Lawless: When the law became corrupt. The true story of the infamous Bondurant Brothers: bootlegging siblings who made a run for the American Dream in Prohibition-era Virginia. In this epic outlaw tale, inspired by true-life tales of author Matt Bondurant’s family in his novel “The Wettest County In The World”, the loyalty of three brothers is put to the test against the backdrop of the nation’s most notorious crime wave.
The notorious gangster Al Capone observed that “Prohibition has made nothing but trouble,” and “I am like any other man. All I do is supply a demand.” While his bailiwick was Chicago by way of Canada, the Bondurant brothers in Virginia would have heartily agreed. Brazen rebels, the Bondurant boys – Howard, Forrest and Jack – ran a flourishing family bootleg business in Franklin County, Virginia, where the hills glowed orange from the light of countless illegal stills.
“The Wettest County in the World” began when Matt Bondurant decided to write a fictional account of the very picaresque exploits of his paternal grandfather Jack and grand-uncles Forrest and Howard. Though his novel is inspired by true events, it isn’t entirely factual.
As he writes in the author’s note, “The basics of this story are drawn from various family stories and anecdotes, newspaper headlines and articles and court transcripts… However, this historical information does not help us fully understand the central players in this story, at least in terms of their situation or what their thoughts were; all involved are now deceased and little record exists.
There are no letters, and my grandfather and his brothers did not keep diaries. My task in writing this book was to fill in the blank spaces of known record. There are family stories… and these memories and stories are vague, and often specious at best, mixed with several decades of rumor, gossip and myth… My intention was to reach the truth that lies beyond the poorly recorded and understood world of actualities.”
Related Link: View the Full Production Notes for Lawless
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