The Sherry Murders: The Dixie Mafia, a Corrupt Gulf Coast, and the Judge Who Couldn't Be Bought
In September 1987, Vincent Sherry and his wife Margaret were found shot to death inside their home in Biloxi, Mississippi. Vincent was a former Air Force colonel, a law professor, and a sitting circuit court judge appointed by the governor of Mississippi. Margaret was an attorney and a local politician. They had five children. Neither had any known enemies, at least not the kind who killed people.
The investigation that followed would take years, span multiple federal agencies, and lead investigators deep into one of the most corrupt corners of the American South.
The Dixie Mafia and the Gulf Coast
In the 1980s, Biloxi had a reputation for casinos, strip clubs, illegal gambling, and the kind of public corruption that made it difficult to tell where criminals ended and local authorities began. A loose network of career criminals known as the Dixie Mafia, also called the Cornbread Cosa Nostra, had established deep roots along the Gulf Coast.
Unlike the traditional organized crime families of the Northeast, the Dixie Mafia had no single boss and no strict hierarchy. It was a network of car thieves, drug smugglers, contract killers, and scammers who worked together when it was profitable and protected each other when it was necessary. Their influence extended throughout the southeastern United States, but Biloxi was one of the places where they operated with the most freedom, in part because some of the people who were supposed to stop them were on the payroll.
By 1984, the FBI had dismantled much of the Harrison County Sheriff's Office, convicting Sheriff Leroy Hobbs of racketeering and sentencing him to 20 years in prison. But removing one corrupt sheriff did not make the Gulf Coast clean. The Dixie Mafia still had money, attorneys, and people willing to do almost anything for the right price.
Who Were Vincent and Margaret Sherry?
Vincent Jerome Sherry Jr. was born in 1929 and spent decades building one of the most distinguished careers in Mississippi legal history. He earned degrees from four universities, spent 20 years in the Air Force as an intelligence officer and judge advocate, retired as a colonel, and went on to teach political science and criminal justice at the University of Southern Mississippi before entering private practice.
In 1981, Vincent opened a defense law firm with his partner Peter Hallett. Their clients included wealthy criminals and members of the Dixie Mafia, including Mike Gillich, a high-ranking figure in the organization, and Kirksey Nix, a major Dixie Mafia figure who continued directing criminal activity from inside a Louisiana prison. In 1986, Mississippi Governor Bill Allain appointed Vincent to serve as an interim circuit court judge.
Margaret Sherry was an attorney in her own right and had served on the Biloxi City Council. She was known throughout the community as sharp, outspoken, and deeply involved in local civic life.
The Betrayal That Set the Murders in Motion
The motive for the Sherry murders traced back to a money dispute involving Kirksey Nix and a fraud scheme that had gone wrong. When Nix began looking for someone to blame, Peter Hallett pointed him toward the Sherrys to protect himself.
Peter stood at the Sherry family's side at the funeral. He handed out copies of the eulogy to the press. He described Vincent and Margaret as his own family. He knew what had set the murders in motion.
What Happened to the People Involved?
Federal prosecutors eventually secured convictions for racketeering, fraud, obstruction, conspiracy, and murder-for-hire statutes. But no one was ever charged with pulling the trigger inside the Sherry home. The murders of Vincent and Margaret Sherry technically remain unsolved and open to this day.
