Shadows of the Still: The Legend of Big Six

In this gripping installment of Bourbon: Legends from the Trail, we take you deep into the misty hills of Kentucky for a tale that’s equal parts thrilling and thought-provoking. While the moonshiners of yore have captured imaginations for generations, today’s story flips the perspective to the other side of the law. Meet the men tasked with shutting down the illegal stills that dotted the countryside—fearless agents who not only enforced Prohibition-era laws but became legends in their own right. At the heart of this story is one man whose name alone could send a chill down a moonshiner’s spine. But his legacy is far more complex than a simple pursuit of justice.

Through the lens of one unforgettable encounter, we’ll unravel the cat-and-mouse game between moonshiners and the man they dreaded most. Along the way, you’ll hear tales of ingenuity, honor, and survival in a world where the line between right and wrong wasn’t always clear. Get ready for a narrative that weaves history, myth, and humanity into a story you won’t be able to stop thinking about. Tune in for a legend born in the heart of bourbon country—where every shadow hides a secret and every still has a story to tell.

Feel free to email your thoughts about the episode or the show in general at thebourbonprincipal.com. I would love to hear from you!

Thank you for listening to Bourbon: Legends from the Trail, where history meets flavor and every bottle has a story to tell. Cheers to the stores and legends behind the Spirit! Please leave a rating and review as it will help me plan future episodes.

Transcript

Hello guys, this is Travis, welcome back to Bourbon: Legends from the Trail.  Before we dive into today’s episode, I want to take just a moment to say thank you to everyone who’s been listening, sharing, and leaving reviews for the podcast. Your support means the world.

I’d like to shout out a couple of listeners who took the time to leave such thoughtful reviews. First up, a big thanks to ‘Kak7114,’ who mentioned that they were a former guest of mine out on the trail and wrote that , ‘Travis is great at storytelling and has a way of grabbing your attention and keeping it.  It’s great to be able to hear all his stories.” 

And another shoutout to ‘Red Rock Rye,’ who said, ‘Travis has taken his passion as a native Kentuckian, history scholar, and bourbon aficionado to lead us all on a journey through the history of bourbon”

Thank to you both, I really appreciate it!!!! 

Now If you’ve enjoyed the show, leaving a rating and review is the best way to help me to reach more bourbon enthusiasts and keep the stories flowing. Who knows, I might just read your review on a future episode.

Now, let’s get into today’s tale—it’s one you won’t want to miss!”

It’s the late 1950s, in the rolling hills of Kentucky, where today the mist is lingering low and refuses to leave. The crisp, early fall air carries the faint aroma of some already fallen leaves, as others that are just beginning to shed their summer greens for fiery reds, warm yellows, and deep oranges. Amidst this kaleidoscope of colors, a man named Thurlow rises before the sun, he's ready to face another day.

Today, his breakfast is simple but hearty—a ham omelet, homemade biscuits slathered with possum-belly jam, and a bowl of grits dripping with blackstrap molasses. Fueled for the long day ahead, he kisses his wife and kids goodbye, grabs his rifle off the mantle, and heads out into the woods to go to work

The trail he follows is known only to him, marked by subtle signs—a bent sapling here, a cluster of trees there. As he moves along slowly, he keeps a sharp eye out as It’s not just the beauty of nature that keeps him alert. You see, the woods can be a place that provides for his family as a white-tailed buck might leap across the path or a wild turkey might bolt from the underbrush…. but this is also a place of danger as—God forbid—he might stumble upon a black bear who is out on his own hunt. But none of these dangers frighten Thurlow as much as the possibility of being caught. Because Thurlow isn’t just a woodsman; he’s a moonshiner.

Today, he’s heading to his largest and most trusted moonshine site, tucked deep in the underbrush of the hills—a hidden operation where he’s named his still,  Big Six.  If all goes well, through today’s production, he may earn enough to keep his family fed, clothed, and protected for the coming year. Now the name of the still isn’t random; it’s a talisman, a desperate hope that Thurlow thought that by naming it Big Six he would invoke the legend of Big Six Henderson, Kentucky’s most feared revenuer, and maybe, just maybe it might keep the real man from ever finding him.

As Thurlow approaches the still, he slows down, glances around, takes everything in, and all seems to be OK. So he walks up to the still and pats it affectionately and mutters, “Good morning, Big Six. Why don’t we run ourselves off a big batch of your finest today, you and I and laughs to himself. Thurlow then bends over and with a few more pats he says “What do you have to say to that , Big Six? And then a large voice with a southern drawl booms through the mist: “That you’re caught, Thurlow.”

Thurlow freezes. Emerging from the mist is the shadow of a huge man as big as a bear.  Thurlow, with a rifle in his hand, begins to raise it, ready to take the intruder down. But just as he slowly starts to raise it, the man appears from the mist and then Thurlow begins lowering his rifle and raises his hands in surrender. Standing before him, larger than life, is the real Big Six Henderson. 

In the first part of this series, we delved into the world of moonshiners—the resourceful men and women who defied the law to create their illicit spirits, becoming legends in the process. But their story is only half of the tale. On the other side were the lawmen tasked with tracking them down, dismantling their operations, and enforcing the nation’s liquor laws.

In this episode, we turn our attention to those enforcers of the law—the revenuers. These agents played a critical role in shaping the history of moonshining, standing as both adversaries and, in many ways, counterparts to the moonshiners they pursued. It’s a story of cat-and-mouse, where each side became the other’s legend. Today, we explore the law’s pursuit of moonshine and the individuals who made it their mission to bring the trade to an end.

And now….Shadows of the Still: The Legend of Big Six.

Whether you got a glass in hand and a cozy spot to relax as you listen or you are weaving this story into the rhythm of your busy day, its time to prepare for another LEGEND…straight from the heart of Bourbon’s past.

Welcome to Bourbon: Legends from the Trail….where history meets flavor and every bottle has a story to tell

Thurlow knew the stories, as did every moonshiner in the hills. Big Six Henderson wasn’t just a man; he was a force of nature. For years, his name had spread through Kentucky, carried on the wind like a cautionary tale. Standing 6’4”, with a hulking 250-pound frame and a full head of white hair, Big Six was impossible to miss. Legends told of many a man who tried to run from him, and they never could, many a man who tried to fight him, and never could ever take him, and many a man who raised a gun to him, those men never saw another day as Big Six carried a cannon on his hip, a .44 magnum. Henderson was recorded as stating about himself that “I could run like a deer,  creep as quiet as a mouse, I never drank or smoked, and not one man who I set my sights on, ever got away from me.” 

As I was researching Big Six Henderson, and learned he carried that big gun, I couldn’t help but think of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry. You know the scene: Eastwoods character Harry Callahan is standing over a criminal who has dropped his own gun in a shootout.  As the criminal is glancing back and forth between his own gun that he dropped and the .44 magnum pointed at him, Callahan says Oh, I know what your thinking, did he fire 6 shots or only five, well considering this is a 44 magnum and is the most powerful handgun in the world, I guess you gotta ask yourself, Do I Feel lucky? I can just picture Big Six standing over a moonshiner and saying something very similar.

Big Six Henderson was born in 1903 near Elizabethtown, Kentucky. His nickname wasn’t inspired by that big gun on his hip, as many believe, but by his days as a semi-pro baseball pitcher as he was known by that nickname before ever becoming an agent. He modeled his pitching style after Hall of Famer Christy “Big Six” Mathewson and he used that money from playing baseball to pay for college and law school.

But Henderson’s true calling was law enforcement, more precisely, a revenuer. Over his 28-year career with the Alcohol Tax Unit (known as the ATU_—which was the predecessor to the ATF—he destroyed over 5,000 stills and made nearly 6,000 arrests. That’s almost 200 arrests a per year. But Big Six was not just respected by those on the side of the law, he also ironically, gained respect of those who were on the illegal side as well.  As a matter of fact, the wife of one of the moonshiners that Big Six arrested said this “we are proud to have folks know that we know you Big Six”.  Most of that respect was garnered by how Big Six Henderson looked upon those who were breaking the law by making their illegal whiskey.  He was noted as saying “I never looked upon them as doing something evil, just illegal. I never abused them”.  You see, Big Six knew that most of the people he arrested were those who were simply trying to provide for their family.  As most did not have cash, they relied on selling their whiskey to pay for things the family needed.  He understood that, but the law was the law and he had a job to do. However, It was those that were simply trying to profit from the moonshine that he had little respect for and that he was a lot less forgiving.

With close to those 6000 arrests one might think that Big Six must have some super human power.  But around the hills, legend has said that Big Six had the nose that bloodhounds and coonhounds could only dream of. It was said that he could smell out the fermenting mash from an illegal still from two counties away. But like most other things, a lot of stills and moonshiners were caught by informants and the pressure put on those who were seen drinking moonshine for information, however, they were not the only valuable source. 

One of Henderson’s most effective tools wasn’t a weapon or a tactic, or even his legendary nose—it was mother nature. If you have ever been around a distillery, especially an old distillery, you may have noticed nature’s informant.  Around stills and distilleries, ethanol fumes (known by the common name Angel’s Share) escape from the stored whiskey barrels and attract a black fungus called Baudoinia Compniacensis, (big word right) often referred to with nicknames like the “whiskey fungus”, “tarula”, or the “tattletale fungus.” That fungus clings to trees, buildings, and anything else nearby, leaving a black residue that’s impossible to miss.

For revenuers like Big Six, this fungus was as good as a map. Agents could spot the blackened trees from the air, then send ground teams to investigate. Most distilleries today have begun to make their rickhouses black so that it helps to hide the fungus as they can spend lots of money and time each year trying to power wash off the black fungus.

One of Big Six Henderson’s most famous busts began with a tip about a family in New Haven, Kentucky—a place not far from where Big Six had grown up. The man of the house was reportedly making moonshine in the basement and selling it out of their home. Armed with a search warrant, Big Six set out for New Haven, ready to add another notch to his remarkable record of moonshine busts. However, this particular case would stand out, not just for the arrest itself but for the startling revelation it uncovered about a prominent family.

The story, which had been buried for decades, came to light in the late 1990’s through the testimony of twin sisters who were present that day. Their account was shared in the documentary Rumrunners, Moonshiners, and Bootleggers available on YouTube if your interested.

Jean, one of the twin daughters, who was about the age of 14 at the time, recalled hearing a loud banging on the front door as she was headed to the basement where her mother was. From the living room, her grandmother peeked through the blinds and saw an imposing figure: an immense man with solid white hair and a large gun on his hip. She had heard the legends and immediately recognized him as Big Six Henderson, the legendary lawman. Big Six demanded they open the door or risk having it smashed down.

Her grandmother quickly called down the steps to warn Jean’s mother, yelling, “Big Six is at the door, and he’s going to search the house!” In a panic, Jean’s mother and sister began pouring whiskey down the drain in the basement, which emptied into a creek out back. Moments later, they heard the door cave in with a deafening crash.

As the big lawman entered the house, Jean’s mother began to cry, knowing the incident would soon be the talk of New Haven. The shame and embarrassment wouldn’t just fall on their household but on the highly respected family to which they belonged. Jean’s father you see, was Harry Beam, the son of Park Beam who was the master distiller at Heaven Hill and the brother to the legendary Jim Beam.

Harry Beam had once been the master distiller for Early Times, a part of the Brown-Forman catalog of brands. However, disputes over business philosophies had led to Harry’s dismissal. By 1948, jobs were scarce, and the family was nearing bankruptcy. Left with few options, Harry had turned to moonshining as a means to provide for his wife and daughters. According to Jean, “we did not see our father as a criminal; he was simply a father doing whatever he could do to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads.

As Big Six led Harry out of the house, Jean’s mother quickly put a call into Grandma Beam, Harry’s mother, who was deeply upset. Fiercely protective of the family’s name and legacy, she was determined to ensure that this illegal activity didn’t tarnish the Beam reputation. With her influence in the community and significant resources, Grandma Beam paid $1,000 to keep the incident out of the local newspaper. Her efforts succeeded, and the story remained buried for nearly 50 years. It wasn’t until most of those involved had passed away that the truth surfaced, offering a glimpse into the lengths the Beam family went to protect their family and their legacy during a difficult time.

With close to six thousand arrests you would think that Big Six only had time to hunt down illegal stills. But as a matter of fact he also had a passion for sports and worked as a timekeeper for Western Kentucky University, rubbing shoulders with legendary coaches like EA Diddle of Westerm, Adolph Rupp of the University of Kentucky, and Moose Krause of Notre Dame.. His influence even extended to recruiting, as many days while out on the trail of  the still, he would come across young talent and begin informing the coaches of what he had seen.  In one famous case, he even helped a young man from Owensboro KY named Cliff Hagan by accompanying him on a trip to Notre Dame. Hagan had met Big Six after the state high school championship game where Henderson had been the timekeeper.  Henderson, not having permission, felt that it was his privilege to present the game ball to Hagan after Cliff had scored 41 points in the championship game. Hagan, a future UK legend and professional player, was inspired by the bond made on the recruiting trip to Notre Dame. On that trip he said that he was entertained the entire way by listening to all the stories of Big Six chasing down criminals. When enrolling at the University of Kentucky and given the choice by Coach Adolph Rupp of what number he wanted, it was no surprise that Hagan chose to wear the number 6 in honor of Big Six Henderson.

Big Six Henderson passed away in 1987 at the age of 84, leaving behind a legacy that was equal parts fearsome and respected. He kept meticulous records of his work, documenting every bust and arrest. And while he was a terror to moonshiners, he was also a man of principle—a giant, both in stature and in character.

His story reminds us that the world of whiskey is as much about the people who made it illegally as it is about those who pursued them. Whether you were running the still or tearing it down, you were part of the same story—one that continues to shape the spirit of Kentucky to this day. 

In the end, Big Six Henderson wasn’t just chasing moonshiners—he was chasing truth and honor in a lawless world, where survival and justice walked a razor-thin line. His towering presence and relentless pursuit made him a legend, but it was his understanding of the people he hunted that made him unforgettable. 

Whether it is in the misty hills, the stretching flat farmlands, or the land between the lakes, in KY his shadow still looms large—a reminder that some men don’t just enforce the law; they become it.

As we near the end of Season 1 of Bourbon: Legends from the Trail, I want to thank each and every one of you for joining me on this journey. It’s been an incredible experience sharing these stories, and your support has made this season truly special.

But don’t go anywhere just yet—there’s still one more episode to come, and it’s one you that you will not want to miss. One of the most common questions I get on the trail is, ‘What’s the difference between Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey?’ In our season finale, I’lm going to dive into that question with a story that’s as fascinating as it is surprising.

This tale, lost in the hills of Tennessee for over 125 years, was uncovered by a reporter in 2016 and shook the whiskey world to its core, forcing a rewrite of whiskey history. It’s not only one of my favorite stories to tell, but also a favorite among my guests on the trail.

After the finale, I’ll be taking a short break for the holidays to spend time with family, recharge, and prepare for what’s coming next. Season 2 will kick off in January with even more incredible stories from the bourbon trail and beyond.

Thank you for being part of this journey, and I’ll see you for the season finale!

Thanks for tuning in to today’s episode—I hope you enjoyed the journey! And if you haven’t already, don’t forget to hit that subscribe or follow button.

I appreciate you joining me on this flavorful journey through time and taste… Cheers to the stories behind the spirit.

I’m your host, writer, and producer, Travis Hounshell

If you enjoyed the episode, please help the show grow by sharing it with friends and leaving a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Feel free to mention a story you’d love to hear in the future

1. The Legend of Big Six, Kentucky Monthly, 2019 by Gary West.
2. Rumrunners, Moonshiners, and Bootleggers, History Channel documentary available on YouTube.