How would you catch a bootlegger if you were a cop in the 1930s? You'd chase him and if you lost him, you'd call for back up to intercept him, right? Well, that wouldn't work too well for Norfolk cops, who didn't get radios installed in their cars until 1941. And searching for a gas station with a phone would often give crooks time to escape. But my late grandfather, John Estes, a Norfolk police officer for 35 years, had a skill that terrified criminals - he could fly.
His flying leaps from his motorcycle to the running boards of fleeing bootleggers became so commonplace that his co-workers nicknamed him "Tom Mix," after the popular movie star who apprehended bad guys by leaping from his horse to their steed. Strong and agile, my grandfather sustained only minor injuries from his leaps, while his abandoned motorcycle sometimes only cost five dollars to fix.
In the trigger-happy days of Prohibition and beyond, vehicular chases were common, as cops went after criminals who were illegally making and selling unlicensed liquor, commonly known as moonshine or corn whiskey. When asked why he was so intent on capturing them, my grandfather said he "couldn't see how it was right for a big shot to make so much money illegally when honest people were struggling to get by." His early job as a milk deliveryman probably only fueled his desire to become a policeman, as he witnessed illegal liquor runs on his milk route.
During the '30s and '40s, he regularly made headlines with his heroic feats on the job. But when was he ever off the job? My father recounts how he would abruptly cut into pursuit after a suspect, while en route to church with the family. He wouldn't call it quits even after coming home from work - he'd fool bootleggers that were watching his house into thinking he was in for the night. He would flip the bathroom light on, wait a few minutes, and then flip it off. He performed the same procedure with his bedroom lights, before sneaking out after them.
Article comments
1 - Larry Estes
Do movies redirect one's innate attraction to the real life of real hero's, to the hyped-up Hollywood type of "heroes?" Can movies endear one to villains?
2 - DaddyWorksFromHome
Larry, this is a wonderful write. Great article. I am becoming a fan of yours. You read like a book. Your material is very publishable. You have great memories. I have a story for you. My father was the original author of the dictionary of occupational titles and a very prominint Labor Lawyer being the first of his kind gling up against Al Capones's cronies holding tough anti union elections and keeping the union out of Newport News Shipyard for 20 years and built the Hampton Rhodes and Chesapeak Bay Bridge Tunnels strike free, each 7 year projects. And his most prominent case was with Star Band/General Foam Plastics/Holiday Industries, a company of 1,000 temporary employees being demanded to give them $1.00 an hr raise back in 1960 before there was ever a minimum wage. Average wage then was $.70 cent. Remember those days.