Read Online The Cornbread Mafia: A Homegrown Syndicate's Code of Silence and the Biggest Marijuana Bust in American History by James Higdon - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: James Higdon
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to grow the 0.7 acres of tobacco that finished in seventh place in the district 4-H competition.
In 1958, at fifteen years old, Johnny Boone won the state 4-H championship in sheep breeding, earning him a trip to Chicago for the National 4-H Congress. In 1960, Boone conquered Kentucky again, this time for his tobacco, giving him "the unique distinction of having attained two state 4-H championships," according to the Springfield Sun, his hometown newspaper. His winning tobacco project "was 2.6 acres which he irrigated, suckered carefully and saved all of the ground leaves."
Johnny Boone graduated from high school in 1961 as a three-time football letterman in the top sixth of his class. "He plans to enter the University of Kentucky in the fall," the Sun reported. Life had other plans. Although smart and ambitious, Johnny Boone started a family and stayed on the farm to continue the traditions of his grandfather.
A veteran of Prohibition, Poss Walker learned to supplement his family income with moonshining and bootlegging and whatever else seemed necessary to keep his farm afloat. These activities he included in the mentorship of his grandson, teaching young Boone skills for which the state 4-H board didn't award prizes. In addition to moonshining, Walker taught Boone how to grow more than one's allotted share of burley tobacco, a crop strictly monitored and regulated by the government. If agents from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) caught a farmer growing more than his share, his card at the tobacco warehouse would be marked red, and the excess tobacco would be confiscated. This "red-card tobacco" became an essential element to some farmers' meager incomes. The trick for Johnny Boone was to grow extra tobacco in secret patches tucked away in a corner of his grandfather's massive property. At harvest time, the managers of the tobacco warehouses, gentleman farmers who made their fortunes moonshining themselves, helped red-card tobacco growers elude the scrutiny of the federal agents.
Married and forgoing college, Johnny Boone started farming and distilling on both sides of the law to raise his family. Although his home and property were in Washington County, Boone gravitated toward Marion County, where some people considered obeying certain laws to be optional, where the wets continually defeated the drys in the fight for the soul of the place.
The fight flared red-hot one night in May 1958, when nitroglycerin blew sky high the partly constructed home of George Helm, the state Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) agent sent to look after Lebanon's notorious liquor merchants. The response from Frankfort, the state capital, came swiftly when thirty state troopers descended upon Lebanon at a time when the whole state force numbered only one hundred troopers. The state police succeeded in making only three arrests on misdemeanor charges: Hyleme George, owner of the Silver Dollar liquor store; his brother Philip of Phil's Dispensary, both on Water Street; and John Nelson, owner of the Corner Liquor Store on Main and Proctor Knott Avenue.
Making matters worse, Kentucky's public safety commissioner, a thirty-year-old Harvard alumnus named Don Sturgill, inflamed the postbombing atmosphere by telling a major newspaper that Lebanon fostered "open and commonplace gambling, prostitution and illegal whisky sales."
When challenged by representatives of Marion County, who drove to Frankfort to confront Sturgill about his allegations that Lebanon played host to prostitution, the Harvard grad dug himself in deeper.
"When I said [prostitutes] were 'commonplace,' l simply meant they were available," he said. "And when you've got gambling and illegal whisky sales, you're almost bound to have prostitution.
"I have evidence," Sturgill continued, "that twenty-seven persons living outside Marion County bought 4,300 cases of whisky in Lebanon between 1956 and 1957."
When Commissioner Sturgill appeared in Lebanon a few weeks later-the
In 1958, at fifteen years old, Johnny Boone won the state 4-H championship in sheep breeding, earning him a trip to Chicago for the National 4-H Congress. In 1960, Boone conquered Kentucky again, this time for his tobacco, giving him "the unique distinction of having attained two state 4-H championships," according to the Springfield Sun, his hometown newspaper. His winning tobacco project "was 2.6 acres which he irrigated, suckered carefully and saved all of the ground leaves."
Johnny Boone graduated from high school in 1961 as a three-time football letterman in the top sixth of his class. "He plans to enter the University of Kentucky in the fall," the Sun reported. Life had other plans. Although smart and ambitious, Johnny Boone started a family and stayed on the farm to continue the traditions of his grandfather.
A veteran of Prohibition, Poss Walker learned to supplement his family income with moonshining and bootlegging and whatever else seemed necessary to keep his farm afloat. These activities he included in the mentorship of his grandson, teaching young Boone skills for which the state 4-H board didn't award prizes. In addition to moonshining, Walker taught Boone how to grow more than one's allotted share of burley tobacco, a crop strictly monitored and regulated by the government. If agents from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) caught a farmer growing more than his share, his card at the tobacco warehouse would be marked red, and the excess tobacco would be confiscated. This "red-card tobacco" became an essential element to some farmers' meager incomes. The trick for Johnny Boone was to grow extra tobacco in secret patches tucked away in a corner of his grandfather's massive property. At harvest time, the managers of the tobacco warehouses, gentleman farmers who made their fortunes moonshining themselves, helped red-card tobacco growers elude the scrutiny of the federal agents.
Married and forgoing college, Johnny Boone started farming and distilling on both sides of the law to raise his family. Although his home and property were in Washington County, Boone gravitated toward Marion County, where some people considered obeying certain laws to be optional, where the wets continually defeated the drys in the fight for the soul of the place.
The fight flared red-hot one night in May 1958, when nitroglycerin blew sky high the partly constructed home of George Helm, the state Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) agent sent to look after Lebanon's notorious liquor merchants. The response from Frankfort, the state capital, came swiftly when thirty state troopers descended upon Lebanon at a time when the whole state force numbered only one hundred troopers. The state police succeeded in making only three arrests on misdemeanor charges: Hyleme George, owner of the Silver Dollar liquor store; his brother Philip of Phil's Dispensary, both on Water Street; and John Nelson, owner of the Corner Liquor Store on Main and Proctor Knott Avenue.
Making matters worse, Kentucky's public safety commissioner, a thirty-year-old Harvard alumnus named Don Sturgill, inflamed the postbombing atmosphere by telling a major newspaper that Lebanon fostered "open and commonplace gambling, prostitution and illegal whisky sales."
When challenged by representatives of Marion County, who drove to Frankfort to confront Sturgill about his allegations that Lebanon played host to prostitution, the Harvard grad dug himself in deeper.
"When I said [prostitutes] were 'commonplace,' l simply meant they were available," he said. "And when you've got gambling and illegal whisky sales, you're almost bound to have prostitution.
"I have evidence," Sturgill continued, "that twenty-seven persons living outside Marion County bought 4,300 cases of whisky in Lebanon between 1956 and 1957."
When Commissioner Sturgill appeared in Lebanon a few weeks later-the
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