin’, though, is what killed my granddaddy. He lived to be ninety years old. What a way to go.”

Did it kill the old man or preserve him?

It was said that in the early days before alcohol was taxed, folks kept a still on their front porches or backyards. Aside from a break from hard living, most folk remedies had alcohol as their base. Popcorn reckoned, without it, “Why hell, I guess some people would have died.” Likely true.

In an early 2000s film called This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I’ll Ever Make, Popcorn built a still from scratch and distilled several gallons of corn whiskey. Despite the stereotype of lazy, drunken moonshiners, the business was hot, hard work.

The batch featured in the documentary consisted of yellow sweet corn, yellow corn malt, sugar, and water, blended to create mash. My husband and I took our middle-school aged daughters on a tour of the Jack Daniels distillery where the youngest stuck her finger in the mash. She was not impressed. But, Popcorn said that after seven or eight days, if the mash is bitter, it would make good liquor.

Once it’s ready, the mash is cooked in a still—usually copper. Popcorn used a wood fire, which he said made it hard to regulate the heat. Dead locust wood worked best, burning hot and producing little smoke.

If you’re in the woods with lots of smoke, “some nosy son of a bitch will see it and call the law on you,” according to our expert.

Popcorn used a thump keg, a barrel into which the alcohol steam is channeled for strengthening and further purification. The name comes from the sound of the vapor as it bubbles through.

Popcorn told of a woman named Lethy who liked to drink two Vienna Sausage cans full of the alcohol just as it dripped out—at a proof that could be as high as 180. She then did what she called the Thump Keg Waltz. As the bubbling sound started out slow, she’d step slowly, increasing her pace with the speed of the thumping. “She was tough,” Popcorn said. No one can doubt that.

Finally, the steam travels through a coiled copper pipe called the worm which reduces the gas form back to a liquid. As it drips out of that tube, moonshine is created!

“Yeah,” Popcorn said, “I’ve made all kinds of liquor in my time. I’ve made the fighting kind, the loving kind, and the crying kind…This I’m gonna make today, it’s got four damn fights to a pint.”

Wasn’t this illegal? Absolutely. Popcorn’s philosophy was “There ain’t a thing [at the still] I didn’t pay for. Paid taxes on the copper, paid taxes on the sugar. On the jars. I didn’t steal nothin’ so I don’t think I broke the law anywhere.”

The law disagreed. Throughout his life, aside from bootlegging charges, he was arrested for possessing controlled substances and assault with a deadly weapon. While put on probation five times, he’d never served in prison.

Instead, he wrote a book about himself called Me and My Likker: The True Story of a Mountain Moonshiner. It included a step-by-step guide on how to brew it yourself. He recorded a home video of the story which he sold in a junk shop he owned. This video and book led to more films and television appearances, eventually making Popcorn Sutton known worldwide.

Aside from making whiskey, he had a helluva knack for self-promotion.

Apparently, federal law enforcement did not appreciate such open illegality and cracked down. In 2008, the now-famous bootlegger looked to unload 1,000 gallons of whiskey which he unwittingly sold to a federal agent. He was sentenced to eighteen months in prison.

Which would never happen.

Some say, in 2009, he was diagnosed with cancer, but he clearly stated his goal to evade prison. Climbing into his car with a hose rigged to the exhaust pipe, Popcorn took his own life from carbon monoxide poisoning.

He had already bought a coffin and headstone. The stone read, “Popcorn Said F*** You.” Without the asterisks.

So, who was Popcorn Sutton? How much of the man was real and how much was a persona he developed to make his mark in the world? I’m sure he’d tell us what he’d always communicated to the federal government.

“Keep your damn nose out of it.”

Works Cited

Bamberger-Scott, Barbara. “Moonshiner Popcorn Sutton: A Legend in His Own Time.” Homestead.org, 22 Jan. 2022, http://www.homestead.org/homesteading-book-reviews/moonshiner-popcorn-sutton-a-legend-in-his-own-time/. Accessed 30 Jan. 2024.

“He Died 15 Years Ago, Now His Children Confirm the Rumors.” Www.youtube.com, What Happened?, 4 Oct. 2023, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcwW3jqqbWw&t=326s. Accessed 30 Jan. 2024.

“Makin’ Moonshine”, 1920-1933, Prohibition Museum, Savannah, Georgia

“The Last One (PBS Special with Popcorn Sutton / 2022 Remaster).” Www.youtube.com, Sucker Punch Pictures, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ma9vUqwpcc. Accessed 30 Jan. 2024.