5/19/2023 0 Comments Ky crime cyndicate![]() The assailants - who were masked and armed - ambushed the camp and used chains and padlocks to restrain their victims. Twenty-four others, mostly women and children, had stayed behind at the campsite. Most of the carnival workers were busy manning concessions in the French Quarter of New Orleans that night. On the night of February 18, 1969, at least five alleged members of the Dixie Mafia ransacked the Skeebow Trailer Court near Lake Pontchartrain, where traveling carnival employees had set up their camp. There was also the infamous “Gypsy Camp Murder” in Louisiana. Getty Images Buford Pusser supposedly took out several members of the Dixie Mafia to avenge his wife’s death. They don’t draw a line, everything is fair game.” The High-Stakes Crimes Of The Gang Anything you can think of, they were involved in.”Īs one member of the Dixie Mafia put it: “What makes them so dangerous is they don’t think, they just act. “For money, the sheriff and officers loyal to him would release prisoners from the county jail, safeguard drug shipments, and hide fugitives. ![]() “They were doing anything and everything illegal down here,” said retired FBI Special Agent Keith Bell, who grew up on the Gulf Coast and worked on cases linked to the Dixie Mafia. Some Dixie Mafia members were allegedly hired to collect debts and carry out hits for him. Marcello tolerated the Dixie Mafia’s presence as long as they played by his rules and paid for his hospitality. ![]() Marcello, one of the most powerful leaders in organized crime in America, operated in New Orleans around the same time that the Dixie Mafia was coming to power. While the Dixie Mafia had no formal ties to La Cosa Nostra, they did have an “understanding” with a notorious Italian-American Mafia mob boss named Carlos Marcello. This seedy history - and the ongoing corruption of local officials - made the city an attractive place for lawbreakers.īy the 1980s, the blurred lines between government officials and Dixie Mafia members had become so extreme that federal authorities designated the entire Harrison County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi as a criminal enterprise.Īside from forming alliances with some members of law enforcement, the Dixie Mafia also worked alongside fellow mobsters. With a history of crime older than the United States itself, Biloxi had first gained a reputation as a haven for illicit gambling in the 17th century. In many ways, Biloxi was an ideal place for the Dixie Mafia’s stomping grounds. They primarily operated in Biloxi, Mississippi, but the group’s reach soon stretched from Atlanta, Georgia to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Far from a sophisticated organization, this crime ring was a loose network of “thugs,” as the FBI called them. Bill Colgin/Getty Images The Dixie Mafia’s territory stretched all over the South, from Georgia to Oklahoma.ĭuring the 1960s, a group of criminals known as the Dixie Mafia began to creep across cities and towns in the South.
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