Mystery Location No. 117: September 9, 2018

Finally. This is 2409 (formerly 203) Hickory Hills Circle, Biloxi, Mississippi. On the night of September 13-14, 1987 (exactly 31 years ago), Circuit Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife, Margaret, were shot and killed inside their home. Each was shot four times. The next morning, Pete Halat, mayor of Biloxi and Vincent Sherry's former law partner, found the bodies. Margaret was a loud, obnoxious woman and member of the city council. She was planning to run for mayor against Halat and she wanted to put an end to illegal gambling, whore houses and other unsavory activities on what was called The Strip. Some thought politics might have been the reason the Sherrys were killed.

It turned out the Sherrys were the victims of a hit carried out by triggerman Thomas Leslie Holcomb from Texas and ordered by the Dixie Mafia, all because Halat had stolen money from Dixie Mafia kingpin Kirksey McCord Nix Jr., one of his and Sherry' clients, and told Nix that Sherry had stolen the money. Nix had earned the money from a lonely-hearts scam he, Bobby Joe Fabian and other convicts at Angola were running that targeted queer men who sent thousands of dollars, believing that they were helping young men get out of minor scrapes with the law and that the men would join them once they were out of prison. In 1991, Mike Gillich, John Ransom, Kirksey Nix and his girlfriend, Sheri LaRa Sharpe, were convicted on a federal conspiracy charge. In 1997, Halat was convicted of conspiracy to commit racketeering, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Mike Gillich was the chief witness against Halat and testified that Halat had known about the hit on Judge Sherry. Halat was released from prison in 2012 and still said that he didn't have anything to do with the murders.

In August of 1969, Biloxi was struck by Hurricane Camille and today, there's a memorial to the 172 people killed or lost in southern Mississippi. (I suppose Richard Nixon was responsible for that hurricane.) In August of 2005, Biloxi was hit by Hurricane Katrina, another major hurricane, which I suppose was the fault of George W. Bush.

Beauvoir, the last home of President Jefferson Davis, is located in Biloxi.