The Incorrigible John George: Part 3
Separating fact from fiction
The Incorrigible John George is the true story of John Mathias George, a notorious Alabama bootlegger, lawbreaker and storyteller. If you’re new to the story, you might want to start at the beginning of this four-part series.
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Release Date: January 21, 2025
Hardly hard time
Much of the outrage around convicted moonshiner John George’s sentence to hard time at the coal mine in Wegra had to do with a basic lack of knowledge as to how Alabama’s convict lease system actually worked.
Each convict leased to a coal mine was classed according to the amount of work they could do in a day. The strongest and most fit prisoners were expected to produce the most coal, often six or more tons a day, and expectations were downgraded from there, with the oldest and weakest prisoners, men like John, classified as “unfit for active work”.
The very idea that an 84-year-old man would spend 12 hours a day, six days a week digging coal out of the ground was preposterous, according Wegra’s warden, M. F. Cocker.
“Why, [John] could not last a day in the mine,” he said. “He can hardly walk, and he can’t see without his glasses.” 1
Instead, John’s sentence to “time in the mine” had him talking with sympathetic reporters, community activists or other prisoners, and enjoying occasional walks around the camp. Some days, John picked greens in the camp’s garden — but only until he grew tired, and other days he could be found in the kitchen, helping the camp’s cook slice meat for the evening meal.
Most of the time, however, John did pretty much whatever he wanted to do, and likely much less than he would have done as a free man working the land to support his wife and children: A fact which was conveniently missing from demands for a pardon sent to Governor Brandon by Southern sympathizers and those fighting against the convict leasing system.
A master propagandist is called out
Another thing missing from the early conversations and attention around John’s supposed plight was the perspective of people in Hale County, people who knew John, and knew his past.
But all that changed on January 31. That was the day Judge Samuel F. Hobbs, former judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit District and the man responsible for sentencing John to six-months confinement for violation of Alabama’s prohibition laws, sent the following telegram to the Birmingham Age-Herald. 2
“Mr. George was not denied a trial by jury nor any other right. He was granted a continuance of the case for six months because he asked for it, and this was the only action of the court which will not be abundantly sanctioned by the law of the land. Mr. George was represented in his trial, and his appeal by one of the ablest lawyers in Alabama. The appellate court of the state passed upon the treatment accorded him in the circuit court of Hale County and stamped it with the approval of affirmation.
“This is but another illustration as what we see frequently. Good citizens ‘swallowing whole’ the stories by convicts, and working themselves up into a furor of maudlin sentimentality over the idea than a horrible miscarriage of justice has claimed an innocent victim.
“But my hat is off to Mr. John H. George, in this instance, as a master propagandist.”
The next day, February 1, Joseph H. James, Solicitor of the Fourth Judicial Circuit, Greensboro, Alabama, followed up with a lengthy letter to the Age-Herald, which set the record straight on everything from John’s criminal past to his claim to Confederate bonafides : 3
At least two of the leading newspapers of the state have, within the past two days, carried touching stories of the plight of John M. George, who was convicted about a year ago in the circuit court of Hale County and fined $500 and sentenced to six months hard labor for violation of the prohibition law, and who passed through Birmingham recently on his way to begin his sentence.
Evidently some of the good people of Birmingham became very much aroused over the matter, and one of the papers carries the news that the Alabama Chapter of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy had been enlisted in his interest and that a fight would be made to being him back home.
The version of the affair given out in Birmingham was truly distressful, and, with the matter before them in that light, the generous and noble-spirited impulse of the people there to help Mr. George is to be commended rather than criticize.
However, this is just another case in which it is well to remember the advice of Davy Crockett, “Be sure you are right, and then go ahead”.
We are sure than many of the good people of Birmingham have some acquaintance with Greensboro and Hale County and the people hereabout, and we wonder if it did not occur to them that possibly an outrage had not been committed against an aged Confederate veteran, or that, if such had been committed, it would not have been allowed to pass without remonstrance from the people here.
The writer is the solicitor who represented the state in the case of Mr. George. Since taking that office he has never appeared in the public print concerning any case in which he was interested. He presents the State’s case in the court, where it belongs, and then remains silent until called upon for an expression by some person or authority having the right to call for his recommendation.
But much has been made of this matter; and, as it stands, it carries a reflection upon the people of Greensboro and Hale County; and, in one of the accounts, an implied reflection upon an upright judge. In view of these impressions necessarily created by the articles, your readers should know more of Mr. George and his case.
He is pictured in one article as a silver-haired Confederate veteran, and his service for the Confederacy dwelt upon. Those familiar with the law know that, of recent years, any bona fide Confederate veteran who was true to the cause is entitled to a pension from the state, regardless of his station or financial means. It might do well for the patriotic organizations mentioned above to look at the pension rolls of the state for the name of John M. George, and, failing to find it there, to inquire why the omission. They may be assured that it is by reason of no lack of applications on his part.
It might be further well for them to inquire how it came about that he has sought to obtain a pension as a Union soldier for service for a period of time during the Civil War.
There are still among us here some of the old Confederate veterans, honorable and honored, and each of them enwrapped in a veritable halo of reverence by our people. Is it possible than an outrage could be committed upon one of their number, and he be on his way “from Greensboro to the coal pits” without a remonstrance from them?
The writer has known Mr. John M. George for years, and represented him many times in court and otherwise, and has only the kindest feeling for him, aside from his law-breaking proclivity.
For a great many years Mr. George has been a regular attendant upon the sessions of our courts. When not trying to get himself out of the toils of the law, trying to get someone else in. He has been under indictment a number of times for offenses, some very serious and some of a minor nature. For some years past he has been reputed to be the most persistent and most conscienceless bootlegger in his section of the country. Complaints of him in this regard have been before every grand jury in the county for several years. He has been indicted and tried within the past two years, twice for selling whiskey and once for the possession of a still. In only one case was be convicted.
Those here who read of the interviews given out by him in Birmingham, which so wrung the heart strings of the good people there, smiled as they realized that the old man was running in true form. He is always best when being tried before people who do not know him.
His tactics when on trial have uniformly been to strike from the jury, as far as possible, all who were acquainted with him and rely upon his old age and pitiful story to pull him through. And it has generally worked well.
The solicitor has had citizens of the section where Mr. George lives come to him in earnest desperation to ask if it were possible to obtain a permit for a man to make whiskey, and saying that it looked as if the law could not or would not stop [John George] from making liquor and selling it, and that they were ready to throw in and buy him a good copper still and hire someone to teach him how to make stuff less deadly than he was putting out to poison their boys.
Even after the conviction of this man, and his appeal of his case to the court of appeals, the prediction was freely made in that section that he would never be sent off, and, when the reason for the prediction was asked, the answer was that there had always been a slip somewhere, and that there would be another in some way. People in that section had actually reached the point where some of them believed that the officers were purposely leaving loopholes for the escape of the man from punishment.
And through it all, the constant reports coming to us have been of his scoffing and ridiculing the law, and saying that he would never suffer its penalties.
The matters mentioned above are not proof, of course, but show the reputation at home of the man who has created such a sensation upon his passage though Birmingham.
As is the case in which Mr. George was convicted and sentenced, the evidence was conclusive and came up in such a way that there could be no question of guilt of selling whiskey. He was represented by two of the ablest lawyers at the bar of his county, appealed to a higher court, and the case was affirmed. Any intimation that the trial judge denied him any of his legal rights is without foundation, as there has been no jury demand within the time allowed by law, and the judge was powerless to have allowed him a jury trial had he desired to do so.
It is painful to write these things concerning an old man who has gone to prison, but the statements set forth in the press about him and his case should not go unchallenged.
Standing upon his responsibility as an officer, the solicitor of the circuit states that, in his opinion, an interference with the sentence of this man at this time would be the most staggering blow ever dealt to the prohibition laws in this county.
Parties who, while cognizant of the facts of this case, take in one hand petitions for the release to Montgomery at this time should do the logical thing and carry in the other hand a recommendation that the law be changed to the effect that a man who has reached the age where he can be referred to as “silver-haired” is immune from the law, and that he can, with impunity, debauch the youth of the country with the ‘shinny’, and while doing so, deride and mock the courts of the land.
Other letters and telegrams followed, each of which discredited the version of events and facts of the case which had garnered so much sympathy and support for John among the people of Birmingham.
They came from neighbors and Confederate veterans, from law enforcement officers, community leaders and elected officials, and to a person, they called for John to serve out his sentence, to pay his debt to society and to finally be held accountable.
And they fell on deaf ears.
Calls for Governor Brandon to pardon John and allow him to go back home to “live out his final days with dignity” increased. Members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy continued to push for a meeting with the governor and newspapers continued to publish near-daily pieces dramatically exposing the dangers and humiliation John faced as a prisoner serving hard time at the notorious Wegra convict mine.
John’s one-man propaganda campaign had succeeded. And it appeared even the truth couldn’t stop him now.
Copyright 2025 Lori Olson White
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End Notes
1 “Aged Convict Class as Unfit for Hard Labor. John George is Doing Only Chores: Civil War Record in Doubt”, The Birmingham News, Birmingham, AL, February 2, 1926, P. 1.
2 “Brandon Probes Veteran’s Plight. Governor Intimates Early Parole Will Be Given John George, 84, Now Prisoner at Wegra Convict Mines”, The Birmingham Post, Birmingham, AL, February 1, 1926, P. 1.
3 “Forum of the People. More about John M. George”, Birmingham Post-Herald, Birmingham, AL, February 2, 1926, P. 6.
This deep dive into his story unearths a lot of forgotten history. The writing is compelling.
I like the way you also work in the “mines,” digging up these fascinating stories.