Felony Spirits was born out of bloodlines, backroads, and broken laws—created to tell the true story of East Tennessee’s most notorious bootleggers. In partnership with East Tennessee Distillery, we bring those outlaw days back to life with flavored White Likker inspired by the Wheelock and Blevins families, who ran liquor through the hills and storefronts from 1918 to 1938.

With documented ties to kingpins like George Remus out of Cincinnati and Al Capone in Chicago, the Wheelocks moved White Likker and Jamaican Ginger through their speakeasies and fronts. The Blevins clan cooked their likker the hard way—deep in the shadows of Holston Mountain, Tennessee—far from the law and closer to the fire.

This family was caught up in one of the biggest Prohibition busts in Johnson City history ” Little Chicago” and one of the largest the nation ever saw. Every flavor we release is rooted in recipes once made in secret, under threat of prison or worse. Johnson City Chronicle March 1 1930 “Federal and city officers captured fifty-one cases or 3672 bottles at Johnson City Train Depot”

Now, nearly a century later, Steve Blevins—great-grandson of Carrie and Sam Wheelock—brings the family full circle, uncorking the first legal bottle of Wheelock-Blevins likker. Same blood. Same grit. Different century.

Felony Spirits isn’t just a name—it’s a legacy. Click the photos or hit “Watch Video” to step into the shadows, hear the stories, and taste the outlaw past.

This isn’t just likker. It’s history you can drink.

No affiliation with Derby City Spirits and Benjamin Blevins

No affiliation with Derby City Spirits and Benjamin Blevins