Mississippi mud : the true-crime bestseller of Southern justice and the Dixie mafia

NOW UPDATED WITH EXPLOSIVE COURTROOM DETAILS. . . . The riveting true-crime account of the heartbreaking murder that shook a Southern city to its corrupt foundation BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI: After the fatal shooting of one of the city�s most prominent couples�Vincent Sherry was a circuit court judge; his wife, Margaret, was running for mayor�their grief-stricken daughter came home to uncover the truth behind the crime that shocked a community and to follow leads that police seemed unable or unwilling to pursue. What Lynne Sposito soon discovered were bizarre connections to the Dixie Mafia, a predatory band of criminals who ran The Strip, Biloxi�s beachfront hub of sex, drugs, and sleaze. Armed with a savvy private eye�and a .357 Magnum�Lynne bravely entered a teeming underworld of merciless killers, ruthless con men, and venal politicians in order to bring her parents� assassins to justice. ** Amazon.com Review Biloxi, Mississippi, has a "strip" of nightclubs and casinos where prostitution, drugs, and crooked gambling flourish unchecked. An older couple who thought they were retiring to a quiet seaside town got too deeply involved with local politics and the Dixie Mafia and were murdered. The investigation would've sunk beneath the muddy swirl of graft and business as usual but for the tenacious efforts of the victims' daughter. Despite death threats and indifferent law enforcement officials, she hired a private detective and swore to do whatever it took to bring her parents' killers to trial. Horror/suspense writer Peter Straubfinds the story reminiscent of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen: "Like those writers, Edward Humes can make the wild, amoral, scheming sleazoids he parades before our eyes all but sing and dance on the page. Here is America, fat and happy, both hands crammed into the till." Mississippi Mud was a 1995 finalist for the Edgar Award in Fact Crime. From Publishers Weekly Vincent Sherry, a circuit court judge in Biloxi, and his wife, Margaret, city council member and a reform mayoral candidate, were fatally shot at their Mississippi home in 1987. The eldest of their four children, Lynne Sposito, hired a private detective. Biloxi had a history as a sin city; some of its cops were corrupt, while others were barely competent, and the police tried to implicate the Sherrys' adopted son in the murder. The individual perceived by Sposito to be most likely to suffer from a reform administration was Mike Gillich, who owned a number of strip joints in Biloxi; he was connected to con man Kirksey Nix, who was subsequently convicted of murder in Louisiana and given a life sentence. Nix's longtime lawyer was Vincent Sherry's law partner, Pete Halat, who may or may not have profited from Nix's many scams. Four years after the slayings, Gillich, Nix and two others were found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Sherrys' murder and given long prison terms. But questions remain, notes the author: "No one has been charged with the actual killings." Humes ( Buried Secrets ) has written an exceptionally fine depiction of a multifaceted case. Photos. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.� Biloxi, Mississippi, is a city of contradictions. A lush green jewel on the Gulf of Mexico, a Southern Riviera steeped in Confederate history, where antebellum mansions command staggering ocean views. Yet it has also been home to The Strip, a beachside center of neon decadence, prostitution, drugs, and corrupt public servants - all in thrall to a shadowy band of criminals called the Dixie Mafia. Here in Biloxi, Old South virtue clashes with a long-standing tolerance for evil. When one of the city's most prominent couples - a judge and his mayoral-candidate wife - were shot in their home, their daughter embarked on a dangerous crusade for justice that would forever change the complexion of Biloxi. She wanted to accomplish what the police could not or would not do: find the assassins and shake the city of Biloxi from its jaded complacency. In Mississippi Mud, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes tells the inspiring and harrowing story of Lynne Sposito, whose obsession with solving her parents' murder "irresistibly draws us into a ripe, teeming, darkness," into a sin-belt world of conscienceless killers, illegal casinos, and venal politicians. At the same time, Mississippi Mud provides a fascinating and vivid portrait of a little-known corner of the Deep South where corruption and betrayal arise not only from the criminal element but also from the good people of Biloxi's long-standing tradition of turning a blind eye to the malignancy in their midst. Though a work of nonfiction, scrupulously reported and documented, Mississippi Mud reads like an exquisitely taut and suspenseful novel, building toward a surprising - and chilling - conclusion, as the forces unleashed by Lynne's investigation forever alter her life, and Biloxi's future.

Humes delivers the bizarre tale of the Dixie Mafia and a prominent Biloxi, Mississippi couple, shot to death in their home. It portrays how one woman's steely obsession for the truth shook a city to its foundation--and nearly destroyed everything she loved. Soon to be an NBC-TV four-part mini-series starring Valerie Bertinelli. Photos.

Without warning or symptom, the twentieth century's version of Plague came calling on Lynne Sposito at exactly ten minutes past two on the afternoon of September 16,1987.