The Bourbon King

On the 100th anniversary of The Volstead Act taking effect comes the epic, definitive story of the man who cracked the Prohibition system and helped inspire The Great Gatsby.

“[Batchelor] makes this flashy bootlegger sound like a folk hero…Behold the king.” —New York Times Book Review

“It’s all here: murder, mayhem—and high-priced hooch.” —David Pietrusza, author of 1920

In October 1919, Congress gave teeth to Prohibition. But the law didn't stop George Remus from amassing a fortune equivalent to billions today. As one journalist put it, "Remus was to bootlegging what Rockefeller was to oil."

The Bourbon King breathes life into America’s largest illegal booze operation—greater than that of Al Capone—and a man considered the best criminal defense lawyer of his era. Remus cracked the system by purchasing an empire of distilleries on Kentucky’s “Bourbon Trail” and using his other profession, as a pharmacist, to profit off legal loopholes. He stole, bribed, and partied, a roaring lifestyle epitomizing the Jazz Age over which he ruled.

That is, before he came crashing down in one of American history’s most sensational murder cases in: a cheating wife, the G-man who seduced her and jailed Remus, and the plunder of a Bourbon Empire. Remus murdered his wife in cold blood and then shocked a nation, winning his freedom based on a condition he invented—temporary maniacal insanity.

Love, murder, political intrigue, mountains of cash, and rivers of bourbon...the tale of George Remus is a grand spectacle, and a lens into the dark heart of Prohibition and the mastermind behind one of its richest rackets.

“Larger-than-life characters take the reins of this story, a rip-roaring good time for any American history buff or true-crime fan.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review