NORTH CAROLINA COMMUNITY TOOK A SHINE TO ITS FAMOUS 'BOOTLEG BARON'

Although He Scrapped With The Law For Much Of His Life, J. Percy Flowers
Maintained His Reputation As A Family Man And Community Mainstay.

DUNN, N.C. - J. Percy Flowers went to jail the first time for
pistol-whipping a federal revenuer.

When this legendary local moonshiner was sentenced for the beating along
with his two younger brothers, Jimmy and Dick, he asked the judge for some
special consideration, according to a profile of Flowers in The Saturday
Evening Post in 1958.

"Your Honor, won't be nobody left to look after the farm. Will you let us
go one at a time?" Flowers reportedly asked.

"I certainly will," the judge replied. Originally facing three years
apiece, each brother in turn wound up serving a year and a day.

Much like Franklin County's moonshining luminaries, North Carolina's
one-time "bootleg baron" tangled with state and federal officers throughout
his life. Born in 1903, Flowers became the subject of dozens of state and
federal investigations.

He returned to prison only once more, in 1957, for threatening another
agent during a tax evasion trial. Most of the cases against Flowers
resulted in dropped charges or mistrials, according to The Smithfield
Herald. He died in 1982.

A millionaire tobacco farmer and country store owner with a fondness for
fox hunting and cockfighting, Flowers was simultaneously known as a family
man and pillar of the community.

The enduring fame of this patrician yet volcanic man reveals the extent to
which making a little - or a lot - of liquor is part of North Carolina's
cultural landscape, much as it is in Virginia's own Franklin County. And
Flowers' knack for evading conviction emphasizes the clout of a sympathetic
community.

"Friends and employees of the defendant, subpoenaed by the government,
appeared to suffer from lapses of memory on the witness stand," the Post
reported. Flowers' minister at White Oaks Baptist Church, the Rev. A.D.
Parrish, sat behind him during one of his trials, the Post reported.

Margaret Lee, a 90-year-old volunteer at the Johnston County Genealogical
and Historical Society, remembered Flowers had people working undercover
for him all over the area. Flowers supervised a 24-hour operation, which
cranked out moonshine that was bootlegged up to Washington, D.C., said
Vance Jackson, a retired supervisor for the North Carolina Alcohol Law
Enforcement Division.

"Flowers' phenomenal run of good fortune is attributable to a rare
combination of organizational, fiscal, and social talents. He treats his
hirelings with a paternalism that not only secures their loyalty and
discretion, but moves them to risk their own skins on his behalf," the Post
said. He was also cozy with local politicians, the Post said.

In a moonshine-making milieu where "fermenting barrels stand open, and
occasionally crows, skunks, and possums sample the content and keel over,
adding their decomposing carcasses to the mixture," Flowers cared about
quality, the Post said. He searched the area for experts to hire for all
phases of the business: building the stills, making the moonshine, and
distributing it.

Flowers' ultimate legacy?

"He was a really nice man, helped the community," Lee said. "And he sure
did make a lot of liquor."