Whirlwind: The Butcher Banking Scandal [Hardcover]

Sandra Lea (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1882194756 | ISBN-13: 978-1882194759 | Publication Date: December 1, 2000 | Edition: aFirst Edition First Printing

The true story of brothers, Jake and C.H. Butcher Jr., who rose from the poor rural countryside of Union County in the mountains of East Tennessee, to become masters of a multi-billion dollar banking empire.

Their lives of wealth and the power it bought created a whirlwind of greed and lavish spending rarely seen in today's world.

At the height of Jake Butcher's reign as chairman of the Knoxville's World's Fair, the house of Butcher fell like a house of cards, culminating in the third largest banking failure in our nation's history.

Hundreds of individuals and institutions were ruined in the Butcher debacle fanning a dismal decade of suicides and destruction, along with prison terms for the Butcher brothers and their associates.

Now, released from federal prison and under a sentence of bankruptcy for life, the brothers are "Back on top again," mastering million dollar deals and billion dollar dreams on borrowed money and borrowed time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Jesse Barr, the banking wizard who went down with the Butchers, said "It's the truth." -- Metro Pulse, December 27, 2000

The Butcher story has everything, politics, power, money, sex...this is simply too wonderful a history to be ignored. -- The Halls Shopper News, January 15, 2001

Whirlwind is a fun read. I was fascinated reading the book. Lea presents a good story. -- Tennessee Bar Journal

About the Author

Author Sandra Lea is a native of Virginia. This is the first book published under her name, although she has written for the published works of other writers and editors.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 647 pages
• Publisher: Whirl Wind; aFirst Edition First Printing edition (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882194756
• ISBN-13: 978-1882194759
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,167,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author of Whirlwind: The Butcher Banking Scandal. Book was on the Books-A-Million Top Ten Best Sellers' list for three years; hit Number One on the Best Sellers' list twice in a two-year period. After five years, book hit the Collectables Market in New York at over $4,000 per copy.

Work in progress and under copyright:

Whirlwind Encore, sequel to Whirlwind: The Butcher Banking Scandal, documenting the Butchers' activites during and after their releases from Federal prison; they never stopped scamming.

The Great Pretenders: Pretending to be Public Servants, documenting political corruption in Knox County, Tennessee, which has contrubted to Tennessee's designation as the Most Corrupt state in the USA.

Rogue Lawyers: The Perversion of the American Judicial System.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I can't believe it's not better!, June 22, 2001

By 

Sam L. Clapp (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Whirlwind: The Butcher Banking Scandal (Hardcover)

Sandra Lea's book is--at times--entertaining and informative. It certainly has the veneer of believablilty to those of us who lived through the collapse of the banking empire of Jake and CH Butcher back in the early '80's. There are NO sources cited, however--no notes, no references, no biliography, nothing--that might lend this book some historical credibility. Clearly, much of the book's material comes from court records--I can't fathom that anyone would speak so stiltedly to another human being in an interview--but which court? Whose trial? The book is packed with essentialy unusable information from a research standpoint, because none of it is backed up with hard evidence. Who is this Sandra Lea? She has not included anything in the book that might establish her credentials. Why has she written this book? Is she a financial researcher? A local historian? A former depositor with a personal vendetta?

Worse, Lea's writing jumps through the history it discloses most haphazardly. First it's 1973, then 1982, then 1984. We read passages from before the 1982 World's Fair, then the subsequent fall of the Butchers in 83 and 84, then jump back to have a scene of Jake wooing exhibitors for the Fair. It's as if she never had an editor look over the work, as if she simply wrote down everything she found out. It's such a SHAME, too! The story is so interesting, so naturally dramatic on its own, that, written well, this book could be of interest to everyone in the US, rather than merely the targeted local Tennessee population that its typesetting, printing, and binding belie.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A blockbuster chocked full of TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION!, December 17, 2011

By 

S. Loy "Justisiscumin" (The Southeast) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Whirlwind: The Butcher Banking Scandal (Hardcover)

This book epitimizes the old saying that "truth is stranger than fiction". The Butcher banking scandal rocked all of east Tennessee and the entire banking world. The precursor to the banking scandals of the last decade...this is a story which has to be read, remembered, and should be required reading in every business school in the world! Lea is a 5 star author!

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Pleased, January 9, 2009

By 

Martha T. Mcsween - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Whirlwind: The Butcher Banking Scandal (Hardcover)

This Book was a gift for my Grandson, He was very impressed due to the fact that the book was autographed by the Author. We are pleased with the purchase.

Thank you
Martha McSween