Lawless Wiki (2024)

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What is the true story behind Lawless? ›

Novelist Matt Bondurant's family has taken its place in gangster lore with the recent release of “Lawless,” an independent film based on the true story of the “Bondurant Boys,” his grandfather Jack and great uncles Howard and Forrest Bondurant, brothers whose moonshine operation was so prolific reporters and federal ...

Jack walks in on a visit from Rakes to Cricket's house and is beaten by him as a message to his brothers. Later that night, Forrest throws out two drunk customers who had been harassing and threatening Maggie. After Maggie leaves, Forrest is ambushed by the two men, who slit his throat.

A wounded Jack follows him to the bridge and shoots Rakes in the chest, wounding him. Howard later stabs Rakes with a large knife and leaves him to bleed to death. With Rakes and his men dead, the Bondurant Brothers decide to save their money and retire after Prohibition ends.

It is described as a “Dunkard” church in the the book, and I think this means (for Franklin County, Virginia) Old German Baptist Brethren.

In real life, Rakes was a Franklin County deputy sheriff involved with another officer in a shoot-out at a road block. Rakes, in the movie, turned out to be a federal ATF officer sent from Chicago to crush the local moonshine profession.

Robert explained that there were nine Bondurant children, six boys and three girls. Not all were involved in the moonshine business. Now three generations later, Robert is emulating his ancestors and making the legendary moonshine, but this time, legally. The outside of the distillery is nondescript.

The great tragedy of Rake and his wife's love story centers around their deceased son, who passed away from cancer while his father was deployed in Afghanistan. Mia correctly points out that he didn't need to be in Afghanistan — that in fact what he was doing was running away from his pain.

Set in Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a trio of bootlegging brothers are threatened by a new special deputy and other authorities angling for a cut of their profits.

Though he's shown riddled with bullets, he is, in fact, retrieved from the river and taken by members of his team to a medical facility to undergo surgery and be cared for. He's in a coma for an unspecified amount of time following the surgery, and he has to undergo extensive physical therapy to be able to walk again.

The Franklin County scenes in Lawless

The town scenes introduce the central characters and set up the Prohibition-era backdrop for the rest of the movie. The majority of filming for Lawless was done in Coweta County, Georgia, which is part of Metro Atlanta.

Is Floyd Banner a real person? ›

Floyd Banner is not a real person. At least he is not real as far as mobsters and the movie Lawless go.

Insulted, Rakes seeks revenge and it doesn't take him long to hide it. Not so far, the other officers have apprehended Cricket and Jack's girlfriend, Bertha. He lets Bertha go, but takes Cricket aside and kills him by breaking his neck.

Jack outlived both of his brothers, who died in the 1960s, and Jack died in Martinsville in 2000 at the age of 90.

He was 65 years old when he had his throat slit from ear to ear at one of his bootlegging way-stations. Legend has it he walked 10 miles to the nearest hospital in the snow clutching his severed neck.

During the prohibition period, the Bondurant Brothers of Franklin County, Virginia (Howard, Forrest, and Jack) were legendary for running moonshine.