Cornbread Mafia may sound like simply one other wild true-crime title, however for these in Kentucky, it is a legend that is been whispered about for many years. Lengthy earlier than it turned a documentary, the story lived on as a form of native folklore: a sprawling hashish operation, a gaggle of unlikely outlaws, and a reputation that caught whether or not folks totally understood it or not.
That non-public connection is strictly what drew director Evan Mascagni in. Rising up with ties to Marion County, the place the story originates, he was already accustomed to the mythology surrounding the group — one thing he says most individuals in Kentucky have a minimum of heard of, even when the main points had been all the time a bit murky. It wasn’t till he linked with Drew Morris, who shared that very same curiosity, that the documentary actually took form.
ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan spoke to the Cornbread Mafia crew at SXSW in Austin, Texas, final week, the place she realized in regards to the movie’s distinctive origin story and the cat-and-mouse chase that landed lots of its members behind bars.
Evan Mascagni: Within the state, I really feel like all people grew up listening to about The Cornbread Mafia. Nobody actually fairly understood it. However exterior the state, not a lot is thought, however I really feel prefer it’s one thing … For those who grew up in Kentucky, and also you’re into hashish in any respect, you have heard of the Cornbread Mafia. And yeah, Joe Keith truly launched Drew and me right here as a result of we had been each keen on pursuing a narrative on this, and we teamed up, and the remainder is historical past.
As for the place the identify got here from for the hashish crowing crew, former member Joe Keith, instructed ScreenRant that whereas “a number of variations” of the story exist, his story is the “true” telling of how the time period took place.
Joe Keith: There’s a number of variations of how that time period come about. My model of it’s that it occurred again in 1978. We had been rising some marijuana down in Nelson County, and the Nelson County Sheriff’s Division busted us. We had three crops down there — I name them crops, these had been fields — and two of them received busted by the Nelson County Police Division, our sheriff’s division. There was about one crop left, and so they are available in, and so they busted a lot of us, and so they had been going to get that third crop. So that they locked up all of the companions. And whereas they had been in jail, we realized that they wasn’t going to chop this massive subject of marijuana down.
When the fellows received out of jail, they had been saying, “Hey, look, [the] sheriff’s division goes to observe Muhammad Ali.” I overlook [which fight] it was. So we devised a plan to return in, reduce that crop down ourselves, and sneak it out beneath the police’s nostril. However one of many guys at the moment stated, after we had been all conspiring and determining what to do, he stated, “What we received right here is our personal little Cornbread Mafia.”
Keith stated, whereas federal officers declare the group shaped in 1989, he, Jimmy Bickett, and Bobby Joe Shewmaker all say it occurred “method earlier than that.”
Joe Keith: There’s numerous variations of it. The feds claimed it occurred in ’89, however as everybody right here can attest, it occurred method earlier than that. It come out that the feds labeled us that, however that is not true. That is the story that we inform on this documentary, the true story of how that time period come about.
The Weird Means Lions Led To The Cornbread Mafia’s Demise
ScreenRant: So, inform me the way you all met, and similar to slightly bit about who you’re.
Bobby Joe Shewmaker: All of us went to the identical highschool. Jimmy’s slightly youthful than me, and Joe Keith, however me and Joe Keith was — I graduated a yr earlier than him. It is a small rural group, so all people is aware of all people. From the mayor to the governor, to no matter.
Evan Mascagni: These two are brothers.
ScreenRant: What are a few of the highlights we are able to sit up for?
Bobby Joe Shewmaker: In regards to the lions?
Evan Mascagni: How’d you come about these?
Bobby Joe Shewmaker: I went to purchase a herd of cattle. Nicely, I used to be on the run, however I used to be going to dope crop out west. I went to purchase some cattle, and the man wasn’t there once I received there. I used to be ready for him to get there, and I walked round. I regarded within the corn crib, and he had an enormous coug in there— a reside cougar. So I stated, “Rattling, that is cool there. I might wish to have one in every of them cats.” And he comes again, and lengthy story quick, I did not purchase the cattle, did not purchase his cat, however he gave me the identify of the man that bought African lions. So I went all the way down to central Kansas and acquired two lions that day. After which he had a bear operating round, and stated, “I might wish to have a bear too.” So, I ended up going again later and shopping for the bear, after which I purchased two extra lions in a while.
ScreenRant: What?
Bobby Joe Shewmaker: They was African lions.
Joe Keith: The kicker on that story is that at the moment, Bobby Joe was on the run from a federal case in Savannah, Georgia, and he was convicted, and he was purported to report back to the Marshall Service. Nicely, he had a unique concept. He determined that he did not need to flip himself in and serve time on a federal case. So he went to Kansas, arrange an enormous develop operation, and within the course of, that is when he determined they wanted a number of lions and a bear. Not a guard canine or something, he simply needed to purchase some lion cubs. In order that’s how that began. We had an enormous develop operation on the market. What number of vegetation was on the market? 60,000?
Bobby Joe Shewmaker: Nicely, lower than what they stated. They stated 74,000.
Joe Keith: 74,000 vegetation on six counties on the market.
Evan Mascagni: However then, once they find yourself getting busted, and there are these farms in Kansas that received busted, and the farms in Kentucky — Bobby Joe had given a kind of lion cubs to Jimmy Bickett. So, the prosecutors had been making an attempt to attach these farms and present this huge conspiracy by connecting these lion cubs that had been now in a number of states, to assist present the scale of this group.
ScreenRant: The lions had been the a part of the downfall?
Jimmy Bickett: Nicely, Bobby Joe gave me a feminine lion. She’s form of like most girls, form of overacting on a regular basis and reducing up on a regular basis. So, I made a decision to drive to Kansas and commerce it off for a male lion. So, we go on the market to Kansas, and we have a look at the patches, and undergo the Rocky Mountains, and we have got our outdated girls with us, or no matter you need to name them. So I get a male lion, I am going again dwelling, and right here comes the federal sport wardens at some point, with some DEA or one thing. So, I attempt to get away. After all, I do not get away from ’em. They usually stated, “You bought a lion cub down at your own home?” I stated, “Yeah.” They stated, “Let’s go have a look at it. The place’d you get it?” I stated, “Purchased it from some man coming by means of city there.” After all, I reduce out the Kansas half. They stated, “He did not give it to you?” I stated, “No, what are you speaking about?” So that they requested me about 10 occasions once they had me underneath arrest, they requested me in regards to the lion: “Who’d you get it from? What’d he seem like? What was he driving?” So, I instructed all of them this bulls–t story. Anyway, they take my lion, the federal sport wardens. What it come all the way down to is the explanation they got here all the way down to my home, they had been on the lookout for him. [Laughs] He was on the run. They used the federal sport wardens, asking in regards to the lion to see if they might discover Shewmaker down there.
Joe Keith: That they had found the lions on one in every of Bobby Joe’s farms on the market, however after that went down, they discovered, the DEA did, that Jimmy Bickett additionally had a lion cub, in order that they needed to tie the 2 issues collectively. That is what it was. One was on the distribution finish, which is in Kentucky. The develop operation was in Kansas. And so, to tie that conspiracy collectively, they had been making an attempt to make use of lion cubs that he had, and the one he had in Kentucky.
Bobby Joe Shewmaker: And the lion cubs wasn’t even associated.
Drew Morris: They tried to say throughout a trial that this lion needed to come from Kansas, the place they discovered on the patch up there, the lions and bears, however the decide did not associate with it.
Bobby Joe Shewmaker: They could not discover out the place the lion come from.
Cornbread Mafia premiered at SXSW on March 12, however has not but had a large public launch.
- Location
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Austin, Texas
- Description
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The SXSW Convention is an annual occasion held in Austin, Texas, that celebrates the convergence of expertise, movie, music, training, and tradition. It contains a numerous vary of programming, together with keynote speeches, panel discussions, exhibitions, networking occasions, and reside performances, attracting professionals, creators, and innovators from world wide to discover new concepts and rising developments.
- Dates
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March 12–18, 2026
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