THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606180158
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: 93 lines
After the column on Speed Fentress, the notorious bootlegger in old Princess Anne County, Bennie Jennings called to tell me that I had been right as far as I had gone.
``But you didn't go far enough!'' Jennings said.
Seems Jennings grew up during prohibition in what is today Chesapeake. And though he now lives in Portsmouth, he still farms about 750 acres of family land off Ballahack Road. In the old days, the family home, which stills stands, was in the middle of whiskey-making country.
``Everybody around here was making whiskey,'' Jennings said. ``We grow corn now, instead of making corn whiskey.''
He said, Speed would drive down Jennings' way to purchase the home-brewed alcohol to sell in Norfolk. For a year or so when Jennings, now 85, was about 16 or 17, he worked for Speed. As Jennings recalled it, Speed hired him to buy whiskey in the neighborhood.
``The money would be wrapped up in newspapers, $400 to $450, most of it in $1 bills,'' Jennings said. ``You always knew anybody who had a lot of $1 bills was connected to the whiskey business.''
Speed got his name from the precipitous way he raced around Hampton Roads. He had a reputation for driving a big Chrysler roadster up to 60 mph around the country roads, Jennings said. He recalled Speed driving every bit of 60 mph down his long bumpy driveway made with railroad ties.
``He never turned the corner without going up on two wheels,'' Jennings said and he put his arms out, leaning hard to the left to demonstrate how Speed took a corner.
The wide open automobile had a windshield for the front seat and one for the back seat. Speed carried four spare tires and had lashed pieces of railroad track around the front bumper. He used the track somewhat like a cow catcher to push cars that were in his way off the road or to ram a pursuing federal agent.
``The car was yellow,'' Jennings said , ``and it looked like a banana,''
Speed was a big fellow, not fat, but muscular. The bootlegger was nice enough to the teenager, but Jennings knew better than to cross him. You didn't cross anybody who always carried a pistol and had German shepherds guarding his house.
``He always looked like he was going,'' Jennings said. `` He never looked like he was backing up.''
To Jennings' knowledge, Speed didn't carry whiskey in his car in those days. Speed drove the lead car and the ``whiskey car'' came along behind him carrying the booze, always 100 gallons of it stored in five-gallon jugs.
On one of the first rides that Jennings took with Speed, Speed was driving to Norfolk with the whiskey car right behind. He was high-tailing across the Campostella bridge when the right rear door flew open and was torn off by one of the bridge posts.
``He never stopped,'' Jennings said. ``He never batted an eye.''
Jennings' mother didn't worry about her son working in an unsavory business, because everybody was making whiskey. ``She was more worried about me marrying somebody,'' Jennings said. ``Nobody was good enough for me!''
Still, Jennings stopped working for Speed after not quite a year. He got scared he would get in trouble.
``The last ride I had with Speed, we were coming up from South Mills,'' Jennings went on. ``We saw the federal guys and Speed put on the brakes and let the whisky car go around him. Then he parked across the road and kept the federals from going after the whiskey car.''
The agents shot all the tires in Speed's car but Speed didn't move. The upshot was the agents had to help Speed and Jennings change the tires so everyone could get on their way.
`` `I'm gonna get you sooner or later,' the agent told him,'' Jennings recounted.
But with Speed, it always seemed to be later.
P.S. The Adam Thoroughgood house ``beasties,'' a weathered looking wooden owl and squirrel, were stolen from the garden in broad daylight last week. The beasties, thought to ward off evil spirits in the 17th century, were given to the historic house in 1961 by the original Adam Thoroughgood Foundation. Call 460-0007 if you know anything about the beasties' whereabouts.
VISIT THOROUGHGOOD HOUSE and celebrate the onset of summer at a Midsummer Night event from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday. Music, flowers, games for children and refreshments will usher in the season. The cost is $3 for adults and $1.50 for students. Call 460-0007 for information. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know
about Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555.
Enter category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net. ILLUSTRATION: Bennie Jennings, now 85, says he was 16 or 17 years
old when he worked for Speed Fentress in his whiskey-running
business. Jennings described Speed's car and driving style. ``He
never turned the corner without going up on two wheels,'' Jennings
said.
Photo by
MARY REID BARROW by CNB