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The Judge Was Murdered Over Money He Never Stole · FBI Files

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Biloxi, Mississippi. A quiet southern town with a burning core
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: of corruption. In 1987, its secret burst violently to the surface,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: leaving two prominent citizens dead and ripping the top off
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: a grand conspiracy.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: On Mississippi's Gulf Coast, a judge and his politician wife
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: are murdered in their home. The killer left few clues.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: It looked like a professional hit, and the investigation led nowhere.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: But the FBI refused to give up. I'm Jim Kallstrom,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: former head of the FBI's New York office. Until we
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: could prove that federal laws had been broken, our hands
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: were tied. It would take years to break the conspiracy
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: of silence and reveal the tangled tale of corruption.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Biloxi, Mississippi. Monday, September 14, 1987. It was a typically
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: warm summer night in this quiet Gulf Coast town. The
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: workday was over, and most residents had retreated to the
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: tranquility of their homes. Like most of their neighbors, State
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Circuit Court Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife Margaret were
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: unwinding after a long day.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: $ 3, 000.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Vincent Sherry was a prominent judge in Biloxi. Margaret was
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: making plans to run for mayor. Both were fixtures at
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Biloxi's social and community functions. They were a happy couple
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: who had raised three grown children. Tomorrow they planned to
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: visit their daughter out of state. Their life together seemed ideal.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: They were just settling in for the night when an
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: unexpected visitor came to the door. And brought their perfect
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: world to an end. The Sherrys were supposed to be
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: with their daughter, so no one realized anything was wrong
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: until two days later when the judge failed to show
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: up in court on Wednesday, September 16th. Calls to the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Sherrys' home went unanswered. Sorry, we can't take your call,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: but leave your message after the beep. His colleagues at
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: the court phoned Pete Hillett, Vincent Sherry's friend and former
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: law partner.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: Morning, Pete Hillett.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: But he hadn't seen or heard from the judge either. Well,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: he's supposed to be in court. When did he leave?
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: No, you let me call him at home, and I'll
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: figure out where he is.
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: After he left a concerned message on the Sherry's answering machine,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Halat felt he'd better check on his friend personally. Oh,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I got the machine.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: Judge! Judge, it's Pete. They're looking for you in court.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: Is everything okay?
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: On his way out, he asked his junior partner, Charles Legere,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: to ride with him. I need some help, so.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: As they drove, Legere tried to make conversation.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: The lads seemed distant, perhaps concerned about the judge.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Both of the Sherry's cars stood in the driveway.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: Well, the car's here.
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: I don't like it. I don't like it.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Well, the car's here.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: It's supposed to be in court.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Halant asked Legere to go to the house while he
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: asked a neighbor if she'd seen the couple.
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: Just go ahead.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Legere rang the doorbell, but no one answered. He saw
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: that the last two morning newspapers hadn't been picked up.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: The neighbor told Halat she hadn't seen the Sherrys for
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: a couple of days, which she thought was odd since
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: both of their cars were in the driveway. When Legere
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: tried the Sherrys' door, he found it unlocked. Unlocked. Something
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: wasn't right.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Hey, Pete!
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Pete!
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I was just knocking on him.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: And the door opened up.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Palat, concerned by the open door, cautiously stepped inside. A
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: few steps in, he made the gruesome discovery. Judge Sherry
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: had been gunned down in his own.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: Home.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: They called the police. Authorities arrived to find the body
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: of Vincent Sherry at the front of the house. In
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the back bedroom, they discovered Margaret. Because the couple was
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: so prominent, the murder investigation became top priority. The detectives
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: contacted the FBI's Biloxi field office. Though the FBI would
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: not yet be officially involved, they offered the use of
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: their agents and forensic laboratory. Inside, the police began scouring
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the crime scene for clues. They conducted blood spatter analysis
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: to determine projectile angles. If they could figure out where
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the murderer had stood when he fired the shots, they
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: might be able to reconstruct the crime. Inspector Robert Burris,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: a crime technician with the Biloxi Police Department, helped process
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: the scene. He discovered a possible clue in the den.
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: There was blood trailing from his feet, actually going down
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: between his legs a little ways, back to where he
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: was laying. There was blood spatter on a double sliding
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: glass door that was right beyond his head. And for
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: other examination in this room, I found some small pieces
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: of foam rubber.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Burris didn't see where the foam rubber could have come from.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: A search of the house led him to one conclusion.
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: This foam rubber had to have been brought into the house.
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: We examined every piece of material in this house, in
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: every room of the house, all pillows, mattresses, everything else.
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: There's no foam rubber tore up in this house. It
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: was brought into the house. It does have gunshot residue
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: on it. And basically about the only way it can
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: get there is for a bullet to be fired through it.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: For Burris, the significance of the foam rubber was obvious.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: The killer had used a homemade silencer. Investigators dusted for fingerprints,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: but found none of any value. They found nine spent.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: 22 caliber shell casings from a semi-automatic pistol, as well
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: as the bullets used to murder the Sherrys. The position
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: of the shells indicated that the shots had been fired
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: in rapid succession. But most striking was how well the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: killer had covered his tracks. Nothing at the scene pointed
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: to the killer's identity. He did his job well and
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: his mission was clear.
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: The lack of evidence in this house, such as items stolen,
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: A struggle occurred, the absence of forced entry, no ransacking
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: going on in the house whatsoever. A person came there
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: for one thing, and that was to kill the two Sherrys.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Special Agent Keith Bell from the Biloxi FBI field office
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: agreed that this was a professional job. The Sherrys had
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: been assassinated.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: The crime scene appeared to be very limited as far
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: as evidence remaining, which meant it was well planned, well executed,
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: and professionally done. A small caliber weapon had been used.
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: The foam rubber indicated that perhaps a silencer had also
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: been used, and the sherrys had been shot in the head,
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: so it seemed to be a very professional job.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: A multi-agency task force was assembled with Special Agent Keith
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Bell among its members. Investigators would spend days processing the
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: crime scene. They grappled with a single question. Why had
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the Sherrys been murdered?
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: That was one of the main questions, that being why
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: were both Judge Sherry and Margaret Sherry murdered? Because it
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: was fairly obvious that Judge Sherry could have been killed
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: during his morning or afternoon jogs around the neighborhood. So
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: it was a real mystery why Margaret had been killed.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Investigators believed the answer might lie in the controversy over
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Biloxi's future. Some civic leaders hoped to transform the sleepy
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: southern town on Mississippi's Gulf Coast into a flashy resort
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: where casinos would attract tourist dollars. But with strip clubs
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: already established in town, Margaret Sherry felt Biloxi's small-town charms
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: were threatened. And the casinos would attract a criminal element.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: As a candidate for mayor, she had made powerful political
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: enemies by trying to keep gambling out. Agent Bell wondered
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: if Margaret was killed to silence her protests.
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: Margaret had been so outspoken politically in the community. She
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: was known to be anti-gambling. And if elected mayor in 1989,
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: she had planned to close down the remaining strip clubs
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: in Biloxi. So there was always the possibility that she
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: might have been the target, rather than Judge Sherry.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: The task force would investigate Margaret's political enemies. But first,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: they'd question the Sherrys' friends and neighbors. Someone in the
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: neighborhood must have seen something. But even people who'd known
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: the Sherrys for years were reluctant to talk. fearing the
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: specter of Biloxi's emerging criminal underworld.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: The Sherry murders brought a dark cloud over the city
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: of Biloxi. Many of the citizens in Biloxi were afraid
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: to openly express their opinions. They saw that Margaret Sherry,
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: who had been quite vocal and quite outspoken in political circles,
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: had ended up dead, as had her prominent husband, Judge Sherry.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: So many citizens after these murders were hesitant even to
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: be interviewed by FBI agents or by local police officers
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: because they basically did not want their names tied in
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: to anything to do with this case.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: If people wouldn't talk to the authorities, perhaps they would
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: talk to Lynn Sposito, the Sherry's daughter. After being notified
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: of her parents' murders, Lynn rushed to Biloxi from her
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: home in North Carolina. Determined to find justice, she questioned
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: everyone in the neighborhood. One family friend gave her a
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: crucial piece of information. He described a suspicious car and
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: driver in the neighborhood on the night of the murders.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: She took the lead to the police.
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: They identified a man who had seen a suspicious Ford
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: Fairmont driving in front of the Sherry home on Monday night,
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: September 14th, 1987.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Investigators tried to determine the identity of the driver based
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: on the witness's description. Their search came up empty. But
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: a few days later, not far from the Sherry's home,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: investigators found an abandoned car, a Ford Fairmont. A check
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: on the vehicle's identification number showed it had been reported
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: stolen the day before the murders. Police also learned that
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: the tags on the car were not registered to the car.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Realizing that this vehicle was probably the killer's getaway car,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: investigators towed it to a police garage to examine it further.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Somewhere in the car, they hoped to find a key
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: to the killer's identity. Less than a week after the
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: brutal murders of Biloxi couple Vince and Margaret Sherry, investigators
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: received their first promising lead. They recovered an abandoned car,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: matching the one witnesses described seeing the night of the murders.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: After contacting Agent Keith Bell about the discovery, investigators processed
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: the car for clues. Inspector Robert Burris found something peculiar.
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: I was processing this vehicle, and one of the things
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: I noted, the dome light had been dismantled and the
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: bulb taken out of it. In other words, if you
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: open the door, you ain't got no light. Both of
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: the sun visors were in the down position. Whether you're
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: riding around daytime or nighttime, you ain't going to be
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: able to see the people's face in it very well.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Investigators believed more than ever that this was the car
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: used by the Sherry's killer. Anything found inside it was labeled, packaged,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: and shipped to the FBI labs in Washington, D.C. But
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: FBI lab examiners would find nothing of evidentiary value. After
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Agent Bell arrived, he examined the license tag more closely.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: He discovered it had its own story to tell.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: It was determined that the tag on the Ford Fairmont
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: had been stolen from an abandoned vehicle in 1984, actually
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: three years before these murders occurred. So what it meant
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: was someone had removed the license plate, likely in 1984,
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: had kept the license plate, and then when this major
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: crime in the city of Biloxi was to occur, they
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: pulled it off the shelf, so to speak.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: With no other solid evidence, investigators hoped that following the
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: trail of the stolen tag might lead to the killer.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: It was traced to an apartment complex where the original
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: car had been abandoned three years earlier. Investigators contacted the
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: apartment manager, who told them that prior to having the
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: vehicle towed, he called a friend to come and strip
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: it for parts. The manager's friend was a man that
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: agents knew by name and reputation. Biloxi locksmith Lenny Swetman.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: He was the last person to be seen near the car.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Swetman belonged to a loosely organized group of criminals the
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: FBI was investigating in connection with another case. The group
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: was known as the Dixie Mafia. FBI agent Keith Bell
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: had connected the car used in the Sherry killings to
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Lenny Swetman. Now, Bell wondered if the Dixie Mafia was
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: linked to the Sherry murders. If Swetman had a part
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: in it, Bell believed that other Dixie Mafia members couldn't
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: be far behind. He began looking into Swetman's associates.
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: What that meant to us immediately, those of us familiar
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: with the criminal associations on the coast, was that if
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: Lenny Swetman was involved in getting the tag for the
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: hit car, then quite likely his close personal friend and
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: longtime associate Mike Gillich, the strip club owner in Biloxi,
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: might also be involved in these murders.
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: Oh, sorry.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you know how it is. Thanks.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Gillich, who owned three strip clubs in Biloxi, was well
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: known to local law enforcement. He was currently under investigation
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: by the FBI in connection with a Dixie Mafia operation
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: known as the Lonely Heart Scan.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: See if he gets to him.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: But Special Agent Bell needed a thread that connected the
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: two investigations together. He started by familiarizing himself with the
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Lonely Hearts scan. It was run out of Angola Prison
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: in Louisiana by a man named Kirksey Nix, the incarcerated
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: kingpin of the Dixie Mafia.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: You know, the first model.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Nix would run ads in gay magazines, asking for money
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: to help fictional gay men get out of trouble with
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the law. Through the scam, Nix was hoping to generate
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: enough money to solve his own legal problems. He was
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: serving a life sentence for murder.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: From his jail cell at Angola, he coordinated what we've
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: been referring to as the homosexual scams. which generated hundreds
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: of thousands of dollars from individuals around the country, as
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: well as some people in Canada. With this money, he
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: intended to buy his way out, or attempt to buy
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: his way out, of his Louisiana prison sentence.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Believing that they were helping gay men out of trouble,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: people who read the magazine ads would wire or mail
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: money to a nearby Western Union. Nix would then call
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: his contact on the outside, Mike Gillich. Gillich would then
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: dispatch his bagman to retrieve the money. Gillich made sure
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: that the scam money was distributed to Dixie Mafia members
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and safely stashed away for Kirksey Nix. In the coming months,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: investigators developed more evidence in the Lonely Hearts scam. but
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: still had no direct link between these conspirators and the
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Sherry's killers. A year into the investigation, the murder case
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: threatened to storm. Hi. As the year stretched to 16 months,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: the Sherry's daughter, Lynn Sposito, grew increasingly frustrated.
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: In January 1989.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: She hired a private investigator to rev up the inquest
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: into her parents' murder.
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: The family had wanted very much to have a quick
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: resolution to the case, but by early 1989, there had
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: still been no arrest. Of course, at this point, the
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: FBI had not formally entered the case.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: The lack of official FBI involvement hampered Bell's investigation. So
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: when the private investigator paid him a visit, Bell welcomed
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: his assistants, hoping they could share information. The two were
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: old acquaintances from the private investigator's days in law enforcement.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Since Agent Bell was unable to act officially, the private
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: investigator would pursue a lead that looked promising he would
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: interview another Angola inmate. The private investigator and Bell hoped
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the inmate at Angola could finally link the lonely heart
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: scam and the Sherry murders.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: He met with all the right people, and because of
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: his knowledge of the Dixie Mafia and from what he
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: had learned from law enforcement authorities on the coast, he
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: did go over to Angola and did talk to the
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: right person over there.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: The inmate's name was Bobby Joe Fabian. He was another
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: known member of the Dixie Mafia, doing time for kidnapping
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: and shooting a state trooper. Fabian claimed he had not
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: been involved in the Sherry murders, but he had learned
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: that fellow inmate Kirksey Nix had been. Fabian told the
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: private investigator that Nix had had Judge Sherry killed because
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Sherry had allegedly stolen money from Nix's Lonely Hearts scam
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: That wasn't all. He said Nix had been told of
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the theft by none other than Pete Halat, Sherry's former
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: law partner. Halat, the man who had delivered the eulogy
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: at the Sherry's funeral, was now implicated in their murders.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Halat officially represented Nix on legal matters, but Fabian said
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Halat's role in the Lonely Hearts scam was criminal Not legal.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Halat was one of the people receiving money from Nix
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: for safekeeping through Mike Gillich's bag man.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: Don't forget to pick up next week at the other place.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: And the ties between the outlaw and the lawyer went deep.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Kirksey Nix's girlfriend and accomplice, Larray Sharp, worked in Halat's office.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Fabian said both Larray Sharp and Pete Halat were stashing
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: money from the scam in a safe deposit box for
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Kirksey Nix. And he said the amount had reached six figures.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Thanks to Fabian, the link between the murders and the
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Lonely Hearts scam had been made. And not only had
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Fabian given investigators a possible motive for the killings, he
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: was also able to supply the name of the alleged hitman,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: an ex-con named John Ransom, who was believed to be
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: living in Georgia. But tracking down Ransom would take time.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: Anytime law enforcement people get together and start talking about
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: notorious Dixie Mafia members, John Ransom comes up quite early
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: in the conversation. He's a longtime alleged hitman for the
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: Dixie Mafia.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: In August of 1989, two years after the Sherry murders,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Agent Bell now had enough evidence to warrant a full
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: FBI investigation into the killings. Accompanied by the Sherry's daughter,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Lynn Sposito, he approached the United States attorney and the
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: FBI with a demand to officially open the case.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: So with the tying in of the scam to the murders,
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: we knew we had some federal violations involved. We have
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: wire fraud, we had mail fraud, and we perhaps had
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: a hitman traveling from Georgia to Mississippi to kill the Sherries.
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: It was decided to open an official FBI investigation and
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: join with local authorities in the investigation.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: By now, however, suspect Pete Halat, Judge Sherry's former law partner,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: had been elected mayor of Biloxi. With a key suspect
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: in such a high position, investigators encountered new roadblocks.
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: It became very difficult for the FBI to share all
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: of its information with the local authorities. We're not saying
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: that the local police were corrupt. What we are saying
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: is that Mayor Hlat put his own people in as
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: director of public safety and as police chief. So we
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: were somewhat circumspect on what we shared with local authorities
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: during that time period.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: In August of 1989, as investigators attempted to unravel the
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: truth about the Sherry's murders, informant Bobby Joe Fabian made
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: a surprise move. He told his story about the Sherry
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: murders to the TV news. Fabian hoped that by bringing
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: attention to himself, Kirksey Nix would be less likely to
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: have him killed for cooperating with authorities. Along with the report,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: the station broadcast a mugshot of John Ransom, the alleged
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: hitman in the Sherry case. When Charles Legere, Pete Allant's
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: junior partner, saw the photo, it surprised him. He recalled
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: seeing Ransom outside the Sherry Halat Law offices a few
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: weeks before the murders.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Hello?
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Legere shared his information with the task force. Major Randy
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Cook of the Harrison County Sheriff's Department took Legere's statement.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: Legere said the reason he remembered Ransom was Ransom stepped
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: off of a curb and came up to him and
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: asked him where's Vince Cherry's office at. When Legere was interviewed,
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: he recalled there was something unusual about him. the way
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: Ransom stepped off of the curve. Ransom had a prosthesis
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: on one leg.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Investigators learned that Ransom was now in a Georgia prison,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: serving time for another murder. When questioned about the Sherry murders,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: he refused to cooperate. As Cook further questioned Legere about
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the day he and Halat had found the bodies, an
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: important detail emerged. Legere remembered that Halat had walked into
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: the Sherry's living room, seen Judge Sherry's body, and said,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Vince and Margaret are dead. Cook relayed this to Agent Bell.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: What was interesting was that Margaret's body was in the
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: far back bedroom of the residence, and according to Chuck Legere,
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: Pete Halat did not have time other than to briefly
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: enter the front of the house and would have no
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: way of knowing that Margaret's body was also in the
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: very back bedroom.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: In October of 1989, two years after the murders, Agent
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Bell knew Halat was involved, but he still lacked enough
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: evidence for an arrest. Even so, he felt it was
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: time to confront Mayor Halat. It would be a quiet warning,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: man to man.
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: And I let Mayor Halat know that I thought his
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: knowledge of the Sherry murders was much greater than than
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: what he had shared with law enforcement authorities up to
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: that point. And I recall also telling him that the
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: FBI would continue working on this case until it was
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: totally solved. My recollection is he smiled and did not
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: have much else to say.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: As a lawyer, Halad knew Bell would need more concrete
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: evidence in order to secure a conviction. What he likely
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: didn't realize was the depth of Bell's commitment to bring
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: him to justice. Three years had passed since Judge Vincent
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Sherry and his wife Margaret were murdered in their Biloxi,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Mississippi home. FBI Special Agent Keith Bell had connected the
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: killings to members of the Dixie Mafia and to Judge
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Sherry's friend and one-time law partner, Pete Halat. The alleged
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: trigger man, John Ransom, was refusing to talk. In January
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: of 1990, Agent Bell and Major Randy Cook of the
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Harrison County Sheriff's Department drove to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: to question another possible accomplice. A man named Bill Rhodes. Rhodes,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: a known associate of John Ransom, was willing to cooperate.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: He told them that in early 1987, Ransom had contacted
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: him about driving the getaway car in a crime to
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: take place in southern Mississippi. Ransom had said a judge
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: would be murdered and that the pay was $ 10, 000.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: There were certain promises made to Rhodes by Ransom that
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: I know certain people in Biloxi that if you'll help
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: me on this and you'll have the run of Biloxi
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: anytime you want it.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: So in March of 1987, Rhodes went to Biloxi and
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: met with Ransom and a man named Pete. It was
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Pete who specifically asked Rhodes and Ransom to do the hit.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Rhodes said he also met with Mike Gillis, the Biloxi
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: strip club owner, who would supply the money once the
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: hit was done. But five months later, before they could
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: do the job, Rhodes was arrested on an unrelated bank
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: robbery charge, and Ransom got cold feet, afraid Rhodes would
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: turn on him. The information helped the case inch forward,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: but Agent Bell and Officer Cook still felt that Ransom
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: held the missing pieces. Another year would pass without much progress.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: And then get it all laid out.
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: I mean, maybe enough to angle a prison.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: In late 1990, the investigators went to the Bostick Correctional
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Institute in Georgia, where Ransom was serving time. Finally, Ransom
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: agreed to talk. He admitted that he delivered a. 22
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: caliber pistol to Larray Sharp, Kirksey Nix's girlfriend. But Ransom
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: insisted that he did not do the job. Based on
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: what Ransom said, LeRae's involvement was starting to look bigger
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: than simply stashing scam money in a safe deposit box.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: All finished?
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: Finished.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Through his contact with Sharp, Nix learned that
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: the investigation was heating up. He worried that his girlfriend
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: might talk, so he tried to head off the problem
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: by putting out a contract on her life. But in
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: late 1990, Agent Bell arrested her for her participation in
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: the murders, inadvertently saving her from Nix's gunman. During a
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: polygraph test, Sharp denied her involvement in the Lonely Hearts
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: scam and the Sherry murders. But the machine called her bluff.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: When Bell and his team added her statements to their
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: existing stacks of evidence, they were ready to bring indictments
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: against several key players. Mike Gillich, John Ransom, Array Sharp,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: and Kirksey Nix were charged as conspirators in the Sherry murders.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Notably missing from the list was Pete Halat. The case
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: against Hulett would have to wait until they had enough
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: evidence for a murder conviction. For now, the FBI would
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: look to convict the others on conspiracy to commit murder.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: So many of the questions came up, why didn't you
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: all indict Pete Hulett early on when you indicted everybody else? Well,
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: at the time, we didn't have the hard evidence that
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: you would have to have to arrest a mayor and
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: prosecute him.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: The conspiracy trial produced several key witnesses that would help
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: investigators piece together the complex scheme. Robbie Gant, Gillich's bag
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: man for the Lonely Hearts scam, testified for the prosecution.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: His testimony helped prosecutors link the Sherry murders to the scam.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: All four defendants were found guilty. Nix was given 15
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: years in addition to the life sentence he was already
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: serving for murder. Gillich also received a 15-year prison term.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Ransom got 10 years, and LeRae Sharp won.
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: I paid you for it.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: Get your hands on the.
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: Order and come.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: With these conspirators behind bars and the Lonely Hearts scam
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: no longer operational, Bell moved on to his next objective.
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: We decided not to end the Sherry investigation after the
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: 1991 initial convictions because at that time we had not
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: proven who had actually shot the Sherrys and also Pete
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: Halat had not been indicted or convicted at that point.
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: And we all felt strongly that Pete Halat had played
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: a major role in the scam and in the murder plot.
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: So we were determined to continue the investigation to see
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: if we could get enough evidence to indict and convict Mr.
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: Halat and the actual shooter.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: In late July of 1992, Agent Bell got the break
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: he was looking for. Following the conspiracy trial, Mike Gillich
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: was desperate to find a way out of prison. He
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: contacted one of his associates in Biloxi and asked him
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: to approach Robbie Gant with an offer. Gant told Agent
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Bell about it.
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: And the associate had offered Robbie Gant $ 20, 000 if Gant
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: would recant his testimony against Gillich and sign a false
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: affidavit stating that he had been threatened by me to
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: testify against Gillich. to testify falsely against Gillich.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: Gant agreed to wear a wire and get the offer
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: from Gillich's accomplice on tape. Gant met with him in Mississippi.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: This time, Gant's tape was rolling when Gilich's associate reiterated
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: the bribe. Gant accepted as Bell had instructed. Now, Bell
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: had the evidence he needed to turn up the heat
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: on Gilich. Just the man who could tell the story
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: from the inside. By 1993, six years after the double
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: murder of Vince and Margaret Sherry, FBI agent Keith Bell
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: had put four members of the Dixie Mafia behind bars.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: But he still had no formal murder convictions against those involved.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: And Mayor Pete Halat, the suspected mastermind of the case,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: was still free and running the city of Biloxi. In fact,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: the year before, Mayor Halat had broken ground on the
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: city's first big casino. The press still hounded Halat about
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: his involvement in the Sherry murders, but he remained adamant
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: about his innocence. Bell continued to work his plan. He
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: used the bribe Robert Gant had recorded on tape to
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: level another charge against Mike Gillich, already in jail. Now
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Bell indicted Gillich for witness bribery and witness tampering for
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: trying to buy off Gant. And that did the trick.
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: No doubt the most important turning point was in October
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: of 1993 when Mike Gillich finally decided to cooperate and
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: tell the story of this whole case from an insider's
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: point of view. And that's what really allowed us to
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: bring final resolution to this investigation.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: After the years of painstaking work Bell had spent on
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: the case, it was a satisfying moment. Finally, it seemed
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: his patience and ingenuity were paying off. Gillich was in
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: no hurry to accrue more jail time. Bell's relentless pressure
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: had persuaded him to cut a deal before the bribery
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: trial even began. The Dixie Mafia member would tell what
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: he knew about the murders. Maybe now, Bell could get
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: the convictions he knew were long overdue. But for a
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: career criminal like Mike Gillich, adjusting to life on the
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: right side of the law wasn't easy. At first, he
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: tried to bluff his way out.
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: Of course, it always takes some time, a period of weeks,
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: to develop some degree of trust. and to be able
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: to communicate with someone like this who for the first
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: time has decided to leave his lifelong role as a
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: criminal and start cooperating with the FBI.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: When deception didn't work, Gilich had no alternative. He had
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: to tell the truth. Now, for the first time, Bell
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: heard the story from an inside source. Gillich knew all
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: the details.
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: Mike was the center point. Mike knew Kirksey Nix. Mike
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: knew Pete Halat for years. And in fact, when Kirksey
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: Nix was looking for an attorney over in the coast
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: area to represent him on various matters, Mike Gillich introduced
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: Nix into Pete Halat.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: He confirmed that Pete Halat was indeed behind the plan
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: to murder the Sherrys. and that the plot grew directly
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: out of the lonely heart scam of Angola prison inmate
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Kirksey Nix. Some months before the Sherry's deaths, Halat had
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: closed the safe deposit box he and Nix's girlfriend, Larray Sharp,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: had access to, effectively cutting off her access to the money.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: He then transferred the money into a box only he
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: and Judge Sherry could use. Motivated by greed, he stole $ 100, 000
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: cash from there. As Nix's trusted accomplice, Hallatt could blame
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: the theft on Judge Sherry. Next, he went to Mike
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: Gillich with news of the theft.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: Mr.
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: Gillich stated that Pete Hallatt approached Mr. Gillich himself in
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: late 1986 and told Mr. Gillich that much of the
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: money was missing, supposedly around $ 100, 000. And Mr. Allatt blamed
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: Judge Sherry for taking the money. Mr. Allatt knew that
• 45:17
  Speaker 4: Kirksey Nix would be very furious about this.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: All right. It is not known who ordered Margaret's death,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: but as a fierce opponent of corruption, she posed a
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: threat to the underworld forces hoping to control Biloxi. With
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Margaret dead, Halat could be free to run the town.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Gilich said that he and Halat planned the murders, Ransom
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: and Rhodes provided the murder weapon. But when they passed
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: on doing the hit, Gillich found a replacement, a Texas-based
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: petty criminal named Thomas Holcomb. Holcomb would be paid $ 20, 000
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: to murder Judge Sherry and his wife. Gillich had also
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: helped provide the car with the help of locksmith Lenny Swetman.
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: In October of 1996, agents arrested hitman Thomas Holcomb in
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: Texas on murder charges. That same month also saw the
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: arrest that Agent Bell had anticipated and worked nine years
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: to achieve.
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: The arrest of Pete Halat for the murders of the Sherries.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: Kirksey Nix and Larray Sharp were indicted on 52 counts,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: including fraud, money laundering, and murder. Allatt was tried and
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: convicted in the summer of 1997, a full decade after
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: the crimes were committed. He was sentenced to 18 years
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: in federal prison. Also tried and convicted were Kirksey Nix
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: and Thomas Holcomb, the hitman. Both were sentenced to life.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Larray Sharp, Nix's girlfriend, got five years.
• 48:30
  Speaker 4: I think a lot of citizens in Biloxi now realize
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: that there are a lot of dedicated professional law enforcement
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: people who will do everything they can to protect the
• 48:41
  Speaker 4: community and work hard to solve major crimes. Perhaps the legacy,
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: you might say, of the case for the criminal element
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: is that they realize after seeing this case that they
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: can commit a crime one day and think they're getting
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: away with it a year later, but it could come
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: back ten years later and get them.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: While the Sherry's killers were finally brought to justice, Margaret
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Sherry's dream of a Biloxi free of gambling was never realized. Instead,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: Biloxi has become a resort town filled with casinos and
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: neon lights. lights. The sleepy southern town is gone forever,
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: along with the woman who lost her life trying to
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: save it.