What Was Prohibition?

7. Moonshine and The Revenuers

The federal government began to poison industrial alcohol, and although chemists found ways to remove the poisons, approximately 10,000 deaths are attributed to the consumption of denatured alcohol during Prohibition. Moonshiners and bootleggers modified their vehicles to escape agents from the Bureau of Prohibition, commonly called "revenuers." The bureau was formed not only to enforce the law but to destroy homemade stills since moonshine was not taxed. The modifications bootleggers used to make their cars run faster were the origins of Nascar.