Editor's note: The opinions expressed in this story are representative of the victim's family, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the author. This article was written from police statements and various reports provided by the victim's family, as well as numerous interviews with individuals connected to the case. This case is still considered an open investigation, and certain aspects of the case are still currently under review. The victim's family assumes all legal responsibility for assertions made within the story. This piece was originally published on Odyssey in December 2016.
In Mississippi in the 1960s, a ragtag collection of thieves and frauds from all walks of life banded together to form what would evolve into a violent criminal organization--the Dixie Mafia. Unlike their Sicilian counterpart, the Dixie Mafia was not connected by family ties, and had no official chain of command. They followed the Golden Rule--whoever had the most gold, made the rules. Their only goal as an organization was to make as much money as possible, and they did that very well.
In their heyday, the Dixie Mafia had their thumb in every pie, whether it was illegal gambling, drug trafficking, money-laundering, blackmail and bribery, or carrying out contract killings. Led by criminal mastermind Kirksey Nix, Jr., the Mafia lifestyle became something out of a Hollywood gangster film. The liquor flowed freely, and drugs and women were in ample supply. They did their business in flashy casinos and smoky bars; the party never stopped and few were willing to cross them. Kirksey and his mob had friends in high places, counting members of law enforcement and powerful attorneys among their friends.
One such friend was Gulfport police officer Deputy Dan Anderson. His daughter Phyllis Cook has photos of her father, grinning as he sat playing cards next to the leader of the State Line Mob "Towhead" White and gangster Mike Gillich.
"My daddy was more involved with the Mafia than he should have been, and I'm very open about that," Phyllis recounted to me. "My father was a good man at heart but he had his addictions, and gambling was one of them."
Deputy Dan Anderson spent a lot of his time playing cards at the Grand Casino in Gulfport, rubbing elbows with some of the most feared gangsters of the era. It was through his father that young Ronald Anderson was introduced to the seedy underbelly of Mississippi, along with the sinister characters who frequented it.
After spending most of his life in Pensacola, Florida, Ronald "Ronnie" Anderson moved to Gulfport with his father after his mother remarried. It was through his father's ex-wife Rose that Ronnie met Jeffrey Bass, an alleged member of the Dixie Mafia. Rose was Jeffrey's aunt, and rumor had it that she had some questionable ties as well. After a few years in Gulfport, Ronnie--now seventeen--and Jeffrey moved into a rooming house together. On the day of Ronnie's untimely death, his older sister Phyllis had a knot in her stomach.
"Call it a gut feeling, woman's intuition, or whatever you want," she told me, "but I've gotten feelings like this all my life. I knew Ronnie was in trouble."
While out with friends, Phyllis stopped to find a payphone. She called her father and asked if Ronnie was alright.
"As we talked, I asked Daddy if he would go tell Ronnie I wanted him to come stay with me for awhile. I explained to Daddy that I would pick Ronnie up at his house the next evening."
Dan Anderson went to see his son, bringing with him a new pair of shoes and some money--along with Phyllis' offer. The last time Dan Anderson saw Ronnie alive, he was ironing a shirt and packing his things to go stay with his sister.
Deputy Anderson wasn't home more than an hour when an officer arrived at his door, with news that Ronnie had been shot. When the elder Anderson arrived at the hospital, his ex-wife Rose was waiting there to meet him. She told him that Ronnie was dead.
Ronnie's death was ruled a suicide, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The two known witnesses had conflicting accounts. Jeffrey Bass claimed that Ronnie had been playing with a .410 shotgun when it accidentally went off, shooting him in the head. Ronnie's alleged girlfriend, a woman named Cathy, claimed that they had been arguing when Ronnie grabbed the gun and intentionally shot himself. What is known is that neither witness called for an ambulance after the incident. Jeffrey instead called his Aunt Rose Anderson, who worked as a registered nurse. She helped Jeffrey bathe Ronnie and change his clothes. The shirt Ronnie was wearing at the time of his death was mysteriously missing. Stranger still, also missing was the gun itself. But the Gulfport Sheriff's Department would have you believe that Ronnie Anderson killed himself and disposed of the weapon after the fact.
Phyllis believed from the beginning that the investigation into her brother's death had been mishandled. She later discovered that she had good reason to feel that way. Former Harrison County Sheriff Leroy Hobbs, who led the investigation, had strong ties to the Dixie Mafia. Years later he would be convicted on racketeering and drug conspiracy charges. Coroner Frank Hightower, who determined the cause of death, was allegedly known to law enforcement as "Suicide Hightower" because of his habit of performing questionable autopsies. Even Hightower's associate Ray Decello expressed doubt that Ronnie's death was a suicide. When Phyllis would call the department begging them to take a closer look at her brother's case, her father would chastise her sharply, warning her that she was going to get someone else killed. It would be years before Phyllis realized the weight that the warning carried.
On September 14th, 1987, Phyllis came home from work and called her father, as she did every evening. At this time, Deputy Anderson was working part time as a bailiff for Judge Vincent Sherry. When Phyllis asked him about his day, her distraught father replied:
"Dickens [childhood nickname]--your daddy has had the worst day of his life."
He proceeded to tell her that someone had murdered his dear friend Judge Sherry, as well Sherry's wife Margaret. That morning, Anderson had arrived at court bright and early to make coffee and prepare the court room for the day. Judge Sherry was late and there were cases waiting to be heard. Anderson called Judge Sherry's law partner, Attorney Pete Halat. Mr. Halat said that he had not seen the judge, so Anderson decided to drive by the judge's house to check on things. Halat said he would meet him there.
Upon their arrival, the men saw that the front door of the home was ajar. Anderson told his daughter that they had found Judge Sherry dead in the front room, shot four times. Margaret Sherry had been shot to death in her bedroom, stooped over as if she had been kneeling to pray. Anderson believed the Sherrys knew their killer, because the house was so pristine and undisturbed. There was coffee, a half-glass of milk, and a saucer with three cookies still sitting on the coffee table. Anderson, deeply shaken, said that Halat had instructed him to go on home--he would handle everything from there.
While Anderson had initially been forthcoming with his version of events that evening, in the following days he became evasive and dismissive to Phyllis' questions. For many years she attributed this change in attitude to her father's grieving process. Anderson had told her not to concern herself with the Sherrys or what had happened to them, and it was easy for her to comply. The details of the crime were exceedingly distressing to her. A decade would pass before she learned the truth.
In 1997, while out to lunch with her husband in Chamblee, Georgia, Phyllis overheard a couple in the booth behind her talking about the Sherry murder. Phyllis, having never met a stranger, turned around immediately and asked if they were indeed talking about Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife.
"The man glared at me," Phyllis recalled, "then he and the woman got up without finishing their meal, stared at me for a moment, and then paid and left."
Phyllis called her father after she got home to tell him about the strange encounter. Anderson was immediately upset and demanded multiple times that Phyllis describe what the man looked liked.
" 'My god,' " she remembers her father exclaiming, " 'that was John Ransom--he's the son of a bitch who killed Sherry and Margaret!' "
According to Phyllis, her father also implicated Pete Halat in the murder. Though Anderson and Halat had found the bodies on the fourteenth of September, no one was notified of the discovery after Halat sent Deputy Anderson home. The following morning, Halat took court intern Chuck Leger to the Sherry house under the guise of being concerned for their welfare. It was then that the crime was "officially" discovered and reported. After Anderson had confided in his daughter about discovering his long-time friend dead, he had received a call warning him to keep quiet about what he'd seen with Pete Halat. It wasn't the first time Deputy Anderson had covered for the Dixie Mafia and their associates--he knew the drill. He also knew what happened to people who couldn't keep their mouth shut. It would sadly be a lesson he would eventually learn firsthand.
Be sure to check in for Part 2 of Buried in Dixie Dirt: The Anderson Murders. If you have any comments or questions, or if you have any information about the Anderson case, please contact me at theblackswanbooks@outlook.com.
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