Show Thompson tackled moonshine case in early years Joe Mathews Los Angeles Times The case appeared to be open and shut The county sheriff had been caught selling an illegal whiskey still from the back backof of the county jail The buyers were a federal informant and an undercover federal investigator r. r The sheriff to elude honest police had escorted the illegal still out of town But for Assistant US U.S. Attorney D. D Thompson few cases cases would prove easy Today as a Republican candidate for president Thompson is is' cultivating an image as a a tough prosecutor who J like the character he played on TVs TV's Law Order battled powerful criminals during his three- three year stint as a prosecutor He was attacking crime and public corruption boasts a video played at his campaign events During a candidates' candidates debate this month Thompson said he had spent those years pro prosecuting c ting most of the major federal crimes in middle Tennessee most of the major ones But a review of the 88 criminal cases Thompson handled at the U. U US U.S. S. S attorneys attorney's office in Nashville from 1969 to 1972 reveals a different and more human portrait that of a young lawyer learning the ropes on routine cases involving gambling mail theft and in one instance talking dirty on the CB radio There were a few bank robbers and counterfeiters But more than anything Thompson took on the states state's and aa a. a local culture rooted in Tennessee's hills and hollows that celebrated the independent whiskey- whiskey makers maker's battle against the governments government's revenue agents Twenty-seven Twenty of his cases involved more than any other crime Hell I made whiskey and was violating the law but I didn't do nothing wrong said one of Thompsons Thompson's many defendants Kenneth Whitehead I would do it again if I had a astill still I cant can't afford a still now Thompson had just turned 27 when he became a prosecutor and the public stage of the courtroom became a place where There he learned to develop the strengths and to navigate around his weaknesses that later would boost him to the US U.S. Senate and now to a top slot in the GOP presidential field Ive seen a lot better lawyers said Burton Moulder the former fonner sheriff who Thompson prosecuted for selling a still from the county jail But he was very charming channing He had a anice anice anice nice clear voice Thompson is better known for his two later stints in public service as lead Republican counsel for the Senate Watergate committee and as a US U.S. senator for eight years Thompsons Thompson's campaign declined to make him available for an interview Thompson got the prosecutors prosecutor's job through politics He had been handling divorces and other small cases in his hometown o of Lawrenceburg Tenn when President Nixon won the White House Soon after the new US U.S. attorney for middle Tennessee began replacing the Democratic legal staff with Republicans as was customary at the time In his se Thompson successfully prosecuted Johnny Pace a bank robber who had escaped from the federal tank inside the Nashville jail Mr Mr Thompson was wasa a true gentleman said John Blalock the sheriffs sheriff's deputy who captured Pace in Los Angeles County Ive never been treated with more courtesy by a prosecutor But Thompsons Thompson's charm did not work on US U.S. District Judge Frank Gray Jr who presided over nearly all of his cases A liberal Democrat who had worked in presidential campaigns from Al AI l Smiths Smith's to Estes Kefauver's Gray had little patience for fools and even less for Republicans In court the judge would make guttural sounds or break pencils as lawyers tried to form fonn arguments Judge Gray was very tough on Fred and the lawyers in Charlie Andersons Anderson's US U.S. attorneys attorney's office he didn't think they knew what they were doing recalled Gilbert S. S Merritt Andersons Anderson's predecessor who is a judge on the Circuit US U.S. Court of Appeals In the trial of a man charged with aiding bank robber Johnny Pace in his prison escape Gray completely lost it as Thompson struggled with the concept of hearsay evidence I dont don't see any reason for forthe forthe forthe the consummate passion of of the United States attorneys attorney's getting stuff reversed by getting stuff in the record that has no business in there at all aU the judge declared adding that he found Thompsons Thompson's conduct utterly incompetent At one slow-paced slow hearing Thompson attempted so many jokes that the defense attorney objected Is there any anyway anyway anyway way you could rule against the assistant United States att attorney f for r his continued hum humorous humorous' ro s' s attempts at humorous remarks and also his references to the fact that he would like to leave here in a hurry Many in the illegal whiskey trade say that Thompson was merciful and sensitive Dwayne Kent a who also served as a witness in a Thompson prosecution It was like trying to load loada a wild cow in a truck said Kent who quit bootlegging and now chairs his county's tax board But Fred handled things He stopped himself and the other attorneys when they used big words so we could understand what they were saying Thompson easily won convictions for possession of moonshine but Judge Gray was lenient in sentencing In his third and final year as a prosecutor Thompson went after law enforcement itself seeking indictments against two county sheriffs who investigators told him were involved in the business In the first case he hewon hewon hewon won a conviction against Sheriff Charles Crockarell of Stewart County near the Kentucky border The prosecution of the other sheriff Burton Moulder of Cannon County would prove to be the most difficult case of Thompsons Thompson's tenure As sheriff Moulder had investigated on nearby Short Mountain But according to testimony Moulder also sold a confiscated still for to toan toan toan an undercover federal agent and an informant who was wasa a himself The trial then fo focused us u's usi i on whether the sheriffs sheriff's wife had fabricated her claims in order to damage amage the prosecution case and save her husband In his cross- cross examination Thompson accused her of sleeping with witha a different law enforcement agent The case was hopelessly compromised in the eyes of at least some jurors They failed to reach a verdict and a mistrial was declared The US U.S. attorneys attorney's office later dismissed the charges entirely Burton Moulder still lives in Woodbury a quiet town of 2500 southeast of Nashville In an interview on his front lawn Moulder said the trial finished him himin himin himin in politics although he managed to repair his marriage and build a career in emergency medical services Later in the began to todie todie todie die out in Tennessee but not because of the federal prosecutions A spike in inthe inthe inthe the price of sugar made it harder to turn a profit That era was the beginning of the end of moonshine said Linzie Jones a federal agent who worked with Thompson Then the marijuana started coming in The Moulder case would be Thompsons Thompson's last Less than a week after the trial he resigned from the US U.S. attorneys attorney's office and went into private practice in Nashville Thompson also returned to politics He spent much of the rest of the year working for the re-election re of US U.S. Sen Howard Baker Thompson was vas wasa a p political loyalist and friend And he had earned an important 1 credential He had been a prosecutor By early 1973 eight months after he had failed to convict a county j sheriff Fred Thompson was wason wason wason on his way to Washington DC D.C. to investigate the president Times researchers John Jackson and Robin Mayper contributed to the reporting of this story stork |