The Sherry Murders: The ”Dixie Mafia”, a Corrupt Gulf Coast, and the Judge Who Couldn’t Be Bought

2026-08-11

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In September 1987, Vincent Sherry and his wife Margaret were found shot to death inside their Biloxi, Mississippi home. Vincent was a former Air Force colonel, a law professor, and a sitting circuit court judge. Margaret was a prominent local attorney and politician. Neither had any known enemies. The investigation would take years and lead directly into the heart of the Dixie Mafia, a loose network of contract killers, drug smugglers, and corrupt officials who had turned Biloxi's Gulf Coast into one of the most...

What investigators eventually uncovered was that Vincent's own law partner, Peter Hallett, had pointed Dixie Mafia hitman Kirksey Nix toward the Sherrys to protect himself from a money dispute he had no clean way out of. 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 family.Convictions were eventually secured for racketeering, fraud, conspiracy, and murder-for-hire. But no one was ever charged with pulling the trigger inside the Sherry home. The murders technically remain unsolved.

We cover the full story, including the Dixie Mafia, the corruption that made Biloxi a criminal safe haven, the Sherry family, and the betrayal that set everything in motion.

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