 Per Metro Pulse writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum.Cast notes

In the film Mitchum drove a souped-up black 1950 Ford two-door sedan,(which was later repainted gray) with a custom tank in the back for moonshine liquor and a Ford V8 with three two barrel carburetors, but after a run in with the law, it was sold and replaced with a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 two-door sedan with the same alterations excluding the carburetors.The 1951 Ford ended up getting blown up by Kogan whose henchmen had planted a bomb which activated when a Federal agent put the key in the ignition to start the car.