Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton (October 5, 1946 - March 16, 2009) was an American Appalachian moonshiner originally from Maggie Valley, North Carolina.
Sutton's career in bootlegging - and getting caught for it - extended back to the 1970s. In 1999, Sutton published Me And My Likker, an autobiography and guide to moonshine production.
Sutton considered moonshine production a legitimate part of his heritage, being as he was Scots-Irish and descended from a long line of moonshiners. In January 2009, after an ATF raid led by Jim Cavanaugh of Waco fame, Sutton was sentenced to eighteen months in a federal prison for illegally brewing spirits and possession of a firearm as a felon. Sutton, 62 and recently diagnosed with cancer, pleaded with the U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer to let him serve his sentence under house arrest. Several petitions were made in attempts to reduce or commute Sutton's sentence, to no avail. He committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning on March 16, 2009, apparently to avoid the federal prison term due to begin a few days later.
He was a short, skinny fella, who always wore his hat - that was kind of his claim to fame, his hat that he always wore. And his bib overalls - he always wore bib overalls. Even when he came to federal court, he was wearing bib overalls. He was a friendly fellow, and of course every time you would talk to him, he would say, "Ray, I've run my last run of moonshine, I'm not gonna do it anymore, I'm just getting too old to be doing this stuff." - Ray Snader.
In 2008, Popcorn Sutton was featured in Neil Hutcheson's documentary The Last One. (Demonoid torrent download).