Can you tell me about the reputation of the White family in Boone County in West Virginia?
I'd really rather not comment on that.
If you mention their names, you get a certain reaction from people.
The Whites, they have that kind of charisma.
Not only can they draw you in, they can keep you there.
They don't want to conform to any authority, no rules.
And all they got to do is fuss, fight, and party.
Some of them are good.
Some of them are entertaining, and a whole lot of them are just trouble and dangerous.
Even though they might be the most hated family, well, they're probably the most free.
They are the true rebels of the South.
Way down in West Virginia, there's some people who are one of a kind.
They don't need nothing from nobody, because they're already doing fine.
My name is Mamie White, and I'm the biggest and the meanest and the baddest of all the White
family.
And my father is D Ray White, and he was the last King of the Mountain tap dancer.
He invented his own style of dancing.
He knows 52 steps that nobody else could do.
Nobody showed him or taught him.
He did this of his own heart and his mind.
My father, D Ray White was really getting really famous.
He was on his way to Canada to finish making his film, "The Talking Feet,"
and he got killed in a shoot out.
So he left four sons behind that he tried to leave his talent to.
My brother, Mark.
His name is Don Ameris White.
He got in a fight with this guy, came over about his pit bull.
And when he opened the door to see who was at the door, they shot and killed him.
Dorsey, my brother, went and bought this pistol.
And Dorsey evidently took the clip out of the bottom, thought it was empty.
And when he put it to his temple to show them it wasn't loaded,
it went off and blowed his brains out.
That was the end of Dorsey.
My brother Poney got in trouble in Boone County
for a prescription problem, so he hauled his hind end out of here to change his life.
Got him a job.
Got him a home, and he's doing fine.
My brother Jesco ended up with my father's shoes.
And PBS made a documentary about him called "The Dancing Outlaw."
I took the butcher knife and held it up to her neck.
I said if you want to live to see tomorrow, you better start frying them eggs a little bit
better than what you were frying.
I'm tired of eating sloppy, slimy eggs.
And then after that, it made him a little bit big, and all these other motherfuckers
started putting him in their songs, like Hank III, Big & Rich, Kentucky Headhunters.
My brother, Jesco White, became the most famous man in West Virginia.
Will you sign my hat, dude?
Yeah.
I stayed behind to take care of everything, my mother,
sisters, and brothers, my kids, their kids.
I had it all to do.
I'm talking about anywhere from 10 to 20 kids a day.
It was a rough road to go down, but I made it.
So, now, everybody knows all about Mamie White and Jesco.
White, and now, by God, it's time you learned about the rest of the fucking Whites.
The reason why my mother got the name of the "Miracle Woman"
is because she raised over 34 kids, if not more, that was abandoned and that needed help
from the loss of their mothers or the loss of the fathers.
And my sisters and brothers, you know, had them and just left them, and didn't want them.
But my mom took them in, and everybody made a point to go to my mother's house if not to eat,
just to go there to be with my mother.
And there's never another mother in the world could fill my mother's shoes.
My name's Susan Ray White, but everybody calls me Kirk.
Jesco's my uncle.
My mom's half sister.
My dad's Terry Lee Thomas.
And the reason why he's in prison is for double murder.
They tried to charge me with accessory,
and I told him, I said, just go ahead and send my ass to jail, because I'm not a snitch.
I wouldn't snitch nobody out.
I've been in trouble many times, fights, and cussing out the cops, drug charges.
I've been to jail so many times, I can't count them.
Now, I'm like if you started some shit with me, I'd fight you.
I love to fight.
I really do.
You never do fight me, but I want you to.
Well, I used to be a stripper back then when I was 17, 18, 19 years old, and I
made the beaucoups of money.
I'd bring home at least $15 to $2000 a night in my boots.
And, uh, I've always been the sexiest one in the family.
I've always had comments from thousands of people.
My name is Sue Ann White.
I'm the baby girl of Don Ray and Bertie Mae White.
My nickname is Sue Bob.
I prefer to be called Sue Bob.
That's the nickname I have.
I have two children, Ashley and Brandon Poe.
My name's Brandon Poe, and Sue's my mom.
Jesco's my uncle.
And uh, I got in trouble, and I'm here in jail.
A lot of us just be in the back.
I used to try a little coke here and there.
I've smoked a little crack.
Know what I mean?
I've tried this and that.
My favorite buzz, choice of buzz, is marijuana.
I love marijuana.
I'm a pot head.
I'll tell you straight up what I like.
I prefer Roxicontin, Lorcet, Vicodin ES, Percocet 10, Xanax,
especially xanibar.
Right here.
You want to hear the Boone county mating call?
Sounds good, baby.
I'm Bernadine Cook.
My nickname is Bo or Bocephus.
I'm Jesco White's sister.
My name's Derek Wayne Castle.
Jesco's my uncle.
That's my mom right there.
Everybody calls me Dirky.
That's just something that's stuck with me since I
was little, Dirky, AKA, the "old dirty white boy."
We're good people.
Everybody puts us down here and there, but you can't believe everything you hear.
Seeing is believing you know what I mean.
But from my heart, we're just right down dirty white, good old people, hillbillies.
Well, my worn out boots are taking me downtown, and I'm looking for trouble.
And I want to get loud.
Serve me up a drink and I'll shoot it right down.
And I'll jump on the bar and holler one more round.
I'm going straight to hell.
Ain't nothing slowing me down.
I'm going straight to hell.
So you just better give me one more round.
Well, I'm racing these back roads, trying to save my life,
'cause the sheriff wants to kill me 'cause I fucked his wife.
I was on the run with the gun in my hand, 'cause I like a good time and a one night stand.
I'm going straight to hell.
Ain't nothing slowing me down.
I'm going straight to hell.
So you just better give me one more round.
Hey, hey.
There it is, man.
Lock it down, Judy.
All right.
When you represent the Whites, you don't know what you're going to get into.
Custody.
Larceny.
Prescription fraud.
Shootings.
Armed robbery.
Embezzlement.
Forgery.
Drug cases.
Perjury.
Fights, things like that.
Judge Slagel, who was the circuit court judge here
for 26 years before he retired a couple years ago, used to say if you really excluded
about 10 different families from this county, you'd cut the crime rate in about half.
The Whites have been one of those 10 families?
I don't think there's any doubt that the Whites would have been one of the 10 families.
As law enforcement we've probably dealt with this family more than we
have dealt with any other family in the county.
They're clever.
They're not educated necessarily, but they are very clever, crafty in what they do.
Violence is just part of the Whites' lives.
I'll slap a son of a bitch up and throw him in a goddamn mineshaft up here in the garbage bag.
I got three mineshafts at this house.
One took a bar about that long and about big as round as a quarter and hit the old man.
He was in a wheelchair with one leg.
I had to hit it again just to watch the blood fly, because it turned me on.
Nobody works.
Everybody lays around and parties, and they've always got money.
So what are they doing?
Xanibars.
Sorry, honey.
Can I get me a few of them?
Want to give me some money?
I just now bought 10 goddamn green beans, what you call painkillers.
Fuck that camera.
And I got them for $8 a piece, and I'm getting ready to take them up the road
and I'm going to sell them for $10 a piece and make me two more dollars on each pill.
That's call hustle, rustle, and bustle.
That's how you survive in the country.
The word discretion is worth... Undoubtedly, they don't know.
They don't understand what it means.
They wouldn't practice it if they did.
And here on the left, this used to be a Exxon gas station, and this used to be a grocery store.
That's the one I robbed when I went to reform school when I was younger.
On the right side of the road, where the church is, I also robbed it two times and got away.
The general feeling probably for most folks, especially residents of Boone County
and maybe even for the state of West Virginia, is that they're a little bit of an embarrassment.
There are so many decent people in this county.
There's a kid down here from very humble upbringing was admitted to MIT, M-I-T. I mean
why isn't someone following him around with a camera?
That's why they've received this attention, and it does not represent anything.
It doesn't represent anything in West Virginia other than the Whites.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, dear mother.
Happy birthday to you.
I love you, mama.
We love you.
Many more.
Happy birthday.
God bless you and hope you're here another year.
And may you have a thousand more.
We got your cake, gifts, and everything in there.
I guess they're paying her to crash.
Well, I never got mine either..
It's a party, man A party.
I'm crazy like a dog.
Ah, he's going in shock.
Ah, baby.
Don't do this.
Don't do her like that.
I ain't doing nothing.
I'll help you, ma.
It's your go.
We ain't got no pot.
Look, mama.
That's right.
That's the mark of the beast.
Jesus sent Moses to tell them that when the great flood came... That's the reason
he shut the door... Him and the animals.
And they couldn't get in.
They drowned.
Turn me on.
Turn me loose.
What are you going to do with that?
Life's too short to worry.
Y'all going to kill me with that shit.
I quit worrying.
This is the greatest birthday that you'll remember and cherish forever from our hearts, mama.
Make you a wish.
This is from our hearts to you.
Make it a good one, Mom.
For all the love... Ready.
That she give us over the years.
Good.
Happy birthday, mama.
Happy birthday, mom.
Happy birthday, mama.
Go, mother.
Woman.
When I met Dennis, I liked him because he looked good.
You feel me?
You know he had it going on.
He had a job.
And I loved 18-wheelers.
And he drove a 18-wheeler.
But the night I stabbed him, it was cool, because my grandma...
Y'all know mama... she cleaned up the blood and hid the knife.
So there was no evidence so they couldn't take me to jail.
I meant to slit his throat.
And that's for real.
I meant to kill that motherfucker.
And he threw his hand up, and I cut his thumb.
And then I thought, "Damn, that's a big motherfucker if he gets a hold of me."
So I stabbed him in his side.
Oh, will people see this?
Well, I do if they're going to see it.
I want Dennis to see it, because I hate that motherfucker.
I mean I'm a people person.
I can get along with the devil.
But I hate that son of a bitch.
I hate him.
Because he put me through hell.
Got all my... he caused my family a bunch of bullshit.
Come in between my family.
You admit it.
Tell them that damn bastard hit you.
But he's not family.
Quit playing.
I'm going slit his damn throat open, or his nuts.
Quit cussing.
I'm going bust your ass so hard.
I hate Dennis.
I mean I hate Dennis.
I let him go down.
I'll be with him then.
I hate Dennis.
We're not talking about Dennis.
He's this.
Dennis, Dennis is this.
I got pregnant before I met Dennis.
But who's baby is it?
Dennis's.
When my baby gets older, I'd like for her life
to go in a totally different direction than what mine went.
You know, finish school.
Do the right thing.
Stay away from the wrong people.
You know have her own dreams and work hard toward them.
You know.
If you stay in Boone County, I don't care how many dreams you got, it's not going to happen.
There he is.
Now, I got to take my medicine.
Yes.
I don't know.
I just tried to call him.
I got Mamie's voice on the answering machine.
Get Susan back.
Let me pee.
Oh.
Hold on a minute.
All right.
She's the next Miss America.
Miss Universe.
Man called and told her they were going to keep the baby, and I called Bo.
And Bo said she was here.
Why y'all?
See y'all just doing the drama thing.
Wasn't nobody taking that baby.
Come bring me your tips.
This never stops.
I killed a deer with this, this year.
Look at this.
Step back, Junior.
Right?
See that shit?
But it ain't loaded.
I just kicked it a hundred times.
Oh, I know that.
Why do you think I brought it back there.
We're going get some shells, and we're going to blast them.
We're out of bullets, son.
Did you see that, Trey?
This is how rednecks do it.
You hear me?
This is how rednecks do it.
Mom, can you get me some alcohol please.
You need to get your shit together before you start that.
Where is the alcohol?
It was on the bar.
You're supposed to keep going you piece of shit.
This is what Xanax will do to you.
I need a butter knife.
You hear me?
Put Meranda Raven on my arm.
No.
Right.
That's an E, right?
Right here?
N.
Shit, I was putting an A in there.
Something good.
You can't tell.
Perfect.
Medicine on the road.
Shut up!
Chey.
Cheyan.
Wake up, man.
We're rolling.
We're going to pick up Mousie from the State Prison.
36-year-old.
And I'll kick anybody's ass who tries to get in the way or fuck with her.
Here's my honorable discharge paper.
No more.
I do not belong to the state no more.
Let me show you my no good son of a bitch husband.
His name's Charles.
He's a bastard and a cheater.
Yeah.
Well, I'm going to hop out and get a smoke real fast.
I don't want your damn stinking ass with me.
My ass don't stink.
Get out.
You get out.
I thought we was going to smoke.
This time, I'm free.
No parole.
No shit.
See I was only out three and a half months when I got locked back up.
I give you two weeks.
You'll be back.
Why you say I'll be back?
I'm not on parole now.
I'm free.
You ain't going to last.
Let me see your phone, Sue, for a minute.
You ain't going to listen to no fucking body.
James, is Charles Green there?
Yeah.
We got a Charles Green.
That's all she's worried about.
When I went to jail, he moved in with the lady he left to marry me before he moved back
in with them because his little girl.
Then I guess he cheated on her with another lady and got her pregnant.
She's gonna have his baby.
Ya didn't come to work?
Son of a bitch.
When I was in prison the second time, he cheated on me with my cousin, Kirk.
Moved her in my apartment for two months.
And then when I made parole, he made her move out.
She cut up all my wedding pictures, all my clothes, destroyed my apartment before she left.
Joey!
Where's Charles?
Well, I just want to talk to him and then he can do whatever he's gotta do.
Later.
I've got a lot of things I gotta do this week.
I've got to go get a picture ID made, contact my husband Charles, discuss our divorce.
It's a little quick job.
Hey.
I'm Poney White.
Minnesota-bound.
Raven Street.
Don't get no better, no way.
Highway to heaven.
I'm from Boone County, West Virginia.
That's where I was born and raised.
And I talk... well, I've got to go.
Why I came to Minnesota.
And I really like to work.
I been workin' all my life.
I always worked.
'Til I leave this earth.
I dropped out of school in seventh grade.
Van High.
I learned more on the streets than I did at school.
Were you ever arrested?
Did you ever get into trouble with the law?
Yeah, a few times.
I did 18 months over work release in three years' probation, and I pleaded everything.
That's why I came to Minnesota, then I have a better life for myself.
Know what I mean?
And my kids.
I want them to have better than what I had.
I take nursing out here.
Now I got a certificate.
I couldn't have done that down home, so... yeah, I think it's better out here for us.
There ain't nothin' back there but deadbeats.
Here, you got everything you ever want.
As long as you work hard for it.
My life will be different 'cause I'd probably be dead by now.
Hangin' around the wrong people and probably overdosed or something, on drugs.
That's why I liked coming out here.
There's school.
Teachers back in Boone County, they talk about me.
They called me dirty trash, and white trash, and all that.
Dirty White.
I just got sick of it.
You know how you, like, try to go down in Boone County and try and look for a job.
They won't hire you 'cause of your last name.
They, like, hated you.
They don't, like, want you to work for 'em, 'cause
you'll probably end up stealin' somethin' or robbin' em or doin' whatever you had to do.
Some of the kids down there that are raised just to rob and thieve off people... Their parents.
I'm not mention the names or nothing, but yeah, they're like that.
I've been robbed a few times myself by my own relatives, you know.
Friends of theirs, young kids.
Young, man.
They start young down there.
Dressed in camouflage, he looked like he was ready to hunt,
but police say this teenager was waging war in Boone County.
The long story was, I'll let you know pretty much what
happened was I was buyin' my drug of choice, Xanaxes, and a little bit of coke, and weed.
And I was buyin' shitloads of guns.
My son was the best kid you could never meet.
You know, until he got around my family, the wrong crowd, the wrong people, at the wrong time.
I had a couple guns stashed in my car, 'cause the next day was deer season.
So we went up the guest house, partied a few there for a couple days.
As soon as we got home, I noticed my window was busted out of my car.
Somebody had flicked my seat up, took my guns.
Chaos that started late Monday night in Wharton.
Police say the teenager got into a fight with his uncle over the phone.
So he stole a car, drove to Billy Hastings' home, and pulled out a rifle.
What it was, Billy says it's over a broken-down truck.
Brandon sold him a gun for a truck.
And, uh, Brandon come back up here, you know, he was high.
He was taking pills, you know, and Billy called back up here.
He said, I'll tell you once, you little bony bastard.
You know.
And Brandon's daddy had just had passed on.
His dad had been buried three days ago.
He was still hurt over that.
After my dad died, I got on the hard stuff.
I was doin' it all... Coke, pills, whatever I could get my hands on, pretty much.
Billy called up here and he said, I'll bury you beside your cold, dead daddy, you motherfucker.
And I said, man, you need to come up here.
Bring everything you got.
Brandon said, OK.
He said, we'll see.
And it was right here.
And he hung his phone up.
He walked out that door.
He was done behind me, within probably 10 feet of me, pointing a gun right at me.
I said, Brandon, what are you gonna do?
Shoot me?
He pulled the trigger, and it blowed my chin off.
Ka-bang.
Like a stick of dynamite.
He raised the gun up, turned his head, and hollered, ah!
Shut his eyes and pulled the trigger again.
Blowed my neck open.
He seen me tryin' to raise up, so he put the gun on a window like that, took aim, and shot again.
Hit me in the shoulder and pushed me back around again.
Blowed this part of my skin up over my eyeballs.
I couldn't see out of this eye so I thought it was gone.
And then I seen like when I was moving this eye I could feel my eye under my skin
so I was trying to adjust my skin to get back to that hole right there.
And finally I done it and I could see light.
So I wiped it off like that.
Police say the teenager shot his uncle, stole his aunt's car, and then took off.
And it was right here.
He hung his phone up.
He walked out that door.
15 minutes later, Billy Hastings went up there puttin' his face back together.
So you tell me, who got the better end of that deal?
You know what I mean?
But it didn't end there.
He set the car on fire.
And the clock started ticking on what would turn out to be a long and tense standoff with police.
I thought I killed Billy.
And I didn't know for sure where I shot him, but I thought he was dead.
So, you know, I thought, you know, they ain't gonna take me alive.
End up shootin' at the cops from November 21st to the 22nd at 4:30 that morning,
when they apprehended me.
It was one hell of a night.
I just went on a rampage, pretty much.
You know, I wasn't thinkin' of my family.
I don't know why I did it, really.
It just happened.
They say they forgive me, but you know, I shot a dude in the face.
And then again, they helped, you know, I've been around them all my life.
So I'm sure they still got love for me, but, you know, I terrorized them, pretty much.
And I'm sure they hate me for that.
No matter what, there's a part of me that's... you know, says,
well, he gets out of prison, I've got to kill this boy.
But then there's... my heart tells me, man, I can't kill him.
You know, 'cause I love him.
I'm gettin' sentenced on the 16th.
And it's really up to the judge what happens to me.
But my judge likes me.
We get along good.
And I think something's good gonna happen.
I think I'm gonna go home on a alternative sentence.
I'm Jesco White, the dancin' outlaw.
And this is Poney's camper van.
They've come a long way to play for me live.
We're gonna give you some pickin' and clickin' down on Main Street.
Hit it.
This is my daddy's original horseshoe.
It came off on his shoes.
Perhaps he got killed.
D. Ray could give and show a direction.
And when D. Ray died so suddenly, they just weren't prepared for that.
Well, when my father passed away, everybody just went wild.
Nobody tried to control 'em.
You know.
Bertie Mae would try, but no luck.
They weren't gonna listen to Bertie Mae.
Jesco, he started sniffin' that gas and lighter fluid when he was young.
And we couldn't do nothin' with him.
Well, I've got brain damage inside of my brain.
And I don't know what side, the left to right.
Where I'd huff gasoline for 10 long years.
The story was that he had had so much gasoline that he could tell high-test from regular, just
by the scent.
You know, it'd ate a hole out my brain.
And the doctor told my wife when they come to get me out of the hospital, mental institution.
He said, I'mma tell you his brain cell is eat up.
Like a pile of cigarette ashes.
But I don't know which cell it is in my head.
This man has a lot of issues.
You know, he's lost many people that he's loved in his life.
He's had a history of depression.
He's depressed to this day.
Like, when I laugh, sometime it's fakin'.
When I'm really sad, I'm trying to do goofy, crazy stuff.
I've doctored myself for a long, long time.
If Jesco White ain't high on drugs,
if he ain't high on alcohol, you can't stand to be around him.
I like to get really fucked up.
You know?
Plum outta the frame.
But I can still control myself.
I just like to dance and have a good time.
'Til somebody fucks with me the wrong way.
Then I'm all to pieces.
You know, I can't control it then.
He can be lookin' at you and be happy one minute.
And snap, the next, and ready to fuckin' blow your brains out.
I finally now get a tattoo of both people I like.
I believe we are done.
Check the back out.
See how you like it.
When I'm in my Elvis mood, I'm in a good mood.
When I'm gettin' plastered and ripped out of the frame
and I'm singin' and havin' a good time in front ot everybody, I let my good times roll.
And everybody's happy and everybody loves him.
When I see you laugh, it makes me happy.
And then when I'm mad, I feel like I am Charles Manson.
I can't stop killin' you.
I've enjoyed killin' people.
Cut them up, shootin' em, whatever.
It won't make no difference because then, I won't have nothin' to lose anyway.
It's like the dead killin' the dead.
Right now, Jesco White.
I don't feel really human.
But I know I am.
'Cause I'm so famous, I hardly get out.
That scares me and makes me paranoid.
Sometimes knowin' I'm famous, don't know what a... is this real, or am I just carryin' on?
Like I said before, he's Appalachian royalty.
You have half of the people truly love him as an entertainer.
There's a vast majority that just want to see the spectacle of Jesco White.
He is pressured by the fan base.
He feels this obligation to be that guy for them.
And that's gonna kill that man.
There's people that love Jesco, but they're also
infatuated with him to a point that it's very disrespectful.
You know, obviously, go to his home and see what's on the front of his door.
It's a different sign every day.
He can't even put up a sign that says, keep out of this place,
without a fan coming and taking it down as a souvenir.
This is supposed to be my home.
But the way you gotta go live here and survive, it is like a prison.
You know, in a way that's not... This ain't no guards of ours.
Don't think Jesco really wants to be as famous as he could be.
I mean, there is a line that he's drawn to keep him independent and to keep him on his own two
feet, and kinda in his world and not their world.
In a way, it makes me feel good to have my own prison.
After all, it's private and it keeps me out of the real one.
God made everything for a purpose and for a reason.
And that's what I'm trying to find now.
And I guess it's to dance and entertain for people.
Kinda bring laughter to people that's really feeling down
and really enjoys you, likes hangin' out with you because you been yourself and been honest.
Everybody knows I'm crazy, but it keeps me goin' insane.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Hold this hose now.
Soon as they bring you medicine and put it in a little tube,
it goes down in this, and so you get your medication.
Huh?
I know you ain't snortin' no pills.
That's not snortin' no pills, Ma.
Hello?
Yeah.
She lost all that blood.
She had a stroke.
And it paralyzed her right arm and the side of her right face.
It's a small stroke.
They got a tube up her nose going down into her neck,
because her neck is numb and she can't swallow that good.
I'm pretty fuckin' stressed.
I'm losin' my mother.
And I don't know how I'm gonna take it.
I don't know what's gonna come of it.
You might... after tonight, you might not see Mamie again.
Then again, you might.
Right now, I'm pretty hurt and stressed.
I don't give a fuck to go to jail.
And I don't care to kill some son of a bitch.
Anybody that looks at me wrong.
I am hurtin'.
Really in my heart, I'm hurtin'.
Look, I'm losin' my mom.
And that's all the fuck I got.
We want to maybe go over here.
We're here at the hospital.
Wake up when we get in there.
Excuse me, the baby's not here.
Said that CPS has got the baby.
What do you mean thatl CPS has got the baby?
You've got to go home.
What is it?
CPS has got the baby in Boone County.
I swear I was just there.
I just tried to go see her.
CPS has got the baby in Boone County.
You gotta get in the car and go with them.
CPS in Boone County has got the baby.
I was just there trying to visit her.
I was just tryin'.
Do you want to go to the pay phone to try to call your mom?
She's over here in the parking lot.
Come on.
Leave me the fuck alone.
Give me two tacos, one soft shell, one hard, please.
Could you repeat that order back to me?
She's not lookin'.
Renee!
Hi!
Hey, Tanner!
You gotta kill the cow to get that beef, or what, buddy?
Thanks.
I need a crowbar.
I gotta get the fuck outta here.
My nerves are store up.
Now, you see all three of us girls?
The biggest, the meanest, and baddest.
There you go.
Now, you see us now?
We look pretty goddamn good.
But when we leave this bar, we're gonna come in like this.
Who's gonna fuckin' pack Mamie in?
All right, girls, ya ready?
Let's rock it.
We're ready.
We got some special people in the house tonight.
Miss Mamie White, Miss Kirk White, Miss Sue Bob with the titties.
That woman's got the prettiest titties I ever seen.
Her favorite song, and they gonna shake their asses, shake their titties.
We raised our own vegetables... Cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, lettuce.
Corn.
Corn, beets, spinach, you name it, we raised it.
We also raised hogs to get our meat.
Any piece of hog you can meat.
I'm talking 'bout from its fuckin' head to its asshole.
Daddy was a very, very strict father.
But he wasn't a mean father.
He was just a disciplined father.
And we all turned out to be fuckin' crinimals.
And it ain't really his fault because he done his damn job.
My daddy had 14 cancers cut out of him.
And he worked hard that year.
I was 10 year old.
He start takin' me to bars with him.
So Daddy would get drunk, you know, start a fight.
Then I'd say, look, motherfucker.
This is my father.
You hit him, you better hit me.
I think I did.
He can't get hit in the stomach.
When you hit him, I'm gonna fuckin'
bust your brains out with a pool stick.
I always carried a pool stick.
Always drink a beer in a bottle.
I can always break the bottle and shove the neck in your fuckin' heart.
Or I can always back you up, get you the fuck outta my face.
Bastard!
Hell yeah!
My favorite verse is Matthew 21:22.
And when everything's... You're asking a prayer about believin' you will receive.
But you've got to believe it.
And that's what I'm doin' now no matter how hard things get down on me.
I'm stilll believin'.
I believe that God's sayin', hey look how much you love this baby.
Three days or something, try three months to a year.
Get your shit together.
Well, we're in Lincoln County on Bogda Road.
Going to pick up Charlie Green, which could be my husband, which is my husband.
And here is the commandment he broke.
That.
I'm gonna kill him is what I'm gonna do.
Read the sixth commandment.
There it is!
You little prick!
I'm looking for Charles.
Looking good.
They're off somewhere.
Yeah, where, the motherfucker.
Well, we went to Lincoln County lookin' for Charles.
We did not find him.
You don't tell me what to do, bitch!
So when we come back to Madison, we called which is his girlfriend, the one he has the baby by.
Is Charles over there?
The fun's just gettin' ready to start, honey.
Believe that.
I got something else, come back here.
Wait.
Where you goin'?
You leavin'?
Where you goin'?
Get in the fuckin' house.
Will you shut the fuck up?
You always run your mouth.
Oh, behave.
Get them out here.
That beer's not yours.
Get the hell outta here.
Oh, goddamn here.
I asked you to move, man.
Move it, prick!
I'm tryin'!
I drink a lotta whiskey, I'm smokin' all the time.
I'm gettin' fucked up every goddamned night.
Everybody's doin' cocaine, startin' up fights.
And I'm livin' fast and hard and dyin'
young with my goddamn loaded fists of fury, doin' what I do and I'm spittin' in your face
'cause I'm dominatin' you.
Livin' hard and doin' time and I don't give a fuck.
And I've been beat down and thrown around and now you're out of luck and punch!
Fight, fuck.
Punch!
Fight, fuck.
There will be a hell of a party.
You ain't goin'.
Oh yeah I am!
No you not.
We got dance.
No, no.
You're stuck with poor Mousie tonight.
Mousie's gettin' dick tonight.
Ah, damn!
Hell no.
Yes.
No.
See your your cock later.
No.
I will.
No you ain't.
Before the night's over with.
The hell you will.
No.
Gimme a kiss.
Quit it, man.
Give her a kiss.
No.
Quit.
No.
Quit.
Goddamn you.
Quit.
Like you mean it Like you mean it.
Do it like you mean it, Charles.
What's the matter with you, you fuckin' retard?
Well, you get up on it, then.
Quit it, goddamn it.
Get 'er done.
Fight.
Punch.
Fight.
And fuck.
Awright.
That's all accomplished.
Now what?
Quit.
I got a buzz.
I'm never gettin' married.
Never.
C'mon, we're gettin' ready to take you in the store that we got married in.
Come down here, take care of medicine at this pharmacy.
Lortab 10, 90, and 60 purple Xanax.
So we get the medicine, we come out here in the truck, we crush four up, we snort them.
You think I wasn't fucked up?
Yeah, I was fucked up.
The pharmacist was a preacher... A pastor, or whatever.
And they sent us over to the flower department and married us.
What the fuck?
I wanted to get married.
That's right.
That didn't do us the part.
That did.
Do you regret it?
Hell yeah.
He thinks he's going home when he gets back to Boone County.
But I got news for him.
He's not.
Man, it's 3 or 4 o'clock in the fuckin' morning.
They're all getting in my bed.
And Christopher's getting on the couch.
The Whites are a product of the mountain culture.
And this is the same type of culture that spawned the feud, for example.
They come from a time and a place where they were isolated.
They were isolated by geography, they were isolated by culture.
Well, you know what?
He knows how to beep-beep.
West Virginia has been owned for almost all of its existence
by wealthy interests outside this state.
It's like some African actions that European nations
go and exploit the natural resources, take all the wealth, and then leave.
May I have you attention please.
Thank you for coming to the 15th annual coal miner's memorial service.
'Cause mining... It's West Virginia.
You're gonna live in West Virginia... It's West Virginia, buddy.
You're gonna be a miner.
Coal mining is... that's the best job once the game run out.
Yeah.
And all the bitches love coal miners.
I'd hate to lie, Pete.
They do.
Let us pray.
We thank, heavenly father, for this opportunity
to pray for the families of those who have lost someone
in a mining accident in the most recent year.
You go and drown, you don't have to come out the next night.
In the morning.
He'd be a stupid motherfucker if he thinks he's gonna die.
You watched your fellow get covered up in a slate fall.
He's dead.
He's just saying now a mine.
This is just another day in the mine.
When you go down that hole... I mean, it's gonna cave in,
or it's gonna blow in, or I'm gonna drown.
Or get electrocuted.
That's four things can major happen to you.
People have been working in one of the most dangerous occupations that there is.
It creates a certain fatalism and lack of the fear of death.
That type of thinking is pervasive.
There's a sense of hopelessness.
Because you don't find a whole lot of optimism about the future.
Those values systems were passed down generation to generation.
Little piece of corn bread laying on a shelf, little piece of corn bread laying on a shelf.
My father, D. Ray, White, worked in a coal mine.
Then he got sick and he couldn't work no more in the mine.
When D. Ray was coming along, coal mines payed people scrip.
When you worked for a certain coal company,
you got their scrip, had to go buy from their company store.
And so, really, a dollar in scrip only bought you $0.30
in groceries.
I mean, you were just enslaved by the coal company.
So D. Ray sees all this, he sees politicians, sheriffs, old companies doing it.
What's wrong with D. Ray doing it to help his family along?
I heard that D. Ray saw how the coal companies were ripping people off
and he decided, if everyone else were cheaters and crooks,
he was gonna try and work the system just like the coal companies did.
Well, if you don't do it, the other fella will.
Everybody does it, so why can't we do it?
D. Ray was a master.
D. Ray understood the social security system better than most attorneys.
He got all of his kids crazy checks.
My father signed me up for a check, I think, when I was about 11 or 12.
And I've been getting it ever since.
I get a god damn check from government saying that I am certified crazy.
What-why are you crazy?
What... Because I want to be.
That has really, really been a problem with the White family, is the entitlement.
It's the entitlement type of culture.
The disability culture.
And that's... that's led a lot to what they are now.
The biggest and the baddest!
That's right!
They don't expect a whole lot out of life.
And they live for the immediate.
Well, I was born a coal moner's daughter in a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler.
Here, it's just like you're just waiting around for everything to get worse, everything to end.
It's sad.
Not much is left but the floor.
Nothin' lives here anymore.
Except the memories of a coal miner's daughter.
Thank you!
Can't get the baby.
I think I'll go there and kill a motherfucker,
and I probably won't even have to go to court or nothing.
I'm walking scot-free.
Son of a bitch.
They done had it all planned out.
Messed up, man.
Forgot one thing about us.
I like to fight, and I'm a hell of a fighter.
And I'm not gonna give up.
I don't give up that easy.
Hey, Penny, how you been doing?
I don't care where it is.
That doesn't matter to me.
As long as I can... single.
Unemployed.
A prescription fraud.
No, I haven't been charged for it.
Every day.
Vicodin.
A couple Xanax.
And I've smoked weed.
Once PCP.
No.
I don't do any of that.
I sure appreciate it.
Bye.
She's gonna get me straight in.
I think on Monday.
She'll do anything and everything and all she can before she goes out of here.
Pills and stuff.
I have to admit, if there was a pull laid out thee, I'm gonna do it.
Because I know I only got 48 hours to do it in.
This bottle is Sue Kirk's last party for rehab.
We're having her one last party before she
goes to rehab at the bowling alley in Chapmanville, West.
Virginia.
And I signed everyone's name on it that drunk out of it.
That way I'm gonna keep a treasure.
That way when Kirk comes out straight and clean I'm gonna say, remember this?
Can I say one thing?
Fuck you,.
Nobody seems to care.
Really had to pee.
Rehab?
I ain't going to rehab.
I don't need no fucking rehab.
I done a rehab.
10 months, didn't like the breakfast or something.
I'm done.
Now it's time to party!
That's fucked up.
I hate rehab.
Well, you gotta... sometimes you gotta do things in life that you don't wanna do.
Get off this rehab.
Now stop Dennis.
He ain't in our business no more.
Dennis is an idiot.
Yep.
That's true.
Take me to Dennis so I can blow his head off.
Tyler, don't be saying that.
They're recording.
You wanna go to jail?
Dennis, man.
I'll blow his head off!
You tired?
You wanna take that sweater off?
We're gonna go to Texas and drop me off, and then you'll come back.
Why do we gotta go to Texas?
'Cause I gotta go.
Forever?
No.
Do you know what rehab?
Is?
No.
Can I stop at the dollar store for a little bit?
No, we gotta go.
Where you going, Susan?
Rehab.
Rehab?
Can I go?
Rehabilitation.
Charlie's been in this family for many years.
Me and Susan.
We've been around the horn.
Yeah.
You wanna go?
Yeah.
Head to rehab.
He say he's gonna take us to where the rehab is?
Get straight there.
Her ex-husband.
Been in the family for many years.
He's a good fella and a hard worker, and he'll always stay in the family.
Like Charlie.
Come on, turkey.
Let's go.
Come on, hurry.
How long you gotta be in rehab?
I can stay three months, I can stay... Three months?
Well, I can stay six months.
I can stay up to two years.
Well who... who decides the time?
Me.
You better not go in there one fucking day and come out.
I'm not.
I'll kick your ass.
I got to do this.
Well, who told you you got to do it?
I did.
You did?
Might as well look at this deal as your last chance.
Oh, I am.
That's what I'm saying.
At this light up here you're gonna go straight through and you'll be right at FMRS.
You're here.
You up for it?
I got no other choice.
He'll be 47 years old when he gets out.
I'll be dead and gone.
Young boy, what's his name?
Wasted.
If he'd have killed him he probably would have got less time.
It's sad but true.
Way down in West Virginia there's some people who are one of a kind.
They don't need nothing from nobody 'cause they're already doing fine.
You've got Bertie Mae White, she's the strongest woman that I've ever met in my life.
She raised over 24 of her own, and had to watch her husband die.
But she's always fighting hard and living off the land.
And when she's done living in this world you know the Lord's gonna take her by her hand.
And oh, baby you know she's still raising hell.
And the legend of D. Ray White will never die, like the rebel yell.
Yeah, the legend of D. Ray White will never die, like the rebel yell.
This is Bandytown.
This is my family cemetery.
And this is my brother's grave here, Dorsey.
One of these springs he killed himself.
And over through here is my daddy's grave.
Donald Ray White.
Someone took a chisel to it.
This right here is my sister's grave.
Ona Fontaine.
She was next to me.
And a beautiful girl.
And she got slayed and killed in Cleveland by her ex-husband that she divorced.
And this grave here is my other sister's.
Virginia.
And she was pregnant at the time she was killed in a car wreck.
Both my sisters was.
But this is my sister's grave.
And like I said, it's been a long time since I been up here.
Because I really knocked off and live in my own world.
You know, shit was going down.
You know.
Some families just can't get it together.
But it seems like people in the White family... A lot of them die younger than other people.
Uh... I have no... I don't know if it's the sin or the thing
that bothers them that lives in them, or the demon that they carry, or what it is.
But it's just strange how everything had happened in our family.
It seems like it's... my life... Our lives have just been a party.
And we're just living like it's a story.
That we're already dead, but we're still alive to tell about it.
Something of that nature.
And it's weird.
And I still, to this day, ain't figured out how come all this stuff's going down.
I'm at Pine Haven.
Its a rehab, long-term rehab.
And I've been lean for three months.
That's my 24 hour coin.
That's my 30 day coin.
And that's my 60 day coin.
Mommy!
I come to get Tyler today.
He's gonna spend the next couple months with me over there.
Standard.
You never play with me.
We'll play in the park.
How I sit there and... Is there... there's a park by there?
There's a playground.
But Tyler, Mom can't get in them no holes and stuff and crawl.
I might get stuck.
You gonna leave me.
I'm not gonna leave you.
You always do.
I'm not gonna leave you.
You left me last time.
Why do you always remind me of that?
I told you I'm sorry like a million times.
No you haven't.
You only...
I'm really, really sorry for ever leaving you anywhere.
I'm really sorry for never playing your games with you.
That's better.
Mom's really sorry.
Now say it again.
I'm sorry, Tyler.
I'm so sorry.
You don't have to say "I'm so sorry."
Well, I'm sorry.
Will you ever forgive me?
Yeah.
What?
Nothing.
Boone county's my downfall.
I love it, but if I'm here too long it's like... it's my hole.
And it sucks me in.
Fucks me up.
Kirk's got some problems.
And that's it.
Good.
Momma's clean now.
I am.
Come on.
You know, I'm... Thank you, Tyler.
Saved by Tyler.
You know, we're all gonna die.
We're gonna all have to be risen and judged.
You go this way and you go this way... You don't live for the Lord and you're gonna go that way,
to hell.
You got a choice.
He died for you on the cross.
You don't wanna serve him, then when you die you're gonna have to pay your consequences.
Like me.
I'm gonna burn like the rest, I guess.
We all going to hell.
You know we are, if we ain't saved.
Christians.
Amen.
It's scary.
At your funeral what do you want people to do?
Party their balls off.
Blow pot in my face and snort pills on my head and... fucking rock and roll, baby.
Do you think life's a good thing or a bad thing?
Ain't never fuckin' said I've been good.
Come in this world with nothing, I guess I'll die with nothing.
At least the world knows who the fuck we are.