Moonshiners & Revenuers - Hardcover

Johnny C. Binkley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1948901668 ISBN 13: 9781948901666

Publisher: Acclaim Press, Inc., 2020

Synopsis

From its early days as a British Colony in the 1700s through much of the 20th century (and even today), the hills, hollers, and swamps of North Carolina have been a hotbed of illegal liquor activity. Indeed, making untaxed liquor has been a way of life handed down from generation to generation. To combat this problem, the US government created a special task force whose sole mission was to enforce federal liquor laws, catch the moonshiners, and seize and destroy their liquor stills and moonshine whiskey.

Moonshiners and Revenuers is the true story of ATF Agent Johnny Binkley and his 25-years with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, from 1969-1994. During his career, the ATF transitioned from being the "redheaded stepchild of the IRS" working moonshine whiskey, to becoming the multi-jurisdictional independent bureau it is today.

Follow Agent Binkley's career as the ATF transitioned its role from moonshine enforcement, to catching cigarette smugglers, and then to crimes involving explosives and narcotics. More than just a history with facts and dates, Binkley also describes the people (good guys and bad guys), events, situations, and places he encountered along the way.

Read Moonshiners and Revenuers to learn the true story of an era that has come and gone with the changing times...or has it?

About this title

About the Author

Johnny Binkley was born and grew up in Chatham County, a rural county in central North Carolina. Growing up on a farm, he learned early on the necessity and value of hard work. After high school, he joined the Army during the time of the Cuban Missile crisis.

After basic training in Georgia, he was stationed in Maryland at the Edgewood Arsenal and later in Utah at the Dugway Proving Grounds. After his three-year tour, he returned to North Carolina and attended Pembroke State University, and graduating in 1969 with a degree in Political Science. Immediately upon graduation, he went to work as a Special Investigator with the Federal Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division of the Internal Revenue Service. He was fortunate to be stationed in North Carolina his entire twenty-five-year career - Raleigh (twice), Charlotte, Winston-Salem, and Greensboro. He retired in October 1994 as the Resident Agent in Charge of the Greensboro field office.

After his retirement, he worked briefly for a security and consulting company in Raleigh, and later was self-employed as a contract investigator for several private firms and government agencies.

His wife of fifty-six years, Charlene, and he live in Raleigh with frequent trips to the beach at Emerald Isle. They have two grown children, John and Angie, and four grandchildren, Jensen (19), Reagan (16), Charlie (10), and Cate-Hill (8). His time now is pretty much spent around family and volunteering at his church. He gets together with a few of the "old revenuers" in the area for lunch about every week.

"Over the course of my career, I participated in numerous narcotics, rearms, explosives, searches, raids, and arrests, but none compare with the excitement and exhilaration of a still raid. You've laid out in the woods two or three days, and then early in the morning you hear the sound of an old truck...it stops in the still yard and you soon hear sounds and see movements in and about the still. As you give the still hands a few minutes to get settled in and go about their work, the excitement and anticipation build, and the adrenalin starts pumping as you slowly inch up closer to the still. Then you hear 'Federal agent! You are under arrest!' and all hell breaks loose-the chase is on!"

ATF Agent Johnny Binkley

Edition details

• Publisher: Acclaim Press, Inc.
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1948901668
• ISBN 13: 9781948901666
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256