A Cartoonishly Evil Southern Sheriff
Sheriff Cantrell and his goons brazenly abused the locals. Cantrell’s income depended on the number of prisoners in his jail, so he used predatory policing to keep his jail full. People were routinely victimized by deputies who looked for any excuse to lock them up. If the badged thugs were unable to pin a criminal offense on somebody, they would simply beat him up, then toss him in jail for “resisting arrest”. When deputies subjected returning veterans to the same treatment, it backfired. They had recently crushed tyrannies overseas, and were not about to submit to tyranny at home. They took up arms and went to war.
As the veterans saw it, violence was the only way to vindicate their rights in McMinn County. Complaints about law enforcement abuses went nowhere, as local officials and the local judge were corrupt. The entire government machinery was on the take. It got a cut from various illicit activities, from moonshine stills to misappropriation of public funds. Presiding over it all was Sheriff Cantrell, who turned a blind eye to official corruption, and acted as enforcer to intimidate dissenters. Things got worse during WWII. With nearly the entire fit male population in uniform and away, the Sheriff’s deputies had a free run of McMinn County’s females.
