Download When Money Grew on Trees The True Tale of a Marijuana Moonshiner and the Outlaw Sheriff of Madison County Arkansas David Mac 9781403376138 Books

Product details Paperback 492 pages Publisher David McElyea; First Edition edition (May 19, 2003) Language English ISBN-10 1403376131

When Money Grew on Trees The True Tale of a Marijuana Moonshiner and the Outlaw Sheriff of Madison County Arkansas David Mac 9781403376138 Books Reviews

• Not a well written book but then again this guy was a pot grower not an author per se. Regardless, the story he tells is compelling. Having raised pot in Arkansas myself and then sent off to the pen for five years I can certainly relate and assure the audience the local cops are indeed in on it in this state. With legal pot on the horizon (medical was voted in here, the first state in the south to do so) stories like this are soon to be quaint but we should all learn the lessons of the so called 'war on drugs.' When a commodity is illegal it will be hugely profitable and no one should be surprised the cops will want in on that!
• I purchased this book through my daughter's link. However I loaned the copy to another retired cop and it looks like it will making the rounds for a while so I have ordered another copy for myself.
  
  I was employed by a local law enforcement agency in Northwest Arkansas for 25 years (1975 – 1998). After retirement I had several short term jobs and then I was a Federal Court Security Officer for eleven years. I was on duty when I heard about David McElyea’s death. The news media reported that McElyea had “slit his own throat” after being caught shoplifting at a Wal-Mart in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
  
  Local Author Commits Suicide In Wal-Mart
  UPDATED 959 AM CDT Apr 23, 2009
  
  “FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas —David Mac’s book caused controversy, and now his death is causing even more.
  
  Police said local author David McElyea slit his own throat Wednesday night while in the Wal-Mart on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Fayetteville.
  
  McElyea wrote the book "When Money Grew On Trees" about the life and death of former Madison County Sheriff Ralph Baker. The book was enough to give McElyea a degree of notoriety in Madison County.
  
  McElyea did have a history of problems with the law. In his book he talks about being involved in alleged marijuana-growing operations under Baker, and current Madison County Sheriff Philip Morgan said McElyea found himself in the county jail several times.
  Wednesday night Fayetteville police were called to the Wal-Mart after McElyea was allegedly caught shoplifting. Before police could arrive, they said he used a knife to slit his throat and then continued stabbing himself. When police found McElyea, they said they had to handcuff him to keep him from continuing to stab himself.
  
  McElyea died shortly after being taken to Washington Regional Medical Center.”
  
  One day in 2015 I was at a Chiropractic office in Rogers when a retired Arkansas Parole Officer, whom I have known for many years, came in. At that time we were both retired. The Parole Officer had been McElyea's Parole Officer. I mentioned the book. He told me that McElyea had been on Parole at the time of the incident. This meant that the Shoplifting incident would have caused his Parole to be revoked and McElyea would have been sent back to prison. He told me that he had viewed the security tape recorded after McElyea was caught and placed in the Wal-Mart Loss Prevention Office.
  
  Wal-Mart security had taken McElyea's pocket knife (the retired Parole Officer said that it looked like a Swiss Army Knife) and placed it in a bowl on the table in front of McElyea. At some point McElyea was left alone and unsecured in the Loss Prevention Office. The Parole Officer said that he saw (via the recording) McElyea feeling his neck. Then McElyea grabbed the knife, plunged the blade into his throat, and made one deep cut across his throat where he had been feeling. That cut resulted in McElyea's death which occurred soon after the cut was made.
  
  As an old geezer and lifetime law enforcement officer who was born, raised, and stayed in these here hills (Northwest Arkansas) I sometimes think that I have "seen it all". Well, every now and then I am “slapped in the face”, so to speak, with something new which leaves me astonished, amazed, and temporarily speechless. Such an incident occurred one morning in 2016 as I was going through my facebook page.
  
  I saw deceased former-Sheriff Ralph Baker's widow presenting a youth with a scholarship. All you local “old law dogs”, log onto and peruse the "Sheriff Ralph Baker Memorial Scholarship" Page. Then, to refresh your memory, get onto and purchase a copy of "When Money Grew on Trees" by Baker's deceased former longtime associate and partner, David Mac. I won't say that this is Holy Gospel, but it is closer than anything else you are apt to find in print.
  
  I will be laughing and shaking my head in amazement about this for a long time! Baker’s widow and friends seem determined to “rehabilitate” him in the public mind, if not to actually “rewrite history”. I strongly recommend “When Money Grew on Trees”.
• Someone recommended this book to my husband and he couldn't wait to start reading it. He even got up in the middle of the night to read it and finished it quickly. We live in the Arkansas Ozarks and this took place in a neighboring county and also partly in the county we now live in. He was fascinated by this story of supposedly "easy" money and the effect it had on these people's lives. Some reviewers didn't like the fact that the author would "reveal" something bad coming up before it happened but Joe said that it did not have a negative effect on the story for him.
• I have read this book a few years ago, it is actually written about the Sheriff of Madison County in Arkansas. I was actually born in Huntsville, Arkansas, the County Seat of Madison County. When I was little I remember the Cock Fights in our yard and the Moonshine in the Sheds. My Dad and Uncles used to tell us all kinds of stories about Ralph Baker. You didn't want to be on his bad side !!!! I really enjoyed the book because I know some of the people named in the book and I know the places that they're talking about. There is a little town on the map in the book on Highway 23S called Witter. I actually have property there. I hope you enjoy the book.
• Not for everybody. Purchased for my friend from this county in Arkansas. He enjoyed it and also knew the back story of the author.
• There were comments that David was not a good writer, I beg the difference. I have read over 1000 books and his is the only one I have read twice, a great read, as I grow older I will more than Likly read it again.
• I'm from NWA and this book is as true as it gets.
• It just amazes me how these weed growers, as first time authors, write so well. But the farther I got into the book the more errors I found that were not caught in editing. It makes me wonder what the "Macster" was smoking as he re-read the manuscript. (Not really. I think we're all pretty sure.)
  
  To paraphrase the author, he came from Michigan to the Ozarks with a jar full of seeds and a head full of ideas. Fifteen years later he'd been to prison, lost a wife, a brother and an uncle, got his father arrested, owned a ranch, lost a farm, and in the end he had nothing but memories to show. Oh, and this book, which probably makes that whole journey worthwhile.
  
  The author has a good sense of humor, even in some bad situations, and he never views himself as a victim. Everyone knows what he's doing, everyone knows the sheriff is in on it, and no one cares. His description of his hillbilly neighbors and comparisons of the Ozarks to the TV show Green Acres is hysterical.