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“Rastus Baker”
Posted By katie allison granju
Knoxville Voice tracks down a modern day, East Tennessee moonshine runner (going by an assumed name):
Rastus Baker,* a Tennessee runner, estimates that he makes $30,000 per year running moonshine. He has a day job as well, but running liquor supplements his main income.
Baker has been a runner since he was 17. He owns a small copper still, but he’s never made his own moonshine, though his father and father’s friends did when he was a kid. He picks up a load, 56 gallons, from one of his seven suppliers and then sells it for $30 a gallon. He gets more than most. Some sellers only get $10 a gallon, but Baker refuses to sell for less because “It’s just not worth it.” He’s never been chased or caught by the police when delivering, he says, because no one knows what he’s doing.
“People don’t really look for it,” he says. “They’re worried about meth and cocaine, not moonshine.”
May 26th, 2008
