Murder For Hire & Political Corruption In Mississipi! Fed Explains The Dixie Mafia!
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 26 minutes
Words per Minute
144.8827
Summary
On this episode of FedIt, we cover the Dixie mafia and the crimes they committed in the 80's, 90's and early 00's. We go over the most infamous gangster, Victor Bout, and how he got his start in the drug trade.
Transcript
00:00:00.880
All right, and we are live. What's up, guys? Welcome to FedIt. Today, we're going to be covering the Dixie Mafia.
00:00:05.300
You guys requested this one, man. We're going to take a break from serial killers. We're going to go back to organized crime and public corruption.
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Let's get into it. This is going to be a good one.
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I was a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, okay, guys? HSI.
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The cases that I did mostly were human smuggling and drug trafficking.
00:00:26.200
Dr. Lafredo confirmed lacerations due to stepping on glass.
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You see him reaching in his jacket. You don't know.
00:00:38.640
You're facing two pounds of two-legitated murder.
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Young Slime Life here and after referred to as YSL.
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This is 6ix9ine, and then this is Billy Seiko right here.
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Now, when they first started, guys, 6ix9ine ran with me.
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Well, you know, I'm bobbing my head like, hey, this shit lit.
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They can effectively link him to paying an underage girl.
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Two terrorists, brothers, the Zokar Sarnab and Tamerlan Sarnab.
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When the cartels shipped drugs into the country.
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Trading secrets with the Russians for monetary compensation.
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The largest corrupt police bust in New Orleans history.
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Guys, I want to show y'all the channel real quick.
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We got the Fed Explains, the merchant of death.
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If you guys want to know the real backstory on Victor Bout and why he was really a bad dude.
00:02:31.800
I go over the entire investigation that ended up putting him in jail.
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But, yes, this guy was trying to sell weapons to undercover DEA operatives that were trying to kill American soldiers that were combating the Colombians and the Americans going against the FARC.
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The L United States on this part because that was a bad trade.
00:02:53.360
Also, guys, check out my whole serial killer playlist, man.
00:02:57.320
I got a whole playlist on infamous serial killers for you guys.
00:03:00.740
This is a four-hour-plus breakdown on the most notorious serial killer of all time.
00:03:06.020
I did this one a couple weeks ago, almost two weeks ago now at this point.
00:03:09.160
Obviously, we got the Night Stalker, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, the Unabomber, right?
00:03:16.520
Also, I got a complete breakdown on 9-11, guys.
00:03:18.680
We go into the World Trade Center bombing, 9-11, an FBI investigation, Osama bin Laden.
00:03:24.080
His backstory, you know, a lot of people didn't know that he was a multi, multi, multi-millionaire.
00:03:30.740
Because the bin Laden family was responsible for a lot of the construction in Saudi Arabia.
00:03:36.260
And then we go into the conspiracy theories of 9-11 as well, where we went ahead and broke down the documentary, The New Pearl Harbor.
00:03:43.980
And, you know, we covered, you know, a bunch of different things with, you know, Shancrela Robinson's murder down there in Mexico.
00:03:51.020
We also go ahead and cover – we got the clips, right?
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And, obviously, you got all the videos you guys have come to learn and love, such as, you know, YNW Melly, YSL, the O'Block Rico, the takeoff shooting, Casanova, 6ix9ine, Tory Lanez.
00:04:06.580
We'll also be covering, you know, KFLOC, all the stuff.
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Definitely one of the best true crime channels on YouTube by far because there's no one else that has my experience giving you all this kind of sauce on the internet, man.
00:04:22.440
Anyway, with that said, I got a special guest in the house.
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Christina, why don't you give yourself to the people?
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If you guys have any cases or tell me, like, whatever state you guys are in, contact Betit1811 on IG.
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Instagram, guys, she helps me out behind the scenes.
00:04:40.940
She went ahead and got me the Young Dolph documents, guys, and we got some more documents coming in.
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We made some connections, and the Young Dolph case is definitely going to be done very soon.
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We got exclusive documents that other people don't have.
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Christina's in the process of gathering all the documents.
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I think they got a court date in January, right?
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They have a court date this week, and then they have two more in January, but what I can't – I don't want to say.
00:05:07.820
Some stuff that we can't disclose yet we will on the episode, but yeah, Christina and Xena went up to Memphis and went and got the documents themselves, so shout out to both of them for helping me out.
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I'm going to go ahead and do – the next serial killer I'm going to cover, guys, is BTK, a.k.a. Dennis Rader.
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Definitely had Kansas, the worst serial killer, definitely in Wichita slash Kansas slash – well, Kansas is history, okay, let alone one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history.
00:05:40.660
And then I'm also going to go ahead and cover the guy that got arrested, FTX, Samuel Friedman.
00:05:51.440
I'm also going to be covering that one very soon as well.
00:05:54.500
And I know you guys have been asking about those college shootings.
00:06:13.000
I'm going to be covering his case as well coming up.
00:06:16.680
And as you guys know, Tory Lane right now is in the middle of trial.
00:06:22.940
I'm going to go ahead and look at, you know, the court transcripts and go ahead and go through some of the videos of how her testimony went.
00:06:28.800
But I'll probably do a reaction to the trial as well for you guys.
00:06:37.480
So with that said, guys, today we're going to be covering the Dixie Mafia, man.
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This is organized crime and public corruption at its finest.
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A lot of you guys may be familiar with Biloxi, very famous gambling slash tourist town.
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And we're going to go ahead into the dark backstory of Biloxi.
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And, yeah, we're going to cover the Dixie Mafia.
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This is a really good organized crime case when it comes to public corruption.
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We've covered a couple of public corruption cases on this channel.
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So as usual, we're going to break down a documentary from the FBI Files, man.
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One of my favorite documentaries, as you guys know.
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And, yeah, without further ado, let's get right into it, ladies and gentlemen.
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In 1987, its secret burst violently to the surface.
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on mississippi's gulf coast a judge and his politician wife are murdered in their home
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the killer left few clues so this is our guys off rep you got a judge
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and a political figure being murdered in their own homes you already know this reeks of some
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craziness but once you guys see the reason why and who was behind it is about to be wild
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it looked like a professional hit and the investigation led nowhere but the fbi refused
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to give up i'm jim kalstrom former head of the fbi's new york office until we could prove that
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federal laws have been broken our hands were tied it would take years to break the conspiracy of
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silence and reveal the tangled tale of corruption biloxi mississippi monday september 14th 1987
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it was a typically warm summer night in this quiet gulf coast town the workday was over
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and most residents had retreated to the tranquility of their homes
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like most of their neighbors state circuit court judge vincent sherry and his wife margaret
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just so you guys know where biloxi is right because it's it's important to kind of know
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where the area is so here is mississippi right here um
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right you come all the way down here you can see biloxi
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is right here right on the coast okay as you can see hard rock a hotel and casino
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um it's it's a vacation destination now but it wasn't always like that you guys are going to see
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what ended up um leading to this very soon okay
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both were fixtures at biloxi's social and community functions
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they were a happy couple who had raised three grown children
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tomorrow they planned to visit their daughter out of state
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they were just settling in for the night when an unexpected visitor came to the door
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the sherrys were supposed to be with her daughter so no one realized anything was wrong until two days later when the judge failed to show up in court
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later when the judge failed to show up in court on wednesday september 16th
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oh yeah mississippi is hot guys and this is the 80s this is before
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you know central ac was a huge thing so this is late 80s
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i'm sorry we can't take your call but leave your message after the beep
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his colleagues at the court phoned pete hallette
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morning peter but he hadn't seen or heard from the judge either well he's supposed to be in court
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i don't know no wait you let me call him at home and i'll figure out where he is all right
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after he left a concerned message on the sherry's answering machine hallette felt he'd better
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check on his friend personally i got the machine judge judge it's pete they're looking for you in
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court is everything okay on his way out he asked his junior partner charles legere to ride with
00:13:08.780
i need some help so let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go give me a call back okay yeah
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i think if we go together the two of us hmm smart bringing a witness
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as they drove legere tried to make conversation
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uh that seemed distant perhaps concerned about the judge
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both of the sherry's cars stood in the driveway
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he saw that the last two morning newspapers hadn't been picked up
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just to let y'all know um you know obviously as a judge
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wife is a politician you're not missing a newspaper guys remember in 1987 there was no
00:14:39.980
other way really to get the news besides conventional television a lot of times it
00:14:44.860
would have to be cable tv unless unless i don't even think cnn was like a thing really at this point
00:14:48.540
where they had 24 7 news okay um or you're watching the broadcast through you know you're watching
00:14:54.860
like the news broadcasts that came in throughout the day you know maybe 8 a.m news and the 5 p.m
00:14:59.180
news and maybe some late later evening news around 7 or 9 p.m but in general newspapers were a way
00:15:05.020
of life back then guys i know nowadays it's like what the fuck newspaper magazines books ha no one
00:15:10.460
needs that stupid but back in the 80s that was a big deal so for him to see two days of newspapers
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not being picked up that's that's yeah what the hell's going on here all right and i know a lot
00:15:20.540
of you young bucks are like what the hell are you talking about myron but yes guys
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newspapers were a big deal back then i remember myself my dad
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he would he couldn't get through the day unless he had the morning paper just a thing
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the neighbor told her that she hadn't seen the sherry's for a couple of days
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which she thought was odd since both of their cars were in the driveway
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when legere tried the sherry's door he found it unlocked something wasn't right pete pete
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yeah i was uh just knocking on him the door opened up a lot concerned by the open door cautiously stepped
00:16:18.300
a few steps in he made the gruesome discovery judge sherry had been gunned down in his own home
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authorities arrived to find the body of vincent sherry at the front of the house
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because the couple was so popular the murder investigation became top priority
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detectives contacted the fbi's biloxi field office
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though the fbi would not yet be officially involved they offered the use of their agents and forensic
00:17:03.180
laboratory all right so let me break this down for y'all real quick when you're in a small town right
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remember this is before biloxi blew up and became the city that is it is now being a vacation
00:17:13.100
destination um it was still in its infant stages when when you're a federal agent right and you're
00:17:18.780
assigned to a small city like this all the law enforcement know each other so if something crazy
00:17:25.100
happens something big happens to town everybody is going to come in and work together all right the
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feds are going to come in and help out the state now remember guys it's a murder case right and i've
00:17:34.460
explained to you guys before murder cases nine out of ten times unless there's some other type of
00:17:39.820
federal crime being involved right let's say a bank robbery for example typically are state-led
00:17:44.700
investigations all right premeditated murder you know murder in a second degree where it might not
00:17:49.740
necessarily been premeditated almost always falls to the state the feds don't come in unless the
00:17:55.580
state asks for the help or the state needs the help whether it might be like they said in the
00:18:00.060
documentary um you know a forensic lab they need manpower uh you know they have a working
00:18:05.740
relationship where hey listen i got a buddy who's an fbi agent and you got a homicide detective and
00:18:10.220
they just want their help you know he'll request uh hey can i get some assistance or whatever maybe
00:18:14.460
they want a profile on the killer right if it's a serial killer someone crazy and there's a pattern
00:18:18.220
of the killing and they want to figure out what type of individual he may be right so all of these
00:18:23.580
things come into play but typically when there's a fbi office a homeland office an atf office dea
00:18:30.140
office etc in a smaller area they work together a lot of the time so it wouldn't be uncommon right
00:18:37.260
even though this is going to be a state-led investigation off rip for the fbi to come in
00:18:41.020
and assist especially with something like this that has a lot of uh media coverage right you got a judge
00:18:46.700
and you got a political figure being murdered in their home well yeah quite clearly there's
00:18:52.700
some nefarious activity behind that so um you know at the onset of the investigation fbi is probably
00:18:58.460
going to come in um because it's a smaller town everyone knows each other so this isn't uncommon
00:19:02.620
but in a major city yeah it's a little bit different you know unless there's good relationships
00:19:07.180
between agencies you're not going to see camaraderie like this level
00:19:19.420
inside the police began scouring the crime scene for clues
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they conducted blood spatter analysis to determine projectile angles
00:19:31.340
if they could figure out where the murderer had stood when he fired the shots
00:19:44.780
inspector robert burris a crime technician with the biloxi police department helped process the scene
00:19:58.780
there was blood trailing from his feet actually going down between his legs a little ways
00:20:05.820
back to where he was laying there was blood spatter on a double sliding glass door
00:20:13.340
that was right beyond his head and for other examination in this room i found some
00:20:24.220
burris didn't see where the foam rubber could have come from
00:20:29.020
a search of the house led him to one conclusion
00:20:31.420
now this foam rubber had to have been brought into the house we examined
00:20:38.220
every piece of material in this house in every room of the house all pillows mattresses everything
00:20:43.500
else there's no foam rubber tore up in this house it was brought into the house it does have gunshot residue on it
00:20:50.380
and basically about the only way it can get there is for a bullet to be fired through it
00:20:57.740
for burris the significance of the foam rubber was obvious the killer had used a homemade silencer
00:21:03.340
all right so guys that's a huge red flag the fact that they use the silencer tells you okay
00:21:13.660
we're not dealing with some amateurs here right number one silencers aren't necessarily easy to
00:21:17.260
get and then the fact that there was rubber foam means it was a homemade one which means that this
00:21:20.780
guy had a serious um you know if that doesn't show premeditation i don't know what does right
00:21:26.460
clearly they had to get in they knew the statute the the status of the individuals that they were
00:21:30.940
targeting they had to get it done in a way where it wouldn't be loud it's a quiet neighborhood so all
00:21:35.820
these you know different uh steps that the killer took right show what premeditation right the type
00:21:43.900
of figures that they were going after the want to keep it uh nice and quiet because it's a residential
00:21:48.860
neighborhood all this stuff factors into it so the police at this point know that they're not dealing
00:21:53.260
with some amateur idiot whoever they're dealing with is a planned and seasoned professional
00:22:02.620
investigators dusted for fingerprints but found none of any value
00:22:09.980
they found nine spent 22 caliber shell casings from a semi-automatic pistol
00:22:16.380
as well as the bullets used to murder the sherris
00:22:18.700
the position of the shells indicated that the shots had been fired in rapid succession
00:22:27.820
but most striking was how well the killer had covered his tracks
00:22:33.820
nothing at the scene pointed to the killer's identity
00:22:39.260
so what do you think he did his job well and his mission was clear
00:22:43.180
the lack of evidence in this house such as uh items stolen uh a struggle occurring the absence of
00:22:53.420
forced entry uh no ransacking going on in the house whatsoever a person came there for one thing
00:23:00.380
that was to kill the two sherris special agent keith bell from the biloxi fbi field office agreed that
00:23:07.980
this was a professional job the sherris had been assassinated the crime scene appeared to be very
00:23:17.100
limited as far as evidence remaining which meant it was well planned well executed and professionally done
00:23:24.780
a small caliber weapon had been used the uh foam rubber indicated that perhaps a silencer had
00:23:33.340
also been used and the sherris had been shot in the head so uh it seemed to be a very professional job
00:23:43.900
now also this might seem familiar for you guys you guys know i went ahead and covered another podcast
00:23:49.020
right um a guy that actually committed a hit and he used a book called hitman right to commit the murders
00:23:57.580
and i actually had a got a copy of the book here let me say christina can you try to dig it up it's
00:24:02.220
somewhere um and he filed the instructions in that book and he ended up almost getting away with the
00:24:08.140
murder yet the police when they searched his house found that book and he and obviously a lot of the
00:24:13.820
things that they found at the crime scene matched the book so that was a big uh how do i say this that
00:24:19.580
that was a l for him for sure because the next thing you know fbi open up so and he ended up going to
00:24:27.820
jail but um this is also very interesting to see that we got another professionally done hit in this
00:24:33.340
one but go check out that episode guys it was probably one of the worst murder for hire cases uh
00:24:38.300
i've covered you know ended up where a wife and a child were killed by a crazy ass husband uh go check
00:24:44.620
it out it's on fed it on the documentary breakdown channel playlist a multi-agency task force was
00:24:51.580
assembled with special agent keith bell among its members investigators and this is an uncommon guys
00:24:59.260
like i said before in small towns the feds in the state typically work fairly closely together and
00:25:03.660
task force is a common thing and if you got a big case like this where you got prominent figures of
00:25:09.340
public officials etc getting killed and the way that they got killed with a professional hit aka a hitman
00:25:14.300
with almost no evidence yeah everyone's going to be all over it spend days processing the crime scene
00:25:25.500
they grappled with a single question why had the cherries been murdered
00:25:34.860
that was one of the main questions uh that being why were both judge sherry and margaret
00:25:40.780
shout out to christina she found the book there's a book right here guys uh hitman okay a technical
00:25:47.420
manual for independent contractors crazy stuff and real quick i'll show y'all the episode that i'm
00:25:54.140
talking about in general here um so if you go to fed 1811 it's right here um you go over to crime
00:26:00.380
documentary breakdowns and it is right here this band uh this band book led to the murder for hire and um
00:26:07.340
oh hold on my bed it's not even on the screen let me share screen with y'all this is it right here
00:26:11.580
okay uh and this this was crazy records and we broke it down really good episode um and the book ended
00:26:19.420
up getting banned after from a lawsuit so yeah anyway timestamp surrender you know definitely go check
00:26:26.380
it out go enjoy we got more breakdowns like that on uh fed it but anyway let's get back to the episode here
00:26:31.020
we'll hold on hold on we murdered because it was fairly obvious that judge sherry could have been
00:26:40.860
killed during his morning or afternoon jogs around the neighborhood so it was a real mystery why margaret
00:26:49.340
had been killed investigators believe the answer might lie in the controversy over biloxi's future
00:26:56.300
some civic leaders hoped to transform the sleepy southern town on mississippi's gulf coast
00:27:04.620
into a flashy resort where casinos would attract tourist dollars
00:27:11.580
but with strip clubs already established in town
00:27:14.700
margaret sherry felt biloxi's small town charms were threatened
00:27:17.980
and the casinos would attract a criminal element
00:27:26.220
as a candidate for mayor she had made powerful political enemies by trying to keep gambling out
00:27:32.940
hmm so there you go that's a clue right there guys
00:27:37.180
she didn't want biloxi to become what it is now okay a gambling hub because obviously
00:27:42.300
i mean let's be honest here anytime you introduce gambling what do you introduce you introduce
00:27:45.980
a lot of degeneracy with gambling comes strip clubs bars um prostitution uh drug trafficking
00:27:54.620
uh criminal activity in general just comes alongside gambling it is what it is guys you look at places
00:27:59.020
like las vegas you look at any type of place that's huge with gambling some type of criminal activity
00:28:04.220
isn't far behind okay so um she didn't want that so obviously there's a lot of money to be made in
00:28:10.220
gambling in these types of uh vices so i'm not surprised that she would be a target
00:28:15.980
uh agent bell wondered if margaret was killed to silence her protests
00:28:23.900
margaret had been so outspoken politically in the community
00:28:27.740
she was known to be anti-gambling and uh if elected mayor in 1989 she had planned to close down
00:28:34.780
the remaining strip clubs in biloxi so there was always a possibility that she might have been the
00:28:40.060
target rather than judge sherry the task force would investigate margaret's political enemies
00:28:48.940
but first they'd question the sherry's friends and neighbors
00:28:54.060
someone in the neighborhood must have seen something
00:28:56.220
in biloxi but even people who'd known the sherries for years were reluctant to talk
00:29:05.340
fearing the specter of biloxi's emerging criminal underworld
00:29:08.620
the sherry murders brought a dark cloud over the city of biloxi many of the citizens in biloxi were
00:29:21.180
afraid to openly express their opinions they saw that margaret sherry who had been quite vocal and quite
00:29:28.060
outspoken in political circles had ended up dead as had her prominent husband judge sherry so many
00:29:35.420
citizens after these murders were hesitant even to be interviewed by fbi agents or by local police
00:29:43.500
officers because they basically did not want their names tied into anything to do with this case
00:29:51.420
if people wouldn't talk to the authorities perhaps they would talk to lynn spazito the sherry's daughter
00:29:57.580
after being notified of her parents murders lynn rushed to biloxi from her home in north carolina
00:30:03.740
determined to find justice she questioned everyone in the neighborhood
00:30:09.100
one family friend that makes me wonder if the police asked her hey can you you know
00:30:12.940
do some do a little bit of snooping for us or whatever this is the 80s man times were different back then
00:30:17.660
uh but yeah you ain't gonna be able to turn away uh a very sad daughter about her parents death
00:30:26.940
he described a suspicious car and driver in the neighborhood on the night of the murders oh here we go
00:30:42.300
she took the lead to the police they identified a man who had seen a suspicious
00:30:49.900
ford fairmont driving in front of the sherry home on monday night september 14th 1987.
00:31:00.220
investigators tried to determine the identity of the driver based on the witness's description
00:31:08.220
but a few days later not far from the sherry's home investigators found an abandoned car
00:31:23.500
a check on the vehicle's identification number showed it had been reported stolen the day before the
00:31:31.180
police also learned that the tags on the car were not registered to the car
00:31:34.940
realized more clues realizing that this vehicle was probably the killer's getaway car investigators
00:31:43.500
towed it to a police garage to examine it further
00:31:48.460
somewhere in the car they hoped to find a key to the killer's identity
00:31:58.460
less than a week after the brutal murders of deluxe couple vince and margaret sherry
00:32:03.260
investigators received their first promising lead
00:32:07.500
they recovered an abandoned car matching the one witnesses described seeing the night of the murders
00:32:16.700
after contacting agent keith bell about the discovery investigators processed the car for clues
00:32:26.220
inspector robert burris found something peculiar
00:32:28.780
i was processing this vehicle and one of the things i noted
00:32:34.620
the dome light had been dismantled and the bulb taken out of it in other words if you open the door
00:32:39.900
you ain't got no light both of the sun visors were in the down position whether you're riding
00:32:44.860
around daytime or nighttime you ain't gonna be able to see the people's face in it very well
00:32:50.380
investigators believed more than ever that this was the car used by the sherry's killer
00:32:55.500
anything found inside it was labeled packaged and shipped to the fbi labs in washington dc
00:33:08.380
but fbi lab examiners would find nothing of evidentiary value
00:33:12.220
after agent bill arrived he examined the license tag more closely
00:33:24.300
here and it was determined that the tag on the ford fairmont had been stolen from an abandoned vehicle
00:33:33.100
in 1984 actually three years before these murders occurred so what it meant was someone had removed
00:33:40.540
the license plate likely in 1984 had kept the license plate and then when this major crime in
00:33:46.700
the city of biloxi was uh to occur they pulled it off the shelf so to speak
00:33:54.460
so that's weird so you're telling me that they could potentially plan this thing a year prior
00:34:03.100
with no other solid evidence investigators hope that following the trail of the stolen tag
00:34:08.140
might lead to the killer it was traced to an apartment complex where the original car
00:34:13.660
had been abandoned three years earlier investigators contacted the apartment manager who told them
00:34:22.940
that prior to having the vehicle towed he called a friend to come and strip it for parts
00:34:29.660
the manager's friend was a man that agents knew by name and reputation
00:34:34.780
biloxi locksmith lenny swetman he was the last person to be seen near the car
00:34:44.220
swetman belonged to a loosely organized group of criminals the fbi was investigating in connection
00:34:49.500
with another case the group here we go it was known as the dixie mafia bam now we've been able to
00:34:58.300
effectively link a vehicle that was more than likely used in a murder of a public official no well actually
00:35:04.060
two public officials and um and link it back to an organized criminal group now the bureau can kind of
00:35:12.780
come in and get involved because they were already investigating them for organized criminal activity
00:35:17.820
now they're able to go ahead and add murder to the criminal activity guys as a as a part of the uh
00:35:24.700
you know typically when you're doing organized crime they typically look at it from a racketeering
00:35:28.380
standpoint murder is considered a crime that can fall under racketeering okay aka rico
00:35:34.220
fbi agent keith bell had connected the car used in the sherry killings to lenny swetman now bell
00:35:42.780
wondered if the dixie mafia was linked to the sherry murders
00:35:50.860
if swetman had a part in it bell believed that other dixie mafia members couldn't be far behind
00:35:56.300
he began looking into swetman's associates what that meant to us immediately those of us familiar
00:36:05.420
with the criminal associations on the coast was that if lenny swetman was involved in getting the tag for
00:36:12.780
the hit car then quite likely his close personal friend and longtime associate mike gillich the strip
00:36:20.620
club owner in biloxi might also be involved in these murders i'm sorry sometimes you know this
00:36:27.020
oh thanks all right gillich who owns a strip club owner also being linked to the person who is involved
00:36:35.580
with the vehicle guys more clues and would a strip club owner want a casino to be opened up in his town
00:36:45.660
more than likely yes three strip clubs in biloxi was well known to local law enforcement
00:36:55.340
he was currently under investigation by the fbi in connection with a dixie mafia operation
00:37:07.660
but special agent bell needed a thread that connected the two investigations together
00:37:11.980
he started by familiarizing himself with the lonely heart scan
00:37:25.660
by a man named kirksey nix the incarcerated kingpin of the dixie mafia no the first model nicks would run
00:37:34.380
ads in gay magazines asking for money to help fictional gay men get out of trouble with the law
00:37:41.980
through the skin nicks was hoping to generate enough money to solve his own legal problems
00:37:49.020
yo the finesse yo so he was out here right once again man the male
00:37:55.740
thirst for sex is so powerful that a dude in prison can go ahead and scam and say yo guys i'm gay i need
00:38:04.460
help i'll i'll write you letters blah blah blah give me some attention just pay me some money this is only
00:38:09.820
fans before only fans even existed it's coming from a dude out in jail making a bunch of money for his
00:38:21.500
he was serving a life sentence for murder from his jail cell at angola he coordinated what we've been
00:38:30.060
referring to as the homosexual scam which generated hundreds and remember also guys homosexuality back
00:38:38.140
in the late 80s was not accepted okay there was no gay marriage and none of that other stuff this is
00:38:43.100
all newer stuff in the past five to ten years i mean gay marriage was only approved i think what what in
00:38:48.860
the last decade or so so guys um for him this was kind of like a way to make money under the table
00:38:55.820
because there was still you know the lgbt committee wasn't as out there and pronounced as they are now
00:39:00.860
okay and here is your boy right here kirksey nix okay here he is uh he's still alive is the is the
00:39:08.380
former leader of the dixie mafia he's uh suspected oh my bad uh he was a suspect in assassination
00:39:15.580
attempt on sheriff buford uh buford pusser and in the death of buford's wife on august 12 1967 nix has
00:39:21.420
repeatedly refused to comment about pusser's claims that he was one of his wife's killers that's probably
00:39:26.140
what put him in jail in the 80s in the 1972 nix was convicted of murdering frank corso a new orleans
00:39:30.780
grocery executive in a break-in at corso's home and began serving a life sentence without parole
00:39:35.260
nix was later involved in 1987 murder for hire killing of judge vincent sherry and his wife
00:39:39.900
margaret in biloxi mississippi and we'll talk about that a little bit more but here he is here's
00:39:44.540
his uh here's his wikipedia page let me see if we can get uh here he is right here this is him guys
00:39:59.020
what's so funny christina oh his hair oh yeah it's like the impact of thousands of dollars
00:40:06.220
from individuals around the country and as well as some people in canada
00:40:12.220
uh with this money what did he call did he call it the homo scam
00:40:15.500
homosexual scam oh yeah which is amazing to me that's just like
00:40:21.820
well this documentary is from the early 2000s so they ain't gonna
00:40:24.060
fuck back that either late late 90s early 2000s so
00:40:28.380
hundreds of thousands of dollars we've been referring to as the homosexual scam
00:40:36.940
they would never be able to talk about the imagine the fbi today called the homosexual scam
00:40:41.420
they would never be able to call that now man times have changed which generated hundreds of
00:40:49.020
thousands of dollars from individuals around the country and as well as some people in canada
00:40:56.620
with this money he intended to buy his way out or attempt to buy his way out of his louisiana prison
00:41:04.780
sentence believing that they were helping gay men out of trouble people who read the magazine ads
00:41:10.540
would wire or mail money to a nearby western union
00:41:15.580
nix would then call his contact on the outside mike gillich
00:41:21.420
gillich would then dispatch his bag man to retrieve the money
00:41:28.460
gillich made sure that the scam money was distributed to dixie mafia members
00:41:32.780
and safely stashed away for curtsy nix take care all right so this is very interesting so here's
00:41:38.300
this so the scheme is you got curtsy nix who's in prison right for murder he's going ahead and
00:41:43.820
doing some scam with uh you know and targeting the the gay community right from a victim mindset like
00:41:50.300
hey i i need help blah blah blah help us out blah blah blah gets a bunch of money wired to him then
00:41:56.140
he tells gillich who's on the outside owns the strip clubs right he's getting a bunch of wires hey
00:42:01.340
well he runs a strip club it's a cash business who cares right then he says bag man goes get some
00:42:05.660
money and then he probably gets a cut of it and then he stores it for nix for his legal defense
00:42:10.460
smart scheme right here my friends that's a bunch of scamming right there i'm trying to say like what
00:42:14.780
else he did with it in the coming months investigators developed more evidence in the lonely heart scan
00:42:23.820
but still had no direct link between these conspirators and the sherry's killers
00:42:32.380
a year into the investigation the murder case threatened to stop
00:42:41.500
hi as the year stretched to 16 months the sherry's daughter lynn sposito grew increasingly frustrated
00:42:48.860
you said on the phone in january 1989 she hired a private investigator to rev up the inquest into
00:42:56.140
her parents murder i'll give him a call and i'll be on this case this afternoon shout out to her
00:43:03.340
daughter for not giving up the family had wanted very much to have a quick resolution to the case
00:43:09.660
but by early 1989 there'd still been no arrest of course at this point the fbi had not formally entered
00:43:24.780
the lack of official fbi involvement hampered bell's investigation
00:43:30.940
so when the private investigator paid him a visit bell welcomed his assistants hoping they could okay
00:43:36.380
let me break this down for you out real quick about how the fbi works guys the fbi is a very bureaucratic
00:43:42.700
and it's kind of funny because it's called the federal bureau of investigation but the bureaucracy
00:43:47.180
helps them from going ahead and getting their fucking work done okay they have a lot of red tape
00:43:52.140
it's very dope for them to do their job a lot of the times and what i mean by this is the fbi can't
00:43:57.260
actually commit serious resources to an investigation unless they have a case opened however it's a pain
00:44:04.220
in the ass for them to get an investigation open they need a supervisor they need a bunch of approvals
00:44:10.060
they need to have some kind of serious nexus blah blah it's bullshit so for them right for him to
00:44:16.060
actually commit the time he wants to and commit the resource he wants to in the effort that he wants to
00:44:20.060
he needs to actually formally open up an fbi investigation okay and as you guys can see it's a murder case
00:44:27.180
it's not the fbi's main thing now he's been able to make some links here and there with yo it might may or may
00:44:32.540
not be related to the dixie mafia because a stolen car was tied back to a guy that's associated to
00:44:38.700
another guy that's not strong enough to open up a case so for him his hands were kind of tied in this
00:44:45.660
case all right and that's kind of one of the things that sucks about the fbi a lot of people don't know
00:44:49.660
and i know because i work with them very closely many times is that they can't actually do anything
00:44:56.060
unless they open a full-fledged criminal investigation for them to open up a full-fledged
00:45:00.620
criminal investigation it's a lot of red tape man it's a pain in the ass versus when i was working
00:45:06.220
as an agent for hsi it's fairly easy to open up a case hey boss i got this going on blah blah you
00:45:11.660
tell your gs14 your supervisor i want to open up this case right even if it's to mirror right a state
00:45:18.300
and local case maybe you're assisting there you open up a case so that you can attribute your hours
00:45:22.380
and your efforts or something like that you know you could you you roll with it you know they're not
00:45:26.140
going to sit there and be like oh well you can't open a case because xyz and all this other bs
00:45:30.300
no not nearly as much red tape as the fbi when it comes to opening up cases and committing resources
00:45:36.780
so um this is something that that kind of sucks with the bureau and it's wild because this is the
00:45:42.540
80s they have even more uh their hands are even more tied nowadays guys than back then share information
00:45:50.540
so the c the the the private investigator aka the pi comes in with some of the information that he's
00:45:55.340
gotten right during the course of his private investigation on behalf of the daughter
00:46:00.300
rolled acquaintances from the private investigators days in law enforcement
00:46:05.980
since agent bell was unable to act officially the private investigator would pursue a lead that looked
00:46:11.260
promising he would interview another angola inmate the private investigator and bell hope the inmate at
00:46:18.380
angola could finally link the lonely heart scam and the sherry murders
00:46:27.020
he met with all the right people and because of his knowledge of the dixie mafia
00:46:33.420
and from what he had learned from law enforcement authorities on the coast
00:46:36.940
he did go over to angola and did talk to the right person over there
00:46:40.780
the inmate's name was bobby joe fabian he was another known member of the dixie mafia
00:46:50.460
doing time for kidnapping and shooting a state trooper
00:46:57.740
fabian claimed he had not been involved in the sherry murders
00:47:02.060
but he had learned that fellow inmate kirksey nix had been fabian told the private investigator that
00:47:08.700
nix had had judge sherry killed because sherry had allegedly stolen money from nix's lonely heart scan
00:47:16.540
that wasn't all he said nix had been told of the theft by none other
00:47:30.220
that uh may have forgotten halat is the guy that went with you know his clerk or whoever his employee
00:47:36.060
to go look at the house a couple days after the murders who delivered the eulogy at the sherry's
00:47:42.300
funeral was now implicated in their murders wow it'd be the ones closest to you they end up getting you
00:47:50.140
a lot officially represented nix on legal matters but fabian said halat's role in the lonely heart
00:48:09.260
halat was one of the people receiving money from nix for safekeeping through mike gillich's bag man
00:48:14.460
oh man so they're right that right there guys looks to be the link between the murders because
00:48:24.220
you got the bag man bringing the money to the lawyer for safekeeping for kirksey nix
00:48:34.780
and the ties between the outlaw and the lawyer went deep
00:48:37.500
kirksey nix's girlfriend and accomplice laray sharp worked in halat's office
00:48:52.540
see i could see the conspiracy coming in here the inner web of of
00:49:03.500
were stashing money from the scam in a safe deposit box for kirksey nix
00:49:17.420
thanks to fabian the link between the murders and the lonely heart scam had been made
00:49:24.860
and uh one hundred thousand dollars guys in 1987 i'm looking at it here
00:49:29.500
right they said six figures let's so we'll just go with one hundred thousand it's worth one hundred
00:49:33.820
sixty two thousand sorry it's worth one hundred sixty two thousand dollars today okay or no excuse
00:49:41.020
me one hundred thousand dollars in 1987 is equivalent in purchasing power to about two hundred sixty two
00:49:45.820
thousand uh dollars today and here it is right here so yeah that's wild uh damn over doubled
00:49:59.500
and not only had fabian given investigators a possible motive for the killings he was also
00:50:06.300
able to supply the name of the alleged hitman oh an ex-con named john ransom
00:50:14.220
who was believed to be living in john ransom that sounds like a like a criminal's name georgia
00:50:29.420
anytime law enforcement uh people get together and start talking about notorious
00:50:33.900
dixie mafia members john ransom comes up quite early in the conversation
00:50:39.420
he's a long-time alleged hitman for the dixie mafia
00:50:42.940
in august of 1989 two years after the sherry murders agent bell now had enough evidence to
00:50:51.100
warrant a full fbi investigation into the killings so it took him two years to be able to get the
00:50:56.540
information just to open up a case and he probably went to the u.s attorney's office to go ahead
00:51:00.860
and um get someone to secure prosecution hey i'll work the case and i'll prosecute on my head once
00:51:06.620
you develop all the information accompanied by the sherry's daughter lynn sposito he approached
00:51:14.140
the united states attorney and the fbi with a demand to officially open the case
00:51:21.660
so with the tying in of the scam to the murders we knew we had some federal violations involved we
00:51:29.340
have wire fraud we had mail fraud and we perhaps had a hit wire fraud and mail fraud
00:51:36.380
and mail fraud guys are some of the easiest charges to prove federally um all you gotta
00:51:40.620
prove is that hey you got money and or receive some type of wire through mail or through wire
00:51:46.940
through the seat or fraud done they got you next thing you know it's a federal charge
00:51:52.860
fairly easy to prove and traveling from georgia to mississippi to kill the sherry's
00:51:57.900
it was decided to open an official fbi investigation and join with local authorities in the investigation
00:52:06.380
that changes things significantly because now not only are you going after a lawyer
00:52:27.820
right you're going after the mayor potentially which is a big deal guys you need to get a lot of
00:52:34.620
approvals to go after public officials in high authority positions investigators encountered new roadblocks
00:52:44.700
it became very difficult for the fbi to share all of its information with the local authorities
00:52:56.940
we are not uh saying that the local police were corrupt what we are saying is
00:53:02.460
that mayor halat put his own people in as director of public safety and as police chief so we were
00:53:10.300
somewhat circumspect on what we we shared uh with local authorities during that time period
00:53:19.740
in august of 1989 as investigators attempted to unravel the truth about the sherry's murders
00:53:25.260
informant bobby joe fabian made a surprise move he told his story about the sherry murders
00:53:31.900
to the tv news fabian oh my god when cloud chasing goes fucking wrong
00:53:41.420
so obviously you can assume whatever the hell he tells the news now the public's gonna know they're
00:53:46.380
gonna be like oh the police are probably gonna be on us now holy by bringing attention to himself
00:53:54.940
kirksey nix would be less likely to have him killed for cooperating with authorities
00:54:03.500
along with the report the station broadcast a mugshot of john ransom
00:54:07.820
the alleged hitman in the sherry case oh my god
00:54:16.700
when charles legere pete halat's junior partner saw the photo it surprised him he recalled seeing
00:54:23.500
ransom outside the sherry halat law offices a few weeks before the murder oh
00:54:34.460
legere shared his information with the task force
00:54:43.180
major randy cook of the harrison county sheriff's department took legere's statement
00:54:49.020
legere said the reason he remembered ransom was ransom stepped off of a curve
00:54:54.460
and came up to him and asked him where it's been sherry's office at when legere was interviewed
00:55:02.540
gimme he recalled there was something unusual about the way ransom stepped off of the curve
00:55:09.900
well could you imagine this fucking guy comes up to you hey uh well i meet with uh your boss uh you
00:55:15.420
know i look a little kind of i know i'm messed up looking and i'm limping and stuff and i may or may
00:55:19.260
not have killed people in the past but yeah show me where he's at like bro what the hell you're
00:55:23.260
gonna definitely remember that oh man ransom had a prosthesis on one leg
00:55:36.300
investigators learned that ransom was now in a georgia prison serving time for another murder
00:55:42.460
when questioned about the sherry murders he refused to cooperate
00:55:49.180
as cook further questioned legere about the day he and halat had found the bodies an important detail emerged
00:55:55.420
legere remembered that halat had walked into the sherry's living room
00:56:04.620
seen judge sherry's body and said vince and margaret are dead
00:56:08.380
cook relayed this to agent bell what the hell oh so he only saw one of the dead bodies but knew that both were done
00:56:29.340
what was interesting was that margaret's body was in the far back bedroom of the residence
00:56:39.740
and according to chuck legere pete hallat did not have time
00:56:44.620
other than to briefly enter the front of the house and would have no way of knowing
00:56:48.700
that margaret's body was also in the very back bedroom
00:56:55.420
in october of 1989 two years after the murders agent bell knew halat was involved but he still
00:57:02.780
lacked enough evidence for an arrest even so so now you're investigating the the mayor of the city
00:57:08.700
oh lord oh he felt it was time to confront mayor halat
00:57:17.740
it would be a quiet warning man to man and i let mayor halat know that i thought his knowledge
00:57:25.740
of the sherry murders was much greater than what he had shared with law enforcement authorities up to
00:57:31.580
that point and i recall also telling him that the fbi would continue working on this case
00:57:38.380
until it was totally solved my recollection is he smiled and did not have much else to say
00:57:47.820
yeah he's a lawyer bro he ain't gonna say nothing he's like the police
00:57:53.660
as a lawyer halat knew bell would need more concrete evidence in order to secure a conviction
00:57:59.420
what he likely didn't realize was the depth of bell's commitment to bring him to justice
00:58:08.460
yeah shout out to this agent man he was very persistent and did a fantastic job we're gonna
00:58:13.740
uh we're gonna see some more of that here in a second
00:58:18.780
three years have passed since judge vincent sherry and his wife margaret were murdered in their
00:58:23.260
three years luxe mississippi hall fbi special agent keith bell had connected the killings to
00:58:29.900
members of the dixie mafia and to judge sherry's friend and one-time law partner pete halat
00:58:35.180
the alleged trigger man john ransom was refusing to talk
00:58:40.860
in january of 1990 agent bell and major randy cook the harrison county sheriff's department
00:58:51.500
drove to the atlanta federal penitentiary to question another possible accomplice
00:58:55.500
possible accomplice this is special a man named bill rhodes rhodes a known associate of john ransom
00:59:04.540
was willing to cooperate well informers is how you build cases my friends
00:59:09.580
he told them that in early 1987 ransom had contacted him about driving the getaway car in a crime to
00:59:22.620
ransom had said a judge would be murdered and that the pay was ten thousand dollars
00:59:26.780
there were certain promises made to roads that by ransom that i know certain people in biloxi that
00:59:37.260
if you'll help me on ten thousand dollars in 1987 guys was the equivalent of purchasing power of about
00:59:41.740
twenty six thousand two hundred six dollars and ninety five cents today on this and you'll have
00:59:46.540
the run of biloxi anytime you want it so in march of 1987 rhodes went to biloxi and met with ransom
00:59:54.620
and a man named pete it was pete who specifically asked roads and ransom to do the hit
01:00:05.980
road said he also met with mike gillips the biloxi strip club owner who would supply us you
01:00:10.780
guys are seeing a spiderweb here of a bunch of different uh conspirators you got mike gillips
01:00:16.220
the strip club owner you got the mayor right you got freaking kirksey nixon jail you got
01:00:23.900
these hit men that are negotiating price uh you got the girlfriend of kirksey nixon that's helping
01:00:30.620
with storing the money from the lonely heart scheme so as y'all can see this is a very complex
01:00:37.420
um investigation in using different components different crimes different individuals different
01:00:43.340
roles etc and my friends this is organized crime at its finest the money once the hit is done
01:00:50.380
but five months later before they could do the job rhodes was arrested on an unrelated bank
01:00:58.620
robbery charge and ransom got cold feet afraid rhodes would turn on him
01:01:04.780
ah he knew too much so he didn't want to commit the murder
01:01:09.260
the information helped the case inch forward but agent bell and officer cook still felt
01:01:14.220
that ransom held the missing pieces another year would pass without much progress
01:01:25.740
in late 1990 the investigators went to the bostick correctional institute in georgia
01:01:37.260
hey here we go he admitted that he delivered a 22 caliber pistol to laray sharp
01:01:44.940
kirksey nix's girlfriend 22 caliber is very uh popular with hitmen guys because it's not as loud
01:01:50.220
it's easy to procure and uh weapons that you use right especially if you're going to do a headshot
01:01:55.500
it works perfectly it's easier to silence as well this is all in that hitman book
01:02:07.900
based on what ransom said laray's involvement was starting to look bigger than simply stashing
01:02:15.180
through his contact with sharp nix learned that the investigation was heating up
01:02:29.340
he worried that his girlfriend might talk so he tried to head off the problem by putting out a contract
01:02:39.980
oh my man cold-blooded yeah you want her to get that yeet
01:02:57.020
but in late 1990 agent bell arrested her for her participation in the murders
01:03:01.820
in the murders inadvertently saving her from nix's gunman
01:03:12.540
during a polygraph test sharp denied her involvement in the lonely heart scam and the sherry murders
01:03:24.540
when bell and his team added her statements to their existing stacks of evidence
01:03:28.860
they were ready to bring indictments against several key players
01:03:32.940
women always fold man i'll tell y'all this man when i
01:03:36.700
now do my arrest you always go after the girlfriends man they will snitch and then the
01:03:40.300
fact that he wanted her killed bro definitely something to add to your repertoire when you interview
01:03:46.140
her hey this dude didn't care about you you're storing his money and he wanted you dead
01:03:50.140
what do you got to say to that okay i'll tell y'all everything
01:03:53.020
mike gillich because remember she's right in the middle guys she's dealing with the with the corrupt
01:04:02.700
mayor the boss boyfriend in prison for murder she's storing the cash she's seeing the bag man
01:04:10.620
she knows gillich the strip club owner is the one sending the money so she's right in the middle of it
01:04:15.660
man john ransom the race sharp and kirksey nicks were charged as conspirators in the sherry murders
01:04:29.260
pete hallat is the mayor guys the case against hallat would have to wait until they had enough
01:04:34.700
evidence for a murder conviction and not only that you're going after the mayor you don't want
01:04:39.660
to mess that one up you know like i tell y'all before federal prosecutors the feds in general
01:04:45.420
rarely lose if ever so if you get indicted you're more than likely gonna have to plead guilty to one
01:04:50.780
of those charges on that indictment so um they want to make sure that they got their t's crossed
01:04:55.980
eyes dotted when you go after a public official especially a lawyer a lawyer that is a mayor now
01:05:02.540
for now the fbi would look to convict the others on conspiracy to commit murder
01:05:09.660
so many of the questions came up why didn't y'all indict pete hallat early on when you indicted
01:05:17.580
everybody else well at the time we didn't have the hard evidence that you would have to have
01:05:31.820
the conspiracy trial produced several key witnesses that would help investigators piece together the
01:05:37.020
complex scheme robbie gantt gillich's bag man for the lonely heart scan testified for the prosecution
01:05:51.260
his testimony helped prosecutors link the sherry murders to the scan
01:05:54.860
all four defendants were found guilty that's a l for all of them
01:06:09.980
back man came forward in years in addition to the life sentence he was already serving for murder
01:06:15.740
gillich also received a 15-year prison term ransom got 10 years and the ray sharp one
01:06:25.820
check out one year but that's how y'all know that she gave a lot of information
01:06:29.340
she was probably the linchpin that got them all indicted and secured the convictions that's why she
01:06:33.820
only got one year with these conspirators behind bars and the lonely heart scam no longer operational
01:06:48.300
bell moved on to his next objective we decided not to end the sherry investigation after the 1991 initial
01:06:57.420
convictions because at that time we had not proven who had actually uh shot the sherrys and also pete
01:07:06.220
halette had not been indicted or convicted at that point and we all felt strongly that pete halette had
01:07:12.700
played a major role in the scam and in the murder plot so we were determined to continue the investigation
01:07:21.340
to see if we could get enough evidence to indict and convict mr halette and the actual shooter
01:07:31.340
in late july of 1992 agent bell got the break he was looking for
01:07:37.980
following the conspiracy trial mike gillich was desperate to find a way out of prison
01:07:44.540
he contacted one of his associates in biluxo and asked him to approach robbie gant with an offer
01:07:51.340
okay gant told agent bell about it and the associate had offered robbie gant 20 000
01:08:04.940
if gant would recant his testimony against gillich and sign a false affidavit stating that he had been
01:08:12.300
threatened by me to testify against gillich oh oh oh these guys are don't know when to quit uh to testify
01:08:28.460
gant agreed to wear a wire and get the offer from gillich's accomplice on tape oh
01:08:33.660
gant met with him in mississippi this time gant's tape was rolling when gillich's associate reiterated
01:09:08.860
now bell had the evidence he needed to turn up the heat on gillich
01:09:12.540
gillich just the man who could tell the story from the inside
01:09:24.700
by 1993 six years after the double murder of vince and margaret sherry
01:09:29.740
fbi agent keith bell had put four members of the dixie mafia behind bars
01:09:34.380
but he still had no formal murder convictions against those involved
01:09:42.940
and mayor pete halat the suspected mastermind of the case was still free
01:09:54.780
in fact the year before mayor halat had broken ground in the city's first big casino
01:09:59.740
the victory for our town and our people the press still hounded halat about his involvement in
01:10:07.980
the sherry murders but he remained adamant as you guys know right miss sherry did not want
01:10:15.020
casinos all over biloxi and about his innocence
01:10:23.740
bell continued to work his plan he used the bribe robert gant had recorded on tape
01:10:32.380
to level another charge against mike gillich already in jail
01:10:40.300
now bell indicted gillich for witness bribery and witness tampering for trying to buy off gant oh man
01:10:50.940
and that did the trick no doubt the most important uh turning point was in october of 1993 when mike gillich
01:11:03.740
finally decided to cooperate and tell the story of this whole case from an insider's point of view
01:11:12.620
and that's what really uh allowed us to bring final resolution to this investigation
01:11:18.300
after the years of painstaking work bell had spent on the case it was a satisfying moment
01:11:26.300
finally it seemed his patience and ingenuity were paying off
01:11:33.740
gillich was in no hurry to accrue more jail time
01:11:37.420
bell's relentless pressure had persuaded him to cut a deal before the bribery trial even began
01:11:42.300
hey there we go baby the dixie mafia member would tell what he knew about the murders
01:11:51.180
maybe now bill could get the convictions he knew were long overdue
01:11:55.260
oh i had 18 usc 201 man i i was i had it right um this is guys the charge that they probably hit him
01:12:06.300
with bribery of public officials okay this is more than likely that what they hit him on okay oh man
01:12:14.380
big l i remember when i was an agent myself uh anytime someone would try to bribe you
01:12:23.740
you know you had to go ahead and call that to you know off office of professional responsibility aka
01:12:28.060
internal affairs immediately and you know you you basically would bust the fucking guy for doing
01:12:34.300
it so they take bribery pretty pretty seriously guys when it comes to the u.s government and federal
01:12:39.260
agencies right because you're held to a higher standard you know which is why a lot of the
01:12:43.980
times the feds typically investigate public corruption because it is so much harder to
01:12:48.060
penetrate the feds than you know other levels of government now am i saying that it doesn't occur
01:12:52.860
of course you know i did i covered a whole thing on robert hanson right the fbi agent that
01:12:57.660
you know was basically paid by the russians to spy and provide a bunch of information probably the biggest
01:13:02.220
uh security leak in u.s history but um but you guys got to remember that that's rare and
01:13:10.380
extremely infrequent for uh federal agents to be uh you know susceptible to public corruption or to be
01:13:19.260
paid off and bribed for shit now that is not to say that there aren't lazy agents there's a bunch of
01:13:24.620
agents that don't do their job that are lazy as fuck this is true they don't fucking investigate as
01:13:28.780
hard as they should or follow up while on leads whatever but you guys gotta remember that laziness
01:13:33.820
isn't necessarily corruption there's a very fine line between the two so yeah that was the l for
01:13:40.700
this guy with the bribery not saying that corruption doesn't exist in the federal government definitely
01:13:46.460
does but it's not as prevalent as other levels of government or in other countries for that matter
01:13:56.460
as much as people talk about the united states we definitely do have rule of law to some degree
01:14:01.340
versus other countries which is why the u.s dollar is um obviously the reserve currency that's a big part
01:14:07.020
of being a reserve currency is having rule of law in your country which is why russia and china will
01:14:11.500
never get it you know unfortunately but for a career criminal for them of course like mike gillich
01:14:18.060
adjusting to life on the right side of the law wasn't easy
01:14:31.820
of course it always takes some time a period of weeks to develop some degree of trust and to be able
01:14:40.620
to communicate with someone like this who for the first time has decided to leave his lifelong role as a
01:14:50.060
uh a criminal and start cooperating with the fbi
01:14:57.260
when deception didn't work gillich had no alternative he had to tell the truth
01:15:02.540
now for the first time bell heard the story from an inside source
01:15:10.620
mike was the center point mike knew kirksey nix mike knew pete hallett for years and in fact when
01:15:20.860
kirksey nix was looking for an attorney over on the coast area to represent him on various matters
01:15:27.820
mike gillich introduced nix into pete hallett he confirmed that pete hallett was indeed behind the plan to
01:15:36.060
murder the sherries and that the plot grew directly out of the lonely heart scam of angola prison inmate
01:15:47.980
hallett had closed the safe deposit box he and nix's girlfriend larae sharp had access to
01:15:53.820
effectively cutting off her access to the money
01:15:57.020
he then transferred the money into a box only he and judge sherry could use
01:16:03.180
motivated by greed he stole one hundred thousand dollars cash from there
01:16:08.380
holy we went over how much that actually is guys it's uh over a quarter million well over double 262
01:16:15.500
000 uh was a hundred thousand dollars back in 1987.
01:16:19.100
as nix's trusted accomplice hallett could blame the theft on judge sherry bam next he went to mike
01:16:34.700
mr gillich stated that pete hallett approached mr gillich himself in late 1986 and told mr gillich
01:16:43.420
that much of the money was missing supposedly around a 100 000 and mr allatt blamed judge sherry for
01:16:52.780
taking the money bam uh mr allatt knew that kirksey nix would be very furious about this
01:17:10.860
it is not known who ordered margaret's death but as a fierce opponent of corruption
01:17:27.580
she posed a threat to the underworld forces hoping to control biloxi with margaret dead
01:17:35.900
and do what make a bunch of money guys okay clearly y'all know that she didn't want
01:17:45.820
the strip clubs the casinos and all these other types of businesses in biloxi
01:17:51.980
so that was a direct threat on gillich the strip club owner because that affects his business that's
01:17:57.180
a direct threat to um the guy who wanted to run for mayor so he wants to make this money he wants
01:18:03.980
these businesses to come in because it creates more uh revenue for the city in general but she didn't
01:18:08.620
want that gillich said that he and halat planned the murders halat my bad ransom and rhodes provided
01:18:19.740
the murder weapon but when they passed on doing the hit gillich found a replacement
01:18:26.380
a texas-based petty criminal named thomas holcomb bam there's the last key remember up to this point
01:18:35.420
we they had not known who the actual shooter was
01:18:42.860
holcomb would be paid twenty thousand dollars to murder judge sherry and his wife
01:18:47.100
gillich had also helped provide the car with the help of locksmith linny swetman
01:19:02.620
twenty thousand dollars guys in 1987 is the equivalent purchasing power of fifty two thousand
01:19:08.780
four hundred sixty six dollars and ninety cents today god damn so he pretty much got well over 50k
01:19:43.740
in october of 1996 agents arrested hitman thomas holcomb in texas on murder charges
01:20:00.220
that same month also saw the arrest that agent bell had anticipated and worked nine years to achieve
01:20:05.500
i'm an innocent man and you're going to put the cuffs on me
01:20:09.980
if you read you your rights the arrest of pete halat for the murders of the sherrys
01:20:14.140
you can anything you say can and we'll be held against
01:20:24.140
kirksey nix and laray sharp were indicted on 52 counts including fraud money laundering and murder
01:20:33.980
halat was tried and convicted in the summer of 1997 a full decade after the crimes were committed
01:20:39.820
and that's the real footage right there as y'all can see there he is
01:20:54.540
and thomas holcomb the hitman both were sentenced to life
01:21:05.980
bam only five years god damn it i think a lot of citizens in beluga she probably cooperated so you
01:21:12.460
now realize that there are a lot of dedicated professional law enforcement people who will
01:21:18.780
do everything they can to protect the community and work hard to solve major crimes perhaps the
01:21:28.860
legacy you might say of the case for the criminal element is that they realize after seeing this
01:21:34.700
case that they can commit a crime one day and think they're getting away with it a year later
01:21:40.300
but it could come back uh 10 years later and get them
01:21:43.420
while the sherry's killers were finally brought to justice margaret sherry's dream for biloxi free of
01:21:51.820
gambling was never realized instead biloxi has become a resort town filled with casinos and neon lights
01:22:04.060
the sleepy southern town is gone forever along with the woman who lost her life trying to save it
01:22:11.420
yeah now guys just so you guys know pete hallat here he is right um he's still alive um he actually
01:22:22.140
got out of prison not too long ago well actually about a decade ago he got released uh in 2013
01:22:28.460
after serving 15 years nine months and seven days in jail at the age of 70 years old and here's
01:22:32.220
obviously his co-conspirators you got here uh kirksey mccord nix jr right we know he's he's serving life
01:22:38.060
in prison at federal correction institute in at el reno oklahoma and uh mike gillage died of cancer
01:22:43.260
in 2012 thomas leslie holcomb a texas-based contract killer was convicted of carrying out the killings
01:22:47.660
and died in prison in 2005 john ransome and sherry le shere sharp were both convicted in 1991 on federal
01:22:53.260
conspiracy charges related to the two murders ransom was a dixie mafia hitman who supplied the gun used
01:22:59.020
in murders of vincent and margaret sherry sharp was kirksey nix's girlfriend who worked as a legal
01:23:03.900
aid and helped him run his lonely hearts dating scam while he was in prison the scam involved
01:23:08.620
placing fraudulent ads in national ggp magazine the advocate pretend to be young single homosexual men
01:23:13.980
in legal trouble who needed money okay and then obviously this episode we just broke down 1999 okay
01:23:19.980
i i uh i thought it was in the year 2000 but yeah 1999 um but yeah speaking a lot right here guys he's
01:23:27.020
alive he's 80 years old um he was elected mayor in 1989 lost the re-election 1993 the fbi investigation
01:23:32.540
eventually ended up this ended the city's long tolerance for wide open illegal gambling and
01:23:36.700
striptease clubs with uh exorbitantly priced drinks the purchase of which served as a front for
01:23:42.140
prostitution 1997 halal was convicted for his involvement in a criminal conspiracy which led
01:23:46.220
to the 1987 murders of halal's former law partner mississippi judge vincent sherry and sherry's wife
01:23:50.780
margaret the biloxi city councilwoman he was found guilty and sentenced 18 years in prison of which he served
01:23:55.900
8 15. so uh yeah guys that is the episode uh christina what are your thoughts on this uh let me
01:24:03.500
go ahead he he honestly just messed up and he said both of them were dead at the door
01:24:18.380
yeah that was kind of just massive you could be like oh my god is he dead or like he could have
01:24:21.740
been like call the police call the police yeah he's like they're both dead went outside of like
01:24:25.500
the book dead and and the thing that made it crazier was that she was all the way on the on
01:24:29.500
the other side of the house so like bro how would you know that like that right there is just yeah
01:24:36.300
el halal right there el halal but anyway guys hope you enjoyed that episode man uh we it's been a while
01:24:43.260
since we did a public corruption episode man you guys actually requested this one i saw quite a few
01:24:47.260
people say yo cover the dixie mafia dixie mafia dixie mafia dixie mafia y'all got what you asked for
01:24:51.900
hope you guys enjoyed this episode i'll be back with another episode probably to cover the fdx scam
01:24:58.140
uh with your boy sam friedman whatever his name is and uh yeah and i also cover the school shootings
01:25:03.900
from the university out there in the midwest as well but uh christina any last words for the people
01:25:10.380
um just contact betta 1811 if you want any cases to be done and your location because we do need
01:25:16.540
people in different states bam all right cool hope you guys enjoy that man i'll catch you guys in the
01:25:20.940
the next episode of fed it peace love y'all as always man
01:25:27.100
i was a special agent with homelands investigations okay guys hsi the cases that i did mostly were
01:25:31.980
human smuggling and drug trafficking no one else has these documents by the way here's what fed it
01:25:38.460
covers dr lafredo confirmed lacerations due to stepping on glass murder investigation
01:25:46.540
you see i'm reaching in this jacket you don't know and he's positioning been on february 13 2019
01:25:51.100
you're facing two pounds of two meditative millions racketeering and rico conspiracies young slime
01:25:56.700
life here and after referred to as ysl the defendants uh six nine and then this is billy seiko right
01:26:01.740
here now when they first started guys six nine ran with