The Cornbread Mafia: A Homegrown Syndicate's Code of Silence and the Biggest Marijuana Bust in American History

James Higdon

Jun 2012 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Paul Boehmer

About this audiobook

In the summer of 1987, Johnny Boone set out to grow and harvest one of the greatest outdoor marijuana crops in modern times. In doing so, he set into motion a series of events that defined him and his associates as the largest homegrown marijuana syndicate in American history, also known as the Cornbread Mafia. Author James Higdon-whose relationship with Johnny Boone, currently a federal fugitive, made him the first journalist subpoenaed under the Obama administration-takes listeners back to the 1970s and '80s and the clash between federal and local law enforcement and a band of Kentucky farmers with moonshine and pride in their bloodlines. By 1989 the task force assigned to take down men like Johnny Boone had arrested sixty-nine men and one woman from busts on twenty-nine farms in ten states, and seized two hundred tons of pot. Of the seventy individuals arrested, zero talked. How it all went down is a tale of Mafia-style storylines emanating from the Bluegrass State, and populated by Vietnam veterans and weed-loving characters caught up in Tarantino-level violence and heart-breaking altruism. Accompanied by a backdrop of rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues, this work of dogged investigative journalism and history is told by Higdon in action-packed, colorful and riveting detail.

Ratings and reviews

I read the hard cover book after a friend from Kentucky told me a few stories about Johnny Boone, who he knows personally. A very interesting person and the pact of silence was something you can only find in movies. Johnnie Boone was arrested in 2018 in Canada.

Wish I could get the book

Double Jeopardy

About the author

James Higdon has worked for the Courier-Journal in Louisville and the New York Times and is currently a contributing editor with PBS Frontline's Tehran Bureau.

Paul Boehmer is a seasoned actor who has appeared on Broadway, film, and television, including The Thomas Crown Affair and All My Children. Coinciding with another of his passions, sci-fi, Paul has been cast in various roles in many episodes of Star Trek.