This podcast is intended for mature audiences, listener discretion is advised.

By 1967, Billy Sunday Bert had gone from a heavy equipment operator at the Gainesville

Stone in Rock Quarry and making whiskey on the side for extra money to full-blown criminal.

He was quickly building an empire and diving deeper and deeper into the underworld of

robbery, illegal gambling, and hauling and selling hundreds of thousands of gallons of

bootleg whiskey all over the South. The man who was once so poor he had to steal food to survive

had now entered a whole new world, one of wealth, and power.

He was now mixed in with a crowd of high-profile kingpins, like AD Allen, who specialized in bootlegging,

stolen cars, and shop shops. He was also known for dealing in stolen high-end clothing.

AD Allen was reportedly headed of a $1 million operation based out of Commerce, Georgia,

about 20 miles north east of Winder. In today's money, that's over $7.5 million.

Not bad for a country boy, right?

AD got away with all kind of stuff and I would imagine he would be one that would have gone to

Billy Bert and said, oh, I got to get rid of this. This guy was going to testify against

fate and trial. You know, I don't know, I don't have any evidence that ever happened,

but I do know there were people who disappeared before they could be called on to testify.

Another whiskey kingpin named Cliff Park had made a name for himself in the Tri-County area of

Barrow, Banks, and Jackson. Cliff Park, his kingpin operation, consisted of two things,

loan sharking. He would loan money for 20%. That 20% didn't go for a year or two,

that 20%. If you told the man you're going to pay him back in two weeks or a month, it was 20%.

Compound interest on a credit card is a joke compared to the big on interest from a loan shark.

Well, he was that. His other claim to fame as a kingpin, he was about whiskey and beer from

...