Edward Humes - Mississippi Mud

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the gripping account of a daughters steely obsession with bringing her parents killers to justice, and how her dogged determination exposed corrupt and criminal activities at every level of Biloxis government...

MISSISSIPPI MUD

Now updated for 2010 with a new ending and the latest trial information!

Edward Humess lucid and unadorned prose admirably suits this complex story of venality and betrayal.... Mississippi Mud reads like a well-constructed mystery novel.

The New York Times Book Review

With surgical brilliance, Edward Humes peels back the glittering skin of the Deep Souths sin belt and exposes a shadow society of almost unspeakable corruption.

Jonathan Kellerman

Irresistibly draws us into a ripe, teeming darkness that is just around the corner in Biloxi, Mississippi.... This is a world that might have been bred by Elmore Leonard out of Carl Hiaasen, and like those writers, Edward Humes can make the wild, amoral, scheming sleazoids he parades before our eyes all but sing and dance on the page. Here is America, fat and happy, both hands crammed into the till.

Peter Straub

Fascinating.... Humes is a vivid writer.... You dont have to be from Biloxi to be captivated by this story.

Birmingham News (AL)

Mississippi Mud outshines even the best crime fiction. It is not so much true crime as real life. The author generates a tension and momentum that hurl the reader through the pages. I couldnt put it down and kept hoping the book wouldnt end. Generating that unique, spine-chilling sense of urgencyand in nonfiction, no lessis a rare gift indeed. Edward Humes is a major talent!

Ridley Pearson

Masterfully constructed to read like a fast-paced suspense novel, Mississippi Mud chronicles a brutal execution-style double homicide leading to governmental and police corruption at its down-and-dirty Southern best. It will leave you in awe of its central character, a daughter so committed to finding her parents killers and bringing them to justice that she would stop at nothing in order to do so.... A taut thriller that both shocks and enthralls from beginning to end.

Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

The reader is quickly caught up in the richly described world of teeming corruption that is Biloxi, and the characters that seem more like fictional Elmore Leonard types than real people. Highly recommended.

Library Journal

Mississippi Mud is not just a true-crime mystery.... Humes uses exact description to paint pictures of a terrifying Mafia organization.... A well-researched book.

Memphis Commercial Appeal (TN)

An exceptionally fine depiction of a multifaceted case.

Publishers Weekly

Carefully researched... meticulously documented.

Dallas Morning News

A hothouse atmosphere of crime and political corruption flavors this true-crime tale... engrossing.

Kirkus Reviews

This book is like some heat-seeking missile. It finds you and before you know it, youre caught.... Its a mesmerizing read.

Leon Bing, author of Smoked and Do or Die

A LSO BY E DWARD H UMES

Eco Barons

Monkey Girl

Over Here

School of Dreams

Baby E.R.

No Matter How Loud I Shout

Mississippi Mud

Buried Secrets

Murderer with a Badge

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Copyright 1994, 1995, 1997, 2010 by Edward Humes

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

This Gallery Books trade paperback edition July 2010

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Designed by Akasha Archer

Cover design by Anna Dorfman

Cover photograph by Ralph Lyon

ISBN 978-1-4391-8665-7

ISBN-13: 978-1-4767-7588-3 (eBook)

To Gabrielle and Eben, for reminding me that each day is a delight

My heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped me slog through the mud. Captain Randy Cook of the Harrison County Sheriffs Department was particularly generous in allowing me to tax his time, patience, and hospitality. I also wish to express my gratitude to U.S. Attorney George Phillips, First Assistant Kent McDaniel, Detectives Gerald Forbes and Richard OBannon of the Biloxi Police Department, Captain D. K. Basco and Lieutenant Lee Freeman of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Harrison County Sheriff Joe Price, Biloxi City Councilwoman Dianne Harenski, Greg Broussard, Gurvir Dhindsa, and attorneys Rex Jones, Kelly Rayburn, and Mike Adelman.

Becky and John Field and their family offered the greatest of giftsthey always made me feel welcome, in good times and bad.

Donna Wares, my wife and partner, made this bookand everything elsepossible.

And, finally, I wish to thank the Sherry and Sposito families, and Lynne Sposito, whose courage and determination continue to amaze.

Mississippi Mud is that purest form of poker, a game in which the cards become irrelevant and the ability to bluff and betray fellow players reaps the greatest reward. The name is synonymous with a certain brand of corruption in the Magnolia State, undisguised and unashamed. By either definition, lying is an art form in Mississippi Mud, morality a fools distraction.

Monday, September 14, 1987

Biloxi, Mississippi

T he citys worst day began quietly enough, when a used car salesman discovered one of his cars missing, an anonymous-looking yellow Ford. The theft was strange, because the boxy Fairmont was about the least valuable car on the lot, so ordinary, it seemed invisiblelike an undercover police car. Or a getaway car.

The day ended quietly, too, with a muted popping noise, much like the sound of a newspaper rolled loosely into a fly swatter and slapped on a tabletop. Few people heard those nine innocuous pops, and those who did would never speak of them. Yet those sounds would destroy a family, alter countless lives, transform a city. Little would remain the same in Biloxi in their wake.

Between those two events, Vincent and Margaret Sherry lived as they always had, taking no special precautions, exhibiting few outward fears. He went to the county courthouse that morning as always, where he had served as judge of the Circuit Court for the past eleven months. She, as always, worked much of the day on her one great obsessionexposing Biloxis legendary corruption, in preparation for a mayoral campaign many Biloxians believed would earn her reign of city hall.