“There were hundreds of victims.” Men from all walks of life-professors, mail carriers, politicians-fell victim to the scam. “A lot of money came flowing in,” said retired Special Agent Keith Bell. But there was a catch-the scammers told their victims a variety of lies about why they needed money before they could leave where they were. The men who replied to the return post office box address got additional correspondence and racy pictures. Then they placed bogus ads in homosexual publications claiming they were gay and looking for a new partner to move in with. Inmates paid guards to use prison telephones. Dixie Mafia inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola were behind a scam, led by Ringleader Kirksey McCord Nix-a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without parole-who believed that if he raised enough money he could buy his way out of jail. When word got out that Biloxi-with its history of strip clubs and illicit gambling-was a safe haven, the criminals settled in.Īt the same time, members of the organization incarcerated at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola were running a “lonely hearts” scam extorting and blackmailing gay men with the help of associates on the street. They were a loose confederation of thugs and crooks who conducted their criminal activity in the Southeastern United States. The Dixie Mafia had no ties to La Cosa Nostra. But for a long time, Sheriff Leroy Hobbs and his Dixie Mafia associates held sway. Anything you can think of, they were involved in.”īell is quick to point out that there were plenty of honest officers on the force, and some would later help the FBI put an end to the culture of corruption in Biloxi. “For money, the sheriff and officers loyal to him would release prisoners from the county jail, safeguard drug shipments, and hide fugitives. “They were doing anything and everything illegal down here,” said Bell, who grew up on the Gulf Coast. Special Agent Royce Hignight initiated the investigation of the sheriff and was soon joined by Bell. “It was out of control,” said retired Special Agent Keith Bell, referring to the level of corruption in Biloxi and Harrison County-so much so that in 1983 federal authorities would designate the entire Harrison County Sheriff’s Office as a criminal enterprise. On September 14, 1987, Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife, Margaret, were slain in their Biloxi home at the hands of the so-called Dixie Mafia, a loosely knit group of traveling criminals performing residential burglary, robbery and theft based in what was called “the Strip”, a string of seedy bars, strip joints and gambling parlors that flourished along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast from the 1960s to the 1980s.
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