Episode 4 - The Third Time’s the Charm

Description

In 1987, a circuit court judge and his wife, a former city council woman, who wanted to be mayor, were murdered in their home in Biloxi, Mississippi. It was obviously a professional hit. Vincent Sherry was a former criminal defense attorney who had defended members of the Dixie Mafia. Now, he was putting criminals away. Margaret Sherry was a fiery republican in a public slap fight with the current democratic mayor. She wanted to clean up the Biloxi strip of seedy night clubs and gambling, which of course, the Dixie Mafia ran. And she wanted to expose corruption in city hall.

Who was the real target? It was a conspiracy that would take four years and the determination of their oldest daughter to unravel.

Photo Gallery

Show Notes

Written, hosted and produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Haley Gray & Erica Kelley
Edited by Chaes Gray
Case Suggestion by listeners: Casey Porter, Eileen Mace & Drew Stuart
Suggested Reading: Mississippi Mud: Southern Justice & The Dixie Mafia by Edward Humes
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison of Gamma Radio

Sources

Suggested Reading: Mississippi Mud: Southern Justice & The Dixie Mafia by Edward Humes

  1. https://biloxi.ms.us/departments/mayor/mayors-of-biloxi/

  2. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/dixie-mafia-murders-article-1.347104

  3. https://www.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2013/04/former_biloxi_mayor_pete_Halat.html

  4. https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/crime/article173225801.html

  5. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/10/23/charge-in-judges-slaying/61d6e71d-79ab-45d4-9638-6228b780aeaf/

  6. https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/copy3_of_a-byte-out-of-history

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  32. https://www.sar.org/who-we-are

  33. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/18/us/new-criminal-class-is-flourishing-in-sun-belt.html

  34. https://www.justice.gov/osg/brief/Halat-v-united-states-opposition

  35. https://www.wlox.com/story/22304298/wlox-exclusive-former-biloxi-mayor-recalls-trial-talks-about-time-in-federal-prison/

  36. https://www.tulsaworld.com/archive/murder-prison-scam-alleged/article_1c7fe873-85e4-5fcf-807e-b69dcb07557f.html

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