Keith stood and walked to the door. He looked down at his old friend, a man he had hated for the last ten years, and almost felt sympathy. “The jury said you deserve to die, Hugh, and I agreed then. I agree now. For a long time I’ve dreamed of watching your execution, but I can’t do it. I’m flying to Biloxi to sit with my mother.”
Hugh looked up, nodded, smiled, and said, “So long, pal. I’ll see you on the other side.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
In the middle of the last century, there were a few gangs of outlaws who moved around the South causing trouble. They bought and sold anything that was illegal, and they had a nasty penchant for violence. It was never clear if their activities were related. Someone, probably in law enforcement, tagged them as the “Dixie Mafia,” and the legend was born.
A few of these characters did indeed settle along the Gulf Coast around 1950, no doubt attracted by the casual attitude toward vice. Biloxi’s colorful history of its seafood industry and the immigrants who built it are accurately described. Everything else is pure fiction.
Two FBI agents, Keith Bell and Royce Hignight, worked the Coast in the 1970s and 1980s. They are retired now, and told me enough stories to fill a dozen books. Some I’ve used here in a greatly embellished way.
Mike Holleman is a close friend from our law school days at Ole Miss. He has always lived in Gulfport, is a true son of the Coast, and was a valuable source of knowledge in such areas as history, geography, people, legends, myths, and legal procedure. His father, the great Boyce Holleman, served as the district attorney and later became a legendary trial lawyer.
There was a real Mary Mahoney and she opened a fine restaurant in Biloxi in 1964. She named it The Old French House and it’s still there, now run by her son Bob, a dear friend. He grew up on the Point, is a proud native, and knows more stories than those two FBI guys.
Thanks also to Gerald Blessey, Paige Gutierrez, Teresa Beck Tiller, Michael J. Ratliff, Ronnie Musgrove, and Glad Jones.