The Big Man of Jim Beam

Chapter 8Dark Clouds on the Horizon

April 3, 1974, was a warm and windy day in Boston, Kentucky. The skies were partly cloudy, the sun sliding in and out. Warehouse supervisor Johnny Hibbs sniffed rain in the air as he made his way over to Booker's office for the end-of-day whiskey tasting. This was a common occurrence at the plant; when the first shift ended, a handful of Booker's boys would congregate around a table to taste test samples of bourbon. These tastings often morphed into small parties, as the workers—in no particular rush to get home to wives, children, and chores—pulled up chairs to taste whiskey while shooting the breeze. More often than not Booker had some food to share: blue gill he'd caught or a pigeon he'd shot the weekend before.

As Johnny hurried across the distillery grounds, he took one last glance up at the sky, noticed that the sun was gone and the wind had picked up, then opened the door to Booker's office. The Big Man had been in a surly mood of late. Chicago had been calling and pestering him, about exactly what, Johnny wasn't sure, though he thought it might have something to do with capacity and sales.

This afternoon the Big Man was in fine form, however, laughing and trading insults with his team. Johnny pulled up a chair and took one last look out of the window (boy those clouds are moving fast), then turned his attention to the center of attention, Booker Noe.

Surrounded by small, clear, four-ounce bottles of unlabeled whiskey, he was arguing ...