Customer Reviews

Mississippi Mud: Southern Justice and the Dixie Mafia

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On September 16th of 1987, the world as I knew it changed. My brother Eric called to inform me he had received a call from a woman in Biloxi who had heard on the news that our parents were dead. Nothing could have prepared me for the next ten years. I shared information with the author of this book from documentation, not imagination, in an effort to not allow the case to be as buried as were my parents... after all, at some point I will see them again. I could never look them in the eye and tell them I loved them and not have done everything possible to bring their killers to justice. I can assure you every tear I shed in reading this, attests to its accuracy in capturing both the event and the emotion.

At the time I first read Hume's Mississippi Mud I worked in downtown Biloxi, and I found the book so powerfully evocative that each time I passed City Hall I caught myself shuddering.

Superior to the more famous MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, Humes' MISSISSIPPI MUD paints a portrait of an infamous lonelyhearts scam being run out of notorious Angola prison by a member of Mississippi's good-old-boy crime ring--a scam that ultimately involves a sitting Judge, Vincent Sherry, his mayorial candidate wife, Magaret, and a law partner who has political aspirations of his own, Pete Halat. And the involvement quickly spirals into a double murder that would haunt the city and the entire region for years to come.

The story is extremely convoluted, but Humes tells it with disturbing clarity and in the process captures the atmosphere of a city with a long history of political corruption and social hypocrisy, where strip joints and churches and slums and great mansions co-exist cheek-to-cheek. In some respects the book does a disservice to the respectable citizens of the city, tarring them with the same brush as it does the criminal element, but there is no denying the power of this pitch-black story of life and death on the Biloxi strip, and Humes' book accurately follows the news updates on the case as they so slowly unfolded on the Mississippi gulf coast, as well as drawing material from those most intimately involved in the investigation. In the same league as Capote's IN COLD BLOOD and Alexander's NUTCRACKER, those who read Hume's MISSISSIPPI MUD will find themselves in for a well-documented, increasingly disturbing, chilling, and fascinating time.

"Mississippi Mud" is, as author Edward Humes's introductory words explain, the name of that particular kind of poker where the cards themselves become irrelevant and the only thing that really counts is the ability to bluff and betray. It is also the name of a sweet, rich pie made from chocolate, eggs, sugar, vanilla and corn syrup (and according to some recipes, vanilla ice cream and/or whipped cream). In this book, "Mississippi Mud" is Humes's term of reference for the loosely organized group of people otherwise known as the "Dixie Mafia," whose members not so long ago used to leave traces of their unsavory plots all over the "Old South," from Louisiana to Texas and beyond. And one day in September 1987, their activities hit home in the Gulf Coast resort city of Biloxi, Mississippi.

Not that this should necessarily have come as a complete surprise, you will say, if you've heard the gossip about the city's one-time notoriety, if you know some of the historic facts that have contributed to those rumors (such as early 18th century con artist John Law's get-rich-quick scheme which crushed the hopes of thousands of European settlers, or the exploits of James Copeland, arguably the "Dixie Mafia"'s 19th century forefather), or if you have made it all the way through this book's first third to read Humes's account of Biloxi's past. And of course, from New York to Atlantic City, Chicago, Las Vegas, Palermo, Corleone, Moscow, Hong Kong and Macau, there are plenty of cities large and small all over the world that have at one time or another seen their share of mafia, mob and triad activity; and gambling, illegal liquor and sex schemes often, although not necessarily, have something to do with it. More than once, those who have made it their business to rake out the mud get bogged down by it and die, instead of bringing the perpetrators to justice thus adding to the list of casualties in the seemingly never ending war against organized crime. And all too often the culprits get away with murder: literally so.

Well, not here, however, and that is the difference in this story - or one of them, anyway. Granted, the "Dixie Mafia" may not have been as intricately organized as the Chinese triads, any of their Italian and Russian counterparts or the organizations run by the likes of Al Capone, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Salvatore "Lucky" Luciano and John Gotti; but Humes's account of a city government and a police force partly unwilling and partly too incompetent to mount a proper investigation into the murder of an outspoken critic of official corruption and of her husband, a prominent judge, sounds eerily familiar; and so does the involvement of a contender for public office with a group of notorious criminals running a scam out of a supposedly high security prison, with little to no interference from prison officials, and with a shadowy organizer pulling his strings in the background. The odds of successfully pitting a sole determined woman - the victims' eldest daughter - and her dogged investigator against the combined forces of political clout, an endless supply of seedy money, utter ruthlessness and sheer police incompetence were slim to none. Yet, Lynne Sposito persevered, and after ten years, finally got justice for her murdered parents.

Edward Humes tells the story of Sposito's quest with a journalist's detachment; in a chilling matter-of-fact style and with an excellent eye for detail. He does not fall into the trap of glorifying the victims; both Vincent and Margaret Sherry were far from perfect, and the reader learns about their flaws and personal pitfalls as well as their strengths and, in particular, Margaret Sherry's undying commitment to rooting out corruption in Biloxi. Nor does Humes unduly vilify those involved in the conspiracy (although given their colorful personal and criminal histories and their various roles in the conspiracy to kill the Sherrys, any further vilification would have been unnecessary anyway and would actually have taken away a lot of the narrative's effectiveness). Equally unsettling as "In Cold Blood," to this day the benchmark of all true crime literature, although less literary in its description than Truman Capote's account or, for that matter, John Behrendt's famous "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," Humes's "Mississippi Mud" unravels the web of corruption and crime in which much (although undoubtedly not all) of Biloxi's society once used to be caught. And although the consequences of the events related here won't be as terminal for any of the conspirators as they are for Lynne Sposito and her parents, Mrs. Sposito can now at last, as Humes quotes her at the end of the book's paperback edition (which updates the narrative's conclusion vis-a-vis the earlier hardcover version), "get a good night's sleep" again - thus eerily echoing the sentiment expressed in Eliot Ness's (Kevin Costner's) final comment in Brian de Palma's "The Untouchables," who, when asked by a reporter what he will do after prohibition has been lifted, drily responds: "I'm going to have a drink."

Also recommended:
Mean Justice
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
In Cold Blood
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast

After an Oprah-esque beginning focusing on the bereaved family, this is one of the best "true-crime" books that I've read - although the exposed failures of "the system" are truly frustrating.

On September 14, 1987, someone brutally murdered mayor-wannabe Margaret Sherry and her husband, Vincent the Judge, in Biloxi, Mississippi. Through intention, incompetence, obstruction, or neglect, there were investigative blunders. But the persistence of the Sherry's daughter, Lynne Sposito, eventually focused suspicion on Judge Sherry's former law partner and mayor-wannabe Peter Halat, and a cabal of convicts over in Louisiana s Angola prison.

Author Ed Humes steers this saga well - churning through the moral murkiness of Biloxi and far throughout the South - touching such folks as Senator Robert S. Kerr; Jim Garrsion; the Sherriff who walked tall - Buford Pusser; and the Bishop of Biloxi - who tried to intercede on behalf of one of those convicted in this mess.

Reviewers have likened this story to a John Grisham novel. This is not a "Grisham-like" tale. Seems to me like this is a true tale from which Grisham created fiction. The scam at the fetid heart of the 1987 Sherry murder conspiracy, the "lonely hearts" bilking and extortion from gay men, is real similar to the scam in the center of Mississippi-native Grisham's later novel, "The Brethren."

Usually in fiction, the Good Guys "get their man" or woman, or gang of bad folk. The Hardcover edition of Mississippi Mud is stuck with the "ending" that is no end. Why? Maybe because "Pete Halat had his supporters - a majority of voters had elected him mayor, after all. And apart from questions of his guilt or innocence, there was Biloxi's long history of wearing moral blinders. While shopping one day, a businesswoman she had known for years asked Lynne why she insisted on stirring up trouble, causing investigations and trials that hurt Biloxi's image. 'It's sewerage, honey, I know, but it's our sewerage,' the woman complained. 'If we want to swim in it, y'all ought to let us.'" (page 313-314)

Hume's book illuminates the cesspool. (Stay tuned for Updates contained in the Paperback.)

A Wonderful Book. I lived in Saucier MS, not far from Biloxi, approx. 20 minutes. And everything you read in the book is true to the T. No half-truth's or lies. The state and the towns are still crooked. But what town or state isn't? A great book to read and one that is hard to put down. I remommend: no TV, a quiet room, and a soft light. Sometimes A & E will have a special about the Sherry Murders. Have a wonderful Read!

I was involved with the Sherry case in Biloxi, so I know the truth when I read it. This book tells it all. Yes, it does read like a thriller, better than Grisham, in my opinion, but that doesn't mean its not all true. This is journalism at its best. It seems clear that there is one or two people out there cramming this site with repeat bad reviews. Don't be deceived by their phony compalints. They are liars -- probably friends of the crooks who are revealed for what they are in Mississippi Mud, if not the crooks themselves. Read this book if you want the finest in true -- and I mean TRUE -- crime writing.

This comes across like something from the thirties without the Klan masks. Humes loves to go after town hall, and we can thank him for that. Biloxi, Mississippi, corrupt, decadent, stupid, "a sewerage" as one of its citizens called it, is put on trial here and found quite guilty. One of the most remarkable things about this book is the account of the scam against gay men conducted from Angola prison by Kirksey Nix and other criminals. They made hundreds of thousands of dollars with just telephone calls. Unlike most of the true crime books I have been reading, the characters here are hardened professional criminals, true hit men, etc. The stupid, greedy, sick characters of the other stories are here represented by a couple of corrupt lawyers, Halat and Sherry, the former, also a one-time mayor of Biloxi and the latter, one of the murder victims. Humes is a superior writer in the true crime genre.

This book is absolutely mesmerizing and Edward Humes is indeed one of the best authors I had never read up until now. I picked up this book after seeing the "City Confidential" TV show. The TV show had to cram an incredibly complex case into a one-hour program, so it was necessarily shallow. This book takes that complexity and weaves into a very readable, engrossing mystery.

The book's main flaw is that it ends too early. Readers will have to find out how the story really "ends" by doing some Internet searching (www.edwardhumes.com has some good info).

Here's hoping for a new edition that will fill in the details from the last 10 years.

I normally don't read true crime books, so I initially hesitated about reading this one. I am so glad I ended up reading this! The author does an amazing job of bringing the different stories of the different people together. You really feel for Lynne Sposito as she tries to find out who murdered her parents, and why. It's amazing how many people were involved with the crime, whether actually participating, or being involved with the coverup.
You will never look at police investigations the same way again after reading this book.
A must read!

I am quite amazed that anyone would not believe the truth in this book. Furthermore, anyone who is critical of the literary value of this writing is missing the point entirely. I believe justice was served finally in this case. Call it a 'gut feeling', if you will. I have lived most of my life in this state. The coast has always been 'Another World'. Things have changed much since the Sherry's were alive. Legalized gaming has filled the state's coffers, and put the illegal gambling sites out of business. However, greed, corruption, murder, and illegal drug trade will always have a foothold in this world, unless the demand for it dissappears.....and oh what a perfect world it would be... I am glad this book was published, however, I wish that the author would have never been given the opportunity to write about such a horrible crime.