Of biplanes, fast cars, moonshine and murder

by Creeker , Hardwoods, Sunday, February 01, 2015, 15:30 (3588 days ago)

A bit of local history you might enjoy..........Lynn

NICHOLAS COUNTY

Brothers were center of 1930s tale of moonshine and murder

By Daniel Tyson

REGISTER-HERALD REPORTER

This is a story that has a bit of everything — biplanes, fast cars, moonshine and murder.

This is the story of Paul and Hubbard Duling, two brothers from the backwoods of Nicholas County, who fought the law and almost won.

This is a story of West Virginia mountain people’s sense of place and family, and how important it was to our forefathers.

Here is the story of the Duling brothers and the Moonshine Mafia.

••• It took three trials to convict the Duling brothers of the murder of Franklin County, Va., sheriff’s Deputy Thomas Jefferson “Jeff” Richards and Roanoke County sheriff’s Deputy Clarence “Big Boy” Simmons. But right before Christmas of 1937, a jury in Halifax County, Va., did just that, and recommended each man serve 99 years in the Virginia State Penitentiary.

The first trial ended with a hung jury, the second concluded in a mistrial, and finally a conviction was agreed on after days of deliberation by a jury of men in Salem, Va.

It was the third trial that ended a two-year saga that began on a cloudless fall evening on Oct. 12, 1934, in the rolling hills of southern Virginia.

How Richards Died

Richards was transporting a prisoner, an African-American man arrested for stealing trinkets from a white employer, along Callaway Road in Franklin County, Va., when a set of headlights appeared out of nowhere. And then another set appeared. The first car overtook the police cruiser and rounds from a .45-caliber pistol and blasts from a .12-gauge shotgun ripped into the cruiser’s back window, beginning a volley of back-and-forth gunfire, recorded accounts go. Reports say Richards jammed on the brakes, skidded the cruiser to a stop and exited. Seeing one of the cars nearby, he drew his service revolver, but that action was greeted with another hail of shots from the 12-gauge, striking the officer, sending him to the ground.

“However, the two shotgun blast were not enough for the unknown assassins. They pulled a snub-nose machine gun from their car and at point-blank range they filled Deputy Richards with a hail of machine-gun fire, assuring his death,” wrote Stanley Adkins, an amateur historian and former mayor of Summersville, in his events of the story.

The prisoner tried to run from the scene, but was shot in the back and died there.

By the time additional police arrived, the two men had more than 100 rounds in their bodies, wrote Adkins.

At first, the local rumor was Richards was killed by his own people, law enforcement, after he said he would testify before a federal grand jury about police officers, deputy sheriffs and other powerful people profiting from the moonshine trade. It was 1934, and Prohibition ended the year before. But moonshine was still a major money-maker for mountain people in both Virginias.

When the grand jury did meet, they indicted 34 Franklin County residents. As Adkins wrote, in the subsequent trials it was proved that the whiskey ring included criminal involvement by federal Prohibition agents, a former Franklin County sheriff, four deputies and a plethora of officeholders, including the Commonwealth’s attorney, Charles Carter Lee, grandnephew of Virginia’s most revered son, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

During the trials it was discovered that Franklin County produced between 500 and 1,000 gallons of moonshine daily and not an ounce could leave the county without a substantial monetary tribute, called granny fees, paid to law enforcement and local officials, accounts report.

At the trials it was said that Richards was the money man. He knew who paid what, how much, how the money was laundered, where supplies were purchased and how they came in by truck and rail.

How Simmons Died

For two years following the Great Moonshine Conspiracy trials, no progress was made in solving Richards’ murder.Then,on a July night in 1936, the frogs were croaking and a slight breeze was blowing as Roanoke County sheriff’s Deputy Simmons finished his shift and headed home. Cruising down Rocky Mount Road, his partner, sheriff’s Deputy Charles Boone, napped in the passenger seat. Simmons noticed a car trying to pass on the lefthand side of the cruiser.

“Suddenly and without warning, flame and lead belched from the barrel protruding from the passenger window of the passing car,” wrote Adkins. “Hot lead smashed the driver side window and struck Simmons in the head.”

Boone later said he first thought his car had blown a tire until he saw blood covering the fatally injured Simmons. This murder scene closely mirrored the one where Richards was killed. A second car approached from behind, the same types of weapons — a .45-caliber pistol and a shotgun. Again, no eyewitnesses — or so the suspects thought.

While investigating the shooting late into the night, law enforcement learned that two men arrived at the scene seconds after the shooting. The men told investigators they never saw the shooters, but reported the vehicle as either a Ford or Chevrolet that did not have a license plate attached to the front.

In “Spirits of Just Men,” author Charles Thompson wrote, “An investigation ensued and the police found one witness named Tom Thomas, who said he’d seen a West Virginia car at his establishment, called Tom’s Barbecue, the night of the murder.”

Perhaps, Thompson is oversimplifying the story, because Adkins, wrote the bar owner, was reluctant to snitch on the Duling clan, the reputed kingpins of the West Virginia moonshine trade.

Investigators “stopped at the restaurant and asked the owner to gather the employees together for questioning. They explained their theory of the murder to the group and asked all of them if they had noticed a car, a Ford or Chevy, sans license plate, sitting in the parking lot the night before ... there were seven curb boys there, and, when questioned, four immediately said no, they had seen no such car. However, three of the boys seemed to hesitate and exchange glances before saying no.” The owner also denied seeing such a vehicle.

Finally, the police brought Thomas in for questioning. He finally told the authorities he talked with two brothers named Duling from West Virginia on the night of Simmons’ murder. The brothers had two women in the car with them while eating in front of the drive-in restaurant, according to “Spirits of Just Men.”

Thomas also confessed he purchased his moonshine from the Dulings, instead of the locals, Thompson’s book explains.

It was enough to send authorities to Beckley and then Nicholas County where they arrested five members of the Duling family and took them to the Beckley jail. At the Beckley jail “behind a two-way mirror, Thomas identified two of the ones who had eaten at his barbecue joint,” Thompson wrote. Thomas said Hubbard Duling was the driver and Paul Duling the passenger.

The evidence against them seemed even more slim after Paul and Hubbard provided alibis and denied any involvement. However, authorities argued their involvement in moonshine was enough evidence to arrest them for murder, wrote Thompson. Extradition To Virginia

As Adkins wrote, Virginia authorities were desperate to have the Dulings stand trial for the murders of deputies Richards and Simmons in the Old Dominion. Virginia authorities “immediately sought and received extradition papers. The decision was made to move the Dulings to Virginia.The rest of the Duling clan had flocked to Beckley and rumors were strong that the clan would try a raid on the jail to spring the prisoners. Beckley residents came out en masse to observe the parade of police vehicles moving the prisoners to the West Virginia-Virginia line.”

In Virginia, murder indictments were handed down post-haste for both Dulings. Little evidence was presented to the grand jury. An interesting angle presented during the grand jury hearing was that the motive for the murders of Simmons and Jefferson was mountain justice. Simmons and Richards were on-scene when Paul and Hubbard’s older brother, Frank Duling, was killed during a moonshine run between Franklin County, Va., and Nicholas County.

Frank, by both Adkins’ and Thompson’s accounts, was the leader of the group and the undisputed king of the West Virginia moonshine trade. During Prohibition, Frank used hot rods and biplanes to drive or fly moonshine out of Virginia and into West Virginia. One night, the authors wrote, Frank was hell-belting across the Roanoke/Franklin county line with the authorities on his tail. A shot was fired which flattened Frank’s tire. Apparently, Frank jumped from the car, as was common when moonshiners got in trouble, hit the frozen ground the wrong way and broke his neck.

That is the official version. The family and others firmly believed, and the authors hinted, that Frank was caught alive and the deputy sheriffs beat him to death.

“It’s hill justice,” said Adkins. “The thinking was ‘you killed my brother. He didn’t jump out of the car. You killed him with a night stick.’ They had the thought in mind ... you killed one of our brothers, you got to pay.”

The Three Trials

During the first trial, Commonwealth Attorney Carter Lee, the same man who allegedly was in charge of the Franklin County moonshine trade, stood and told the jury during opening statement that he “will bring in an expert to show that the shells found on the road where Richards and Simmons were killed were fired by the same gun that Paul Duling later raffled off,” according to T. Keiser Greer’s book, “The Great Moonshine Trial of 1935.”

DefenseattorneyAndrew Davis argued the brothers were nowhere near the murder sites on either night. The defense played the conspiracy card, using phrases like “peculiar coincidences” and “might have beens” mocking Carter Lee’s opening statement.

“The Dulings should not be blamed for West Virginia having imported vast qualities of Franklin County whiskey,” said Davis, ending his closing argument, court transcripts show.

Three hundred people packed the Franklin County Courthouse to listen to opening arguments. After more than two weeks of testimony, a visit to the murder site and mounds of circumstantial evidence, the jury came back hung.

The second trial started a short time later, but a mistrial was quickly declared when it was discovered that a number of the jurors were biased. Thompson wrote, “Not enough people believed the Dulings were convincing suspects, in part because everyone in the county knew too much about the conspiracy.”

Finally, a third trial was moved to Salem, county seat of Halifax County, Va. The Raleigh Register carried this trial on the front page for many days in December 1936. The arguments were the same: The defense claimed a conspiracy; the prosecution said it was mountain revenge.

During days of testimony, little new evidence was introduced. What was new were some of the prosecution’s witnesses, including Rolla Smoot of Princeton. The Raleigh Register reported on Dec. 10 that she testified she heard Paul and Hubbard talk about the murders. The paper quotes her as testifying the Duling brothers “drove around the country hunting for Simmons” before returning to Beckley the night of his murder.

Smoot, Frank Duling’s former sister-in-law, testified she accompanied Paul, Hubbard and their families to Roanoke shortly after Frank’s death where she heard the comments. Also during another trip,she told the jury Paul and Hubbard said Frank “would never rest until Simmons was taken over the same road as he took Frank.”After her testimony, the state rested, according to the newspaper.

Eleven witnesses were called for the defense. All testified on one day, saying either they were with or saw the Dulings on the day of the murders, the article reads.

After all the testimony, the defense made a motion for a directed verdict, but it was denied by the judge.

After days of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict with the recommendation of 99 years in prison. Instead, the judge sentenced the brothers to 20 to 30 years. Both men were released in the 1940s. Hubbard went on to become a press operator for a newspaper in San Francisco and Paul stayed in Nicholas County, said Adkins.

Adkins said perhaps the true story of what happened on those country roads in the 1930s will never be known. There are stories of biplanes landing in fields on the night of the murders. In World War I a few of the Dulings were pilots, according to reports of the time.

There are rumors still floating around today in Franklin County, Va., about Carter Lee, Thomas Jefferson Richards and Clarence “Big Boy” Simmons. Old-timers remember stories about the event, but those who are under five or six decades of age are too young to recall them.

In Nicholas County, it’s the same. “It’s a bygone era,”Adkins said.

An era of moonshine, murder, fast cars and biplanes.