George Remus (November 13, 1876[1] – January 20, 1952) was a German-born American lawyer who was a bootlegger during the early days of Prohibition,[2] and later murdered his wife Imogene.

[1] Remus arrived in the United States on June 15, 1882, (departing from Norway on the Fifington to New York)[4] and briefly lived in Maryland, then Wisconsin and finally moved to Chicago in 1885.

Remus memorized the Volstead Act and found a loophole which allowed him to buy distilleries and pharmacies to produce and sell bonded liquor for medicinal purposes, under government licenses.

One of Remus's fortified distilleries was the so-called "Death Valley Farm", in Westwood, Cincinnati, which he purchased from George Gehrum.

As parting gifts, Remus presented all the men with diamond stickpins, and gave each guest's wife a brand new car.

[5] He held a similar party in June 1923, while he was having problems with the government, at which he gave each female guest (of the fifty present) a brand new car.

[11] The marriage ended in divorce in 1920 after Remus began an affair with his legal secretary, Augusta Imogene Holmes (née Brown).

He was indicted for thousands of violations of the Volstead Act, convicted by a jury that made its decision in under two hours, and given a two-year federal prison sentence.

[13] While he was in prison, Remus befriended another inmate and eventually confided in him that his wife, Imogene Holmes, had control over his money.

Remus jumped out and fatally shot Imogene in the abdomen in front of the Spring House Gazebo to the horror of park onlookers.

[15] Remus pleaded transitory insanity, which he had used previously during his time as a defense lawyer,[16] emphasizing his distress at his wife's betrayal.

[18] After his release from the institution in Lima, he was an informal tutor to another well-known Cincinnati lawyer, William Foster Hopkins, for a period of about six years.

[19] George Remus later moved to Covington, Kentucky (across the Ohio River from Cincinnati), where he lived modestly the next 20 years without incident.

Remus was portrayed by Glenn Fleshler on HBO's Prohibition-era series Boardwalk Empire, beginning in its second season.