The Field of Justice: Moonshine and Murder In North Georgia

Can’t do what you didn’t. Can’t undo what you did. 1887: JAMES GODARD, A CANTANKEROUS OLD MAN, had fled from his past to live far up in the mountains of Towns County, Georgia. Tilmon Justice was a young man working hard to provide for his growing family in the insular Appalachian world, but he had the odds stacked against him. What these two men had in common was a land boundary—and a history with moonshine. Their feud comes to a violent and inevitable conclusion, tearing apart families in a small community.This story has been documented in newspaper articles and in the handwritten court transcript from the murder trial—now retold for us here through the imagination of one of the character’s descendants.Dr. William Akins Thomas, Jr., is the great-great-great grandson of James Bennett Godard. His genealogical research, vivid imagination, and engaging writing have brought to life another tale from the pages of his own family history. Read more