One Eye Closed, the Other Red: The California Bootlegging Years

After 22 years of interviewing old timers and researching newspapers, archives and document, I have finished this book on Califorrnia bootlegging, rumrunning and moonshining. The years covered are from 1917-1935, the war years, Roaring 20s, and early depression years. I let bootleggers, moonshiners, border patrolmen, and constables tell their own stories. To cover more of the state, about 30 local authors and historians contributed their articles.

The book is timeless as we not only explore prohibition, but also obeying laws we don;t believe in, looking the other way, buying illegal substances, deciding moral dilemmas, and doing the right thing.

Featured also are chapters on smuggling by airplane, selling by prostitutes, drunk animals and prohibiton humor. Over 110 photos, appendixes, glossary, endnotes, bibliography and index complete "One Eye Closed...."

Clifford James Walker is author of numerous articles on desert history, including "Dack Door to California: The Story of the Mojave River Trail," to be republished early in 2000. He has lectured on desert and prohibition history and though retired in 1991, he still teaches part time for Cal State San Bernardino and Barstow College. He and his wife Barbara helped start the Mojave River Valley Museum in Barstow, which has been going strong for 35 years and has a family membershi of 440. In 1995 he won the Individual Award of Merit from the California Conference of Historical Societies.