Page 14 - Discover Fall 2021

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Josephine Doody, was a former dance-hall girl. She law enforcement agencies to recruit women in their
lived in a remote cabin in Glacier National Park, efforts against female bootleggers.
and enjoyed a prosperous trade with the men of the
Another prominent Prohibition Agent, Daisy
Great Northern Railroad. When the train passed
Simpson, was based in San Francisco, but she
through her area, they would stop and toot the
traveled to other cities like Chicago and New York,
whistle. The number of toots told her how many
working undercover. A master of disguise, she would
gallons of moonshine they wanted. She would then
infiltrate local speakeasies, hotels, and restaurants. If
load it into a small boat, and deliver it across the
owners or bartenders offered to serve her alcohol, she
Flathead River. She is the stuff of local legends in
would arrest them immediately.
those parts. The inscription on her headstone reads,
“Josephine Doody, October 16, 1853, January 16, A reformed juvenile delinquent, Daisy was well
1936. The Bootleg Lady of Glacier Park.” familiar with the denizens of bars and speakeasies,
and reportedly had over one hundred disguises.
Perhaps the cleverest of all female bootleggers,
As fearless as she was creative, she once seized
Maggie Bailey started selling moonshine when
8,000 gallons of wine in a single raid. Her exploits
she was 17 years old, and was still selling it out of
earned her the nickname, “Lady Hooch Hunter”.
her home at the age of 95. She had become so well
Unfortunately, in 1925, a Treasury Department
educated on the 4th amendment that she thwarted
official decided to ban women from serving as field
repeated attempts by law enforcement to arrest her.
agents, and she decided to resign rather than become
She had numerous hiding places that would not
an office worker.
have been covered by search warrants, which then
had to be thrown out. In other cases, she managed to Things did not go well for her after that, and
escape punishment in spite of numerous arrests and eventually she slipped back into her former seedy
mountains of evidence. This was partly due to the existence, eventually getting herself arrested on drug
fact that although she had a great deal of money, she charges. After a failed suicide attempt which once
spent most of it helping others. Because of this, juries again threw her into the public spotlight, she retired
would refuse to convict her. and faded into anonymity.

Eventually, law enforcement caught on to the Moonshine is regarded as a Southern thing, but it
tactics of women bootleggers, and arrived at an extended as far north as Montana, and as far west as
appropriate solution, which again flew in the face of California. It had its earliest roots in Pennsylvania,
the prevailing societal norms: Female agents. and was a thorn in the side of none other than
George Washington. The legends live on about men
Georgia Hopley was a ground-breaking female
like Popcorn Sutton, but Al Capone could not have
journalist, and eventually became involved in Ohio
had his empire without the likes of women like
politics and the temperance movement. She likely
Willie Carter Sharpe.
got her foot in the door because her father was a
newspaper publisher, and her brother was a Senator. Here’s to the “shining” women of the South.
She became active in national politics, and worked
for Warren G. Harding’s Presidential campaign.
Her notoriety led to her being appointed as the first
female agent of the Bureau of Prohibition, making
national headlines. She was instrumental in gaining
public support for the enforcement of prohibition,
and effectively illustrated the tactics that were used
by female bootleggers. This encouraged many local

12 Discover Smith Mountain Lake FALL 2021