The Cornbread Mafia: A Homegrown Syndicate's Code of Silence and the Biggest Marijuana Bust in American History (63 page)

CHAPTER 5

Johnny Boone's connection to some sort of operation in Belize was, to me, one of the most fascinating angles to this story since I began reporting it in 2006, knowing that Boone was arrested after meeting a plane returning from Belize in 1982. However, prying information out of Boone about Belize was not easy.

"I can't tell you ..." is a quote that illustrates another example of the reporting for this book running up against the limits of nonfiction. Because secrets remain regarding who, exactly, was part of the Belize operation, Boone couldn't be as candid with me as he might have if just he and the others were caught.

"Now I may hate this water..." and other quotes in this section come from interviews with Johnny Boone.

The Bobby Joe Shewmaker section and all the quotes in it come from the transcripts of Shewmaker's 1985 trial on the smuggling charges dating back to 1979. I traveled to Savannah, Georgia, to review and photocopy those court records. Shewmaker did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this book, deciding instead to obey the unwritten code of silence. I made contact with the wife of "Little Fred" Sykes, son of "Big Fred," but when I tried to talk with "Little Fred," no one would answer or return my calls.'Ihe quotes from Big Fred's phone calls come from transcripts of those calls entered into evidence during the Shewmaker trial.

The second Belize section, dealing with the 1982 rendezvous at Bowman Field and subsequent bust at Rooster Run, comes from press accounts, interviews with Johnny Boone and former Louisville police Detective James Black and FOIA requests to the FBI. Black and his partner, Bud Farmer (now deceased), liaised with the FBI instead of the DEA because of the lingering distrust with the DEA following the Harold Brown years, causing trouble between the FBI field office in Louisville and HQin D.C., as revealed in the contentious airtel messages between the two offices, which came to light through this FOIA request. Additional information was gleaned from the state police report, obtained by a KORA request.

"If you let them get into Washington County ... and everything" comes from my 2007 interview with James Black.

"Y'all have been reading comic books ..." comes from my 2007 interview with Johnny Boone.

'Ihe story about Jimmy Bickett growing a crop in Mannsville comes from a 2008 interview with Jimmy Bickett.'Ihe story of Patrolman Price arresting Jimmy Bickett comes from interviews with Jimmy Bickett, police files via a KORA request and contemporary press accounts.

"'Ihe best I can do for you ..." comes from an interview with Jimmy Bickett, as do "I've got a good deal for you ..." and "Hey, I know that guy right there ..."

"I had to go to jail ..." comes from a 2007 Johnny Boone interview.

CHAPTER 6

News of the drought from 1983 comes from reporting in the Enterprise, the Farmer'sAlmanac and the National Weather Service.'Ihe story of Charlie Downs comes from the Enterprise and interviews with Joe Downs, Johnny Boone and Jimmy Higdon, the author's father.

The quotes from Elmer George, including "When Reagan...," come from the Enterprise. George declined several opportunities to be interviewed for this book.

The stories of the Raywick deaths of 1984-Billy Downs, Ronnie Ellis and so forth-come from the Enterprise and interviews with Charlie Bickett, Joe Downs and Johnny Boone.

"Not everybody's as slow ..." comes from an interview with Joe Downs, as does "If this check is cold ... dead."

"Why Marion County?" and the details associated with the failed "Tom Foolery's" sting operation come from Enterprise reporting and open records requests of the investigation from the Kentucky State Police.

PART II

CHAPTER 7

The early history of St. Mary's comes from many sources, including those listed for Chapter 1. Details on early St. Mary's history, from the Reverend William Byrne (1782-1833) to the arrival of the French Jesuits to the education of "Bishops Martin John Spalding and John Lancaster Spalding, Governors Proctor Knott and Edwin P. Morrow, and in more recent times, Cardinal Joseph Bernadin of Chicago," come from the Reverend Clyde Crews's An American Holy Land, page 97.

Crews states on page 96 that the Jesuits left St. Mary's for New York City because Bishop Flaget "would not endorse their financial appeals," perhaps because the bishop "feared competition" from the Jesuits.'Ihen Flaget's successor "withdr[ew] all the diocesan seminarians rather precipitately from the institution. When New York beckoned, the Jesuits were feeling decidedly unwelcome in Kentucky."

Information-gathering about Ken Keyes, founder of "Cornucopia" at St. Mary's, began with his Wikipedia page and included watching YouTube videos of Keyes's lectures on the "Science of Happiness" and reading his book, The Hundredth Monkey, which he wrote while in St. Mary's, and was confirmed by interviews with Mary Ann Ohsol, a Cornucopia workshop attendee who stayed in Lebanon after Keyes and his group departed for Oregon. Keyes died of kidney failure on December 20, 1995, in Coos Bay, Oregon, one month from his seventy-fifth birthday. His followers claim that Keyes's first book, The Handbook to Higher Consciousness, has a million copies in print in seven languages. Additional information about Keyes comes from interviews with J. Clifford Todd.

'Ihe story of Cliff Todd turning St. Mary's into the first private prison in America comes from interviews with Cliff Todd and Charlie Bickett.

I was unable to interview Johnny Boone about his interactions with Cliff Todd because I didn't interview Todd until 2011, and I lost communication with Boone upon his becoming a fugitive in 2008.

"Please be seated" and the Reagan press conference come from reporting by the New York Times and the Associated Press.

Cocaine's arrival in Marion County is told through interviews with Johnny Boone and Steve Lowery.'Ihe story of Johnny Boone T-boning J. C. Abell's Corvette comes from interviews with Lowery, Boone, Charlie Bickett and Jimmy Bickett. J. C. Abell declined an opportunity to be interviewed.

'Ihe story of the federal case built against Bobby Joe Shewmaker comes from the records of that court case, which I pored over in the federal courthouse in Savannah, Georgia. Shewmaker did not respond to letters sent to him in prison to request comment for this book. Information about Shewmaker's network of Missouri farms comes from an open records request to the Missouri State Police.

'Ihe story of the three boys who found $16,000 in a barn comes from the Lebanon Enterprise. Initially I thought about interviewing these boys, thinking they would be about my age, until I found out that two had already died, one by falling from the top of an industrial smokestack while working as a commercial chimney sweep. Sensing that story to be too large a distraction, I narrowed the focus of the story to just the boys and the cash.

The story of the sixty thousand plants found in July 1986 comes from the Enterprise. The DEAs claim that Kentucky marijuana was testing at levels higher than the national baseline comes from reporting in the Courier-Journal. 'Ihe fact that every undercover narcotics officer in Kentucky drove a Trans Am and drank Sterling beer comes from an interview with Mike Bandy, a former undercover narcotics detective for the Kentucky State Police.'Ihe story of the Mongols motorcycle gang rolling into Raywick comes from an interview with Jimmy Bickett.

'Ihe story of the explosion of the bar called Squire's Tavern and Bickett's Pool Hall comes from interviews with Charlie Bickett and Steve Lowery as well as other local memories.

"I want out ... You are in.!' comes from an interview with Johnny Boone.

The details regarding the November 6, 1986, bust at the barn in Woodford County come from the police file released through an open records request. Details regarding the April 1985 issue of Penthouse magazine come from an exhaustive search for the issue in many used book stores.

CHAPTER 8

Details surrounding Reagan's signing ceremony for his 1986 anticrime package come from reporting in the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Details about Johnny Boone planning to plant the Russian in Minnesota come from interviews with Johnny Boone. Details about the federal government's investigation into Shewmaker as a "substantial, significant grower, distributor and broker of multi-tons of marijuana in the Kentuckiana area ... the task force concept" come from an FOIA request to the DEA.

The story of Johnny Boone beating the charges in Nelson County because the witness was "afraid" of him comes from an interview with Jack Smith.

"Are you going out this year?" and the conversation Johnny Boone had with "a friend" come from a confidential source.

Details about the Minnesota operation before the bust come from interviews with Johnny Boone and Smith Fogle. 'Ihe story of the July 4 encounter with an Otter Tail County deputy on the lookout for a band of roving bank robbers comes from testimony from Minnesota officials in federal court and interviews with Johnny Boone.

"Which one? I'll cut it off!" comes from a story told by Jack Smith.

The story of Johnny Boone watching the Iran-Contra hearings on TV comes from interviews with Johnny Boone, including his watching the broadcast of West 57th Street, with the segment entitled "CIA Front Dealing Drugs."

"Our first story tonight" and the rest of the lead from that episode of West 57th Street come from the CBS News Archive.

"So, that's what they've been doing" comes from an interview with Johnny Boone.

The details about pulling the males from the Minnesota crop come from interviews with Johnny Boone.

The fact that September 23 was the autumn equinox for 1987 comes from the Farmer? Almanac.

"We had pictures of it ..." comes from interviews with Johnny Boone.

Details about Agent Phillip Wagner discovering Boone's pot crop come from Wagner's sworn testimony in federal court.

"It's just a truck ... It's a bust!" comes from an interview with Smith Fogle.'Ihe fact that the Minnesota crew was anticipating a fresh load of workers from Kentucky comes from a confidential source.

Details about Boone's failed escape attempt come from the testimony in federal court with deputies Thompson and Lockhart as well as interviews with Johnny Boone, including, "Charles Grass." Details about Mary Jo McDonald restraining the dogs so they didn't attack the raiding police officers come from Agent Phillip Wagner's testimony. I could not find Mary Jo McDonald to interview her.

Some details of the Minnesota bust, especially those concerning Les Berry, come from Bob Hill's reporting in the magazine from October 1989. Many of those details were confirmed by my own interviews with Smith Fogle.

"Very, very cold ... very cordial ... uncooperative as well" comes from the testimony of agent Phillip Wagner.

"Where are you going? ... over with" comes from the federal court testimony of Otter Tail County Sheriff's Lieutenant Ray Polensky.

Twila Schott's jury-rigging of the computer system to accept the APB of the car as "stolen" instead of "wanted" comes from Schott's and Wagner's testimony in federal court.

'Me actions and thoughts of Wisconsin State Patrol Trooper Arden A. Asp come from his sworn testimony in federal court as well as a phone interview conducted in 2007 as well as the testimony of his colleague, Trooper Michael Hookum.

"Wake up, boys ..." comes from Bob Hill's reporting and was confirmed by my own interviews with Smith Fogle.

Details about Trooper Asp's felony stop come from his testimony and phone interview.

Details about the interior of the Minnesota bust come from interviews with Phillip Wagner and others.

"If we could have saved the seed" comes from a 2007 interview with Johnny Boone.

"Men, we all share a secret..." comes from an interview with Johnny Boone.

'Ihe details about Marilyn Boone calling Jack Smith and Jack Smith leaping into action as Boone's defense attorney come from interviews with Jack Smith from 2007 to 2011.

"I would like the record to reflect ... do understand" comes from the official court transcript of the proceedings.

'Ihe letters written by Marilyn and Jean Boone come from their admission into the court records before the sentencing hearings.

It took eighteen months to get documents from the Drug Enforcement Administration through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The DEA, along with the FBI, has a notoriously long waiting list for FOIA requests to begin with because every prisoner in the country has the right to his or her "file," in addition to all the other curious types. But in addition to the standard red tape, the DEA processors sent me into a bureaucratic limbo, where they denied my request for a fee exemption but never actually procured any of the requested documents. When I contacted the Department of Justice Office of Information Privacy, the ombudsman there took my request seriously, and I was bumped to the front of the line. Quotations coming from those documents include:

"[T]hese career violators...," "Initially ... upper echelon," "a special events operations (SEO) ... this cartel," "complicated and massive ... the assets," "vast background data ... ceased," "Concerned ... headquarters" and "assured him ... in Louisville."

Beginning with "For two weeks in 1988 ..."this section comes from interviews with Jack Smith and Johnny Boone, including "I'll be in ..."

The quotations from April 29, 1988, come from the transcripts of the sentencing hearing, which I requested via FOIA through the Executive Office of the US Attorney instead of traveling to St. Paul, Minnesota, to review them as I did when I went to Savannah, Georgia, to review the Shewmaker file.

Quotations from the Minnesota sentencing hearing transcripts include:

"Now we'll turn ... incarceration," "Frankly, I read his ... good guy," "OK, Jack? ... 'Thank you, Your Honor," and "Mr. Boone, do you want to say something?"-which all lead up to Johnny Boone's speech to the court, preserved in time by a court reporter, typed into a transcript during the appeals process, placed in a storage facility and then delivered to me by US mail after I filed an FOIA request. Boone's speech is:

"Yes, l would, Your Honor..." to "... any harm to anyone," and the judge says, "'Thank you."