Dixie Mafia

The Dixie Mafia or Dixie Mob is an American criminal organization composed mainly of white Southerners and based in Biloxi, Mississippi, operating primarily throughout the Southern United States since at least the late 1960s. The group's activities include movement of stolen merchandise, illegal alcohol, and illegal drugs.

Early days

Beginning in the late 1960s, the Dixie Mafia began working as a loosely knit group of traveling criminals performing residential burglary, robbery, and theft. The gang did not function with a set chain of command, but was led by whoever had the most money. Despite the informal structure, the Dixie Mafia had one rule that members were expected to obey: "Thou shall not snitch to the cops".

Unlike members of the American Mafia, the members of the Dixie Mafia were not connected by family or country of origin. They were loosely connected individuals of many nationalities with a common goal—to make money and wield control over illegal moneymaking operations by any means, including influence peddling, bribery of public officials, and murder.

The gang became known for carrying out contract killings, particularly against former members. During its peak, from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, dozens of people were murdered (usually shot) by its members. Victims were most often murdered because they testified, or threatened to testify, against fellow members.

"The Strip" in Biloxi, Mississippi, was home base for the Dixie Mafia, and Mike Gillich, Jr., was the group's unofficial but ''de facto'' kingpin. Of Croatian descent and from a large, poor family, he had raised himself in the city's Point Cadet section to become a wealthy entrepreneur along "The Strip". He owned a string of motels and nightclubs that doubled as strip joints and gambling dens, as well as a bingo parlor. He was known and trusted by almost every member of the Dixie Mafia, especially those who trusted no one else. In the words of one investigator of the Sherry murders, "Mr. Mike runs the criminals' post office. He's their banker."

Gillich was also patron and protector of Kirksey McCord Nix, Jr., one of the gang's most notable members. In December 1965, at the age of 22, Nix was caught carrying illegal automatic weapons in Fort Smith, Arkansas. An old friend of his, Juanda Jones, ran a bordello there, and Nix became involved with Jones' adolescent daughter, Sheri LaRa. In later years, she played a key role in his operations, including direct ties to the murders of Vince and Margaret Sherry. Edward Humes, in his 1994 book, ''Mississippi Mud'', chronicled their murders and the subsequent investigation of Gillich, Nix, Bobby Fabian, and others who were involved either loosely or actively in the murders. With the aid of his father's connections in neighboring Oklahoma, Nix beat the weapons charges in Fort Smith and moved on to other crimes. He was suspected in the gangland-style murder of a gambler named Harry Bennett, who was about to turn state's evidence against several Dixie Mafia members. Although Nix's involvement in Bennett's murder was never proven, this incident precipitated a string of killings that left 25 people dead in six states over the next four years.

Nix was a suspect in the attempted assassination of McNairy County, Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser, and in the murder of Pusser's wife. Nix was also convicted of murdering wealthy New Orleans