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Awash in Red
TALES OF THE BOURBON KING -- "Awash in Red"
Cincinnati. Eden Park. October 6, 1927. A single gunshot tears through an Indian summer morning, and the most sensational criminal case of the decade begins.
This is where the story of George Remus ends — and where Tales of the Bourbon King begins.
In this episode, I take you inside the final act before walking you back to the beginning. To understand what happened in Eden Park that morning, you need to understand everything that came before it: empire, betrayal, and obsession. You need to understand George Remus.
At his peak, Remus was worth what would be hundreds of millions of dollars today. He owned distilleries across Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. He controlled the largest illegal whiskey operation in American history—roughly 15% of all bonded bourbon held in warehouses nationwide during Prohibition.
He threw parties at his Cincinnati mansion where guests drove away with diamond jewelry and new automobiles as party favors. He bribed federal agents, police officers, and politicians so systematically that he had a personal philosophy for it: every man has his price. Find it. Pay it. Move on.
Remus was also a brilliant attorney—one of the top criminal defense lawyers in Chicago before he ever touched a drop of bootleg bourbon. He understood the law better than almost anyone alive. He understood juries better still. Before Prohibition handed him the greatest business opportunity in American history, he was already a legend in the courtroom.
And then, in just a few years, Remus lost everything. His empire was seized by federal agents. His remaining assets were stripped and sold.
His wife, Imogene, took up with the federal agent assigned to bring Remus down—a man named Franklin Dodge—and the two of them plundered what remained. Remus went to federal prison. He came out nearly penniless, consumed by a rage two years in the making.
On the morning of October 6, 1927, Imogene was on her way to a divorce hearing. Remus was waiting outside her hotel with his driver, watching. What happened next shocked a country already well acquainted with his name.
Episode one of Season Two opens on that morning: two cars careening through Eden Park, the confrontation at Mirror Lake, the single shot, the dying woman rushed to Bethesda Hospital.
Thirty minutes after he pulled the trigger, George Remus walked calmly into Cincinnati's First District Police Headquarters, sank into a chair, and said: "Lock me up. I've just shot my wife."
This is the story I've spent years living inside. I'm Bob Batchelor —Assistant Professor of Communication, Culture, and Media at Coastal Carolina University, and author of The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition's Evil Genius, published by Diversion Books. The book draws on court transcripts, federal records, and archives from across the country. Tales of the Bourbon King is the podcast adaptation: the full story, told in episodes short enough to binge on a long drive and rich enough to reward every listen.
Over the course of this series, we'll follow Remus from immigrant boy to King of the Bootleggers. We'll watch him build an empire and watch it fall. We'll trace the love triangle that destroyed what law enforcement couldn't. Later, we will sit in the courtroom as Remus, representing himself, attempts the most audacious legal gambit of the Roaring Twenties.
Every episode ends on a cliffhanger. Every episode is grounded in the historical record.
Follow the show so you don't miss what comes next.
View all episodes
By Bob BatchelorTALES OF THE BOURBON KING -- "Awash in Red"
Cincinnati. Eden Park. October 6, 1927. A single gunshot tears through an Indian summer morning, and the most sensational criminal case of the decade begins.
This is where the story of George Remus ends — and where Tales of the Bourbon King begins.
In this episode, I take you inside the final act before walking you back to the beginning. To understand what happened in Eden Park that morning, you need to understand everything that came before it: empire, betrayal, and obsession. You need to understand George Remus.
At his peak, Remus was worth what would be hundreds of millions of dollars today. He owned distilleries across Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. He controlled the largest illegal whiskey operation in American history—roughly 15% of all bonded bourbon held in warehouses nationwide during Prohibition.
He threw parties at his Cincinnati mansion where guests drove away with diamond jewelry and new automobiles as party favors. He bribed federal agents, police officers, and politicians so systematically that he had a personal philosophy for it: every man has his price. Find it. Pay it. Move on.
Remus was also a brilliant attorney—one of the top criminal defense lawyers in Chicago before he ever touched a drop of bootleg bourbon. He understood the law better than almost anyone alive. He understood juries better still. Before Prohibition handed him the greatest business opportunity in American history, he was already a legend in the courtroom.
And then, in just a few years, Remus lost everything. His empire was seized by federal agents. His remaining assets were stripped and sold.
His wife, Imogene, took up with the federal agent assigned to bring Remus down—a man named Franklin Dodge—and the two of them plundered what remained. Remus went to federal prison. He came out nearly penniless, consumed by a rage two years in the making.
On the morning of October 6, 1927, Imogene was on her way to a divorce hearing. Remus was waiting outside her hotel with his driver, watching. What happened next shocked a country already well acquainted with his name.
Episode one of Season Two opens on that morning: two cars careening through Eden Park, the confrontation at Mirror Lake, the single shot, the dying woman rushed to Bethesda Hospital.
Thirty minutes after he pulled the trigger, George Remus walked calmly into Cincinnati's First District Police Headquarters, sank into a chair, and said: "Lock me up. I've just shot my wife."
This is the story I've spent years living inside. I'm Bob Batchelor —Assistant Professor of Communication, Culture, and Media at Coastal Carolina University, and author of The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition's Evil Genius, published by Diversion Books. The book draws on court transcripts, federal records, and archives from across the country. Tales of the Bourbon King is the podcast adaptation: the full story, told in episodes short enough to binge on a long drive and rich enough to reward every listen.
Over the course of this series, we'll follow Remus from immigrant boy to King of the Bootleggers. We'll watch him build an empire and watch it fall. We'll trace the love triangle that destroyed what law enforcement couldn't. Later, we will sit in the courtroom as Remus, representing himself, attempts the most audacious legal gambit of the Roaring Twenties.
Every episode ends on a cliffhanger. Every episode is grounded in the historical record.
Follow the show so you don't miss what comes next.