The company was capable of producing 2.6 million pounds of paper per day, employed 1,100 workers and 1,500 independent contractors, with headquarters at 111 West 50th Street, New York.
[5] At its peak, the mill's manager, George W. Brumley, reported:Gilman Paper Company is the only major Georgia industry south of Brunswick and east of Waycross.
[9] Gilman Paper Company's labor union president, Wyman Westberry, contacted the project's members to bring attention to the 18 million gallons of wastewater the mill generated daily and was discharging into the St. Marys River without treatment.
Later that spring, Mike Wallace and the film crew of CBS Evening News 60 Minutes visited St. Marys to interview the mill's manager, George W. Brumley, and report on Gilman Paper Company's tax arrangements and involvement in local politics.
However, in October 1970, ten days before the general election, Carl Drury was approached by a Gilman Paper Company employee with an accusation of medical misconduct.
[5][7] Carl Drury refused to end his campaign, his medical license was suspended, and a grand jury was convened to investigate the charges.
The grand jury issued a report clearing Carl Drury of the charges, after investigation revealed that the eyewitness affidavit had been signed in the office of opponent Robert W. Harrison by an individual who claimed never to have read it.
[5][7][8] After winning the election, state representative Carl Drury requested investigation of Gilman Paper Company's affairs, ranging from taxes to pollution control.
The director of the Georgia Watershed Protection Branch ordered Gilman Paper Company to increase its anti-pollution efforts.
[5][6][7] Following the increased environment regulation, tax assessments, and negative publicity in 1972, a Gilman Paper Company supervisor, William (Tommy) Thomas, offered fellow mill employee, Lawrence Brown, $50,000 to kill the labor union president, Wyman Westberry.
The FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation provided Lawrence Brown with covert listening devices to record his conversations.
After release, Brown continued to express that he was forced to renounce his story from fear of the Gilman Paper Company executives.
The film alleges that improper waste disposal, political corruption, and tax arrangements by the Gilman Paper Company resulted in the civil right infringement of the residents of St. Marys, Georgia, and employees of the mill.