United States v. Mitchell Miller, Susan McDuffie Weeks, and John Henry McDuffie

GOLDBERG, Circuit Judge:

On January 9, 1973, a fire broke out at the Southeastern Metal Company warehouse in Kathleen, Georgia. When officials of the Houston County Sheriff’s Department and volunteer fire department arrived to fight the blaze, they discovered in the building a 7500 gallon-capacity distillery, some 175 gallons of non-tax-paid whiskey, and related paraphernalia. With this discovery the lush dreams of bourbon living that the still owners must have harbored were suddenly scotched.

Although no arrests were made at that time, five persons — Mitchell Miller, John Henry McDuffie, Susan…