Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton is an American moonshiner and smuggler. The man was born in 1946 in the town of Maggie Valley, North Carolina, lived all his life in the countryside, and died in 2009 in Cock County, Tennessee. Marvin has written and published an autobiographical guide to moonshine, made videos showing how to make moonshine, and has been the subject of several documentaries, one of which was even awarded a regional Emmy.
In 2009, at the age of 62, “Popcorn” Sutton committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. The reason for the voluntary death was a court sentence to prison for moonshine and illegal possession of firearms. After Marvin’s death, a new brand of whiskey was named after him.
Biography
Marvin Sutton claimed that the illegal production and distribution of alcohol was in his blood, since many generations of his Scottish and Irish American ancestors hunted for it.
In the 1960s or 1970s, while intoxicated, Sutton smashed a popcorn vending machine with a billiard cue, after which he got his nickname. Marvin explained his aggression by the fact that corn is used incorrectly – popcorn cannot be made from excellent raw materials for moonshine.
Sutton was constantly breaking the law, in 1974 he was accused of tax evasion when selling alcohol, in 1981 he was charged with illegal possession of drugs, and in 1985 with assault with a weapon. In all three cases, the case was only suspended.
After that, Sutton wrote his guide to moonshine “Me and My Likker” (“Me and my booze”), and in 1999 he began selling it in his shop. Critics called the work “a rambling, obscene, and effervescently funny biography of a moonshine merchant.” At the same time, Marvin recorded a video with the same title and released it on regular VHS tape.
People who knew Sutton note that he always wore a hat and blue farmer overalls with straps, even when he was on official subpoena. And he invariably answered all the accusations: “This was my last portion of moonshine, I am no longer going to do this, I am already old for all this.”
In 2002, Neal Hutcheson made the documentary Mountain Talk, based on interviews with people living near the Appalachian mountain range. The director recorded conversations with several local residents, including Marvin.
But Hutcheson’s next film, This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I’ll Ever Make, was all about Sutton. The video was released in the same 2002 and instantly became a cult.
In 2007, during a fire in Sutton’s shop, the fire brigade found almost 3 liters of illegal moonshine on which taxes had not been paid. Marvin again received a suspended sentence and continued to go about his business, selling alcohol and acting in films.
In 2008, speaking with a covert federal agent, Sutton admitted that he had more than 4000 liters of illegal alcohol to sell. This information was fully confirmed during the search, and Marvin was sentenced to 18 months in prison, at that time he was 62 years old, and a little earlier Sutton was diagnosed with cancer. He asked to have the sentence commuted to house arrest, but the request was rejected.
Then Sutton locked himself in his car in the backyard of the house and was poisoned by exhaust gas.
According to Marvin’s daughter, he always said that he would rather die than go to prison. And he added: “I have enough strength to die the same way as I lived: only in my own way, and nothing else.”
White Tennessee Whiskey
In 2010, Neil Hutcheson teamed up with Sutton’s Widow and J&M Concepts LLC to create a new whiskey brand named after Marvin. This is how Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey was born, made in stills designed by the great moonshiner himself, according to the Sutton family recipe, using secret technologies that Marvin entrusted only to representatives of J&M Concepts. It is known that the drink is based on a mixture of corn, rye and barley malt, and sugar is also added to it. The result is a fragrant bourbon with a characteristic taste and a strength of 44%.
However, Sutton’s booze recipe can be found in his book. First you need to heat 9 liters of water to 65 degrees, then add 1 kg of sugar, 0.5 kg of corn flour and 300 g of barley or barley-rye malt there, leave the mixture in a warm place for 24 hours. Exactly one day later, add wild yeast to the preparation, and when the fermentation is over, overtake the future bourbon twice, cutting off the “heads” and “tails”.
At first, the new whiskey was released in black square bottles, but after a lawsuit with Jack Daniel’s Properties, which claimed that the brand was illegally copying their design, the look of the bottle was changed.
Manufacturers claim that the only difference between their booze and Marvin’s moonshine is the legality of origin, because they pay taxes on their own.
Famous sayings of Popcorn Sutton
“Jesus turned water into wine, and I turned it into booze.”
“I swear I’m the last one who knows what and how. Great booze, that’s all I’ve ever done.”