JAMES HIGDON has worked for the Louisville Courier Journal, the New York Times, and
PBS Frontline's Tehran Bureau; contributed material to The Prairie Home Companion;
and researched the NYPD for the police drama series NYC-22. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

"[A] lucidly spun tale.... Think Tarantino on Kentucky bluegrass, scored with Creedence and vigorously reported."

-GQ

"A boggling and wacky history that illuminates the shadowy area between the good guys and the bad guys, and vividly documents how far the temptations of one plant can take men--from the jungles of Belize, the hills of Afghanistan, and into the very soul kitchen of the American heartland."

--Geoffrey Gray, author of The New York Times bestseller SKYJACK: The Hunt

for D. B. Cooper

"In The Cornbread Mafia James Higdon takes readers into a sub-culture that will surprise many--Catholic hill people of Kentucky. The area was renowned for distilling whiskey, legal and otherwise, and after exposure to the war in Vietnam, many locals turned to the cultivation of marijuana and thrived. The characters Higdon reveals to us are not notably different from Protestant thugs of the hills, but not one has ever snitched. The history of the region, the details of the crimes and way of life, make for a strangely compelling book and an insight from another angle into our own recent past and present."

--Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone and The Outlaw Album

"James Higdon has written a compelling, fast-moving saga about how a backwoods band of outlaws, begat by Kentucky moonshiners of the 1920s, took over the marijuana business in the Midwest and led the Feds on the biggest pot chase in American history."

--Bruce Porter, author of BLOW: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million

with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All

"Juicy storytelling--provocative, detailed and brilliantly documented...."

--The Good Men Project

"The state of Kentucky should declare itself the storytelling capital of the nation. The place is brimming with remarkable, colorful stories and some of the most natural storytellers you'll ever meet. James Higdon and his new book, The Cornbread Mafia, are the latest proof of that. This is a tale that is so rich and utterly startling that it's honestly hard to believe in parts. But Higdon's research is smart, and his writing is smooth. He's especially good on the history of this American saga, which may have fallen through the cracks of time without his hard work."

--Ann Hagedorn, author of Wild Ride: The Rise and Tragic Fall of Calumet Farm Inc.:

America's Premier Racing Dynasty

"Part much-needed history lesson, part hillbilly noir, The Cornbread Mafia is the perfect bookend to Ken Burns's Prohibition, and far more timely. It unflinchingly details the damage done by both those who flout our nation's drug laws and those who enforce them. Authoritative, thrilling, and sobering."

--Pinckney Benedict, author of Miracle Boy and Other Stories and Dogs of God

"From Boardwalk Empire to Breaking Bad, we as a nation are fascinated by the interplay of crime, character, and controlled substances. And if anyone doubts that fact is more amazing than fiction, then read this book. In The Cornbread Mafia, James Higdon traces the rise and fall of a marijuana industry tucked in Middle America, and the saga stretches from Prohibition to the crack era. With exceptional reporting and infectious storytelling, he takes readers for one unforgettable ride."

--Samuel G. Freedman, author of Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of

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