In the swamps and juke joints of Holmes County, Mississippi, Edward Tillman Branch built his empire. Tillman's clubs were legendary. Moonshine flowed as patrons enjoyed craps games and well-known blues acts. Across from his Goodman establishment, prostitutes in a trysting trailer entertained men, including the married Tillman himself. A threat to law enforcement and anyone who crossed his path, Branch rose from modest beginnings to become the ruler of a treacherous kingdom in the hills that became his own end. Author Janice Branch Tracy reveals the man behind the story and the path that led him to become what Honeyboy Edwards referred to in his autobiography as the "baddest white man in Mississippi."
Janice Branch Tracy is a sixth-generation Mississippian, with deep roots in Attala and Holmes Counties. After attending the University of Mississippi, she began a thirty-year career with the United States government, retiring in 2004. Avidly interested in history and genealogy, she started a genealogy blog in 2008. In 2011, and again in 2013, her blog, Mississippi Memories, was listed among Family History Magazine's Top 40 Genealogy Blogs.