Bill McCoy has an interesting biography and life. But if you want a fun read about someone who smuggled booze from the Bahamas, Gertrude “Cleo” Lythgoe is the one. She and McCoy were friends, and ran rum together a few times.
She was a bit of a badass. A quote from her autobio:
“Everyone knows that my liquor is the very best,” she said, “but for some reason or another this man thought he would criticize it to other people, and he also said something unpleasant about me.
Well, I found him in a barber’s shop with his face lathered and I just walked right in and told him I wanted to talk to him. I fetched him along to my office, and there I just warned him. I told him I’d put a bullet through him as sure as he sat there. He went away mighty quick.
Here’s a short read on her life:
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Gertrude-Lythgoe-The-Queen-of-Rum-Row
Her and McCoy:
